Monitoring Config Sync using Prometheus

Config Sync uses Prometheus to collect and show metrics related to its processes.

You can also configure Cloud Monitoring to pull custom metrics from Prometheus. Then you can see custom metrics in both Prometheus and Monitoring. For more information, see Using Prometheus.

If you are syncing from multiple repositories in Config Sync, there are more ways that you can monitor your resources in addition to using Prometheus. To learn more, see Monitoring Config Sync in multi-repo mode.

Scraping the metrics

All Prometheus metrics are available for scraping at port 8675. Before you can scrape metrics, you need to configure your cluster for Prometheus in one of two ways. Either:

Follow the Prometheus documentation to configure your cluster for scraping, or

Use the Prometheus Operator along with the following manifests, which scrape all Anthos Config Management metrics every 10 seconds.

Create a temporary directory to hold the manifest files.
```
mkdir acm-monitor
cd acm-monitor
```
Download the Prometheus Operator manifest from the CoreOS repository. repository, using the curl command:
```
curl -o bundle.yaml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/coreos/prometheus-operator/master/bundle.yaml
```
This manifest is configured to use the default namespace, which is not recommended. The next step modifies the configuration to use a namespace called monitoring instead. To use a different namespace, substitute it where you see monitoring in the remaining steps.

Create a file to update the namespace of the ClusterRoleBinding in the bundle above.

# patch-crb.yaml
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRoleBinding
metadata:
  name: prometheus-operator
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
  name: prometheus-operator
  namespace: monitoring # we are patching from default namespace

Create a kustomization.yaml file that applies the patch and modifies the namespace for other resources in the manifest.
```
# kustomization.yaml
resources:
- bundle.yaml

namespace: monitoring

patchesStrategicMerge:
- patch-crb.yaml
```
Create the monitoring namespace. You can use a different name for the namespace, but if you do, also change the value of namespace in the YAML manifests from the previous steps.
```
kubectl create namespace monitoring
```

Apply the kustomized manifest using the following commands:

kubectl apply -k .

until kubectl get customresourcedefinitions servicemonitors.monitoring.coreos.com ; \
do date; sleep 1; echo ""; done

The second command blocks until the CRDs are available on the cluster.

Create the manifest for the resources necessary to configure a Prometheus server which scrapes metrics from Anthos Config Management.

# acm.yaml
apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  name: prometheus-acm
  namespace: monitoring
---
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: ClusterRole
metadata:
  name: prometheus-acm
rules:
- apiGroups: [""]
  resources:
  - nodes
  - services
  - endpoints
  - pods
  verbs: ["get", "list", "watch"]
- apiGroups: [""]
  resources:
  - configmaps
  verbs: ["get"]
- nonResourceURLs: ["/metrics"]
  verbs: ["get"]
---
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: ClusterRoleBinding
metadata:
  name: prometheus-acm
roleRef:
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
  kind: ClusterRole
  name: prometheus-acm
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
  name: prometheus-acm
  namespace: monitoring
---
apiVersion: monitoring.coreos.com/v1
kind: Prometheus
metadata:
  name: acm
  namespace: monitoring
  labels:
    prometheus: acm
spec:
  replicas: 2
  serviceAccountName: prometheus-acm
  serviceMonitorSelector:
    matchLabels:
      prometheus: config-management
  podMonitorSelector:
    matchLabels:
      prometheus: config-management
  alerting:
    alertmanagers:
    - namespace: default
      name: alertmanager
      port: web
  resources:
    requests:
      memory: 400Mi
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: prometheus-acm
  namespace: monitoring
  labels:
    prometheus: acm
spec:
  type: NodePort
  ports:
  - name: web
    nodePort: 31900
    port: 9190
    protocol: TCP
    targetPort: web
  selector:
    app: prometheus
    prometheus: acm
--- 
apiVersion: monitoring.coreos.com/v1
kind: ServiceMonitor
metadata:
  name: acm-service
  namespace: monitoring
  labels:
    prometheus: config-management
spec:
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      monitored: "true"
  namespaceSelector:
    matchNames:
    # If you are using multi-repo mode, change
    # config-management-system to config-management-monitoring
    - config-management-system 
  endpoints:
  - port: metrics
    interval: 10s

Apply the manifest using the following commands:

kubectl apply -f acm.yaml

until kubectl rollout status statefulset/prometheus-acm -n monitoring; \
do sleep 1; done

The second command blocks until the Pods are running.

You can verify the installation by forwarding the web port of the Prometheus server to your local machine.
```
kubectl -n monitoring port-forward svc/prometheus-acm 9190
```
You can now access the Prometheus web UI at http://localhost:9190.
Remove the temporary directory.
```
cd ..
rm -rf acm-monitor
```

Available metrics

Config Sync collects the following metrics and makes them available to Prometheus. The Labels column lists all labels that are applicable to each metric. Metrics without labels represent a single measurement over time while metrics with labels represent multiple measurements, one for each combination of label values.

If this table becomes out of sync, you can filter metrics by prefix in the Prometheus user interface, and all of the metrics start with the prefix gkeconfig_.

Name	Type	Labels	Description
`gkeconfig_importer_cycle_duration_seconds_bucket`	Histogram	status	Number of cycles that the importer has attempted to import configs to the cluster (distributed into buckets by duration of each cycle)
`gkeconfig_importer_cycle_duration_seconds_count`	Histogram	status	Number of cycles that the importer has attempted to import configs to the cluster (ignoring duration)
`gkeconfig_importer_cycle_duration_seconds_sum`	Histogram	status	Sum of the durations of all cycles that the importer has attempted to import configs to the cluster
`gkeconfig_importer_namespace_configs`	Gauge		Number of namespace configs in current state
`gkeconfig_monitor_errors`	Gauge	component	Number of errors in the config repo grouped by the component where they occurred
`gkeconfig_monitor_configs`	Gauge	state	Number of configs (cluster and namespace) grouped by their sync status
`gkeconfig_monitor_last_import_timestamp`	Gauge		Timestamp of the most recent import
`gkeconfig_monitor_last_sync_timestamp`	Gauge		Timestamp of the most recent sync
`gkeconfig_monitor_sync_latency_seconds_bucket`	Histogram		Number of import-to-sync measurements taken (distributed into buckets by latency between the two)
`gkeconfig_monitor_sync_latency_seconds_count`	Histogram		Number of import-to-sync measurements taken (ignoring latency between the two)
`gkeconfig_monitor_sync_latency_seconds_sum`	Histogram		Sum of the latencies of all import-to-sync measurements taken
`gkeconfig_syncer_api_duration_seconds_bucket`	Histogram	operation, type, status	Number of calls made by the syncer to the API server (distributed into buckets by duration of each call)
`gkeconfig_syncer_api_duration_seconds_count`	Histogram	operation, type, status	Number of calls made by the importer to the API server (ignoring duration)
`gkeconfig_syncer_api_duration_seconds_sum`	Histogram	operation, type, status	Sum of the durations of all calls made by the syncer to the API server
`gkeconfig_syncer_controller_restarts_total`	Counter	source	Total number of restarts for the namespace and cluster config controllers
`gkeconfig_syncer_operations_total`	Counter	operation, type, status	Total number of operations that have been performed to sync resources to configs
`gkeconfig_syncer_reconcile_duration_seconds_bucket`	Histogram	type, status	Number of reconcile events processed by the syncer (distributed into buckets by duration)
`gkeconfig_syncer_reconcile_duration_seconds_count`	Histogram	type, status	Number of reconcile events processed by the syncer (ignoring duration)
`gkeconfig_syncer_reconcile_duration_seconds_sum`	Histogram	type, status	Sum of the durations of all reconcile events processed by the syncer
`gkeconfig_syncer_reconcile_event_timestamps`	Gauge	type	Timestamps when syncer reconcile events occurred

Example debugging procedures

The following examples illustrate some patterns for using Prometheus metrics, object status fields, and object annotations to detect and diagnose problems related to Config Sync. These examples show how you can start with high level monitoring that detects a problem and then progressively refine your search to drill down and diagnose the root cause of the problem.

Querying configs by status

The monitor process provides high-level metrics that give useful insight into an overall view of how Config Sync is operating on the cluster. You can see if any errors have occurred, and can even set up alerts for them.

gkeconfig_monitor_errors

Querying metrics by reconciler

If you are using Config Sync in multi-repo mode, then you can monitor the RootSync and RepoSync objects. The RootSync and RepoSync objects are instrumented with high-level metrics that give you useful insight into how Config Sync is operating on the cluster. Almost all metrics are tagged by the reconciler name, so you can see if any errors have occurred and can set up alerts for them in Prometheus.

A reconciler is a Pod that syncs manifests from a Git repository to a cluster. When you create a RootSync object, Config Sync creates a reconciler called root-reconciler. When you create a RepoSync object, Config Sync creates a reconciler called ns-reconciler-NAMESPACE, where NAMESPACE is the namespace you created your RepoSync object in.

In Prometheus, you can use the following filters for the reconcilers:

# Querying Root reconciler
config_sync_reconciler_errors{root_reconciler="root-reconciler"}

# Querying Namespace reconciler for a namespace called retail
config_sync_reconciler_errors{ns_reconciler_retail="ns-reconciler-retail"}

Using `nomos status` to display errors

In addition to using Prometheus metrics to monitor the status of Config Sync on your clusters, you can use the nomos status command which prints errors from all of your clusters on the command line.

Querying import and sync operations by status

Config Sync uses a two-step process to apply configs from the repo to a cluster. The gkeconfig_monitor_errors metric is labeled by component so you can see where any errors occurred.

gkeconfig_monitor_errors{component="importer"}
gkeconfig_monitor_errors{component="syncer"}

You can also check the metrics for the importer and syncer processes themselves.

gkeconfig_importer_cycle_duration_seconds_count{status="error"}
gkeconfig_syncer_reconcile_duration_seconds_count{status="error"}

In Config Sync's multi-repo mode, importing and sourcing from a Git repository and syncing to a cluster is handled by the reconcilers. The reconciler_errors metric is labeled by component so you can see where any errors occurred.

In Prometheus, you could use the following queries:

# Check for errors that occurred when sourcing configs from the Git repository.
config_sync_reconciler_errors{component="source"}

# Check for errors that occurred when syncing configs to the cluster.
config_sync_reconciler_errors{component="sync"}

You can also check the metrics for the source and sync processes themselves:

config_sync_parse_duration_seconds{status="error"}
config_sync_apply_duration_seconds{status="error"}
config_sync_remediate_duration_seconds{status="error"}

Checking config object status

Config Sync defines two custom Kubernetes objects: ClusterConfig and NamespaceConfig. These objects define a status field which contains information about the change that was last applied to the config and any errors that occurred. For instance, if there is an error in a namespace called shipping-dev, you can check the status of the corresponding NamespaceConfig.

kubectl get namespaceconfig shipping-dev -o yaml

Checking an object's `token` annotation

You may want to know when a managed Kubernetes object was last updated by Config Sync. Each managed object is annotated with the hash of the Git commit when it was last modified, as well as the path to the config that contained the modification.

kubectl get clusterrolebinding namespace-readers

apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRoleBinding
metadata:
  annotations:
    configmanagement.gke.io/source-path: cluster/namespace-reader-clusterrolebinding.yaml
    configmanagement.gke.io/token: bbb6a1e2f3db692b17201da028daff0d38797771
  name: namespace-readers
...

For more information, see labels and annotations.

What's next

Learn about Monitoring Config Sync in multi-repo mode.