Installing Stackdriver support

GKE now includes managed support for Stackdriver. Installing or updating Stackdriver support happens automatically when you select a GKE version for your cluster. This page describes how to:

• Install or update to the Legacy Stackdriver support.
• Install or update to Stackdriver Kubernetes Engine Monitoring.
• Remove all Stackdriver support from a cluster.

Note: Security logs, including basic audit logs, are available for GKE and most other GCP services without going through this procedure. See Cloud Audit Logging for more information.

Installing Stackdriver support lets you monitor your running GKE clusters, manage your system and debug logs, and analyze your system's performance using advanced profiling and tracing capabilities. A single installation procedure gives you access to the full Stackdriver suite of applications, including Stackdriver Monitoring, Stackdriver Logging, Stackdriver Error Reporting, and Stackdriver APM.

Note: The intent of Stackdriver Kubernetes Engine Monitoring is to provide a single option that enables improved support for both Stackdriver Monitoring and Stackdriver Logging in your clusters. Before Stackdriver Kubernetes Engine Monitoring, it has been possible to enable Monitoring without Logging when using Legacy Stackdriver, but this will not be supported going forward.

Before you begin

• Determine which Stackdriver support for GKE option you want to use.

• You must be an Owner of the project containing your cluster. Your project must be associated with a Workspace.

Creating a new cluster

When you create a new GKE cluster, you get the Legacy Stackdriver support by default. Alternatively, you can select the newer Stackdriver Kubernetes Engine Monitoring support, or remove all Stackdriver support.

The instructions in this section cover only the options relevant to Stackdriver. For complete instructions, see Creating a cluster.

CONSOLE

1. Go to the GKE Kubernetes Clusters page for your project. The following button takes you there:

   Visit the GKE Clusters page

2. Select Create Cluster at the top of the page.

3. In the dialog, specify the following fields in addition to any other properties you want in your cluster. For more information, see Creating a Cluster.

   1. Master version: Choose version 1.12.7.

   2. In the Advanced options section under Additional features, are three options for choosing Stackdriver support in your new cluster.

      For Legacy Stackdriver support in your new cluster, ensure these two options are selected:

      

      For Stackdriver Kubernetes Engine Monitoring support, additionally check the box Try the new Stackdriver beta Monitoring and Logging experience:

      

4. Click Create to create the cluster.

GCLOUD

Note: Only the flags relevant to Stackdriver support are shown in the following examples. For information on other flags and options you might want to use for your cluster, see Creating a Cluster.

Use gcloud to create your cluster:

1. Open a terminal window with Cloud SDK and gcloud installed. One way to do this is to use Cloud Shell:

   1. Go to the Kubernetes Clusters page for your project:

      GO TO KUBERNETES CLUSTERS

   2. Click the Activate Cloud Shell icon at the top of the page.

2. Create your cluster as usual. You get Legacy Stackdriver support by default. For example, a simple creation with default options might look like the following:

   gcloud container clusters create [CLUSTER_NAME] \
     --zone=[ZONE] \
     --project=[PROJECT_ID] \
     --cluster-version=1.10
   

3. Alternatively, to select Stackdriver Kubernetes Engine Monitoring support for your new cluster, add the --enable-stackdriver-kubernetes option:

   gcloud beta container clusters create [CLUSTER_NAME] \
     --zone=[ZONE] \
     --project=[PROJECT_ID] \
     --cluster-version=1.12.7 \
     --enable-stackdriver-kubernetes
   

Updating an existing cluster

The following instructions explain how to do the following:

• Update a cluster from no Stackdriver support to Legacy Stackdriver.
• Update a cluster from no Stackdriver support to Stackdriver Kubernetes Engine Monitoring.
• Update a cluster from Legacy Stackdriver to Stackdriver Kubernetes Engine Monitoring. You might also have to change your Stackdriver configurations. See Migrating to Stackdriver Kubernetes Engine Monitoring.
• Remove Stackdriver support from your cluster.

Note: Changing your Stackdriver support and changing the Kubernetes version of your cluster are distinct actions. Changing the Kubernetes version of your cluster doesn't change your configured Stackdriver support.

Which Stackdriver support does my cluster use?

Here is how you can tell what kind of Stackdriver support you have in your cluster:

1. Click your cluster's name in the GKE console:

   GO TO KUBERNETES CLUSTERS

2. In the Details panel for your cluster, see the Stackdriver Monitoring and Stackdriver Logging status, which has the following meaning:

   • Enabled: Your cluster is using Legacy Stackdriver support.
   • Enabled v2(beta): Your cluster is using the Beta version of Stackdriver Kubernetes Engine Monitoring.
   • Disabled: Your cluster has no Stackdriver support.

Changing your Stackdriver support

To change the Stackdriver support for an existing cluster, follow the instructions below:

CONSOLE

1. Go to the GKE Kubernetes Clusters page for your project. The following button takes you there:

   Visit the GKE Clusters page

2. Upgrade your cluster to Kubernetes version 1.12.7. For instructions, see Upgrading Clusters. Allow the upgrade to complete.

3. Click the Edit icon () for your cluster:

   

4. Scroll down to the Advanced options section under Additional features, are three options for choosing Stackdriver support in your new cluster.

   To change to Stackdriver Kubernetes Engine Monitoring support, ensure that all three options are selected:

   

   To change to Legacy Stackdriver support, ensure that only the first two options are selected. If the third option is selected, Try the new Stackdriver beta Monitoring and Logging experience, then you should deselect it:

   

5. Click Save at the bottom of the page.

GCLOUD

The following gcloud instructions cover upgrading your cluster's Stackdriver support using the gcloud container clusters update command. Notice that you use the update command, not the upgrade command, even though we sometimes refer to this process as "upgrading."

1. Open a Cloud Shell window in the project containing your cluster.

2. If you have not done so, set up default values for your cluster in Cloud SDK:

   gcloud config set project [PROJECT_ID]
   gcloud config set compute/zone [COMPUTE_ZONE]
   

3. Update your cluster to the desired Kubernetes version and select the Stackdriver support you want in the cluster. All approved GKE versions support both Legacy Stackdriver and Stackdriver Kubernetes Engine Monitoring.

   A minimal update command is shown below covering only the options needed for Stackdriver:

   gcloud beta container clusters update [CLUSTER_ID] \
     --zone=[ZONE]  --region=[REGION]  \
     --logging-service=[LOGGING_SERVICE] \
     --monitoring-service=[MONITORING_SERVICE]
     

   Use the following values for [LOGGING_SERVICE] and [MONITORING_SERVICE]:

   Type of support	[LOGGING_SERVICE]	[MONITORING_SERVICE]
   Legacy Stackdriver	"logging.googleapis.com"	"monitoring.googleapis.com"
   Stackdriver Kubernetes Engine Monitoring	"logging.googleapis.com/kubernetes"^1	"monitoring.googleapis.com/kubernetes"^1
   None	"none"	"none"

   Note: This option appears only in gcloud beta container clusters update.
   Note: To enable Stackdriver Kubernetes Engine Monitoring, you must specify the logging service and the monitoring service.

Next steps

• If you are using Legacy Stackdriver, you should begin to become familiar with the changes in Stackdriver Kubernetes Engine Monitoring by reading Migrating to Stackdriver Kubernetes Engine Monitoring.

• You can deploy your application software to your cluster as usual. For more information, see Overview of Deploying Workloads.

• To use Prometheus with this release of Stackdriver Kubernetes Engine Monitoring, see Using Prometheus.