This document describes how to configure your Google Kubernetes Engine deployment so that you can use Google Cloud Managed Service for Prometheus to collect metrics from the Consul exporter. This document shows you how to do the following:
- Set up the Consul exporter to report metrics.
- Configure a PodMonitoring resource for Managed Service for Prometheus to collect the exported metrics.
- Access a dashboard in Cloud Monitoring to view the metrics.
These instructions apply only if you are using managed collection with Managed Service for Prometheus. If you are using self-deployed collection, then see the Consul documentation for installation information.
These instructions are provided as an example and are expected to work in most Kubernetes environments. If you are having trouble installing an application or exporter due to restrictive security or organizational policies, then we recommend you consult open-source documentation for support.
For information about Consul, see Consul.
Prerequisites
To collect metrics from the Consul exporter by using Managed Service for Prometheus and managed collection, your deployment must meet the following requirements:
- Your cluster must be running Google Kubernetes Engine version 1.21.4-gke.300 or later.
- You must be running Managed Service for Prometheus with managed collection enabled. For more information, see Get started with managed collection.
- To use dashboards available in Cloud Monitoring for the
Consul integration, you must use
consul
version 1.13.3 or later.For more information about available dashboards, see View dashboards.
prometheus_retention_time
and disable_hostname
are set. These options can be set by mounting
a configmap at /consul/config/metrics.hcl
. HashiCorp recommends using a retention time twice
that of the collection interval.
Modify the Consul configuration
Modify the Consul configuration as shown in the following example:
You must add any lines preceded by the +
symbol to your
configuration.
To apply configuration changes from a local file, run the following command:
kubectl apply -n NAMESPACE_NAME -f FILE_NAME
You can also use Terraform to manage your configurations.
To determine if Consul is exposing metrics, run the following command:kubectl exec -n NAMESPACE_NAME POD_NAME -- curl -sS localhost:8500/v1/agent/metrics?format=prometheus
Define a PodMonitoring resource
For target discovery, the Managed Service for Prometheus Operator requires a PodMonitoring resource that corresponds to the Consul exporter in the same namespace.
You can use the following PodMonitoring configuration:
To apply configuration changes from a local file, run the following command:
kubectl apply -n NAMESPACE_NAME -f FILE_NAME
You can also use Terraform to manage your configurations.
Verify the configuration
You can use Metrics Explorer to verify that you correctly configured the Consul exporter. It might take one or two minutes for Cloud Monitoring to ingest your metrics.
To verify the metrics are ingested, do the following:
-
In the Google Cloud console, go to the leaderboard Metrics explorer page:
If you use the search bar to find this page, then select the result whose subheading is Monitoring.
- In the toolbar of the query-builder pane, select the button whose name is either code MQL or code PromQL.
- Verify that PromQL is selected in the Language toggle. The language toggle is in the same toolbar that lets you format your query.
- Enter and run the following query:
up{job="consul", cluster="CLUSTER_NAME", namespace="NAMESPACE_NAME"}
View dashboards
The Cloud Monitoring integration includes the Consul Prometheus Overview dashboard. Dashboards are automatically installed when you configure the integration. You can also view static previews of dashboards without installing the integration.
To view an installed dashboard, do the following:
-
In the Google Cloud console, go to the Dashboards page:
If you use the search bar to find this page, then select the result whose subheading is Monitoring.
- Select the Dashboard List tab.
- Choose the Integrations category.
- Click the name of the dashboard, for example, Consul Prometheus Overview.
To view a static preview of the dashboard, do the following:
-
In the Google Cloud console, go to the Integrations page:
If you use the search bar to find this page, then select the result whose subheading is Monitoring.
- Click the Kubernetes Engine deployment-platform filter.
- Locate the HashiCorp Consul integration and click View Details.
- Select the Dashboards tab.
Troubleshooting
For information about troubleshooting metric ingestion problems, see Problems with collection from exporters in Troubleshooting ingestion-side problems.