How-To: Observe metrics with Grafana

Learn how to view the Radius control-plane metrics in Grafana dashboards
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Grafana is an open-source visualization and analytics tool that allows you to query, visualize, alert on, and explore your metrics. This guide will show you how to install Grafana and configure it to visualize the Radius control plane metrics from Prometheus.

Example dashboards

There are two example dashboards that you can import into Grafana to quickly get started visualizing your metrics and then customize them to meet your needs.

Control plane overview

The radius-overview-dashboard.json template shows Radius and Deployment Engine statuses, including runtime, and server-side health:



Resource provider overview

The radius-resource-provider-dashboard.json template shows Radius Resource Provider status, including runtime, server-side, and operations health:



Setup on Kubernetes

Pre-requisites

Install Grafana

  1. Add the Grafana Helm repo:

    helm repo add grafana https://grafana.github.io/helm-charts
helm repo update

  2. Install the chart:

    helm install grafana grafana/grafana -n radius-monitoring

    If you are Minikube user or want to disable persistent volume for development purpose, you can disable it by using the following command instead:

    helm install grafana grafana/grafana -n radius-monitoring --set persistence.enabled=false

  3. Retrieve the admin password for Grafana login:

    kubectl get secret --namespace radius-monitoring grafana -o jsonpath="{.data.admin-password}" | base64 --decode ; echo

    You will get a password similar to cj3m0OfBNx8SLzUlTx91dEECgzRlYJb60D2evof1%. Remove the % character from the password to get cj3m0OfBNx8SLzUlTx91dEECgzRlYJb60D2evof1 as the admin password.

  4. Validate that Grafana is running in your cluster:

    kubectl get pods -n radius-monitoring

    You should see something similar to the following:

    NAME                        READY   STATUS       RESTARTS   AGE
grafana-c49889cff-x56vj     1/1     Running      0          5m10s
...

Configure Prometheus as data source

Now that Grafana is installed, you need to configure it to use Prometheus as a data source.

  1. Port-forward to your Grafana service:

    kubectl port-forward svc/grafana 8080:80 -n radius-monitoring

  2. Open a browser to http://localhost:8080

  3. Login to Grafana

    • Username: admin
    • Password: Password from above

  4. Select Configuration and Data Sources

  5. Add Prometheus as a data source.

  6. Get your Prometheus HTTP URL:

    The Prometheus HTTP URL follows the format http://<prometheus service endpoint>.<namespace>

    Start by getting the Prometheus server endpoint by running the following command:

    kubectl get svc -n radius-monitoring

    You should see something similar to the following:

    NAME                                     TYPE        CLUSTER-IP        EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)             AGE
radius-prom-kube-state-metrics           ClusterIP   10.0.174.177      <none>        8080/TCP            7d9h
radius-prom-prometheus-alertmanager      ClusterIP   10.0.255.199      <none>        80/TCP              7d9h
radius-prom-prometheus-node-exporter     ClusterIP   None              <none>        9100/TCP            7d9h
radius-prom-prometheus-pushgateway       ClusterIP   10.0.190.59       <none>        9091/TCP            7d9h
radius-prom-prometheus-server            ClusterIP   10.0.172.191      <none>        80/TCP              7d9h
grafana                                  ClusterIP   10.0.15.229       <none>        80/TCP              5d5h

    In this example the server name is radius-prom-prometheus-server and the namespace is radius-monitoring, so the HTTP URL will be http://radius-prom-prometheus-server.radius-monitoring.

  7. Fill in the following settings:

    • Name: Radius
    • HTTP URL: http://radius-prom-prometheus-server.radius-monitoring
    • Default: On

  8. Click Save & Test button to verify that the connection succeeded.

Import dashboards in Grafana

  1. Download the Grafana dashboard templates:
  2. In the upper left corner of the Grafana home screen, click the “+” option, then “Import”, and select your templates.
  3. Select the dashboard that you imported and enjoy!

References