---
weight: 3
title: Kubernetes monitoring with VictoriaMetrics Cluster
menu:
  docs:
    parent: "guides"
    weight: 3
aliases:
- /guides/k8s-monitoring-via-vm-cluster.html
---
# Kubernetes monitoring with VictoriaMetrics Cluster


**This guide covers:**

* The setup of a [VictoriaMetrics cluster](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/cluster-victoriametrics/) in [Kubernetes](https://kubernetes.io/) via Helm charts
* How to scrape metrics from k8s components using service discovery 
* How to visualize stored data 
* How to store metrics in [VictoriaMetrics](https://victoriametrics.com) tsdb

**Precondition**

We will use:
* [Kubernetes cluster 1.19.9-gke.1900](https://cloud.google.com/kubernetes-engine)
> We use GKE cluster from [GCP](https://cloud.google.com/) but this guide also applies on any Kubernetes cluster. For example [Amazon EKS](https://aws.amazon.com/ru/eks/).
* [Helm 3 ](https://helm.sh/docs/intro/install)
* [kubectl 1.21](https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/tools/install-kubectl)

<img src="k8s-monitoring-via-vm-cluster_scheme.webp"  alt="VictoriaMetrics Cluster on Kubernetes cluster">

## 1. VictoriaMetrics Helm repository

> For this guide we will use Helm 3 but if you already use Helm 2 please see this [https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/helm-charts#for-helm-v2](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/helm-charts#for-helm-v2)

You need to add the VictoriaMetrics Helm repository to install VictoriaMetrics components. We’re going to use [VictoriaMetrics Cluster](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/cluster-victoriametrics/). You can do this by running the following command:

```shell
helm repo add vm https://victoriametrics.github.io/helm-charts/
```

Update Helm repositories:

```shell
helm repo update
```

To verify that everything is set up correctly you may run this command:

```shell
helm search repo vm/
```

The expected output is:

```text
NAME                         	CHART VERSION	APP VERSION	DESCRIPTION                                       
vm/victoria-metrics-agent    	0.7.20       	v1.62.0    	Victoria Metrics Agent - collects metrics from ...
vm/victoria-metrics-alert    	0.3.34       	v1.62.0    	Victoria Metrics Alert - executes a list of giv...
vm/victoria-metrics-auth     	0.2.23       	1.62.0     	Victoria Metrics Auth - is a simple auth proxy ...
vm/victoria-metrics-cluster  	0.8.32       	1.62.0     	Victoria Metrics Cluster version - high-perform...
vm/victoria-metrics-k8s-stack	0.2.9        	1.16.0     	Kubernetes monitoring on VictoriaMetrics stack....
vm/victoria-metrics-operator 	0.1.17       	0.16.0     	Victoria Metrics Operator                         
vm/victoria-metrics-single   	0.7.5        	1.62.0     	Victoria Metrics Single version - high-performa...
```

## 2. Install VictoriaMetrics Cluster from the Helm chart

Run this command in your terminal:

```sh
cat <<EOF | helm install vmcluster vm/victoria-metrics-cluster -f -
vmselect:
  podAnnotations:
      prometheus.io/scrape: "true"
      prometheus.io/port: "8481"

vminsert:
  podAnnotations:
      prometheus.io/scrape: "true"
      prometheus.io/port: "8480"

vmstorage:
  podAnnotations:
      prometheus.io/scrape: "true"
      prometheus.io/port: "8482"
EOF
```

* By running `Helm install vmcluster vm/victoria-metrics-cluster` we install [VictoriaMetrics cluster](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/cluster-victoriametrics/) to default [namespace](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/overview/working-with-objects/namespaces/) inside your cluster.
* By adding `podAnnotations: prometheus.io/scrape: "true"` we enable the scraping of metrics from the vmselect, vminsert and vmstorage pods.
* By adding `podAnnotations:prometheus.io/port: "some_port" ` we  enable the scraping of metrics from the vmselect, vminsert and vmstorage pods from their ports as well.


As a result of this command you will see the following output:

```text
NAME: vmcluster
LAST DEPLOYED: Thu Jul  1 09:41:57 2021
NAMESPACE: default
STATUS: deployed
REVISION: 1
TEST SUITE: None
NOTES:
Write API:

The Victoria Metrics write api can be accessed via port 8480 with the following DNS name from within your cluster:
vmcluster-victoria-metrics-cluster-vminsert.default.svc.cluster.local

Get the Victoria Metrics insert service URL by running these commands in the same shell:
  export POD_NAME=$(kubectl get pods --namespace default -l "app=vminsert" -o jsonpath="{.items[0].metadata.name}")
  kubectl --namespace default port-forward $POD_NAME 8480

You need to update your Prometheus configuration file and add the following lines to it:

prometheus.yml

    remote_write:
      - url: "http://<insert-service>/insert/0/prometheus/"



for example -  inside the Kubernetes cluster:

    remote_write:
      - url: "http://vmcluster-victoria-metrics-cluster-vminsert.default.svc.cluster.local:8480/insert/0/prometheus/"
Read API:

The VictoriaMetrics read api can be accessed via port 8481 with the following DNS name from within your cluster:
vmcluster-victoria-metrics-cluster-vmselect.default.svc.cluster.local

Get the VictoriaMetrics select service URL by running these commands in the same shell:
  export POD_NAME=$(kubectl get pods --namespace default -l "app=vmselect" -o jsonpath="{.items[0].metadata.name}")
  kubectl --namespace default port-forward $POD_NAME 8481

You will need to specify select service URL in your Grafana:
 NOTE: you need to use Prometheus Data Source

Input this URL field in Grafana

    http://<select-service>/select/0/prometheus/


for example - inside the Kubernetes cluster:

    http://vmcluster-victoria-metrics-cluster-vmselect.default.svc.cluster.local:8481/select/0/prometheus/"

```

For us it’s important to remember the url for the datasource (copy lines from the output).

Verify that [VictoriaMetrics cluster](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/cluster-victoriametrics/) pods are up and running by executing the following command:


```sh
kubectl get pods
```

The expected output is:

```text
NAME                                                           READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
vmcluster-victoria-metrics-cluster-vminsert-689cbc8f55-95szg   1/1     Running   0          16m
vmcluster-victoria-metrics-cluster-vminsert-689cbc8f55-f852l   1/1     Running   0          16m
vmcluster-victoria-metrics-cluster-vmselect-977d74cdf-bbgp5    1/1     Running   0          16m
vmcluster-victoria-metrics-cluster-vmselect-977d74cdf-vzp6z    1/1     Running   0          16m
vmcluster-victoria-metrics-cluster-vmstorage-0                 1/1     Running   0          16m
vmcluster-victoria-metrics-cluster-vmstorage-1                 1/1     Running   0          16m
```

## 3. Install vmagent from the Helm chart

To scrape metrics from Kubernetes with a [VictoriaMetrics cluster](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/cluster-victoriametrics/) we need to install [vmagent](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmagent/) with additional configuration. To do so, please run these commands in your terminal:


```shell
helm install vmagent vm/victoria-metrics-agent -f https://docs.victoriametrics.com/guides/guide-vmcluster-vmagent-values.yaml
```

Here is full file content `guide-vmcluster-vmagent-values.yaml`

```yaml
remoteWriteUrls:
   - http://vmcluster-victoria-metrics-cluster-vminsert.default.svc.cluster.local:8480/insert/0/prometheus/

config:
  global:
    scrape_interval: 10s

  scrape_configs:
    - job_name: vmagent
      static_configs:
        - targets: ["localhost:8429"]
    - job_name: "kubernetes-apiservers"
      kubernetes_sd_configs:
        - role: endpoints
      scheme: https
      tls_config:
        ca_file: /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/ca.crt
        insecure_skip_verify: true
      bearer_token_file: /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/token
      relabel_configs:
        - source_labels:
            [
              __meta_kubernetes_namespace,
              __meta_kubernetes_service_name,
              __meta_kubernetes_endpoint_port_name,
            ]
          action: keep
          regex: default;kubernetes;https
    - job_name: "kubernetes-nodes"
      scheme: https
      tls_config:
        ca_file: /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/ca.crt
        insecure_skip_verify: true
      bearer_token_file: /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/token
      kubernetes_sd_configs:
        - role: node
      relabel_configs:
        - action: labelmap
          regex: __meta_kubernetes_node_label_(.+)
        - target_label: __address__
          replacement: kubernetes.default.svc:443
        - source_labels: [__meta_kubernetes_node_name]
          regex: (.+)
          target_label: __metrics_path__
          replacement: /api/v1/nodes/$1/proxy/metrics
    - job_name: "kubernetes-nodes-cadvisor"
      scheme: https
      tls_config:
        ca_file: /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/ca.crt
        insecure_skip_verify: true
      bearer_token_file: /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/token
      kubernetes_sd_configs:
        - role: node
      relabel_configs:
        - action: labelmap
          regex: __meta_kubernetes_node_label_(.+)
        - target_label: __address__
          replacement: kubernetes.default.svc:443
        - source_labels: [__meta_kubernetes_node_name]
          regex: (.+)
          target_label: __metrics_path__
          replacement: /api/v1/nodes/$1/proxy/metrics/cadvisor
      metric_relabel_configs:
        - action: replace
          source_labels: [pod]
          regex: '(.+)'
          target_label: pod_name
          replacement: '${1}'
        - action: replace
          source_labels: [container]
          regex: '(.+)'
          target_label: container_name
          replacement: '${1}'
        - action: replace
          target_label: name
          replacement: k8s_stub
        - action: replace
          source_labels: [id]
          regex: '^/system\.slice/(.+)\.service$'
          target_label: systemd_service_name
          replacement: '${1}'
    - job_name: "kubernetes-service-endpoints"
      kubernetes_sd_configs:
        - role: endpoints
      relabel_configs:
        - action: drop
          source_labels: [__meta_kubernetes_pod_container_init]
          regex: true
        - action: keep_if_equal
          source_labels: [__meta_kubernetes_pod_annotation_prometheus_io_port, __meta_kubernetes_pod_container_port_number]
        - source_labels:
            [__meta_kubernetes_service_annotation_prometheus_io_scrape]
          action: keep
          regex: true
        - source_labels:
            [__meta_kubernetes_service_annotation_prometheus_io_scheme]
          action: replace
          target_label: __scheme__
          regex: (https?)
        - source_labels:
            [__meta_kubernetes_service_annotation_prometheus_io_path]
          action: replace
          target_label: __metrics_path__
          regex: (.+)
        - source_labels:
            [
              __address__,
              __meta_kubernetes_service_annotation_prometheus_io_port,
            ]
          action: replace
          target_label: __address__
          regex: ([^:]+)(?::\d+)?;(\d+)
          replacement: $1:$2
        - action: labelmap
          regex: __meta_kubernetes_service_label_(.+)
        - source_labels: [__meta_kubernetes_namespace]
          action: replace
          target_label: kubernetes_namespace
        - source_labels: [__meta_kubernetes_service_name]
          action: replace
          target_label: kubernetes_name
        - source_labels: [__meta_kubernetes_pod_node_name]
          action: replace
          target_label: kubernetes_node
    - job_name: "kubernetes-service-endpoints-slow"
      scrape_interval: 5m
      scrape_timeout: 30s
      kubernetes_sd_configs:
        - role: endpoints
      relabel_configs:
        - action: drop
          source_labels: [__meta_kubernetes_pod_container_init]
          regex: true
        - action: keep_if_equal
          source_labels: [__meta_kubernetes_pod_annotation_prometheus_io_port, __meta_kubernetes_pod_container_port_number]
        - source_labels:
            [__meta_kubernetes_service_annotation_prometheus_io_scrape_slow]
          action: keep
          regex: true
        - source_labels:
            [__meta_kubernetes_service_annotation_prometheus_io_scheme]
          action: replace
          target_label: __scheme__
          regex: (https?)
        - source_labels:
            [__meta_kubernetes_service_annotation_prometheus_io_path]
          action: replace
          target_label: __metrics_path__
          regex: (.+)
        - source_labels:
            [
              __address__,
              __meta_kubernetes_service_annotation_prometheus_io_port,
            ]
          action: replace
          target_label: __address__
          regex: ([^:]+)(?::\d+)?;(\d+)
          replacement: $1:$2
        - action: labelmap
          regex: __meta_kubernetes_service_label_(.+)
        - source_labels: [__meta_kubernetes_namespace]
          action: replace
          target_label: kubernetes_namespace
        - source_labels: [__meta_kubernetes_service_name]
          action: replace
          target_label: kubernetes_name
        - source_labels: [__meta_kubernetes_pod_node_name]
          action: replace
          target_label: kubernetes_node
    - job_name: "kubernetes-services"
      metrics_path: /probe
      params:
        module: [http_2xx]
      kubernetes_sd_configs:
        - role: service
      relabel_configs:
        - source_labels:
            [__meta_kubernetes_service_annotation_prometheus_io_probe]
          action: keep
          regex: true
        - source_labels: [__address__]
          target_label: __param_target
        - target_label: __address__
          replacement: blackbox
        - source_labels: [__param_target]
          target_label: instance
        - action: labelmap
          regex: __meta_kubernetes_service_label_(.+)
        - source_labels: [__meta_kubernetes_namespace]
          target_label: kubernetes_namespace
        - source_labels: [__meta_kubernetes_service_name]
          target_label: kubernetes_name
    - job_name: "kubernetes-pods"
      kubernetes_sd_configs:
        - role: pod
      relabel_configs:
        - action: drop
          source_labels: [__meta_kubernetes_pod_container_init]
          regex: true
        - action: keep_if_equal
          source_labels: [__meta_kubernetes_pod_annotation_prometheus_io_port, __meta_kubernetes_pod_container_port_number]
        - source_labels: [__meta_kubernetes_pod_annotation_prometheus_io_scrape]
          action: keep
          regex: true
        - source_labels: [__meta_kubernetes_pod_annotation_prometheus_io_path]
          action: replace
          target_label: __metrics_path__
          regex: (.+)
        - source_labels:
            [__address__, __meta_kubernetes_pod_annotation_prometheus_io_port]
          action: replace
          regex: ([^:]+)(?::\d+)?;(\d+)
          replacement: $1:$2
          target_label: __address__
        - action: labelmap
          regex: __meta_kubernetes_pod_label_(.+)
        - source_labels: [__meta_kubernetes_namespace]
          action: replace
          target_label: kubernetes_namespace
        - source_labels: [__meta_kubernetes_pod_name]
          action: replace
          target_label: kubernetes_pod_name
```

* By adding `remoteWriteUrls: - http://vmcluster-victoria-metrics-cluster-vminsert.default.svc.cluster.local:8480/insert/0/prometheus/` we configuring [vmagent](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmagent/) to write scraped metrics into the `vmselect service`.
* The second part of this yaml file is needed to add the `metric_relabel_configs` section that helps us to show Kubernetes metrics on the Grafana dashboard.


Verify that `vmagent`'s pod is up and running by executing the following command:


```shell
kubectl get pods | grep vmagent
```

The expected output is:

```text
vmagent-victoria-metrics-agent-69974b95b4-mhjph                1/1     Running   0          11m
```


## 4. Install and connect Grafana to VictoriaMetrics with Helm

Add the Grafana Helm repository. 


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

See more information on Grafana ArtifactHUB [https://artifacthub.io/packages/helm/grafana/grafana](https://artifacthub.io/packages/helm/grafana/grafana)

To install the chart with the release name `my-grafana`, add the VictoriaMetrics datasource with official dashboard and the Kubernetes dashboard:


```sh
cat <<EOF | helm install my-grafana grafana/grafana -f -
  datasources:
    datasources.yaml:
      apiVersion: 1
      datasources:
        - name: victoriametrics
          type: prometheus
          orgId: 1
          url: http://vmcluster-victoria-metrics-cluster-vmselect.default.svc.cluster.local:8481/select/0/prometheus/
          access: proxy
          isDefault: true
          updateIntervalSeconds: 10
          editable: true

  dashboardProviders:
   dashboardproviders.yaml:
     apiVersion: 1
     providers:
     - name: 'default'
       orgId: 1
       folder: ''
       type: file
       disableDeletion: true
       editable: true
       options:
         path: /var/lib/grafana/dashboards/default

  dashboards:
    default:
      victoriametrics:
        gnetId: 11176
        revision: 18
        datasource: victoriametrics
      vmagent:
        gnetId: 12683
        revision: 7
        datasource: victoriametrics
      kubernetes:
        gnetId: 14205
        revision: 1
        datasource: victoriametrics
EOF
```

By running this command we:
* Install Grafana from the Helm repository.
* Provision a VictoriaMetrics data source with the url from the output above which we remembered.
* Add [this dashboard](https://grafana.com/grafana/dashboards/11176) for [VictoriaMetrics Cluster](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/cluster-victoriametrics/).
* Add [this dashboard](https://grafana.com/grafana/dashboards/12683) for [VictoriaMetrics Agent](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmagent/).
* Add [this dashboard](https://grafana.com/grafana/dashboards/14205) dashboard to see Kubernetes cluster metrics.


Please see the output log in your terminal. Copy, paste and run these commands. 
The first one will show `admin` password for the Grafana admin.
The second and the third will forward Grafana to `127.0.0.1:3000`:


```shell
kubectl get secret --namespace default my-grafana -o jsonpath="{.data.admin-password}" | base64 --decode ; echo

export POD_NAME=$(kubectl get pods --namespace default -l "app.kubernetes.io/name=grafana,app.kubernetes.io/instance=my-grafana" -o jsonpath="{.items[0].metadata.name}")

kubectl --namespace default port-forward $POD_NAME 3000
```

## 5. Check the result you obtained in your browser

To check that [VictoriaMetrics](https://victoriametrics.com) collects metrics from k8s cluster open in browser [http://127.0.0.1:3000/dashboards](http://127.0.0.1:3000/dashboards) and choose the `Kubernetes Cluster Monitoring (via Prometheus)` dashboard. Use `admin` for login and `password` that you previously got from kubectl. 

<img src="k8s-monitoring-via-vm-cluster_dashes-agent.webp"  alt="grafana dashboards">

You will see something like this:

<img src="k8s-monitoring-via-vm-cluster_dashboard.webp"  alt="Kubernetes metrics provided by vmcluster">

The VictoriaMetrics dashboard is also available to use:

<img src="k8s-monitoring-via-vm-cluster_grafana-dash.webp"  alt="VictoriaMetrics cluster dashboard">

vmagent has its own dashboard:

<img src="k8s-monitoring-via-vm-cluster_vmagent-grafana-dash.webp"  alt="vmagent dashboard">

## 6. Final thoughts

* We set up TimeSeries Database for your Kubernetes cluster.
* We collected metrics from all running pods,nodes, … and stored them in a VictoriaMetrics database.
* We visualized resources used in the Kubernetes cluster by using Grafana dashboards.