Watch-Keeper

Watch-Keeper is a tool that inventories and reports back the resources running on your cluster. Watch-Keeper works with RazeeDash to display information about your resources.

Install

Via RazeeDash

1. Install RazeeDash or use a hosted razee such as razee.io.
2. Add your Github org to your razee.
3. Go to https://<razeedash-url>/<your-org-name>/org then copy and run the kubectl command against your new cluster to install the watch-keeper components.

Manually

1. kubectl create cm watch-keeper-config --from-literal=RAZEEDASH_URL=<path-to-razeedash-api> --from-literal=START_DELAY_MAX=0
   • eg. kubectl create cm watch-keeper-config --from- literal=RAZEEDASH_URL=http://app.razee.io/api/v2 --from-literal=START_DELAY_MAX=0
2. kubectl create secret generic watch-keeper-secret --from-literal=RAZEEDASH_ORG_KEY=<plain-text-org-api-key-to-auth-with-razeedash>
   • eg. kubectl create secret generic watch-keeper-secret --from-literal=RAZEEDASH_ORG_KEY=orgApiKey-88888888-4444-4444-4444-121212121212
3. kubectl apply -f https://github.com/razee-io/Watch-keeper/releases/latest/download/resource.yaml

Collecting Resources

Collection Methods

1. Watches: this is where watch-keeper gets its name. Watch-keeper creates watches on any resource with the label razee/watch-resource=<level>, and reports to razeedash whenever a change occurs.
2. Polling: any resource with the razee/watch-resource=<level> label is reported. This is useful for resources that are not watchable.
3. Namespaces: you can gather info from a cluster by labeling a namespace with razee/watch-resource=<level>. This will collect and report all data within the labeled namespace at the desired <level>. Info is only gathered on the polling cycle. See include/exclude lists to limit what is collected.
4. Non-Namespaced Resources: you can gather info about resources that are not bound to a namespace by adding the key poll to the watch-keeper-non-namespaced ConfigMap. Info is only gathered on the polling cycle. See include/exclude lists to limit what is collected. See Non-Namespaced Resources for more info.
5. Watch by Resource: this allows you to watch and see immediate updates on any resource kind. This can be useful to watch for changes on non-namespaced resource, such as nodes or namespaces, without having to label each resource individually. This can also be useful to watch a single resource type, such as deployments, across the whole cluster. See Watch By Resource for more info.

• Ex. kubectl label cm my-cm razee/watch-resource=lite

Collection Levels

1. lite: reports the resource .metadata and .status (where applicable) sections to RazeeDash.
2. detail: reports the entire resource to RazeeDash, but redacts all environment variables from resources and data values from ConfigMaps and Secrets.
3. debug: reports the entire resource to RazeeDash. All data is reported, including Secret values.

Notes

1. <levels> must be lower case
2. Labeling namespaces, especially using the detail or debug level collections, can gather much more data than anticipated resulting in delays in data reporting.
3. Similarly, delays can occur when reporting on a namespace with lots of resources (> thousand).

Watch By Resource

In order to avoid having to label each individual resource, we allow watching by resource kind. Note: include/exclude lists do not affect watching.

To watch a resource kind, add it to the watch-keeper-non-namespaced ConfigMap in the form apiVersion_kind (where any / is replaced with an _), with the value being the collection levels at which you want to watch at.

Note: When modifying the watch-keeper-non-namespaced ConfigMap after the pod has started, it will take up to VALIDATE_INTERVAL minutes (default 10m) to start watching a resource newly added to the ConfigMap, and up to CLEAN_START_INTERVAL minutes (default 1440m) when changing the collection levels (ie. lite to detail). To get watch-keeper to pick up the changes immediately, kill the watch-keeper pod to force a restart.

apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: watch-keeper-non-namespaced
  namespace: <watch-keeper ns>
data:
  # 'poll' is optional. Use when you want to poll all non-namespaced resources.
  poll: lite

  # resources to watch
  v1_node: detail
  v1_namespace: lite
  apps_v1_deployment: lite
  v1_configmap: detail
  # ... etc.

Non-Namespaced Resources

In order to avoid having to label each individual non-namespaced resource (eg. nodes, namespaces, customresourcedefinitions), we allow polling of all non-namespaced resources. This mechanism is similar to how our namespace resource collection works, where you can label a namespace and we collect all the resources within that namespace for you; you can think of this like you are labeling the non-namespaced-resources namespace.

Also similar to how you can label a namespace, there may be resources that you do not want to collect (eg. storageclass), so you should use include/exclude lists to limit what is collected. Note: using the include/exclude list will affect all resources polled, namespaced and non-namespace.

apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: watch-keeper-non-namespaced
  namespace: <watch-keeper ns>
data:
  poll: lite

Include/Exclude Lists

You can include or exclude resources by modifying the ConfigMap named watch-keeper-limit-poll, in the namespace your Watch-Keeper is running.

• If both an include and exclude key are specified, only include will be used.
• The include/exclude list is employed during the Polling, Namespace and Non-Namespaced collection methods. Any individual resource specifically labeled to be watched will still be watched, regardless of the include/exclude list.

Creating a Include/Exclude List

• To create your include/exclude list, the ConfigMap will specify the kind of list you want as the first key, and the rest of the ConfigMap entries become the include/exclude list.
• The include/exclude list itself is created from the ConfigMap keys:
  • The keys will be apiVersion_kind (where any / is replaced with an _).
  • The value must be 'true'.

apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: watch-keeper-limit-poll
  namespace: <watch-keeper ns>
data:
  # Type of list (must be 'true')
  include: 'true'

  # Resources affected (must be 'true')
  v1_node: 'true'
  v1_namespace: 'true'
  apps_v1_deployment: 'true'
  v1_configmap: 'true'
  # ... etc.

Feature Intervals

Watch-Keeper collects and reports on data in a few different ways. Each of these ways is on a differently timed interval and affects when data populates/updates in RazeeDash. These intervals are configurable via environment variables defined in the deployment yaml (note: Intervals are in minutes and should follow: CLEAN_START_INTERVAL > POLL_INTERVAL > VALIDATE_INTERVAL. ie. 1440 > 60 > 10).

1. Heartbeat: every heartbeat collects the user defined cluster metadata, the cluster id, and the cluster kube version, and sends the data to RazeeDash.
   • Timing: 1 minute (non configurable)
2. Validate Watched Resources: every VALIDATE_INTERVAL minutes, watch keeper will make sure it has a watch created for the resource kinds (eg. apps/v1 Deployment) that have at least one resource instance with the label. This means the first time you add the label to a previously unwatched resource kind, it could take up to VALIDATE_INTERVAL minutes to show in razeedash.
   • Timing: VALIDATE_INTERVAL=10
3. Poll labeled Resources: every POLL_INTERVAL minutes, watch keeper will find all resources with the razee/watch-resource label and send to RazeeDash, as well as find all namespaces with the razee/watch-resource label and collects/reports all resources within those namespaces.
   • Timing: POLL_INTERVAL=60
   • coming soon: RazeeDash will have a way to force a re-polling. This will be communicated during the heartbeat, and may take a minute to occur.
4. Clean Start: this is a housekeeping interval. It clears out all watches, and re-verifies watches it should have. Default is once a day.
   • Timing: CLEAN_START_INTERVAL=1440

Cluster Metadata

You can add extra cluster metadata to send to RazeeDash. This can help differentiate clusters on RazeeDash and be more human readable than a uuid. To do this, add the label razee/cluster-metadata=true to a configmap. If the configmap contains the key name, RazeeDash will display the name instead of the uuid.

kubectl create cm my-watch-keeper-cm --from-literal=name=mySpecialDevCluster
kubectl label cm my-watch-keeper-cm razee/cluster-metadata=true

Resource Metadata

You can add extra annotations to your resources in order to help the RazeeDash dashboard link to your change management system.

• Working with github:
  1. kubectl annotate <resource-kind> <resource-name> "razee.io/git-repo=<github-repo>"
     • ie. "razee.io/git-repo=https://github.com/razee-io/Watch-keeper"
  2. kubectl annotate <resource-kind> <resource-name> "razee.io/commit-sha=<github-sha>"
     • ie. "razee.io/commit-sha=c6645609f8d3b8a48d53246fb7c1f6b60d054aef"
  3. Note: We find it best practice to collect this info and add them to your resource yamls at build time instead of doing it manually on your cluster.
• Working with any change management system:
  1. kubectl annotate <resource-kind> <resource-name> "razee.io/source-url=<fully-qualified-path>"
     • ie. "razee.io/source-url=https://github.com/razee-io/Watch-keeper/commit/c6645609f8d3b8a48d53246fb7c1f6b60d054aef"
  2. Note: We find it best practice to collect this info and add them to your resource yamls at build time instead of doing it manually on your cluster.