Set up the Web Monitoring PSA and API Monitoring PSA in Bare Metal K8s Using Amazon EC2

Set up the Web Monitoring PSA and API Monitoring PSA in Bare Metal K8s using Amazon EC2 as follows:

Create the Kubernetes Cluster.
Build and customize the Docker image.
Save Images to Minikube's Docker Daemon.
Deploy the Web Monitoring PSA and API Monitoring PSA.
Monitor the Kubernetes cluster.

Most of the steps are common for both Web Monitoring PSA and API Monitoring PSA. Wherever applicable, the differences in steps are highlighted.

This document contains links to AWS CLI documentation. AppDynamics makes no representation as to the accuracy of AWS CLI documentation because AWS CLI controls its own documentation.

Create the Kubernetes Cluster

You can use kops to create your own managed Kubernetes cluster on AWS. If you want to create self-managed cluster on a different cloud or your own datacenter, you might want to look into other tools like Kubeadm or Kubespray. See installing Kubernetes with deployment tools.

To create a Kubernetes cluster in Bare Metal K8s:

Install and configure AWS CLI.

To create IAM Role, enter.

aws iam create-group --group-name kops
 
aws iam attach-group-policy --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonEC2FullAccess --group-name kops
aws iam attach-group-policy --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonRoute53FullAccess --group-name kops
aws iam attach-group-policy --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonS3FullAccess --group-name kops
aws iam attach-group-policy --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/IAMFullAccess --group-name kops
aws iam attach-group-policy --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonVPCFullAccess --group-name kops
 
aws iam create-user --user-name kops
 
aws iam add-user-to-group --user-name kops --group-name kops
 
aws iam create-access-key --user-name kops

CODE

Configure AWS CLI credentials using aws configure with the access key obtained in the previous step.
Based on your platform, install kops following these instructions.

To create S3 bucket, enable versioning by entering:

bucket_name=heimdall-onprem-kops-state-store
aws s3api create-bucket \
--bucket ${bucket_name} \
--create-bucket-configuration LocationConstraint=us-west-2
 
 
aws s3api put-bucket-versioning --bucket ${bucket_name} --versioning-configuration Status=Enabled

CODE

To create cluster, enter:

export KOPS_CLUSTER_NAME=heimdall-onprem.k8s.local
export KOPS_STATE_STORE=s3://${bucket_name}
export KOPS_KUBERNETES_VERSION=1.x.x
 
 
kops create cluster \
--node-count=4 \
--node-size=t3.2xlarge \
--zones=us-west-2a \
--kubernetes-version=${KOPS_KUBERNETES_VERSION} \
--name=${KOPS_CLUSTER_NAME}
 
 
kops update cluster --name ${KOPS_CLUSTER_NAME} --yes

CODE

Specify the KOPS_KUBERNETES_VERSION from one of the compatible versions.

The node-size and node-count in the above code snippet are selected according to recommended configuration type. You can specify a configuration of your choice with a different type and number of nodes. See EC2 instance types.

To validate if the cluster is running (might take some time for cluster to set up and run), enter:
```
kops validate cluster
```
CODE

Access the Cluster

To access the Kubernetes cluster, follow these instructions to install kubectl, a utility to interact with the cluster.

To verify that the cluster is running, enter:

kubectl get nodes

CODE

Build and Customize the Docker Image

You can download the zip file for Simple Synth PSA installation from the Appdynamics Downloads Portal or from the beta upload tool.

This file contains Dockerfiles to install the agents and set up monitoring:

Web Monitoring PSA: Dockerfiles for sum-chrome-agent, sum-heimdall, and Helm charts
API Monitoring PSA: Dockerfiles for synth-api-monitoring-agent, sum-heimdall, and Helm charts

To build an image for sum-chrome-agent, synth-api-monitoring-agent, and sum-heimdall, ensure that Docker is installed. If it is not installed, you can download and install Docker from here.

For sum-chrome-agent:

Unzip the zip file to access the sum-chrome-agent directory.

Navigate to the directory and run the following command:

docker build -f Dockerfile-PSA -t sum-chrome-agent:<agent-tag> .

CODE

For synth-api-monitoring-agent:

Unzip the zip file to access the synth-api-monitoring-agent directory.

Navigate to the directory and run the following command:

docker build -f Dockerfile-PSA -t synth-api-monitoring-agent:<agent-tag> .

CODE

For sum-heimdall:

Unzip the zip file to access the sum-heimdall directory.

Navigate to this directory and run the following command:

docker build -f Dockerfile-PSA -t sum-heimdall:<heimdall-tag> .

CODE

You can use any value for <heimdall-tag> and <agent-tag>, but ensure that you use the same value in the subsequent steps.

Add Custom Python Libraries

This section is applicable only for Web Monitoring PSA.

In addition to the available standard set of libraries, you can add custom Python libraries to the agent to use in scripted measurements. You build a new image based on the image you loaded as the base image

Create a Dockerfile and create RUN directives to run python pip. For example, to install the library algorithms you can create a Dockerfile:

# Use the sum-chrome-agent image we just loaded as the base image
FROM sum-chrome-agent:<agent-tag>
  
# Install algorithm for python3 on top of that
RUN python3 -m pip install algorithms==0.1.4
  
  
# We can add more RUN directives for installing more libraries
# RUN python3 -m pip install ...

CODE

You can create any number of RUN directives to install the required libraries.

To build the new image, enter:
```
docker build -t sum-chrome-agent:<agent-tag> - < Dockerfile
```
CODE
The newly built agent image contains the required libraries.

Tag and Push Images to the Registry

You must tag and push the images to a registry for cluster to access it. It can be done in the following ways:

Bare Metal K8S using EC2

Vanilla K8S runs on AWS infrastructure. As kops create and assign appropriate roles to the cluster nodes, they can directly access Elastic Container Registry (ECR), without any other configuration.

To tag images, enter:

Web Monitoring PSA:

docker tag sum-heimdall:<heimdall-tag> <aws_account_id>.dkr.ecr.<region>.amazonaws.com/sum/sum-heimdall:<heimdall-tag>
docker tag sum-chrome-agent:<agent-tag> <aws_account_id>.dkr.ecr.<region>.amazonaws.com/sum/sum-chrome-agent:<agent-tag>

CODE

API Monitoring PSA:

docker tag sum-heimdall:<heimdall-tag> <aws_account_id>.dkr.ecr.<region>.amazonaws.com/sum/sum-heimdall:<heimdall-tag>
docker tag synth-api-monitoring-agent:<agent-tag> <aws_account_id>.dkr.ecr.<region>.amazonaws.com/sum/synth-api-monitoring-agent:<agent-tag>

CODE

Replace <aws_account_id> and <region> with your account and region values.

To create repositories, enter:

Web Monitoring PSA:

aws ecr create-repository --repository-name sum/sum-heimdall
aws ecr create-repository --repository-name sum/sum-chrome-agent

CODE

API Monitoring PSA:

aws ecr create-repository --repository-name sum/sum-heimdall
aws ecr create-repository --repository-name sum/synth-api-monitoring-agent

CODE

To push the images, enter:

Web Monitoring PSA:

aws ecr get-login-password --region us-west-2 | docker login --username AWS --password-stdin <aws_account_id>.dkr.ecr.<region>.amazonaws.com
docker push <aws_account_id>.dkr.ecr.<region>.amazonaws.com/sum/sum-heimdall:<heimdall-tag>
docker push <aws_account_id>.dkr.ecr.<region>.amazonaws.com/sum/sum-chrome-agent:<agent-tag>

CODE

API Monitoring PSA:

aws ecr get-login-password --region us-west-2 | docker login --username AWS --password-stdin <aws_account_id>.dkr.ecr.<region>.amazonaws.com
docker push <aws_account_id>.dkr.ecr.<region>.amazonaws.com/sum/sum-heimdall:<heimdall-tag>
docker push <aws_account_id>.dkr.ecr.<region>.amazonaws.com/sum/synth-api-monitoring-agent:<agent-tag>

CODE

Bare Metal K8S using Private Registry

If you are managing your own Kubernetes cluster which is not on AWS, then you must deploy your own registry server. See deploy a registry server.

To tag images, enter:

Web Monitoring PSA:

docker tag sum-heimdall:<heimdall-tag> <REGISTRY_HOST>:<REGISTRY_PORT>/sum-heimdall:<heimdall-tag>
docker tag sum-chrome-agent:<agent-tag> <REGISTRY_HOST>:<REGISTRY_PORT>/sum-chrome-agent:<agent-tag>

CODE

API Monitoring PSA:

docker tag sum-heimdall:<heimdall-tag> <REGISTRY_HOST>:<REGISTRY_PORT>/sum-heimdall:<heimdall-tag>
docker tag synth-api-monitoring-agent:<agent-tag> <REGISTRY_HOST>:<REGISTRY_PORT>/synth-api-monitoring-agent:<agent-tag>

CODE

Replace <REGISTRY_HOST> and <REGISTRY_PORT> to what you configured while deploying the registry.

To push the images, enter:

Web Monitoring PSA:

docker login <REGISTRY_HOST>:<REGISTRY_PORT>
docker push <REGISTRY_HOST>:<REGISTRY_PORT>/sum-heimdall:<heimdall-tag>
docker push <REGISTRY_HOST>:<REGISTRY_PORT>/sum-chrome-agent:<agent-tag>

CODE

API Monitoring PSA:

docker login <REGISTRY_HOST>:<REGISTRY_PORT>
docker push <REGISTRY_HOST>:<REGISTRY_PORT>/sum-heimdall:<heimdall-tag>
docker push <REGISTRY_HOST>:<REGISTRY_PORT>/synth-api-monitoring-agent:<agent-tag>

CODE

Deploy the Web Monitoring PSA and API Monitoring PSA

Ensure that you follow the applicable sequence of steps when installing Web Monitoring PSA and API Monitoring PSA, respectively; some steps are common for both the procedures.

The application is deployed to the cluster after the images are in the Registry. You use Helm chart to deploy and create all Kubernetes resources in the required order.

Install Helm following these instructions.

Create a new measurement namespace where Heimdall, Postgres database, and measurement pods will run.

To create a new measurement namespace, enter:

kubectl create namespace measurement

CODE

Using a single command, you can deploy the Helm chart which contains the deployment details. To deploy the agent, you use the Helm chart sum-psa-heimdall.tgz in the zip file that you downloaded previously. Before you deploy the Private Synthetic Agent, you must set some configuration options. To view the configuration options, navigate to the previously downloaded sum-psa-heimdall.tgz file and enter:

helm show values sum-psa-heimdall.tgz > values.yaml

CODE

These are the configuration key value pairs that you need to edit in the values.yaml file:

Web Monitoring PSA Using EC2:

Configuration Key	Value
`heimdall > repository`	`<aws_account_id>.dkr.ecr.<region>.amazonaws.com/sum/sum-heimdall`
`heimdall > tag`	`<heimdall-tag>`
`chromeAgent > repository`	`<aws_account_id>.dkr.ecr.<region>.amazonaws.com/sum/sum-chrome-agent`
`chromeAgent > tag`	`<agent-tag>`
`shepherd > url`	`Shepherd URL`
`shepherd > credentials`	`credentials`
`shepherd > location`	`agent location`

API Monitoring PSA Using EC2:

Configuration Key	Value
`heimdall > repository`	`<aws_account_id>.dkr.ecr.<region>.amazonaws.com/sum/sum-heimdall`
`heimdall > tag`	`<heimdall-tag>`
`apiMonitoringAgent > repository`	`<aws_account_id>.dkr.ecr.<region>.amazonaws.com/sum/synth-api-monitoring-agent`
`apiMonitoringAgent > tag`	`<agent-tag>`
`shepherd > url`	`Shepherd URL`
`shepherd > credentials`	`credentials`
`shepherd > location`	`agent location`

Web Monitoring PSA Using Private Registry:

Configuration Key	Value
Configuration Key	Value
`heimdall > repository`	<REGISTRY_HOST>:<REGISTRY_PORT>/sum-heimdall
`heimdall > tag`	`<heimdall-tag>`
`chromeAgent > repository`	`<REGISTRY_HOST>:<REGISTRY_PORT>/sum-chrome-agent`
`chromeAgent > tag`	`<agent-tag>`
`privateRegistry`	`true`
`shepherd > url`	`Shepherd URL`
`shepherd > credentials`	`credentials`
`shepherd > location`	`agent location`

API Monitoring PSA Using Private Registry:

Configuration Key	Value
`heimdall > repository`	<REGISTRY_HOST>:<REGISTRY_PORT>/sum-heimdall
`heimdall > tag`	`<heimdall-tag>`
`apiMonitoringAgent > repository`	`<REGISTRY_HOST>:<REGISTRY_PORT>/synth-api-monitoring-agent`
`apiMonitoringAgent > tag`	`<agent-tag>`
`privateRegistry`	`true`
`shepherd > url`	`Shepherd URL`
`shepherd > credentials`	`credentials`
`shepherd > location`	`agent location`

After configuring using Private Registry

Create registry credentials:

kubectl create secret docker-registry regcred --docker-server=<REGISTRY_HOST>:<REGISTRY_PORT> --docker-username=<your-name> --docker-password=<your-pword> --docker-email=<your-email> --namespace measurement

CODE

Patch the default service account of measurement namespace to use the regcred registry credentials:

kubectl patch serviceaccount default -p '{"imagePullSecrets": [{"name": "regcred"}]}' --namespace measurement

CODE

You can leave the rest of the values set to their defaults or configure them based on your requirements. See Configure Web Monitoring PSA and API Monitoring PSA for details on shepherd URL, credentials, location, and optional key-value pairs.

You need to replace <aws_account_id> and <region> with your account and region values.

To deploy the Helm chart using the above-mentioned configuration, navigate to the previously downloaded sum-psa-heimdall.tgz file and enter:
```
helm install heimdall-onprem sum-psa-heimdall.tgz --values values.yaml --namespace measurement
```
CODE
All the Kubernetes resources are created in the cluster and you can use Heimdall. After a few seconds, Heimdall initializes and is visible in the Controller.
To verify if the pods are running, enter:
```
kubectl get pods --namespace measurement
```
CODE
To make any changes to the values.yaml after the initial deployment, navigate to the previously downloaded sum-psa-heimdall.tgz file and enter:
```
helm upgrade heimdall-onprem sum-psa-heimdall.tgz --values values.yaml --namespace measurement
```
CODE
To remove the deployment:
helm uninstall heimdall-onprem --namespace measurement

CODE
This is not recommended unless it required.

Monitor the Kubernetes Cluster

The Helm chart sum-psa-monitoring.tgz in the zip you downloaded installs the monitoring stack. This Helm chart installs kube-prometheus-stack along with a custom Grafana dashboard to monitor the Private Simple Synthetic Agent.

Monitoring the deployment is optional; however, we highly recommended that you monitor the cluster to periodically check its health.

Install the Monitoring Stack

To create a separate monitoring namespace, enter:
```
kubectl create namespace monitoring
```
CODE
To review configuration options, enter:
```
helm show values sum-psa-monitoring.tgz > values.yaml
```
CODE
This generates a values.yaml file which contains all the configuration options. To modify and pass the generated values.yaml file while installing the Helm chart, enter:
```
helm install psa-monitoring sum-psa-monitoring.tgz --values values.yaml --namespace monitoring
```
CODE
After the monitoring stack is installed, you can Launch Grafana (which runs inside the cluster) to view the dashboard. To access Grafana from outside of the cluster, you can configure port forwarding or set up Ingress. To configure port forward to access it locally, enter:
```
kubectl port-forward svc/psa-monitoring-grafana 3000:80 --namespace monitoring
```
CODE
Launch localhost:3000 from the browser and log in using the default credentials with username as admin and password as prom-operator. A dashboard named Private Simple Synthetic Agent displays and provides details about the Kubernetes cluster, Heimdall, Postgres, and running measurements.