Podman Monitoring (Open Beta)
Instana automatically discovers and monitors Podman containers to provide you with real-time insights into metadata (labels), metrics, and any supported technologies that are running within each discovered container. The Podman sensor is automatically deployed and configured after you install the Instana agent.
Open Beta information
The Podman Monitoring Open Beta is supported in Instana SaaS from release 246. For self-hosted (on-premises) Instana, the Podman Monitoring Open Beta is supported only if your Instana backend is installed from release 247.
Metrics collection
To view the metrics, select Infrastructure in the sidebar of the Instana User interface, click a specific monitored host, and then you can see a Host dashboard with all the collected metrics and monitored processes.
By default, Podman metrics are collected every 5 seconds. You can change the interval by editing the agent configuration file <agent_install_dir>/etc/instana/configuration.yml:
com.instana.plugin.podman:
interval: 5
To view detailed information for the running container, click Get Container Info. The displayed information is the same as the result of the podman inspect command.
Configuration data
| Configuration | Description |
|---|---|
| Image | The Podman image name. |
| Command | Entry point of container |
| Created At | The timestamp when the container is created . |
| Started At | The timestamp where the container is started. |
| Container ID | The container ID. |
| Name | The container name. |
| Graph Driver | The configured graph driver. |
| Podman version | The Podman version in use. |
| Container Labels | Labels that are applied to the container. |
Performance metrics
You can use the Podman Engine API to get performance metrics. These performance metrics are returned from the /v4.0.0/libpod/containers/{id}/stats?stream=false endpoint. See the Podman API doc reference.
The following performance metrics are provided:
CPU Total %
The CPU Total % metric is the total percentage of CPU usage. The current measured KPI value is displayed.
The value of the CPU Total % metric is collected from the total_usage key that is returned in the cpu_stats object.
Memory usage %
The Memory usage % metric is the total memory usage in percentage. The current measured KPI value is displayed.
The value of the Memory usage % metric is calculated as quotient of usage and limit keys that are returned in the memory_stats object.
CPU
The CPU metric is the total, kernel, user metrics and their normalized values in range [0, 100]%, and these values are displayed on a graph over a selected time period. The values are collected from the total_usage,
system_usage, and user_usage keys that are returned in the cpu_stats object.
Throttling count and time values are displayed on a graph over a selected time period.
These values are collected from the throttling_count and throttling_time keys that are returned in the cpu_stats object.
Memory
The Memory metric shows the memory limit and memory usage, and is displayed on a graph over a selected time period.
The values are collected from the usage, max_usage, and limit keys that are returned in the memory_stats object. The memory usage is displayed in percentage.
Block IO
The Block IO metric shows the read and write values, and are displayed on a graph over a selected time period.
The values are collected from the blkio.io_service_bytes key that are returned in the blkio_stats object.
Health signature
Each sensor has a curated knowledge base of health signatures that are evaluated continuously against the incoming metrics, and are used to raise issues or incidents depending on user impact. Built-in events trigger issues or incidents based on failing health signatures on entities. By default, the build-in event health rule for metrics CPU usages and Memory usages is activated as soon as the Podman sensor is activated for the container.