Enabling optional features

Run and configure BeeInstana data store with instana-console host

To run BeeInstana as an extra Docker container on the instana-console database host, the following feature flag must be added to the file settings.hcl for new installations or to the file /root/.instana/effective-settings.hcl for existing installations.

...
feature "beeinstana" {
  enabled=true
}
...

After adding the feature flag, apply the change to the system with an Instana data stores update. After the restart, an extra container that is named aggregator appears. This service must then be accessible on port 9998 from the Instana backend.

Note: Ensure that the free space is enough in the storage location for the metric data.

An estimated disk size of 1 million metrics can be derived from this table:

Run and configure BeeInstana data store with Operator

For self-hosted Instana environments on Kubernetes with large metric loads, you should deploy BeeInstana by using the BeeInstana operator. See the documentation for using BeeInstana on Kubernetes.

Configuration for the core

Now the BeeInstana data pipeline must be added to the operator Core spec, and the following feature flags must be enabled. The main feature flag feature.beeinstana.infra.metrics.enabled activates new components and a set of features based on them. There might also be other optional features as current:

• feature.beeinstana.histograms.enabled

apiVersion: instana.io/v1beta2
kind: Core
metadata:
  name: instana-core
  namespace: core
spec:
...
datastoreConfigs:
  beeInstanaConfig:
    clustered: false # Set to true if beeinstana is operated as a cluster
    authEnabled: true
    hosts:
      - <beeinstana_aggregator_host> # in a docker environment the FQDN of the docker host and in case of an BeeInstana operator cluster use the service name here
...
featureFlags:
  - name: feature.beeinstana.infra.metrics.enabled
    enabled: true
...

In addition, the credentials for the BeeInstana cluster or host must be configured in the core secret as follows:

...
datastoreConfigs:
  ...
  beeinstanaConfig:
    - user: beeinstana-user
      password: <SECRET_PASSWORD>
...

Using instana-console data store host

If instana-console is used as the database backend, a dual-host installation is recommended, with a second Clickhouse instance on another host. For this purpose, the second host needs to be set up with a settings.hcl file as follows:

type      = "dual-clickhouse"
host_name = "<IP-accessible-from-the-k8s-cluster>"

dir {
  metrics    = "" // data dir for metrics
  traces     = "/mnt/traces" // data dir for log data
  data       = "/mnt/data" // data dir for any other data
  logs       = "/var/log/instana" // log dir
}

docker_repository {
  base_url = "artifact-public.instana.io"
  username = "_"
  password = "<Your-agent-key>"
}

Using Clickhouse operator cluster

In this scenario, set up another Clickhouse cluster according to the [operator instructions] (../datastores/3rd_party_operators.md#installing-data-store-operators/creating-clickhouse-cluster-with-a-dedicated-zookeeper-cluster).

Operator Core spec

On the operator side, the Core spec needs two Clickhouse entries and the feature flag feature.logging.enabled.

apiVersion: instana.io/v1beta2
kind: Core
metadata:
  name: instana-core
  namespace: core
spec:
...
clickhouseConfigs:
  - clusterName: local
    authEnabled: true
    hosts:
      - <application_ch_cluster>
    schemas:
      - application
  - clusterName: local
    authEnabled: true
    hosts:
      - <logs_ch_cluster>
    schemas:
      - logs
  ...
featureFlags:
  - name: feature.logging.enabled
    enabled: true
...

In addition, configure the credentials for the new Clickhouse cluster or host in the core secret as follows:

...
datastoreConfigs:
  ...
  clickhouseConfigs:
    - user: clickhouse-application-user
      password: <USER_GENERATED_PASSWORD>
      adminUser: clickhouse-application-user
      adminPassword: <USER_GENERATED_PASSWORD>
      schemas:
        - application
    - user: clickhouse-logs-user
      password: <USER_GENERATED_PASSWORD>
      adminUser: clickhouse-logs-user
      adminPassword: <USER_GENERATED_PASSWORD>
      schemas:
        - logs
...

Configure external storage for Synthetic monitoring

Before enabling Synthetic monitoring, configure two external storage configurations in the storageConfigs section in the Core spec (synthetics, syntheticsKeystore).

Currently, GCloud and S3 or compatible Buckets are supported, and the file system is based on a multi read/write persistent volume.

For more information about storageConfigs spec for synthetics, see storageConfigs

Enable the feature flag for Synthetic monitoring components

To enable Synthetic monitoring components, set the following feature flag under the featureFlags configuration in the Core spec.

featureFlags:
    ...
      - name: feature.synthetics.enabled
      enabled: true

Pivotal Cloud Foundry (PCF)

To enable the PCF platform dashboard, set as follows in the core.yaml file:

apiVersion: instana.io/v1beta2
kind: Core
metadata:
  name: instana-core
  namespace: core
spec:
...
featureFlags:
  - name: feature.pcf.enabled
    enabled: true
...

VMware vSphere

To enable the VMware vSphere platform dashboard, set as follows in the core.yaml file:

apiVersion: instana.io/v1beta2
kind: Core
metadata:
  name: instana-core
  namespace: core
spec:
...
featureFlags:
  - name: feature.vsphere.enabled
    enabled: true
...

OpenStack

To enable the OpenStack platform dashboard, set as follows in the core.yaml file:

apiVersion: instana.io/v1beta2
kind: Core
metadata:
  name: instana-core
  namespace: core
spec:
...
featureFlags:
  - name: feature.openstack.enabled
    enabled: true
...

IBM Power HMC

To enable the IBM Power HMC platform dashboard, set as follows in the core.yaml file:

apiVersion: instana.io/v1beta2
kind: Core
metadata:
  name: instana-core
  namespace: core
spec:
...
featureFlags:
  - name: feature.phmc.enabled
    enabled: true
...

IBM Power VC

To enable the IBM Power VC platform dashboard, set as follows in the core.yaml file:

apiVersion: instana.io/v1beta2
kind: Core
metadata:
  name: instana-core
  namespace: core
spec:
...
featureFlags:
  - name: feature.powervc.enabled
    enabled: true
...

IBM IBM Z HMC

To enable the IBM IBM Z HMC platform dashboard, set as follows in the core.yaml file:

apiVersion: instana.io/v1beta2
kind: Core
metadata:
  name: instana-core
  namespace: core
spec:
...
featureFlags:
  - name: feature.zhmcEnabled.enabled
    enabled: true
...

Service Level Objectives

The components and database migrations that are needed for Service Level Objectives are configured by the feature flag feature.slo.enabled. After activating this feature flag in the Core spec, more components are deployed in the cluster and the custom dashboard area shows the widget SLO.

featureFlags:
    ...
      - name: feature.slo.enabled
      enabled: true

Action framework

This feature enables an action framework in Instana to remediate events. You can use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to associate actions with events and run actions directly from the Issues tab in the Instana UI.

featureFlags:
  ...
  - name:  feature.automation.enabled
    enabled: true
  - name:  feature.action.automation.enabled
    enabled: true