VMware Tanzu PKS Observability and Monitoring
VMware Tanzu PKS Observability and Monitoring logo
Achieving Full Observability and Application Monitoring Inside VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid (PKS)

Monitoring VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid (formerly Pivotal Container Service, PKS) based microservice applications requires observability at every layer of your application stack. Instana automates the entire process of monitoring Kubernetes (K8s) containerized applications, including automatic discovery of all application components, platforms, containers, Kubernetes, and services. Once installed, Instana automatically discovers all Kubernetes, clusters, pods, and application components, deploys monitoring sensors for each, maps all application dependencies, and begins monitoring full stack application performance – with zero effort on your part.

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Introduction to VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid

The VMware website states, “VMWare Tanzu Kubernetes Grid (link resides outside ibm.com) is an Enterprise Kubernetes platform architected for rapid results, scaling, and reliability on any infrastructure.” Tanzu Kubernetes Grid includes dynamic load balancing, zero downtime updates, and automated health checks. With Tanzu Kubernetes Grid, K8s clusters deploy on-demand through the command line (CLI) and API. Tanzu Kubernetes Grid is available as a tile to be installed into VMware Tanzu (formerly Pivotal Cloud Foundry (PCF)) foundations alongside services and other runtimes, sharing BOSH (link resides outside ibm.com) as the underline provisioning and lifecycle management mechanism.

Monitoring VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Microservice Application Performance with Instana’s Enterprise Observability Platform

The Instana agent is packaged for Tanzu as a Tile that provides end-to-end automation in deploying and managing the Instana Agent across the entire Tanzu foundation whether using Tanzu Application Service, Tanzu Kubernetes Grid, services or any combination of the previous. The Instana Microservices Application Monitoring for Tanzu Tile is integrated into the Tanzu provisioning mechanisms. When new Tanzu Kubernetes Grid clusters or VMs are spawned, the Instana Agent is automatically installed on it, no restarts or manual configuration required. When deployed into the foundation, Instana automatically and continuously provides visibility at the K8s, cluster, container, infrastructure, and application level. Instana then organizes data into context rich dependency relationships with its Dynamic Graph backend model.

The Instana Microservices Application Monitoring for Tanzu Tile provides the same Observability capabilities in Tanzu Kubernetes Grid as it does for all other K8s environments. This includes:

Feature 1 Feature 2 Feature 3 Feature 4

With Instana’s automatic and continuous discovery, dependency mapping, metric monitoring, distributed tracing, anomaly detection, and analytics across the complete data set, you’ll always know what is happening within your Tanzu Kubernetes Grid based applications. Instana’s immediate, exact understanding of quality enables you to deliver better quality software, faster.

Tanzu Tile Installation: Getting Started

Whether using Tanzu Kubernetes Grid, Tanzu Application Servic, or a combination of both, to get started all you need is an Instana Account. If you already have an account, simply follow the Tanzu installation instructions below. If not, you can still see how the Instana Microservices Application Monitoring for Tanzu tile works in action with a free trial account. Sign up for a free trial of Instana today and then follow the installation instructions below. Installing Instana Microservices Application Monitoring Tile in OpsManager

  1. Download the product file from Tanzu Network
  2. Navigate to the OpsManager Installation Dashboard and click ‘Import a Product’ to upload the product file
  3. Under the ‘Import a Product’ button, click ‘next version number of Instana Microservices Application Monitoring’. This adds the tile to your staging area
  4. Click the newly added ‘Instana Microservices Application Monitoring tile’
  5. The Instana Agent requires minimal configuration:
    1. Where is the Instana backend?
    2. What is your agent key
  6. Save the configuration
  7. The Instana tile will now be a ‘pending change’ in OpsManager
  8. Click ‘Apply Changes’ to roll out the Instana agent across your entire Tanzu foundation
  9. Update the foundation to receive the Instana Agent