Advanced configuration

New Relic provides a Helm chart to deploy OpenTelemetry Collector in your Kubernetes cluster. This Helm charts can be customized to meet your specific needs, including advanced configurations for various use cases.

The nr-k8s-otel-collector Helm chart supports both DaemonSet and Deployment collectors, allowing you to choose the best fit for your use case. These collectors can be configured to customize their behavior. For more information on installing the New Relic OpenTelemetry Collector in Kubernetes, refer to the installation guide.

This document provides an overview of some of the key advanced configuration options.

Enable GKE Autopilot or Red Hat OpenShift Compatibility

To ensure compatibility with specific Kubernetes environments, you can enable provider-specific configurations. This setting ensures compatibility and proper functionality of the OpenTelemetry Collectors by adapting to the specific constraints of these environments.

Enable this option in your values.yaml file:

provider: "GKE_AUTOPILOT" # Or "OPEN_SHIFT" if applicable

Enable LowDataMode

The LowDataMode option is enabled by default to ingests only the metrics required by our Kubernetes UIs. This mode reduces the amount of data collected, focusing on essential metrics for Kubernetes monitoring.

Add Additional Metrics in LowDataMode

To fetch additional metrics, add new pipelines and configure the appropriate receivers and processors in your values.yaml file using the extraConfig section.

The following example shows how to add the cadvisor_version_info metric to a new pipeline. You can reuse existing receivers or define your own. Processors are added to filter specific metrics and enrich them with Kubernetes attributes.

extraConfig:
    receivers:
    processors:
      filter/keep_cadvisor_version_info:
        metrics:
            metric:
              - name != "cadvisor_version_info" # Exclude all metrics except cadvisor_version_info
    exporters:
    connectors:
    pipelines:
      metrics/additional_metrics:
        receivers:
          - prometheus # This references the prometheus receiver defined above
        processors:
          - filter/keep_cadvisor_version_info
          - resource # Essential for basic resource attributes
          - k8sattributes/ksm # Essential for Kubernetes metadata enrichment
          - cumulativetodelta # Converts cumulative metrics to delta
          - batch # For efficient data sending
        exporters:
          - otlphttp/newrelic

For a comprehensive list of available receivers, processors, exporters, and pipelines that you can reuse in your configurations, refer to the New Relic Helm Charts repository.

Send data to multiple New Relic accounts

To send your Kubernetes telemetry data to multiple New Relic accounts simultaneously, inject your secondary ingest license key(s) into the OpenTelemetry Collector container and configure additional OTLP exporters.

1. To inject your secondary license key(s):

   • In the env section of your values.yaml file, add the following environment variable for each secondary ingest license key you want to use:

     daemonset:
       envs:
         - name: MY_SECONDARY_LICENSE_KEY_VAR # Choose a descriptive environment variable name
           valueFrom:
             secretKeyRef:
               name: <Your Secret Name> # Name of your Kubernetes Secret
               key: <Your Secret Key>    # Key within the Secret that holds the license key
     deployment:
       envs:
         - name: MY_SECONDARY_LICENSE_KEY_VAR
           valueFrom:
             secretKeyRef:
               name: <Your Secret Name>
               key: <Your Secret Key>

     Copy

   • In the envForm section of your values.yaml file, add the following environment variable for each secondary license key you want to use:

     daemonset:
       envsFrom:
         - secretRef:
             name: <Your Secret Name>
     deployment:
       envsFrom:
         - secretRef:
             name: <Your Secret Name>

     Copy

2. To add an otlphttp exporter in the extraConfig section for each additional account, referencing the injected environment variable:

   daemonset:
     configMap:
       extraConfig:
         exporters:
           otlphttp/secondAccount: # Unique name for this exporter
             endpoint: "{{include 'nrKubernetesOtel.endpoint'}}"
             headers:
               api-key: ${env:MY_SECONDARY_LICENSE_KEY_VAR} # Reference the env var
   deployment:
     configMap:
       extraConfig:
         exporters:
           otlphttp/secondAccount: # Unique name for this exporter
             endpoint: "{{include 'nrKubernetesOtel.endpoint'}}"
             headers:
               api-key: ${env:MY_SECONDARY_LICENSE_KEY_VAR} # Reference the env var
   # Important: Add this exporter to the relevant pipelines below
   pipelines:
     metrics:
       exporters:
         - otlphttp/newrelic # Original exporter
         - otlphttp/secondAccount # New exporter
     traces:
       exporters:
         - otlphttp/newrelic
         - otlphttp/secondAccount
     logs:
       exporters:
         - otlphttp/newrelic
         - otlphttp/secondAccount

   Copy

   Tip

   You must also add the otlphttp/secondAccount exporter to the relevant pipelines (metrics, traces, logs) within your extraConfig for both the daemonset and deployment collectors to ensure data is actually sent through this new exporter.

3. After updating your values.yaml file, apply the changes to your cluster:

   bash

   Copy

   $
   helm upgrade nr-k8s-otel-collector newrelic/nr-k8s-otel-collector -f your-custom-values.yaml -n newrelic

Send data via a proxy

To send your Kubernetes telemetry data through a proxy, you can configure the OpenTelemetry Collector to use an HTTP proxy for outbound connections. This is particularly useful in environments where direct internet access is restricted or monitored.

You can configure the OpenTelemetry Collector to use a proxy using one of the following methods:

proxy: '<Your-proxy-server-URL>' # Example: [http://squid-proxy.squid:3128](http://squid-proxy.squid:3128)

Add custom configurations in the Helm chart

The extraConfig section within the values.yaml file provide a powerful way to extend the functionality of both the daemonset and deployment collectors. You can choose either collector to apply additional configurations, allowing you to tailor your monitoring experience.

These options offer flexibility for integrating specific settings not included by default.

For further customization, you can refer to our comprehensive list of receivers, processors, exporters, and pipelines to reuse in your configurations.

You can employs several recommended processors in your pipeline to enhance your telemetry data's efficiency and relevance:

• resource: Ensures your metrics data contains essential resource information, adding clarity to your data analysis.
• k8sattributes: Incorporates Kubernetes-specific attributes into your metrics for detailed insights into your cluster's behavior and performance.
• cumulativetodelta: Transforms cumulative metrics into delta metrics for improved tracking of changes over time.
• batch: Processes and exports metrics in batches, optimizing performance during data collection.

These processors work together to refine your data for more precise monitoring and alerting. Customize the settings according to your specific use case to ensure seamless Prometheus service discovery within your Kubernetes environment.

The Enable Prometheus service discovery section provides an example of how you can use extraConfig section to set up service discovery using the standard prometheus.io/scrape annotation.

Enable Prometheus service discovery

To enable Prometheus service discovery within your Kubernetes cluster, use the extraConfig section in your deployment collector's configuration. This allows the OpenTelemetry Collector to automatically discover and scrape metrics from pods annotated with prometheus.io/scrape.

Here's an example configuration snippet to set up service discovery using the standard prometheus.io/scrape annotation:

extraConfig:
    receivers:
      prometheus/discover:
        config:
          scrape_configs:
            - job_name: "auto-discovered-services"
              scrape_interval: 30s  # Set the scrape interval to 30 seconds
              kubernetes_sd_configs:
                - role: pod
              relabel_configs:
                - source_labels: [__meta_kubernetes_pod_annotation_prometheus_io_scrape]
                  action: keep
                  regex: true
                - source_labels: [__meta_kubernetes_pod_label_app]
                  action: drop
                  regex: kube-state-metrics
                - source_labels: [__address__, __meta_kubernetes_pod_annotation_prometheus_io_port]
                  action: replace
                  target_label: __address__
                  separator: ;
                  regex: (.+):(?:\d+);(.*)
                  replacement: $1:$2
                - action: replace
                  target_label: job_label
                  replacement: auto-discovery
    processors:
    exporters:
    connectors:
    pipelines:
      metrics/prom_auto_discover:
        receivers:
          - prometheus/discover
        processors:
          - resource/metrics
          - k8sattributes/ksm
          - cumulativetodelta
          - batch
        exporters:
          - otlphttp/newrelic

Related articles