Install and configure Linkerd monitoring: OTel Collector Contrib with Helm

Install

1. Add the OpenTelemetry Helm repo.

   bash

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   $
   helm repo add open-telemetry https://open-telemetry.github.io/opentelemetry-helm-charts
   $
   helm repo update

2. Create values.yaml and update the following sections:

3. Set mode to deployment.

   mode: deployment

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4. Replace the image repository.

   image:
     repository: otel/opentelemetry-collector-contrib

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5. Configure the cluster role.

   clusterRole:
     create: true
     rules:
       - apiGroups: [""]
         resources: [pods, nodes, nodes/proxy, endpoints, services, namespaces]
         verbs: [get, list, watch]
       - apiGroups: ["apps"]
         resources: [replicasets, deployments, daemonsets, statefulsets]
         verbs: [get, list, watch]

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6. Set your cluster name and New Relic ingest license key.

   extraEnvs:
     - name: K8S_CLUSTER_NAME
       value: "<YOUR_CLUSTER_NAME>"
     - name: NEWRELIC_LICENSE_KEY
       value: "<YOUR_NR_INGEST_LICENSE_KEY>"

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7. Replace the entire config section with the Linkerd monitoring configuration.

   config:
     receivers:
       prometheus:
         config:
           scrape_configs:
             - job_name: 'linkerd-controller'
               kubernetes_sd_configs:
                 - role: pod
                   namespaces: { names: ['linkerd', 'linkerd-viz'] }
               relabel_configs:
                 - { source_labels: [__meta_kubernetes_pod_container_port_name], action: keep, regex: admin-http }
                 - { source_labels: [__meta_kubernetes_pod_container_name], target_label: component }
                 - { source_labels: [__meta_kubernetes_namespace], target_label: namespace }
                 - { source_labels: [__meta_kubernetes_pod_name], target_label: pod }
             - job_name: 'linkerd-proxy'
               kubernetes_sd_configs: [{ role: pod }]
               relabel_configs:
                 - { source_labels: [__meta_kubernetes_pod_container_name, __meta_kubernetes_pod_container_port_name, __meta_kubernetes_pod_label_linkerd_io_control_plane_ns], action: keep, regex: ^linkerd-proxy;linkerd-admin;linkerd$ }
                 - { source_labels: [__meta_kubernetes_namespace], target_label: namespace }
                 - { source_labels: [__meta_kubernetes_pod_name], target_label: pod }
                 - { source_labels: [__meta_kubernetes_pod_label_linkerd_io_control_plane_ns], target_label: linkerd_control_plane_ns }
                 - { source_labels: [__meta_kubernetes_pod_label_linkerd_io_control_plane_component], target_label: linkerd_control_plane_component }
   
     processors:
       resource/strip_service:
         attributes:
           - { key: service.name, action: delete }
           - { key: service.instance.id, action: delete }
       resource/cluster:
         attributes:
           - key: k8s.cluster.name
             value: "${env:K8S_CLUSTER_NAME}"
             action: insert
       transform/k8s:
         metric_statements:
           - context: datapoint
             statements:
               - set(attributes["k8s.namespace.name"], attributes["namespace"]) where attributes["namespace"] != nil
               - set(attributes["k8s.pod.name"], attributes["pod"]) where attributes["pod"] != nil
               - delete_key(attributes, "instance")
       transform/deployment:
         metric_statements:
           - context: datapoint
             statements:
               - set(attributes["k8s.deployment.name"], attributes["k8s.pod.name"]) where attributes["k8s.deployment.name"] == nil and attributes["k8s.pod.name"] != nil
               - replace_pattern(attributes["k8s.deployment.name"], "-[a-z0-9]+-[a-z0-9]+$", "") where attributes["k8s.deployment.name"] == attributes["k8s.pod.name"]
       transform/metadata_nullify:
         metric_statements:
           - context: metric
             statements:
               - set(description, "")
               - set(unit, "")
   
     exporters:
       otlp_http/newrelic:
         endpoint: "https://otlp.nr-data.net:4318"
         headers:
           api-key: "${env:NEWRELIC_LICENSE_KEY}"
   
     service:
       pipelines:
         metrics:
           receivers: [prometheus]
           processors: [memory_limiter, resource/strip_service, resource/cluster, transform/k8s, transform/deployment, transform/metadata_nullify, batch]
           exporters: [otlp_http/newrelic]

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   Tip

   This chart doesn't filter low-value proxy metrics by default. If you want the same filtering NRDOT applies, add a filter/drop_unused processor. See the NRDOT with Helm page for the filter list.

Configure

1. Update the values.yaml file as per the following table:

   Parameter	Description
   <YOUR_CLUSTER_NAME>	Replace with your Kubernetes cluster name for identification in New Relic
   K8S_CLUSTER_NAME	Your cluster name in extraEnvs. This cluster name is used by the OTel Collector to identify your Kubernetes cluster in New Relic
   NEWRELIC_LICENSE_KEY	Your New Relic ingest license key set in extraEnvs
   filter/drop_unused	Not included by default in this chart's config. See NRDOT with Helm if you want the same low-value-metric filtering

2. Install the helm-chart

   bash

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   $
   helm upgrade my-opentelemetry-collector open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector \
   >
     -f values.yaml -n newrelic --create-namespace --install

Find your data

1. Go to one.newrelic.com > All capabilities > All entities.
2. Search for your cluster name.
3. Select your Linkerd entity to open the built-in dashboard.

The built-in dashboard covers request rate, latency p50/p95/p99, success rate, TCP connections, mTLS certificate status, control plane health, and meshed pod inventory. For detailed information, refer to Find Linkerd data documentation.