Kubernetes and Integrations

Docs > Container Monitoring > Kubernetes > Kubernetes and Integrations

This page covers how to install and configure integrations for your Kubernetes infrastructure by using a Datadog feature known as Autodiscovery. This enables you to use variables like %%host%% to dynamically populate your configuration settings. For a detailed explanation of how Autodiscovery works, see Getting Started with Containers: Autodiscovery. For advanced Autodiscovery options, such as excluding certain containers from Autodiscovery or tolerating unready pods, see Autodiscovery Management.

If you are using Docker or Amazon ECS, see Docker and Integrations.

Some Datadog integrations don't work with Autodiscovery because they require either process tree data or filesystem access: Ceph, Varnish, Postfix, Cassandra Nodetool, and Gunicorn.

To monitor integrations that are not compatible with Autodiscovery, you can use a Prometheus exporter in the pod to expose an HTTP endpoint, and then use the OpenMetrics integration (which supports Autodiscovery) to find the pod and query the endpoint.

Set up your integration

Some integrations require setup steps, such as creating an access token or granting read permission to the Datadog Agent. Follow the instructions in the Setup section of your integration’s documentation.

Community integrations

To use an integration that is not packaged with the Datadog Agent, you must build a custom image that contains your desired integration. See Use Community Integrations for instructions.

Configuration

Some commonly-used integrations come with default configuration for Autodiscovery. See Autodiscovery auto-configuration for details, including a list of auto-configured integrations and their corresponding default configuration files. If your integration is in this list, and the default configuration is sufficient for your use case, no further action is required.

Otherwise:

Choose a configuration method (Kubernetes pod annotations, a local file, a ConfigMap, a key-value store, a Datadog Operator manifest, or a Helm chart) that suits your use case.
Reference the template format for your chosen method. Each format contains placeholders, such as <CONTAINER_IDENTIFIER>.
Supply values for these placeholders.

If you define your Kubernetes pods directly with kind: Pod, add each pod’s annotations directly under its metadata section, as shown:

Autodiscovery annotations v2 (for Datadog Agent v7.36+)

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
# (...)
metadata:
  name: '<POD_NAME>'
  annotations:
    ad.datadoghq.com/<CONTAINER_IDENTIFIER>.checks: |
      {
        "<INTEGRATION_NAME>": {
          "init_config": <INIT_CONFIG>,
          "instances": [<INSTANCES_CONFIG>]
        }
      }      
    ad.datadoghq.com/<CONTAINER_IDENTIFIER>.logs: '[<LOGS_CONFIG>]'
    # (...)
spec:
  containers:
    - name: '<CONTAINER_IDENTIFIER>'
# (...)

Autodiscovery annotations v1

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
# (...)
metadata:
  name: '<POD_NAME>'
  annotations:
    ad.datadoghq.com/<CONTAINER_IDENTIFIER>.check_names: '[<INTEGRATION_NAME>]'
    ad.datadoghq.com/<CONTAINER_IDENTIFIER>.init_configs: '[<INIT_CONFIG>]'
    ad.datadoghq.com/<CONTAINER_IDENTIFIER>.instances: '[<INSTANCES_CONFIG>]'
    ad.datadoghq.com/<CONTAINER_IDENTIFIER>.logs: '[<LOGS_CONFIG>]'
    # (...)
spec:
  containers:
    - name: '<CONTAINER_IDENTIFIER>'
# (...)

If you define pods indirectly (with deployments, ReplicaSets, or ReplicationControllers) add pod annotations under spec.template.metadata.

You can store Autodiscovery templates as local files inside the mounted conf.d directory (/etc/datadog-agent/conf.d). You must restart your Agent containers each time you change, add, or remove templates.

Create a conf.d/<INTEGRATION_NAME>.d/conf.yaml file on your host:

ad_identifiers:
  - <CONTAINER_IDENTIFIER>

init_config:
  <INIT_CONFIG>

instances:
  <INSTANCES_CONFIG>

logs:
  <LOGS_CONFIG>

Mount your host conf.d/ folder to the containerized Agent’s conf.d folder.

You can use ConfigMaps to externally define configurations and subsequently mount them.

kind: ConfigMap
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
  name: "<NAME>-config-map"
  namespace: default
data:
  <INTEGRATION_NAME>-config: |-
    ad_identifiers:
      <CONTAINER_IDENTIFIER>
    init_config:
      <INIT_CONFIG>
    instances:
      <INSTANCES_CONFIG>
    logs:
      <LOGS_CONFIG>

You can source Autodiscovery templates from Consul, etcd, or ZooKeeper. You can configure your key-value store in the datadog.yaml configuration file (and subsequently mount this file inside the Agent container), or as environment variables in the Agent container.

Configure in datadog.yaml:

In datadog.yaml, set the <KEY_VALUE_STORE_IP> address and <KEY_VALUE_STORE_PORT> of your key-value store:

config_providers:
  - name: etcd
    polling: true
    template_dir: /datadog/check_configs
    template_url: '<KV_STORE_IP>:<KV_STORE_PORT>'
    username:
    password:

  - name: consul
    polling: true
    template_dir: datadog/check_configs
    template_url: '<KV_STORE_IP>:<KV_STORE_PORT>'
    ca_file:
    ca_path:
    cert_file:
    key_file:
    username:
    password:
    token:

  - name: zookeeper
    polling: true
    template_dir: /datadog/check_configs
    template_url: '<KV_STORE_IP>:<KV_STORE_PORT>'
    username:
    password:

Restart the Datadog Agent to apply your changes.

Configure in environment variables:

With the key-value store enabled as a template source, the Agent looks for templates under the key /datadog/check_configs. Autodiscovery expects a key-value hierarchy like this:

/datadog/
  check_configs/
    <CONTAINER_IDENTIFIER>/
      - check_names: ["<INTEGRATION_NAME>"]
      - init_configs: ["<INIT_CONFIG>"]
      - instances: ["<INSTANCES_CONFIG>"]
      - logs: ["<LOGS_CONFIG>"]
    ...

To configure integrations in datadog-agent.yaml, add an override extraConfd.configDataMap to the nodeAgent component of your DatadogAgent configuration. Each key becomes a file in the Agent’s conf.d directory.

apiVersion: datadoghq.com/v2alpha1
kind: DatadogAgent
metadata:
  name: datadog
spec:
  global:
    [...]
  features:
    [...]
  override:
    nodeAgent:
      extraConfd:
        configDataMap:
          <INTEGRATION_NAME>.yaml: |-
            ad_identifiers:
              - <CONTAINER_IDENTIFIER>
            init_config:
              <INIT_CONFIG>
            instances:
              <INSTANCES_CONFIG>
            logs:
              <LOGS_CONFIG>

To monitor a Cluster Check, add an override extraConfd.configDataMap to the clusterAgent component. You must also enable cluster checks by setting features.clusterChecks.enabled: true.

apiVersion: datadoghq.com/v2alpha1
kind: DatadogAgent
metadata:
  name: datadog
spec:
  global:
    [...]
  features:
    clusterChecks:
      enabled: true
    [...]
  override:
    nodeAgent:
      [...]
    clusterAgent:
      extraConfd:
        configDataMap:
          <INTEGRATION_NAME>.yaml: |-
            ad_identifiers:
              - <CONTAINER_IDENTIFIER>
            init_config:
              <INIT_CONFIG>
            instances:
              <INSTANCES_CONFIG>
            logs:
              <LOGS_CONFIG>

See Cluster Checks for more context.

Your datadog-values.yaml file contains a datadog.confd section where you can define Autodiscovery templates. You can find inline examples in the sample values.yaml. Each key becomes a file in the Agent’s conf.d directory.

datadog:
  confd:
    <INTEGRATION_NAME>.yaml: |-
      ad_identifiers:
        - <CONTAINER_IDENTIFIER>
      init_config:
        <INIT_CONFIG>
      instances:
        <INSTANCES_CONFIG>
      logs:
        <LOGS_CONFIG>

To monitor a Cluster Check, define your template under clusterAgent.confd. You can find inline examples in the sample values.yaml. You must also enable the Cluster Agent by setting clusterAgent.enabled: true and enable cluster checks by setting datadog.clusterChecks.enabled: true.

datadog:
  clusterChecks:
    enabled: true
clusterAgent:
  enabled: true
  confd:
    <INTEGRATION_NAME>.yaml: |-
      ad_identifiers:
        - <CONTAINER_IDENTIFIER>
      init_config:
        <INIT_CONFIG>
      instances:
        <INSTANCES_CONFIG>
      logs:
        <LOGS_CONFIG>

See Cluster Checks for more context.

Placeholder values

Supply placeholder values as follows:

<INTEGRATION_NAME>: The name of your Datadog integration, such as etcd or redisdb.
<CONTAINER_IDENTIFIER>: An identifier to match against the names (spec.containers[0].name, not spec.containers[0].image) of the containers that correspond to your integration. The ad_identifiers parameter takes a list, so you can supply multiple container identifiers.

For example: if you supply redis as a container identifier, your Autodiscovery template is applied to all containers with names that match redis. If you have one container running foo/redis:latest and bar/redis:v2, your Autodiscovery template is applied to both containers.

You can also use custom identifiers. See Custom Autodiscovery Identifiers.
<INIT_CONFIG>: The configuration parameters listed under init_config in your integration’s <INTEGRATION_NAME>.d/conf.yaml.example file. The init_config section is usually empty.
<INSTANCES_CONFIG>: The configuration parameters listed under instances in your integration’s <INTEGRATION_NAME>.d/conf.yaml.example file.
<LOGS_CONFIG>: The configuration parameters listed under logs in your integration’s <INTEGRATION_NAME>.d/conf.yaml.example file.

Auto-configuration

The Datadog Agent automatically recognizes and supplies basic configuration for some common technologies. For a complete list, see Autodiscovery auto-configuration.

Configurations set with Kubernetes annotations take precedence over auto-configuration, but auto-configuration takes precedence over configurations set with Datadog Operator or Helm. To use Datadog Operator or Helm to configure an integration in the Autodiscovery auto-configuration list, you must disable auto-configuration.

Example: Postgres integration

In this example scenario, you deployed Postgres on Kubernetes. You want to set up and configure the Datadog-Postgres integration. All of your Postgres containers have container names that contain the string postgres.

First, reference the Postgres integration documentation for any additional setup steps. The Postgres integration requires that you create a read-only user named datadog and store the corresponding password as an environment variable named PG_PASSWORD.

If you were to configure this integration on a host, you could reference postgresql.d/conf.yaml.example for parameters and create a postgresql.d/conf.yaml file that contains the following:

init_config:
instances:
  - host: localhost
    port: 5432
    username: datadog
    password: <PASSWORD>
logs:
  - type: file
    path: /var/log/postgres.log
    source: postgresql
    service: pg_service

Here, <PASSWORD> corresponds to the password for the datadog user you created.

To apply this configuration to your Postgres containers:

In your pod manifest:

Autodiscovery annotations v2 (for Datadog Agent v7.36+)

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: postgres
  annotations:
    ad.datadoghq.com/postgres.checks: |
      {
        "postgresql": {
          "instances": [
            {
              "host": "%%host%%",
              "port": "5432",
              "username": "datadog",
              "password":"%%env_PG_PASSWORD%%"
            }
          ]
        }
      }      
    ad.datadoghq.com/postgres.logs: |
      [
        {
          "type": "file",
          "path": "/var/log/postgres.log",
          "source": "postgresql",
          "service": "pg_service"
        }
      ]      
spec:
  containers:
    - name: postgres

Autodiscovery annotations v1

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: postgres
  annotations:
    ad.datadoghq.com/postgres.check_names: '["postgresql"]'
    ad.datadoghq.com/postgres.init_configs: '[{}]'
    ad.datadoghq.com/postgres.instances: |
      [
        {
          "host": "%%host%%",
          "port": "5432",
          "username": "datadog",
          "password":"%%env_PG_PASSWORD%%"
        }
      ]      
    ad.datadoghq.com/postgres.logs: |
      [
        {
          "type": "file",
          "path": "/var/log/postgres.log",
          "source": "postgresql",
          "service": "pg_service"
        }
      ]      
spec:
  containers:
    - name: postgres

Create a conf.d/postgresql.d/conf.yaml file on your host:

ad_identifiers:
  - postgres
init config:
instances:
  - host: "%%host%%"
    port: "5432"
    username: "datadog"
    password: "%%env_PG_PASSWORD%%"
logs:
  - type: "file"
    path: "/var/log/postgres.log"
    source: "postgresql"
    service: "pg_service"

Mount your host conf.d/ folder to the containerized Agent’s conf.d folder.

In a ConfigMap:

kind: ConfigMap
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
  name: postgresql-config-map
  namespace: default
data:
  postgresql-config: |-
    ad_identifiers:
      - postgres
    init_config:
    instances:
      - host: "%%host%%"
        port: "5432"
        username: "datadog"
        password: "%%env_PG_PASSWORD%%"
    logs:
      - type: "file"
        path: "/var/log/postgres.log"
        source: "postgresql"
        service: "pg_service"

Then, in your manifest, define the volumeMounts and volumes:

# [...]
        volumeMounts:
        # [...]
          - name: postgresql-config-map
            mountPath: /etc/datadog-agent/conf.d/postgresql.d
        # [...]
      volumes:
      # [...]
        - name: postgresql-config-map
          configMap:
            name: postgresql-config-map
            items:
              - key: postgresql-config
                path: conf.yaml
# [...]

The following etcd commands create a Postgres integration template with a custom password parameter:

etcdctl mkdir /datadog/check_configs/postgres
etcdctl set /datadog/check_configs/postgres/check_names '["postgresql"]'
etcdctl set /datadog/check_configs/postgres/init_configs '[{}]'
etcdctl set /datadog/check_configs/postgres/instances '[{"host": "%%host%%","port":"5432","username":"datadog","password":"%%env_PG_PASSWORD%%"}]'

Notice that each of the three values is a list. Autodiscovery assembles list items into the integration configurations based on shared list indexes. In this case, it composes the first (and only) check configuration from check_names[0], init_configs[0] and instances[0].

In datadog-agent.yaml:

apiVersion: datadoghq.com/v2alpha1
kind: DatadogAgent
metadata:
  name: datadog
spec:
  global:
    [...]
  features:
    [...]
  override:
    nodeAgent:
      extraConfd:
        configDataMap:
          postgresql.yaml: |-
            ad_identifiers:
              - postgres
            init_config:
            instances:
              - host: "%%host%%"
                port: 5432
                username: "datadog"
                password: "%%env_PG_PASSWORD%%"

As a result, the Agent contains a postgresql.yaml file with the above configuration in the conf.d directory.

In datadog-values.yaml:

datadog:
  confd:
    postgresql.yaml: |-
      ad_identifiers:
        - postgres
      init_config:
      instances:
        - host: "%%host%%"
          port: 5432
          username: "datadog"
          password: "%%env_PG_PASSWORD%%"

As a result, the Agent contains a postgresql.yaml file with the above configuration in the conf.d directory.

These templates make use of Autodiscovery template variables:

%%host%% is dynamically populated with the container’s IP.
%%env_PG_PASSWORD%% references an environment variable named PG_PASSWORD as seen by the Agent process.

For more examples, including how to configure multiple checks for multiple sets of containers, see Autodiscovery: Scenarios & Examples.