Kubernetes

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Agent installation

You can install the Agent using either the Datadog Operator or Helm chart by following the in-app installation guide in Fleet Automation. This guided interface allows you to:

  • Select your Kubernetes distribution (for example EKS, AKS, or GKE)
  • Generate helm and kubectl commands with your API key prefilled
  • Enable features such as APM, Log Management, tagging and other telemetry through UI-based configuration
In-app installation steps for the Datadog Agent on Kubernetes.

The Datadog Operator flow installs the Datadog Operator and uses Custom Resources to configure observability coverage.

The Helm Chart flow installs the Agent using DaemonSet and offers similar toggles for observability features.

See Supported Versions for the full list of Kubernetes versions supported by the Datadog Agent.

Manual installation

For manually install your Agent on Kubernetes, follow the Manually install and configure the Datadog Agent with a DaemonSet

For Agent commands, see the Agent Commands guides. For information on the Datadog Cluster Agent, see Cluster Agent for Kubernetes.

<CLUSTER_NAME> allows you to scope hosts and Cluster Checks. This unique name must be dot-separated tokens and abide by the following restrictions:

  • Must only contain lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens
  • Must start with a letter
  • Must end with a number or a letter
  • Must be less than or equal to 80 characters

Additional configuration

Unprivileged installation

    To run an unprivileged installation, add the following to datadog-agent.yaml:

    apiVersion: datadoghq.com/v2alpha1
kind: DatadogAgent
metadata:
  name: datadog
spec:
  global:
    clusterName: <CLUSTER_NAME>
    site: <DATADOG_SITE>
    credentials:
      apiSecret:
        secretName: datadog-secret
        keyName: api-key
agent:
  config:
    securityContext:
      runAsUser: <USER_ID>
      supplementalGroups:
        - <GROUP_ID>

    Then, deploy the Agent:

    kubectl apply -f datadog-agent.yaml

    To run an unprivileged installation, add the following to your datadog-values.yaml file:

    datadog:
  apiKeyExistingSecret: datadog-secret
  site: <DATADOG_SITE>
  securityContext:
      runAsUser: <USER_ID>
      supplementalGroups:
        - <GROUP_ID>
    • Replace <USER_ID> with the UID to run the Datadog Agent.
    • Replace <GROUP_ID> with the group ID that owns the Docker or containerd socket.

    Then, deploy the Agent:

    helm install datadog-agent -f datadog-values.yaml datadog/datadog

    Select container registries

    The in-app UI lets you select the container image registry, defaulting to gcr.io/datadoghq. If Artifact Registry is not accessible in your deployment region, use another registry such as:

    • public.ecr.aws/datadog (recommended for deploying the Agent in an AWS environment)
    • datadoghq.azurecr.io
    • docker.io/datadog (can be subject to rate limits unless a Docker Hub customer)

    Uninstall

      kubectl delete datadogagent datadog
helm delete datadog-operator

      This command deletes all Kubernetes resources created by installing Datadog Operator and deploying the Datadog Agent.

      helm uninstall datadog-agent

      This section includes the following topics:


      Further Reading

      Additional helpful documentation, links, and articles:

      Check out the latest Datadog Containers releases (App login required).RELEASE NOTES more more Limit data collection to a subset of containers onlyDOCUMENTATION more more Docker runtime deprecation in KubernetesDOCUMENTATION more more Join an interactive session for insights on Kubernetes monitoringFOUNDATION ENABLEMENT more more A guide on scaling out your Kubernetes pods with the Watermark Pod AutoscalerBLOG more more