Chapter 5. Enabling monitoring for user-defined projects In OpenShift Container Platform, you can enable monitoring for user-defined projects in addition to the default platform monitoring. You can monitor your own projects in OpenShift Container Platform without the need for an additional monitoring solution. Using this feature centralizes monitoring for core platform components and user-defined projects. Note Versions of Prometheus Operator installed using Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM) are not compatible with user-defined monitoring. Therefore, custom Prometheus instances installed as a Prometheus custom resource (CR) managed by the OLM Prometheus Operator are not supported in OpenShift Container Platform. 5.1. Enabling monitoring for user-defined projects Cluster administrators can enable monitoring for user-defined projects by setting the enableUserWorkload: true field in the cluster monitoring ConfigMap object. Important You must remove any custom Prometheus instances before enabling monitoring for user-defined projects. Note You must have access to the cluster as a user with the cluster-admin cluster role to enable monitoring for user-defined projects in OpenShift Container Platform. Cluster administrators can then optionally grant users permission to configure the components that are responsible for monitoring user-defined projects. Prerequisites You have access to the cluster as a user with the cluster-admin cluster role. You have installed the OpenShift CLI ( oc ). You have created the cluster-monitoring-config ConfigMap object. You have optionally created and configured the user-workload-monitoring-config ConfigMap object in the openshift-user-workload-monitoring project. You can add configuration options to this ConfigMap object for the components that monitor user-defined projects. Note Every time you save configuration changes to the user-workload-monitoring-config ConfigMap object, the pods in the openshift-user-workload-monitoring project are redeployed. It might sometimes take a while for these components to redeploy. Procedure Edit the cluster-monitoring-config ConfigMap object: USD oc -n openshift-monitoring edit configmap cluster-monitoring-config Add enableUserWorkload: true under data/config.yaml : apiVersion: v1 kind: ConfigMap metadata: name: cluster-monitoring-config namespace: openshift-monitoring data: config.yaml: | enableUserWorkload: true 1 1 When set to true , the enableUserWorkload parameter enables monitoring for user-defined projects in a cluster. Save the file to apply the changes. Monitoring for user-defined projects is then enabled automatically. Note If you enable monitoring for user-defined projects, the user-workload-monitoring-config ConfigMap object is created by default. Verify that the prometheus-operator , prometheus-user-workload , and thanos-ruler-user-workload pods are running in the openshift-user-workload-monitoring project. It might take a short while for the pods to start: USD oc -n openshift-user-workload-monitoring get pod Example output NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE prometheus-operator-6f7b748d5b-t7nbg 2/2 Running 0 3h prometheus-user-workload-0 4/4 Running 1 3h prometheus-user-workload-1 4/4 Running 1 3h thanos-ruler-user-workload-0 3/3 Running 0 3h thanos-ruler-user-workload-1 3/3 Running 0 3h Additional resources Creating a user-defined workload monitoring config map Configuring the monitoring stack Granting users permission to configure monitoring for user-defined projects 5.2. Granting users permission to monitor user-defined projects As a cluster administrator, you can monitor all core OpenShift Container Platform and user-defined projects. You can also grant developers and other users different permissions: Monitoring user-defined projects Configuring the components that monitor user-defined projects Configuring alert routing for user-defined projects Managing alerts and silences for user-defined projects You can grant the permissions by assigning one of the following monitoring roles or cluster roles: Table 5.1. Monitoring roles Role name Description Project user-workload-monitoring-config-edit Users with this role can edit the user-workload-monitoring-config ConfigMap object to configure Prometheus, Prometheus Operator, Alertmanager, and Thanos Ruler for user-defined workload monitoring. openshift-user-workload-monitoring monitoring-alertmanager-api-reader Users with this role have read access to the user-defined Alertmanager API for all projects, if the user-defined Alertmanager is enabled. openshift-user-workload-monitoring monitoring-alertmanager-api-writer Users with this role have read and write access to the user-defined Alertmanager API for all projects, if the user-defined Alertmanager is enabled. openshift-user-workload-monitoring Table 5.2. Monitoring cluster roles Cluster role name Description Project monitoring-rules-view Users with this cluster role have read access to PrometheusRule custom resources (CRs) for user-defined projects. They can also view the alerts and silences in the Developer perspective of the OpenShift Container Platform web console. Can be bound with RoleBinding to any user project. monitoring-rules-edit Users with this cluster role can create, modify, and delete PrometheusRule CRs for user-defined projects. They can also manage alerts and silences in the Developer perspective of the OpenShift Container Platform web console. Can be bound with RoleBinding to any user project. monitoring-edit Users with this cluster role have the same privileges as users with the monitoring-rules-edit cluster role. Additionally, users can create, read, modify, and delete ServiceMonitor and PodMonitor resources to scrape metrics from services and pods. Can be bound with RoleBinding to any user project. alert-routing-edit Users with this cluster role can create, update, and delete AlertmanagerConfig CRs for user-defined projects. Can be bound with RoleBinding to any user project. 5.2.1. Granting user permissions by using the web console You can grant users permissions for the openshift-monitoring project or their own projects, by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console. Prerequisites You have access to the cluster as a user with the cluster-admin cluster role. The user account that you are assigning the role to already exists. Procedure In the Administrator perspective of the OpenShift Container Platform web console, go to User Management RoleBindings Create binding . In the Binding Type section, select the Namespace Role Binding type. In the Name field, enter a name for the role binding. In the Namespace field, select the project where you want to grant the access. Important The monitoring role or cluster role permissions that you grant to a user by using this procedure apply only to the project that you select in the Namespace field. Select a monitoring role or cluster role from the Role Name list. In the Subject section, select User . In the Subject Name field, enter the name of the user. Select Create to apply the role binding. 5.2.2. Granting user permissions by using the CLI You can grant users permissions for the openshift-monitoring project or their own projects, by using the OpenShift CLI ( oc ). Important Whichever role or cluster role you choose, you must bind it against a specific project as a cluster administrator. Prerequisites You have access to the cluster as a user with the cluster-admin cluster role. The user account that you are assigning the role to already exists. You have installed the OpenShift CLI ( oc ). Procedure To assign a monitoring role to a user for a project, enter the following command: USD oc adm policy add-role-to-user <role> <user> -n <namespace> --role-namespace <namespace> 1 1 Substitute <role> with the wanted monitoring role, <user> with the user to whom you want to assign the role, and <namespace> with the project where you want to grant the access. To assign a monitoring cluster role to a user for a project, enter the following command: USD oc adm policy add-cluster-role-to-user <cluster-role> <user> -n <namespace> 1 1 Substitute <cluster-role> with the wanted monitoring cluster role, <user> with the user to whom you want to assign the cluster role, and <namespace> with the project where you want to grant the access. 5.3. Granting users permission to configure monitoring for user-defined projects As a cluster administrator, you can assign the user-workload-monitoring-config-edit role to a user. This grants permission to configure and manage monitoring for user-defined projects without giving them permission to configure and manage core OpenShift Container Platform monitoring components. Prerequisites You have access to the cluster as a user with the cluster-admin cluster role. The user account that you are assigning the role to already exists. You have installed the OpenShift CLI ( oc ). Procedure Assign the user-workload-monitoring-config-edit role to a user in the openshift-user-workload-monitoring project: USD oc -n openshift-user-workload-monitoring adm policy add-role-to-user \ user-workload-monitoring-config-edit <user> \ --role-namespace openshift-user-workload-monitoring Verify that the user is correctly assigned to the user-workload-monitoring-config-edit role by displaying the related role binding: USD oc describe rolebinding <role_binding_name> -n openshift-user-workload-monitoring Example command USD oc describe rolebinding user-workload-monitoring-config-edit -n openshift-user-workload-monitoring Example output Name: user-workload-monitoring-config-edit Labels: <none> Annotations: <none> Role: Kind: Role Name: user-workload-monitoring-config-edit Subjects: Kind Name Namespace ---- ---- --------- User user1 1 1 In this example, user1 is assigned to the user-workload-monitoring-config-edit role. 5.4. Accessing metrics from outside the cluster for custom applications You can query Prometheus metrics from outside the cluster when monitoring your own services with user-defined projects. Access this data from outside the cluster by using the thanos-querier route. This access only supports using a bearer token for authentication. Prerequisites You have deployed your own service, following the "Enabling monitoring for user-defined projects" procedure. You are logged in to an account with the cluster-monitoring-view cluster role, which provides permission to access the Thanos Querier API. You are logged in to an account that has permission to get the Thanos Querier API route. Note If your account does not have permission to get the Thanos Querier API route, a cluster administrator can provide the URL for the route. Procedure Extract an authentication token to connect to Prometheus by running the following command: USD TOKEN=USD(oc whoami -t) Extract the thanos-querier API route URL by running the following command: USD HOST=USD(oc -n openshift-monitoring get route thanos-querier -ojsonpath='{.status.ingress[].host}') Set the namespace to the namespace in which your service is running by using the following command: USD NAMESPACE=ns1 Query the metrics of your own services in the command line by running the following command: USD curl -H "Authorization: Bearer USDTOKEN" -k "https://USDHOST/api/v1/query?" --data-urlencode "query=up{namespace='USDNAMESPACE'}" The output shows the status for each application pod that Prometheus is scraping: The formatted example output { "status": "success", "data": { "resultType": "vector", "result": [ { "metric": { "__name__": "up", "endpoint": "web", "instance": "10.129.0.46:8080", "job": "prometheus-example-app", "namespace": "ns1", "pod": "prometheus-example-app-68d47c4fb6-jztp2", "service": "prometheus-example-app" }, "value": [ 1591881154.748, "1" ] } ], } } Note The formatted example output uses a filtering tool, such as jq , to provide the formatted indented JSON. See the jq Manual (jq documentation) for more information about using jq . The command requests an instant query endpoint of the Thanos Querier service, which evaluates selectors at one point in time. Additional resources Enabling monitoring for user-defined projects 5.5. Excluding a user-defined project from monitoring Individual user-defined projects can be excluded from user workload monitoring. To do so, simply add the openshift.io/user-monitoring label to the project's namespace with a value of false . Procedure Add the label to the project namespace: USD oc label namespace my-project 'openshift.io/user-monitoring=false' To re-enable monitoring, remove the label from the namespace: USD oc label namespace my-project 'openshift.io/user-monitoring-' Note If there were any active monitoring targets for the project, it may take a few minutes for Prometheus to stop scraping them after adding the label. 5.6. Disabling monitoring for user-defined projects After enabling monitoring for user-defined projects, you can disable it again by setting enableUserWorkload: false in the cluster monitoring ConfigMap object. Note Alternatively, you can remove enableUserWorkload: true to disable monitoring for user-defined projects. Procedure Edit the cluster-monitoring-config ConfigMap object: USD oc -n openshift-monitoring edit configmap cluster-monitoring-config Set enableUserWorkload: to false under data/config.yaml : apiVersion: v1 kind: ConfigMap metadata: name: cluster-monitoring-config namespace: openshift-monitoring data: config.yaml: | enableUserWorkload: false Save the file to apply the changes. Monitoring for user-defined projects is then disabled automatically. Check that the prometheus-operator , prometheus-user-workload and thanos-ruler-user-workload pods are terminated in the openshift-user-workload-monitoring project. This might take a short while: USD oc -n openshift-user-workload-monitoring get pod Example output No resources found in openshift-user-workload-monitoring project. Note The user-workload-monitoring-config ConfigMap object in the openshift-user-workload-monitoring project is not automatically deleted when monitoring for user-defined projects is disabled. This is to preserve any custom configurations that you may have created in the ConfigMap object.

Commands:
oc -n openshift-monitoring edit configmap cluster-monitoring-config
apiVersion: v1 kind: ConfigMap metadata: name: cluster-monitoring-config namespace: openshift-monitoring data: config.yaml: | enableUserWorkload: true 1
oc -n openshift-user-workload-monitoring get pod
NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE prometheus-operator-6f7b748d5b-t7nbg 2/2 Running 0 3h prometheus-user-workload-0 4/4 Running 1 3h prometheus-user-workload-1 4/4 Running 1 3h thanos-ruler-user-workload-0 3/3 Running 0 3h thanos-ruler-user-workload-1 3/3 Running 0 3h
oc adm policy add-role-to-user <role> <user> -n <namespace> --role-namespace <namespace> 1
oc adm policy add-cluster-role-to-user <cluster-role> <user> -n <namespace> 1
oc -n openshift-user-workload-monitoring adm policy add-role-to-user user-workload-monitoring-config-edit <user> --role-namespace openshift-user-workload-monitoring
oc describe rolebinding <role_binding_name> -n openshift-user-workload-monitoring
oc describe rolebinding user-workload-monitoring-config-edit -n openshift-user-workload-monitoring
Name: user-workload-monitoring-config-edit Labels: <none> Annotations: <none> Role: Kind: Role Name: user-workload-monitoring-config-edit Subjects: Kind Name Namespace ---- ---- --------- User user1 1
TOKEN=USD(oc whoami -t)
HOST=USD(oc -n openshift-monitoring get route thanos-querier -ojsonpath='{.status.ingress[].host}')
NAMESPACE=ns1
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer USDTOKEN" -k "https://USDHOST/api/v1/query?" --data-urlencode "query=up{namespace='USDNAMESPACE'}"
{ "status": "success", "data": { "resultType": "vector", "result": [ { "metric": { "__name__": "up", "endpoint": "web", "instance": "10.129.0.46:8080", "job": "prometheus-example-app", "namespace": "ns1", "pod": "prometheus-example-app-68d47c4fb6-jztp2", "service": "prometheus-example-app" }, "value": [ 1591881154.748, "1" ] } ], } }
oc label namespace my-project 'openshift.io/user-monitoring=false'
oc label namespace my-project 'openshift.io/user-monitoring-'
oc -n openshift-monitoring edit configmap cluster-monitoring-config
apiVersion: v1 kind: ConfigMap metadata: name: cluster-monitoring-config namespace: openshift-monitoring data: config.yaml: | enableUserWorkload: false
oc -n openshift-user-workload-monitoring get pod
No resources found in openshift-user-workload-monitoring project.