Instrumentation

• 1: Kubernetes Component SLI Metrics
• 2: CRI Pod & Container Metrics
• 3: Node metrics data
• 4: Kubernetes Metrics Reference

1 - Kubernetes Component SLI Metrics

By default, Kubernetes 1.31 publishes Service Level Indicator (SLI) metrics for each Kubernetes component binary. This metric endpoint is exposed on the serving HTTPS port of each component, at the path /metrics/slis. The ComponentSLIs feature gate defaults to enabled for each Kubernetes component as of v1.27.

SLI Metrics

With SLI metrics enabled, each Kubernetes component exposes two metrics, labeled per healthcheck:

• a gauge (which represents the current state of the healthcheck)
• a counter (which records the cumulative counts observed for each healthcheck state)

You can use the metric information to calculate per-component availability statistics. For example, the API server checks the health of etcd. You can work out and report how available or unavailable etcd has been - as reported by its client, the API server.

The prometheus gauge data looks like this:

# HELP kubernetes_healthcheck [ALPHA] This metric records the result of a single healthcheck.
# TYPE kubernetes_healthcheck gauge
kubernetes_healthcheck{name="autoregister-completion",type="healthz"} 1
kubernetes_healthcheck{name="autoregister-completion",type="readyz"} 1
kubernetes_healthcheck{name="etcd",type="healthz"} 1
kubernetes_healthcheck{name="etcd",type="readyz"} 1
kubernetes_healthcheck{name="etcd-readiness",type="readyz"} 1
kubernetes_healthcheck{name="informer-sync",type="readyz"} 1
kubernetes_healthcheck{name="log",type="healthz"} 1
kubernetes_healthcheck{name="log",type="readyz"} 1
kubernetes_healthcheck{name="ping",type="healthz"} 1
kubernetes_healthcheck{name="ping",type="readyz"} 1

While the counter data looks like this:

# HELP kubernetes_healthchecks_total [ALPHA] This metric records the results of all healthcheck.
# TYPE kubernetes_healthchecks_total counter
kubernetes_healthchecks_total{name="autoregister-completion",status="error",type="readyz"} 1
kubernetes_healthchecks_total{name="autoregister-completion",status="success",type="healthz"} 15
kubernetes_healthchecks_total{name="autoregister-completion",status="success",type="readyz"} 14
kubernetes_healthchecks_total{name="etcd",status="success",type="healthz"} 15
kubernetes_healthchecks_total{name="etcd",status="success",type="readyz"} 15
kubernetes_healthchecks_total{name="etcd-readiness",status="success",type="readyz"} 15
kubernetes_healthchecks_total{name="informer-sync",status="error",type="readyz"} 1
kubernetes_healthchecks_total{name="informer-sync",status="success",type="readyz"} 14
kubernetes_healthchecks_total{name="log",status="success",type="healthz"} 15
kubernetes_healthchecks_total{name="log",status="success",type="readyz"} 15
kubernetes_healthchecks_total{name="ping",status="success",type="healthz"} 15
kubernetes_healthchecks_total{name="ping",status="success",type="readyz"} 15

Using this data

The component SLIs metrics endpoint is intended to be scraped at a high frequency. Scraping at a high frequency means that you end up with greater granularity of the gauge's signal, which can be then used to calculate SLOs. The /metrics/slis endpoint provides the raw data necessary to calculate an availability SLO for the respective Kubernetes component.

2 - CRI Pod & Container Metrics

The kubelet collects pod and container metrics via cAdvisor. As an alpha feature, Kubernetes lets you configure the collection of pod and container metrics via the Container Runtime Interface (CRI). You must enable the PodAndContainerStatsFromCRI feature gate and use a compatible CRI implementation (containerd >= 1.6.0, CRI-O >= 1.23.0) to use the CRI based collection mechanism.

CRI Pod & Container Metrics

With PodAndContainerStatsFromCRI enabled, the kubelet polls the underlying container runtime for pod and container stats instead of inspecting the host system directly using cAdvisor. The benefits of relying on the container runtime for this information as opposed to direct collection with cAdvisor include:

• Potential improved performance if the container runtime already collects this information during normal operations. In this case, the data can be re-used instead of being aggregated again by the kubelet.

• It further decouples the kubelet and the container runtime allowing collection of metrics for container runtimes that don't run processes directly on the host with kubelet where they are observable by cAdvisor (for example: container runtimes that use virtualization).

3 - Node metrics data

The kubelet gathers metric statistics at the node, volume, pod and container level, and emits this information in the Summary API.

You can send a proxied request to the stats summary API via the Kubernetes API server.

Here is an example of a Summary API request for a node named minikube:

kubectl get --raw "/api/v1/nodes/minikube/proxy/stats/summary"

Here is the same API call using curl:

# You need to run "kubectl proxy" first
# Change 8080 to the port that "kubectl proxy" assigns
curl http://localhost:8080/api/v1/nodes/minikube/proxy/stats/summary

Summary metrics API source

By default, Kubernetes fetches node summary metrics data using an embedded cAdvisor that runs within the kubelet. If you enable the PodAndContainerStatsFromCRI feature gate in your cluster, and you use a container runtime that supports statistics access via Container Runtime Interface (CRI), then the kubelet fetches Pod- and container-level metric data using CRI, and not via cAdvisor.

What's next

The task pages for Troubleshooting Clusters discuss how to use a metrics pipeline that rely on these data.

4 - Kubernetes Metrics Reference

Metrics (v1.31)

This page details the metrics that different Kubernetes components export. You can query the metrics endpoint for these components using an HTTP scrape, and fetch the current metrics data in Prometheus format.

List of Stable Kubernetes Metrics

Stable metrics observe strict API contracts and no labels can be added or removed from stable metrics during their lifetime.

List of Beta Kubernetes Metrics

Beta metrics observe a looser API contract than its stable counterparts. No labels can be removed from beta metrics during their lifetime, however, labels can be added while the metric is in the beta stage. This offers the assurance that beta metrics will honor existing dashboards and alerts, while allowing for amendments in the future.

List of Alpha Kubernetes Metrics

Alpha metrics do not have any API guarantees. These metrics must be used at your own risk, subsequent versions of Kubernetes may remove these metrics altogether, or mutate the API in such a way that breaks existing dashboards and alerts.