Get Started with New Relic Pixie for Kubernetes

New Relic Pixie for Kubernetes is a powerful tool that helps you monitor and troubleshoot your containerized applications. It's designed to work seamlessly with Kubernetes, providing real-time insights into your application's performance.

To get started with New Relic Pixie for Kubernetes, you'll need to have a Kubernetes cluster up and running. Pixie requires a Kubernetes cluster to operate, so make sure you have one set up before proceeding.

Pixie can be installed using the Pixie CLI, which is a command-line interface that allows you to manage and configure Pixie. The CLI is easy to use and provides a simple way to get started with Pixie.

Before you can start using Pixie, you need to ensure your data is secure. Review the Pixie data security overview to take the necessary actions to secure your data.

To run Pixie smoothly, you'll need to allocate sufficient memory to your clusters. As a minimum, each node in your cluster should have at least 1Gib of memory. You can find more information on memory management in the Pixie memory management overview.

Make sure Pixie runs in privileged mode to function correctly. This is a crucial step in setting up Pixie.

Here's a quick checklist to ensure you've covered the basics:

Before you start using Pixie, there are some general prerequisites you need to meet.

First and foremost, make sure you've reviewed the Pixie data security overview to take the necessary actions to secure your data.

To ensure Pixie runs smoothly, your clusters need to have sufficient memory, with at least 1Gib of memory on each node.

Pixie requires privileged mode to run, so double-check that it's enabled.

Additionally, review the other Pixie technical requirements to ensure you're meeting all the necessary conditions.

Here's a quick rundown of the prerequisites:

To install Pixie from a Helm YAML file, you'll need to follow these steps. First, select the account and cluster for the install, and if needed, choose a namespace. Currently, Pixie performs best on clusters with up to 100 nodes, as exceeding this number can lead to excessive memory usage and scripts failing to run.

You'll also want to be aware that autoscaling can quickly drive up your node numbers. Click Continue to proceed.

On the next page, select the data you want to gather, observe, and debug, and click Continue again.

You'll then be presented with the Choose install method page, where you'll select either Helm or manifest. For a Helm install, you'll need to run the provided Helm command on your command line.

Here are the steps for a Helm install:

Alternatively, you can use the manifest method, where you'll run the provided command in your console and insert the path to your downloaded manifest.

After completing the install, you'll see a message indicating that Pixie is ready to use. Click Kubernetes Cluster Explorer to see your cluster, and you'll be able to start using Pixie to gather data and observe your cluster.

New Relic Pixie automatically collects a variety of metrics and traces once you install the integration.

You'll get visibility into HTTP services using golden signals, service maps, HTTP transactions, and database transactions.

Pixie visualizes your application's dependencies using the Service map created from HTTP traces.

The Service map view shows a graph of all the entities that the service communicates with.

The OpenTelemetry service Transactions tab shows the different endpoints that the service makes requests to.

You can sort the endpoints by response time or throughput.

Pixie data seen in the OpenTelemetry Databases tab shows any database requests the service makes.

The Kubernetes cluster explorer shows the services identified by Pixie.

Selecting a service shows the service details sidebar with HTTP throughput, error rate, and response time data collected by Pixie.

The pod details page in the Kubernetes cluster explorer shows application metrics collected by Pixie.

The service map shown in the pod details view is constructed using HTTP traces collected by Pixie.

The Summary tab of the Kubernetes cluster explorer contains a Kubernetes network monitoring with Pixie section.

Each view linked in this section is powered by the rich set of Pixie telemetry data stored in short-term storage on your cluster.

You can use Pixie to monitor your Kubernetes network alongside your application and infrastructure layers.

The Spot DNS issues link will show you a graph of all the DNS requests in your cluster.

Hover over any edge on the graph to see latency and throughput information.

The See TCP retransmissions and See dropped packets links will show graphs of the TCP retransmits and TCP drops in your cluster.

Note that you'll need to press the RUN button to see results for these views.

The TCP drops output is shown below.

The Live debugging with Pixie tab allows you to run scripts to debug your Kubernetes applications.

You can use the px/service script to see a high-level overview of this service performance statistics as well as inbound requests using the short-term Pixie data stored on your cluster.