K8scluster Receiver

Available in: contrib, k8s Maintainers: @dmitryax, @TylerHelmuth, @povilasv, @ChrsMark Source: opentelemetry-collector-contrib

Supported Telemetry

Overview

Metrics

Details about the metrics produced by this receiver can be found in metadata.yaml and documentation.md.

Service Metrics (Disabled by default)

The receiver collects service endpoint metrics (k8s.service.endpoint.count) from the discovery.k8s.io EndpointSlice API and LoadBalancer ingress metrics (k8s.service.load_balancer.ingress.count). Note: Enabling endpoint metrics requires additional RBAC permissions for endpointslices in the discovery.k8s.io API group. See the RBAC section for details. Refer to documentation.md for detailed information on these metrics and their semantics.

Configuration

The following settings are required:

auth_type (default = serviceAccount): Determines how to authenticate to the K8s API server. This can be one of none (for no auth), serviceAccount (to use the standard service account token provided to the agent pod), or kubeConfig to use credentials from ~/.kube/config.

The following settings are optional:

collection_interval (default = 10s): This receiver continuously watches for events using K8s API. However, the metrics collected are emitted only once every collection interval. collection_interval will determine the frequency at which metrics are emitted by this receiver.
metadata_collection_interval (default = 5m): Collection interval for metadata for K8s entities such as pods, nodes, etc. Metadata of the particular entity in the cluster is collected when the entity changes. In addition, metadata of all entities is collected periodically even if no changes happen. This setting controls the interval between periodic collections. Setting the duration to 0 will disable periodic collection (however will not impact metadata collection on changes).
node_conditions_to_report (default = [Ready]): An array of node conditions this receiver should report. The receiver will emit one metric per entry in the array.
distribution (default = kubernetes): The Kubernetes distribution being used by the cluster. Currently supported versions are kubernetes and openshift. Setting the value to openshift enables OpenShift specific metrics in addition to standard kubernetes ones.
allocatable_types_to_report (default = []): An array of allocatable resource types this receiver should report. The following allocatable resource types are available (see Node Allocatable in Kubernetes docs):
- cpu
- memory
- ephemeral-storage
- pods

When enabled, this setting produces the following node-level metrics (one per selected type):

allocatable type	metric name	unit	type	value type
cpu	k8s.node.allocatable_cpu	{cpu}	Gauge	Double
memory	k8s.node.allocatable_memory	By	Gauge	Double
ephemeral-storage	k8s.node.allocatable_ephemeral_storage	By	Gauge	Double
pods	k8s.node.allocatable_pods	{pod}	Gauge	Int

metrics: Allows to enable/disable metrics.
resource_attributes: Allows to enable/disable resource attributes.
namespace (deprecated, use namespaces instead): Allows to observe resources for a particular namespace only. If this option is set to a non-empty string, Nodes, Namespaces and ClusterResourceQuotas will not be observed.
namespaces: Allows to observe resources for a list of given namespaces. If this option is set, Nodes, Namespaces and ClusterResourceQuotas will not be observed, as those are cluster-scoped resources.

Example:

  k8s_cluster:
    auth_type: kubeConfig
    k8s_leader_elector: <reference k8s leader elector extension>
    node_conditions_to_report: [Ready, MemoryPressure]
    allocatable_types_to_report: [cpu, memory]
    metrics:
      k8s.container.cpu_limit:
        enabled: false
    resource_attributes:
      container.id:
        enabled: false

The full list of settings exposed for this receiver are documented in config.go with detailed sample configurations in testdata/config.yaml.

k8s_leader_elector

Provide name of the k8s leader elector extension defined in config. This allows multiple instances of k8s cluster receiver to be executed on a cluster. At a given time only the pod which has the is active.

    k8s_cluster:
        k8s_leader_elector: k8s_leader_elector
...

node_conditions_to_report

For example, with the config below the receiver will emit two metrics k8s.node.condition_ready and k8s.node.condition_memory_pressure, one for each condition in the config. The value will be 1 if the ConditionStatus for the corresponding Condition is True, 0 if it is False and -1 if it is Unknown.

...
k8s_cluster:
  node_conditions_to_report:
    - Ready
    - MemoryPressure
...

metadata_exporters

A list of metadata exporters to which metadata being collected by this receiver should be synced. Exporters specified in this list are expected to implement the following interface. If an exporter that does not implement the interface is listed, startup will fail.

type MetadataExporter interface {
  ConsumeMetadata(metadata []*MetadataUpdate) error
}

type MetadataUpdate struct {
  ResourceIDKey string
  ResourceID    ResourceID
  MetadataDelta
}

type MetadataDelta struct {
  MetadataToAdd    map[string]string
  MetadataToRemove map[string]string
  MetadataToUpdate map[string]string
}

See experimentalmetricmetadata/metadata.go for details about the above types. The same metadata will be also emitted as entity events in the form of log records if this receiver is connected to a logs pipeline. See opentelemetry-collector-contrib#23565 for the format of emitted log records.

Compatibility

Kubernetes Versions

This receiver is tested against the Kubernetes versions specified in the e2e-tests.yml workflow. These tested versions represent the officially supported Kubernetes versions for this component.

Example

Here is an example deployment of the collector that sets up this receiver along with the debug exporter. Follow the below sections to setup various Kubernetes resources required for the deployment.

Configuration

Create a ConfigMap with the config for otelcontribcol:

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: otelcontribcol
  labels:
    app: otelcontribcol
data:
  config.yaml: |
    receivers:
      k8s_cluster:
        collection_interval: 10s
    exporters:
      debug:
    service:
      pipelines:
        metrics:
          receivers: [k8s_cluster]
          exporters: [debug]
        logs/entity_events:
          receivers: [k8s_cluster]
          exporters: [debug]
EOF

Service Account

Create a service account that the collector should use.

<<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  labels:
    app: otelcontribcol
  name: otelcontribcol
EOF

RBAC

Use the below commands to create a ClusterRole with required permissions and a ClusterRoleBinding to grant the role to the service account created above.

<<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRole
metadata:
  name: otelcontribcol
  labels:
    app: otelcontribcol
rules:
- apiGroups:
  - ""
  resources:
  - events
  - namespaces
  - namespaces/status
  - nodes
  - nodes/spec
  - pods
  - pods/status
  - replicationcontrollers
  - replicationcontrollers/status
  - resourcequotas
  - services
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - watch
- apiGroups:
  - discovery.k8s.io
  resources:
  - endpointslices
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - watch
- apiGroups:
  - apps
  resources:
  - daemonsets
  - deployments
  - replicasets
  - statefulsets
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - watch
- apiGroups:
  - extensions
  resources:
  - daemonsets
  - deployments
  - replicasets
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - watch
- apiGroups:
  - batch
  resources:
  - jobs
  - cronjobs
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - watch
- apiGroups:
    - autoscaling
  resources:
    - horizontalpodautoscalers
  verbs:
    - get
    - list
    - watch
EOF

<<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRoleBinding
metadata:
  name: otelcontribcol
  labels:
    app: otelcontribcol
roleRef:
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
  kind: ClusterRole
  name: otelcontribcol
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
  name: otelcontribcol
  namespace: default
EOF

As an alternative to setting up a ClusterRole/ClusterRoleBinding, it is also possible to limit the observed resources to a list of particular namespaces by setting the namespaces option of the receiver. This allows the collector to only rely on Roles/RoleBindings, instead of granting the collector cluster-wide read access to resources. Note however, that in this case the following resources will not be observed by the k8sclusterreceiver:

Nodes
Namespaces
ClusterResourceQuotas

To use this approach, use the commands below to create the required Role and RoleBinding for each of the namespaces the collector should observe:

<<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: Role
metadata:
  name: otelcontribcol
  labels:
    app: otelcontribcol
  namespace: default
rules:
  - apiGroups:
      - ""
    resources:
      - events
      - pods
      - pods/status
      - replicationcontrollers
      - replicationcontrollers/status
      - resourcequotas
      - services
    verbs:
      - get
      - list
      - watch
  - apiGroups:
      - discovery.k8s.io
    resources:
      - endpointslices
    verbs:
      - get
      - list
      - watch
  - apiGroups:
      - apps
    resources:
      - daemonsets
      - deployments
      - replicasets
      - statefulsets
    verbs:
      - get
      - list
      - watch
  - apiGroups:
      - extensions
    resources:
      - daemonsets
      - deployments
      - replicasets
    verbs:
      - get
      - list
      - watch
  - apiGroups:
      - batch
    resources:
      - jobs
      - cronjobs
    verbs:
      - get
      - list
      - watch
  - apiGroups:
      - autoscaling
    resources:
      - horizontalpodautoscalers
    verbs:
      - get
      - list
      - watch
EOF

<<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: RoleBinding
metadata:
  name: otelcontribcol
  namespace: default
roleRef:
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
  kind: Role
  name: otelcontribcol
subjects:
  - kind: ServiceAccount
    name: otelcontribcol
    namespace: default
EOF

Deployment

Create a Deployment to deploy the collector.

<<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: otelcontribcol
  labels:
    app: otelcontribcol
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: otelcontribcol
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: otelcontribcol
    spec:
      serviceAccountName: otelcontribcol
      containers:
      - name: otelcontribcol
        image: otel/opentelemetry-collector-contrib
        args: ["--config", "/etc/config/config.yaml"]
        volumeMounts:
        - name: config
          mountPath: /etc/config
        imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
      volumes:
        - name: config
          configMap:
            name: otelcontribcol
EOF

OpenShift

You can enable OpenShift support to collect OpenShift specific metrics in addition to the default kubernetes ones. To do this, set the distribution key to openshift. Example:

  k8s_cluster:
    distribution: openshift

Add the following rules to your ClusterRole:

- apiGroups:
  - quota.openshift.io
  resources:
  - clusterresourcequotas
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - watch

Metrics

Metric Name	Description	Unit	Type	Attributes
✅ `k8s.container.cpu_limit`	Maximum resource limit set for the container. See https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/generated/kubernetes-api/v1.23/#resourcerequirements-v1-core for details	{cpu}	Gauge
✅ `k8s.container.cpu_request`	Resource requested for the container. See https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/generated/kubernetes-api/v1.23/#resourcerequirements-v1-core for details	{cpu}	Gauge
✅ `k8s.container.ephemeralstorage_limit`	Maximum resource limit set for the container. See https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/generated/kubernetes-api/v1.23/#resourcerequirements-v1-core for details	By	Gauge
✅ `k8s.container.ephemeralstorage_request`	Resource requested for the container. See https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/generated/kubernetes-api/v1.23/#resourcerequirements-v1-core for details	By	Gauge
✅ `k8s.container.memory_limit`	Maximum resource limit set for the container. See https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/generated/kubernetes-api/v1.23/#resourcerequirements-v1-core for details	By	Gauge
✅ `k8s.container.memory_request`	Resource requested for the container. See https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/generated/kubernetes-api/v1.23/#resourcerequirements-v1-core for details	By	Gauge
✅ `k8s.container.ready`	Whether a container has passed its readiness probe (0 for no, 1 for yes)		Gauge
✅ `k8s.container.restarts`	How many times the container has restarted in the recent past. This value is pulled directly from the K8s API and the value can go indefinitely high and be reset to 0 at any time depending on how your kubelet is configured to prune dead containers. It is best to not depend too much on the exact value but rather look at it as either == 0, in which case you can conclude there were no restarts in the recent past, or > 0, in which case you can conclude there were restarts in the recent past, and not try and analyze the value beyond that.	{restart}	Gauge
❌ `k8s.container.status.reason`	Experimental metric, may experience breaking changes. Describes the number of K8s containers that are currently in a state for a given reason. All possible container state reasons will be reported at each time interval to avoid missing metrics. Only the value corresponding to the current state reason will be non-zero.	{container}	UpDownCounter	k8s.container.status.reason
❌ `k8s.container.status.state`	Experimental metric, may experience breaking changes. Describes the number of K8s containers that are currently in a given state. All possible container states will be reported at each time interval to avoid missing metrics. Only the value corresponding to the current state will be non-zero.	{container}	UpDownCounter	k8s.container.status.state
✅ `k8s.container.storage_limit`	Maximum resource limit set for the container. See https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/generated/kubernetes-api/v1.23/#resourcerequirements-v1-core for details	By	Gauge
✅ `k8s.container.storage_request`	Resource requested for the container. See https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/generated/kubernetes-api/v1.23/#resourcerequirements-v1-core for details	By	Gauge
✅ `k8s.cronjob.active_jobs`	The number of actively running jobs for a cronjob	{job}	Gauge
✅ `k8s.daemonset.current_scheduled_nodes`	Number of nodes that are running at least 1 daemon pod and are supposed to run the daemon pod	{node}	Gauge
✅ `k8s.daemonset.desired_scheduled_nodes`	Number of nodes that should be running the daemon pod (including nodes currently running the daemon pod)	{node}	Gauge
✅ `k8s.daemonset.misscheduled_nodes`	Number of nodes that are running the daemon pod, but are not supposed to run the daemon pod	{node}	Gauge
✅ `k8s.daemonset.ready_nodes`	Number of nodes that should be running the daemon pod and have one or more of the daemon pod running and ready	{node}	Gauge
✅ `k8s.deployment.available`	Total number of available pods (ready for at least minReadySeconds) targeted by this deployment	{pod}	Gauge
✅ `k8s.deployment.desired`	Number of desired pods in this deployment	{pod}	Gauge
✅ `k8s.hpa.current_replicas`	Current number of pod replicas managed by this autoscaler.	{pod}	Gauge
✅ `k8s.hpa.desired_replicas`	Desired number of pod replicas managed by this autoscaler.	{pod}	Gauge
✅ `k8s.hpa.max_replicas`	Maximum number of replicas to which the autoscaler can scale up.	{pod}	Gauge
✅ `k8s.hpa.min_replicas`	Minimum number of replicas to which the autoscaler can scale up.	{pod}	Gauge
✅ `k8s.job.active_pods`	The number of actively running pods for a job	{pod}	Gauge
✅ `k8s.job.desired_successful_pods`	The desired number of successfully finished pods the job should be run with	{pod}	Gauge
✅ `k8s.job.failed_pods`	The number of pods which reached phase Failed for a job	{pod}	Gauge
✅ `k8s.job.max_parallel_pods`	The max desired number of pods the job should run at any given time	{pod}	Gauge
✅ `k8s.job.successful_pods`	The number of pods which reached phase Succeeded for a job	{pod}	Gauge
✅ `k8s.namespace.phase`	The current phase of namespaces (1 for active and 0 for terminating)		Gauge
❌ `k8s.node.condition`	The condition of a particular Node.	{condition}	Gauge	condition
✅ `k8s.pod.phase`	Current phase of the pod (1 - Pending, 2 - Running, 3 - Succeeded, 4 - Failed, 5 - Unknown)		Gauge
❌ `k8s.pod.status_reason`	Current status reason of the pod (1 - Evicted, 2 - NodeAffinity, 3 - NodeLost, 4 - Shutdown, 5 - UnexpectedAdmissionError, 6 - Unknown)		Gauge
✅ `k8s.replicaset.available`	Total number of available pods (ready for at least minReadySeconds) targeted by this replicaset	{pod}	Gauge
✅ `k8s.replicaset.desired`	Number of desired pods in this replicaset	{pod}	Gauge
✅ `k8s.replication_controller.available`	Total number of available pods (ready for at least minReadySeconds) targeted by this replication_controller	{pod}	Gauge
✅ `k8s.replication_controller.desired`	Number of desired pods in this replication_controller	{pod}	Gauge
✅ `k8s.resource_quota.hard_limit`	The upper limit for a particular resource in a specific namespace. Will only be sent if a quota is specified. CPU requests/limits will be sent as millicores	{resource}	Gauge	resource
✅ `k8s.resource_quota.used`	The usage for a particular resource in a specific namespace. Will only be sent if a quota is specified. CPU requests/limits will be sent as millicores	{resource}	Gauge	resource
❌ `k8s.service.endpoint.count`	The number of endpoints for a service, broken down by condition, address type, and zone.	{endpoint}	Gauge	k8s.service.endpoint.address_type, k8s.service.endpoint.condition, k8s.service.endpoint.zone
❌ `k8s.service.load_balancer.ingress.count`	The number of load balancer ingress points (external IPs/hostnames) assigned to the service.	{ingress}	Gauge
✅ `k8s.statefulset.current_pods`	The number of pods created by the StatefulSet controller from the StatefulSet version	{pod}	Gauge
✅ `k8s.statefulset.desired_pods`	Number of desired pods in the stateful set (the `spec.replicas` field)	{pod}	Gauge
✅ `k8s.statefulset.ready_pods`	Number of pods created by the stateful set that have the `Ready` condition	{pod}	Gauge
✅ `k8s.statefulset.updated_pods`	Number of pods created by the StatefulSet controller from the StatefulSet version	{pod}	Gauge
✅ `openshift.appliedclusterquota.limit`	The upper limit for a particular resource in a specific namespace.	{resource}	Gauge	k8s.namespace.name, resource
✅ `openshift.appliedclusterquota.used`	The usage for a particular resource in a specific namespace.	{resource}	Gauge	k8s.namespace.name, resource
✅ `openshift.clusterquota.limit`	The configured upper limit for a particular resource.	{resource}	Gauge	resource
✅ `openshift.clusterquota.used`	The usage for a particular resource with a configured limit.	{resource}	Gauge	resource

Attributes

Attribute Name	Description	Type	Values
`condition`	the name of Kubernetes Node condition. Example: Ready, Memory, PID, DiskPressure	string
`k8s.container.status.reason`	The reason of the current container status.	string	`ContainerCreating`, `CrashLoopBackOff`, `CreateContainerConfigError`, `ErrImagePull`, `ImagePullBackOff`, `OOMKilled`, `Completed`, `Error`, `ContainerCannotRun`
`k8s.container.status.state`	The state of the container (terminated, running, waiting). See https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/generated/kubernetes-api/v1.30/#containerstate-v1-core for details.	string	`terminated`, `running`, `waiting`
`k8s.namespace.name`	The k8s namespace name.	string
`k8s.service.endpoint.address_type`	The address type of the endpoint.	string	`IPv4`, `IPv6`, `FQDN`
`k8s.service.endpoint.condition`	The condition of the service endpoint.	string	`ready`, `serving`, `terminating`
`k8s.service.endpoint.zone`	The zone of the service endpoint, typically corresponding to a failure domain.	string
`resource`	the name of the resource on which the quota is applied	string

Resource Attributes

Attribute Name	Description	Type	Enabled
`container.id`	The container id.	string	✅
`container.image.name`	The container image name	string	✅
`container.image.tag`	The container image tag	string	✅
`container.runtime`	The container runtime used by Kubernetes Node.	string	❌
`container.runtime.version`	The version of container runtime used by Kubernetes Node.	string	❌
`k8s.container.name`	The k8s container name	string	✅
`k8s.container.status.last_terminated_reason`	Last terminated reason of a container.	string	❌
`k8s.cronjob.name`	The k8s CronJob name	string	✅
`k8s.cronjob.uid`	The k8s CronJob uid.	string	✅
`k8s.daemonset.name`	The k8s daemonset name.	string	✅
`k8s.daemonset.uid`	The k8s daemonset uid.	string	✅
`k8s.deployment.name`	The name of the Deployment.	string	✅
`k8s.deployment.uid`	The UID of the Deployment.	string	✅
`k8s.hpa.name`	The k8s hpa name.	string	✅
`k8s.hpa.scaletargetref.apiversion`	The API version of the target resource to scale for the HorizontalPodAutoscaler.	string	❌
`k8s.hpa.scaletargetref.kind`	The kind of the target resource to scale for the HorizontalPodAutoscaler.	string	❌
`k8s.hpa.scaletargetref.name`	The name of the target resource to scale for the HorizontalPodAutoscaler.	string	❌
`k8s.hpa.uid`	The k8s hpa uid.	string	✅
`k8s.job.name`	The k8s pod name.	string	✅
`k8s.job.uid`	The k8s job uid.	string	✅
`k8s.kubelet.version`	The version of Kubelet running on the node.	string	❌
`k8s.namespace.name`	The k8s namespace name.	string	✅
`k8s.namespace.uid`	The k8s namespace uid.	string	✅
`k8s.node.name`	The k8s node name.	string	✅
`k8s.node.uid`	The k8s node uid.	string	✅
`k8s.pod.name`	The k8s pod name.	string	✅
`k8s.pod.qos_class`	The k8s pod qos class name. One of Guaranteed, Burstable, BestEffort.	string	❌
`k8s.pod.uid`	The k8s pod uid.	string	✅
`k8s.replicaset.name`	The k8s replicaset name	string	✅
`k8s.replicaset.uid`	The k8s replicaset uid	string	✅
`k8s.replicationcontroller.name`	The k8s replicationcontroller name.	string	✅
`k8s.replicationcontroller.uid`	The k8s replicationcontroller uid.	string	✅
`k8s.resourcequota.name`	The k8s resourcequota name.	string	✅
`k8s.resourcequota.uid`	The k8s resourcequota uid.	string	✅
`k8s.service.name`	The k8s service name.	string	✅
`k8s.service.publish_not_ready_addresses`	Whether the Service publishes not-ready endpoints.	bool	❌
`k8s.service.traffic_distribution`	The traffic distribution policy for the Service (e.g., PreferClose).	string	❌
`k8s.service.type`	The k8s service type.	string	✅
`k8s.service.uid`	The k8s service uid.	string	✅
`k8s.statefulset.name`	The k8s statefulset name.	string	✅
`k8s.statefulset.uid`	The k8s statefulset uid.	string	✅
`openshift.clusterquota.name`	The k8s ClusterResourceQuota name.	string	✅
`openshift.clusterquota.uid`	The k8s ClusterResourceQuota uid.	string	✅
`os.description`	The os description used by Kubernetes Node.	string	❌
`os.type`	The os type used by Kubernetes Node.	string	❌

Configuration

Example Configuration

k8s_cluster:
k8s_cluster/all_settings:
  collection_interval: 30s
  node_conditions_to_report: [ "Ready", "MemoryPressure" ]
  allocatable_types_to_report: [ "cpu","memory" ]
  metadata_exporters: [ nop ]
  metadata_collection_interval: 30m
k8s_cluster/partial_settings:
  collection_interval: 30s
  distribution: openshift

Last generated: 2026-04-13

Collector components

​K8scluster Receiver

​Supported Telemetry

​Overview

​Metrics

​Service Metrics (Disabled by default)

​Configuration

​k8s_leader_elector

​node_conditions_to_report

​metadata_exporters

​Compatibility

​Kubernetes Versions

​Example

​Configuration

​Service Account

​RBAC

​Deployment

​OpenShift

​Metrics

​Attributes

​Resource Attributes

​Configuration

​Example Configuration

K8scluster Receiver

Supported Telemetry

Overview

Metrics

Service Metrics (Disabled by default)

Configuration

k8s_leader_elector

node_conditions_to_report

metadata_exporters

Compatibility

Kubernetes Versions

Example

Configuration

Service Account

RBAC

Deployment

OpenShift

Metrics

Attributes

Resource Attributes

Configuration

Example Configuration