Manually deploy ActiveGate as a StatefulSet

5-min read
Published Jul 28, 2023

Dynatrace Operator manages the lifecycle of several Dynatrace components, including ActiveGate. If you can't use Dynatrace Operator, you can manually deploy ActiveGate as a StatefulSet in your Kubernetes cluster. See below for instructions.

Prerequisites

Create an access token with PaaS Integration - InstallerDownload scope
Create an authentication token
Get your kube-system namespace UUID
Run the command below and save the UUID from the output for later use.
kubectl get namespace kube-system -o jsonpath='{.metadata.uid}'
oc get namespace kube-system -o jsonpath='{.metadata.uid}'

Deploy ActiveGate

To deploy ActiveGate, follow the steps below.

Create a dedicated namespace (Kubernetes)/project (OpenShift).

Depending on your platform, select one of the options below.
kubectl create namespace dynatrace
oc adm new-project --node-selector="" dynatrace
Create two secrets:
- A secret holding the environment URL and login credentials for this registry
- A secret for the ActiveGate authentication token
kubectl -n dynatrace create secret docker-registry dynatrace-docker-registry --docker-server=<YOUR_ENVIRONMENT_URL> --docker-username=<YOUR_ENVIRONMENT_ID> --docker-password=<YOUR_PAAS_TOKEN>
oc -n dynatrace create secret docker-registry dynatrace-docker-registry --docker-server=<YOUR_ENVIRONMENT_URL> --docker-username=<YOUR_ENVIRONMENT_ID> --docker-password=<YOUR_PAAS_TOKEN>
where you need to replace
- <YOUR_ENVIRONMENT_URL> with your environment URL (without http). Example: {your-environment}.live.dynatrace.com
- <YOUR_ENVIRONMENT_ID> with the Docker account username (same as the ID in your environment URL above).
- <YOUR_PAAS_TOKEN> with the PaaS token you created in Prerequisites
Create a secret that holds the authentication details to the Dynatrace server used by ActiveGate.
kubectl -n dynatrace create secret generic dynatrace-tokens \
--from-literal=tenant-token=<YOUR_TENANT_TOKEN> \
--from-literal=auth-token=<YOUR_AUTH_TOKEN>
oc -n dynatrace create secret generic dynatrace-tokens \
--from-literal=tenant-token=<YOUR_TENANT_TOKEN> \
--from-literal=auth-token=<YOUR_AUTH_TOKEN>
You need to replace
- <YOUR_TENANT_TOKEN> with the tenantToken value obtained in Prerequisites from the connectivity information.
- <YOUR_AUTH_TOKEN> with the individual ActiveGate token obtained in Prerequisites.
To determine your environment ID, see the syntax below.
SaaS: https://{your-environment-id}.live.dynatrace.com
Managed: https://{your-domain}/e/{your-environment-id}

Create a service account and a cluster role.

Create a kubernetes-monitoring-service-account.yaml file with the following content.

apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  name: dynatrace-activegate
  namespace: dynatrace
---
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRole
metadata:
  name: dynatrace-activegate
rules:
  - apiGroups:
    - ""
    - batch
    - apps
    - apps.openshift.io
    resources:
      - nodes
      - nodes/metrics
      - pods
      - namespaces
      - deployments
      - replicasets
      - deploymentconfigs
      - replicationcontrollers
      - jobs
      - cronjobs
      - statefulsets
      - daemonsets
      - events
      - resourcequotas
      - pods/proxy
      - services
    verbs:
      - list
      - watch
      - get
---
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRoleBinding
metadata:
  name: dynatrace-activegate
roleRef:
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
  kind: ClusterRole
  name: dynatrace-activegate
subjects:
  - kind: ServiceAccount
    name: dynatrace-activegate
    namespace: dynatrace

Apply the file.

kubectl apply -f kubernetes-monitoring-service-account.yaml

Create a file named ag-monitoring-and-routing.yaml with the following content, making sure to replace

<YOUR_ENVIRONMENT_URL> with your value as described above.
<YOUR_KUBE-SYSTEM_NAMESPACE_UUID> with the Kubernetes namespace UUID obtained in Prerequisites.

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: dynatrace-activegate
  namespace: dynatrace
spec:
  type: ClusterIP
  selector:
    activegate: kubernetes-monitoring-and-routing
  ports:
  - protocol: TCP
    port: 443
    targetPort: ag-https
---
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: StatefulSet
metadata:
name: dynatrace-activegate
namespace: dynatrace
labels:
  activegate: kubernetes-monitoring-and-routing
spec:
serviceName: ""
selector:
  matchLabels:
    activegate: kubernetes-monitoring-and-routing
template:
  metadata:
#     Uncomment the lines below to enable AppArmor
#     annotations:
#  container.apparmor.security.beta.kubernetes.io/activegate: runtime/default
    labels:
      activegate: kubernetes-monitoring-and-routing
  spec:
    serviceAccountName: dynatrace-activegate
    affinity:
      nodeAffinity:
        requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:
          nodeSelectorTerms:
          - matchExpressions:
            - key: kubernetes.io/arch
              operator: In
              values:
              - amd64
            - key: kubernetes.io/os
              operator: In
              values:
              - linux
    containers:
    - name: activegate
      image: <YOUR_ENVIRONMENT_URL>/linux/activegate
      imagePullPolicy: Always
      ports:
        - name: ag-https
          containerPort: 9999
      env:
      - name: DT_ID_SEED_NAMESPACE
        value: dynatrace
      - name: DT_ID_SEED_K8S_CLUSTER_ID
        value: <YOUR_KUBE-SYSTEM_NAMESPACE_UUID>
      - name: DT_CAPABILITIES
        value: kubernetes_monitoring,MSGrouter,restInterface
      # - name: DT_NETWORK_ZONE
      #   value: <CUSTOM_NZ>
      - name: DT_DNS_ENTRY_POINT
        value: https://$(DYNATRACE_ACTIVEGATE_SERVICE_HOST):$(DYNATRACE_ACTIVEGATE_SERVICE_PORT)/communication
      volumeMounts:
      - name: dynatrace-tokens
        mountPath: /var/lib/dynatrace/secrets/tokens
      - name: truststore-volume
        mountPath: /opt/dynatrace/gateway/jre/lib/security/cacerts
        readOnly: true
        subPath: k8s-local.jks
      - name: ag-lib-gateway-config
        mountPath: /var/lib/dynatrace/gateway/config
      - name: ag-lib-gateway-temp
        mountPath: /var/lib/dynatrace/gateway/temp
      - name: ag-lib-gateway-data
        mountPath: /var/lib/dynatrace/gateway/data
      - name: ag-log-gateway
        mountPath: /var/log/dynatrace/gateway
      - name: ag-tmp-gateway
        mountPath: /var/tmp/dynatrace/gateway
      livenessProbe:
        failureThreshold: 2
        httpGet:
          path: /rest/state
          port: ag-https
          scheme: HTTPS
        initialDelaySeconds: 30
        periodSeconds: 30
        successThreshold: 1
        timeoutSeconds: 1
      readinessProbe:
        failureThreshold: 3
        httpGet:
          path: /rest/health
          port: ag-https
          scheme: HTTPS
        initialDelaySeconds: 30
        periodSeconds: 15
        successThreshold: 1
        timeoutSeconds: 1
      resources:
        requests:
          cpu: 250m
          memory: 512Mi
        limits:
          cpu: 250m
          memory: 512Mi
      securityContext:
        allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
        capabilities:
          drop:
          - all
        privileged: false
        readOnlyRootFilesystem: true
        runAsNonRoot: true
        seccompProfile:
          type: RuntimeDefault
    initContainers:
    - name: certificate-loader
      image: <YOUR_ENVIRONMENT_URL>/linux/activegate
      workingDir: /var/lib/dynatrace/gateway
      command: ['/bin/bash']
      args: ['-c', '/opt/dynatrace/gateway/k8scrt2jks.sh']
      volumeMounts:
      - mountPath: /var/lib/dynatrace/gateway/ssl
        name: truststore-volume
    imagePullSecrets:
    - name: dynatrace-docker-registry
    volumes:
    - name: dynatrace-tokens
      secret:
        secretName: dynatrace-tokens
    - name: truststore-volume
      emptyDir: {}
    - name: ag-lib-gateway-config
      emptyDir: {}
    - name: ag-lib-gateway-temp
      emptyDir: {}
    - name: ag-lib-gateway-data
      emptyDir: {}
    - name: ag-log-gateway
      emptyDir: {}
    - name: ag-tmp-gateway
      emptyDir: {}
updateStrategy:
  type: RollingUpdate

For more information about containerized ActiveGate configuration, see Containerized ActiveGate configuration.

See below for a list of proposed sizes in relation to the number of Pods:

Number of Pods	CPU	Memory
Up to 100 Pods	500 millicores (mCores)	768 mebibytes (MiB)
Up to 1,000 Pods	1,000 millicores (mCores)	1 gibibyte (GiB)
Up to 5,000 Pods	1,500 millicores (mCores)	2 gibibytes (GiB)
Over 5,000 Pods	over 1,500 millicores (mCores)¹	over 2 gibibytes (GiB)¹

Actual figures depend on your environment.

These limits should be taken as a guideline. They're designed to prevent ActiveGate startup process slowdown and excessive node resource usage. The default values cover a large range of different cluster sizes; you can modify them according to your needs, based on the ActiveGate self-monitoring metrics.

For PPC64le architecture, additional configuration is required. For details, see ActiveGate container image.

Deploy ActiveGate.

kubectl apply -f ag-monitoring-and-routing.yaml

Connect ActiveGate with Kubernetes API

Continue with step 3 from the guide for enabling Kubernetes API monitoring

ActiveGate update behavior

ActiveGate is updated automatically on pod restart whenever there is a new version available, unless the image already specifies a certain version.