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Install and configure the Inspektor Gadget extension on AKS (preview)

This article shows how to install the Inspektor Gadget cluster extension on your Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster, change its configuration, and remove it.

The extension deploys Inspektor Gadget as a DaemonSet named gadget in the gadget namespace. You manage it through the Azure resource management plane by using the az k8s-extension commands. To learn how to inspect workloads after you install the extension, see Run gadgets to inspect workloads on AKS.

Important

AKS preview features are available on a self-service, opt-in basis. Previews are provided "as is" and "as available," and they're excluded from the service-level agreements and limited warranty. AKS previews are partially covered by customer support on a best-effort basis. As such, these features aren't meant for production use. For more information, see the following support articles:

Prerequisites

  • An AKS cluster with kubectl access. If you don't have one, see Create an AKS cluster.

  • The Azure CLI with the k8s-extension extension installed:

    az extension add --name k8s-extension

  • Any existing Inspektor Gadget installation removed before you install the extension. If you previously deployed it manually, run kubectl gadget undeploy or helm uninstall.

In the commands in this article, replace myResourceGroup and myAKSCluster with the values for your environment.

Install the extension

Install the extension by using az k8s-extension create with the microsoft.inspektorgadget extension type:

az k8s-extension create \
    --cluster-type managedClusters \
    --cluster-name myAKSCluster \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --name inspektor-gadget \
    --extension-type microsoft.inspektorgadget \
    --release-train preview

By default, the extension automatically upgrades its minor version. To keep it on the installed version instead, add --auto-upgrade-minor-version false to the install command.

Verify the installation

Confirm that the extension is provisioned successfully and that the DaemonSet is running. The provisioning state should show Succeeded, and all gadget pods should be Running and Ready.

az k8s-extension show \
    --cluster-type managedClusters \
    --cluster-name myAKSCluster \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --name inspektor-gadget

kubectl get ds gadget -n gadget
kubectl get pods -n gadget -l k8s-app=gadget

Configure the extension

Pass configuration settings by using the --configuration-settings parameter on az k8s-extension update. Organize settings in two levels:

  • Extension settings at the top level configure the extension itself, such as integrations.
  • Inspektor Gadget settings are under the inspektor-gadget. key, which in turn splits into runtime settings (inspektor-gadget.config) and Kubernetes resource settings (root level).

Extension settings

Top-level settings configure the extension integrations:

Setting Description Default
azureMonitor.enabled Exports gadget metrics to Azure Monitor managed Prometheus. false

Inspektor Gadget settings

Runtime settings under inspektor-gadget.config configure the gadget daemon:

Setting Description Default
inspektor-gadget.config.daemonLogLevel Daemon log level: trace, debug, info, warning, error, fatal, or panic. info
inspektor-gadget.config.hookMode How the daemon gets container notifications: auto, crio, podinformer, nri, or fanotify+ebpf. auto
inspektor-gadget.config.operator.oci.verify-image Verifies the signature of gadget images before running them. true
inspektor-gadget.config.operator.oci.allowed-gadgets Restricts which gadget images are allowed to run. []

Kubernetes resource settings at the root level configure the gadget DaemonSet:

Setting Description Default
inspektor-gadget.nodeSelector Limits which nodes run the DaemonSet. kubernetes.io/os: linux
inspektor-gadget.tolerations Tolerations for the gadget container. {}
inspektor-gadget.resources CPU and memory requests and limits. {}
inspektor-gadget.hostPID Uses the host PID namespace. true
inspektor-gadget.additionalEnv Extra environment variables for the gadget container. []

For the complete list of Inspektor Gadget values, see the upstream chart values.yaml.

Important

az k8s-extension update is additive. New configuration settings merge with the existing ones. If an update fails, the broken setting can persist and block later updates. To recover, run az k8s-extension update again and explicitly revert the problematic setting.

Note

Inspektor Gadget doesn't pick up configuration changes live. After you update settings, restart the DaemonSet to apply them:

kubectl rollout restart daemonset/gadget -n gadget
kubectl rollout status daemonset/gadget -n gadget --timeout=120s

For example, set the daemon log level to debug:

az k8s-extension update \
    --cluster-type managedClusters \
    --cluster-name myAKSCluster \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --name inspektor-gadget \
    --configuration-settings inspektor-gadget.config.daemonLogLevel=debug \
    --yes

Remove the extension

When you no longer need Inspektor Gadget, delete the extension. This action removes the gadget pods, DaemonSet, and related resources.

az k8s-extension delete \
    --cluster-type managedClusters \
    --cluster-name myAKSCluster \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --name inspektor-gadget \
    --yes

Next steps

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