/gke-observability

name: gke-observability
description: >-
  Configures GKE observability, including Cloud Logging, Cloud Monitoring, and
  managed Prometheus. Use when configuring GKE monitoring, setting up GKE logging,
  or configuring Prometheus metrics collection. Don't use to configure local
  application logging frameworks or external APMs outside GKE.
metadata:
  category: CloudObservabilityAndMonitoring

GKE Observability

This reference covers monitoring, logging, and metrics configuration for GKE. The golden path enables comprehensive observability including control-plane metrics.

> **MCP Tools:** `gke:get_cluster`, `gke:list_k8s_events`, `gke:get_k8s_logs`, > `gke:get_k8s_cluster_info`, `gke:describe_k8s_resource`. **CLI-only:** `gcloud > container clusters update --monitoring=...`, `gcloud logging read`

Golden Path Observability Defaults

Setting | Golden Path Value | Notes --------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----- `loggingConfig` components | SYSTEM_COMPONENTS, WORKLOADS | Full workload logging `monitoringConfig` components | SYSTEM_COMPONENTS, STORAGE, POD, DEPLOYMENT, STATEFULSET, DAEMONSET, HPA, JOBSET, CADVISOR, KUBELET, DCGM, APISERVER, SCHEDULER, CONTROLLER_MANAGER | Full suite including control-plane `managedPrometheusConfig.enabled` | `true` | Google-managed Prometheus `advancedDatapathObservabilityConfig.enableMetrics` | `true` | Dataplane V2 flow metrics `loggingService` | `logging.googleapis.com/kubernetes` | Cloud Logging `monitoringService` | `monitoring.googleapis.com/kubernetes` | Cloud Monitoring

Control-Plane Metrics (Golden Path Addition)

The golden path adds three control-plane monitoring components not present in default clusters:

| Component | What It Monitors | | -------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------- | | `APISERVER` | API server request latency, error rates, admission | : : webhook performance : | `SCHEDULER` | Scheduling latency, pending pods, scheduling failures | | `CONTROLLER_MANAGER` | Controller work queue depth, reconciliation latency |

These are critical for diagnosing cluster-level issues (slow API responses, scheduling delays, stuck controllers).

Enabling Full Monitoring

# Enable golden path monitoring suite
gcloud container clusters update <CLUSTER_NAME> --region <REGION> \
  --monitoring=SYSTEM,API_SERVER,SCHEDULER,CONTROLLER_MANAGER,STORAGE,POD,DEPLOYMENT,STATEFULSET,DAEMONSET,HPA,CADVISOR,KUBELET,DCGM \
  --quiet

# Enable Managed Prometheus
gcloud container clusters update <CLUSTER_NAME> --region <REGION> \
  --enable-managed-prometheus \
  --quiet

# Enable Dataplane V2 observability metrics
gcloud container clusters update <CLUSTER_NAME> --region <REGION> \
  --enable-dataplane-v2-flow-observability \
  --quiet

Managed Prometheus

Golden path enables Google Managed Prometheus for metrics collection and querying.

**Querying metrics:**

• Use Cloud Monitoring Metrics Explorer in the console
• Use PromQL via the Prometheus UI or API
• Grafana dashboards via Managed Grafana

**Key GKE metrics:**

| Metric | Source | Use | | --------------------------------------- | ------------------ | ------------- | | `container_cpu_usage_seconds_total` | cAdvisor | Pod CPU usage | | `container_memory_working_set_bytes` | cAdvisor | Pod memory | : : : usage : | `kube_pod_status_phase` | kube-state-metrics | Pod lifecycle | | `apiserver_request_duration_seconds` | API Server | Control plane | : : : latency : | `scheduler_scheduling_duration_seconds` | Scheduler | Scheduling | : : : performance : | `node_cpu_seconds_total` | Kubelet | Node CPU | | `DCGM_FI_DEV_GPU_UTIL` | DCGM | GPU | : : : utilization :

Live Resource Usage (kubectl-only)

No MCP or gcloud equivalent exists for live resource usage. Use `kubectl top`:

kubectl top pods --all-namespaces --sort-by=cpu
kubectl top nodes
kubectl top pods --containers -n <NAMESPACE>  # per-container breakdown

Cloud Logging (gcloud-only)

**Querying cluster logs** (no MCP equivalent — use `gcloud logging read`):

# System component logs
gcloud logging read \
  'resource.type="k8s_cluster" AND resource.labels.cluster_name="<CLUSTER_NAME>"' \
  --project <PROJECT_ID> --limit 50 \
  --quiet

# Workload logs for a specific namespace
gcloud logging read \
  'resource.type="k8s_conta