Retina – eBPF distributed networking observability tool for Kubernetes (opens in new tab)

(github.com)

166 pointsboratanrikulu2y ago29 comments

29 comments

Red Hat has a similar eBPF based tool https://github.com/netobserv/network-observability-operator (Disclaimer: i work on it) - the cool thing imho with retina or redhat netobserv or pixie is they aren't tied to a specific CNI. Now one of the problems that arises is potential conflicts and lack of collaboration between eBPF based tools, as there are more and more. Something called bpfman aims to address this aspect

worthless-trash2y ago

I've used this in OpenShift and it is -very- neat. Saved incredible amounts of time trying to solve problems.

sharangxy2y ago

You can also check out DeepFlow [1], where we implemented distributed tracing for microservices using eBPF, which of course also includes observability of K8s networks.

1. https://deepflow.io

maxboone2y ago

Probably this means it's not for me, but what is this useful for?

Anyone using this in their prod set-up and has a scenario where they found this useful?

p_l2y ago

Just today at $DAYJOB we had a complaint that one teams Azure Kubernetes clusters was "slow". About only metric out of norm was network traffic - but lack of detailed instrumentation meant we couldn't really isolate the cause to specific container or process

hacker_newz2y ago

If the only explanation someone can provide is that "a cluster is slow", the issue isn't with network observability. They need to do at least the minimum level of analysis before escalating.

2 more replies

FridgeSeal2y ago

It’s like Cilium + Hubble but useful for you don’t/can’t run cilium. Uses eBPF to collect metrics and stats on what flows where, can record an impressive amount of stuff, without any required instrumentation of your applications. Amazingly handy for when you run both first party and 3rd party apps in your K8s cluster. The network maps these tools produce are handy too.

Although, Cilium is pretty great, so not sure why you wouldn’t run it, given the option…

hosh2y ago

Cillium has been bought out by Cisco, so its monetization is only a matter of time.

Also, not everyone needs to implement a service mesh.

2 more replies

nijave2y ago

Haven't used this but I tried out Pixie trying to debug where outgoing traffic was coming from and where it was going and was fairly successful although Pixie wasn't very stable/had a lot of issues causing crashes.

In this case, we had a couple services talking to 3rd party services running on AWS so it wasn't obvious from generic flow logs.

I also used Lacework a couple years ago which is eBPF based and it was pretty trivial to see things phoning home or one off maintenance where a new connection was being initiated.

emmelaich2y ago

The linked docs provide more info: https://retina.sh/docs/intro

emmanueloga_2y ago

There is a flood of observability tools based on eBPF coming out these days [1]. eBPF is used to collect metrics without the need to instrument the code.

1: https://ebpf.io/applications/

sharangxy2y ago

DeepFlow [1][2] is one of them, where we implemented distributed tracing for microservices using eBPF.

1. https://deepflow.io 2. https://github.com/deepflowio/deepflow

orisho2y ago

See also: Network Mapper - low privileges, no-eBPF network observability tool for K8s

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39761114

xyst2y ago

Speaking of observability tools. Anybody here know how to gather more in-depth metrics on mTLS requests? Have an internal (self signed) CA and just want to know which issued certs are presented to nodes. Would be nice to get cert serial number and other metadata as well

vamsi11052y ago

https://github.com/microsoft/retina/issues/85

That is a very interesting ask, let me raise an issue against the repo and see how we can solve this with eBPF in this repo. I am pretty sure this is a very common problem for a lot of kube admins.

xyst2y ago

oh, thank you! Will follow the issue

tempaccount4202y ago

What's the performance impact of using VM-based eBPF for these tasks instead of native code?

tptacek2y ago

Linux eBPF is JIT'd. It has native performance.

tempaccount4202y ago

Even WASM doesn't have native performance, so I question this claim.

scottlamb2y ago

Sigh, anyone have a name suggestion for a (Rust) RTSP library? https://crates.io/crates/retina

nextaccountic2y ago

Don't change the name of this crate, it is in an unrelated domain. (Also unrelated to retina displays and uhh.. this Brazilian intrusion detection system https://sunsoftware.com.br/retina/ and whatever this thing is https://retina.ai/ among other things)

emmanueloga_2y ago

https://deadcells.fandom.com/wiki/Conjunctivius :-p

karolist2y ago

The name collisions for opensource projects stopped mattering a long time ago

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

29 comments

jookat2y ago

worthless-trash2y ago

I've used this in OpenShift and it is -very- neat. Saved incredible amounts of time trying to solve problems.

sharangxy2y ago

You can also check out DeepFlow [1], where we implemented distributed tracing for microservices using eBPF, which of course also includes observability of K8s networks.

1. https://deepflow.io

maxboone2y ago

Probably this means it's not for me, but what is this useful for?

Anyone using this in their prod set-up and has a scenario where they found this useful?

p_l2y ago

hacker_newz2y ago

If the only explanation someone can provide is that "a cluster is slow", the issue isn't with network observability. They need to do at least the minimum level of analysis before escalating.

2 more replies

FridgeSeal2y ago

Although, Cilium is pretty great, so not sure why you wouldn’t run it, given the option…

hosh2y ago

Cillium has been bought out by Cisco, so its monetization is only a matter of time.

Also, not everyone needs to implement a service mesh.

2 more replies

nijave2y ago

In this case, we had a couple services talking to 3rd party services running on AWS so it wasn't obvious from generic flow logs.

I also used Lacework a couple years ago which is eBPF based and it was pretty trivial to see things phoning home or one off maintenance where a new connection was being initiated.

emmelaich2y ago

The linked docs provide more info: https://retina.sh/docs/intro

emmanueloga_2y ago

There is a flood of observability tools based on eBPF coming out these days [1]. eBPF is used to collect metrics without the need to instrument the code.

1: https://ebpf.io/applications/

sharangxy2y ago

DeepFlow [1][2] is one of them, where we implemented distributed tracing for microservices using eBPF.

1. https://deepflow.io 2. https://github.com/deepflowio/deepflow

orisho2y ago

See also: Network Mapper - low privileges, no-eBPF network observability tool for K8s

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39761114

xyst2y ago

vamsi11052y ago

https://github.com/microsoft/retina/issues/85

That is a very interesting ask, let me raise an issue against the repo and see how we can solve this with eBPF in this repo. I am pretty sure this is a very common problem for a lot of kube admins.

xyst2y ago

oh, thank you! Will follow the issue

tempaccount4202y ago

What's the performance impact of using VM-based eBPF for these tasks instead of native code?

tptacek2y ago

Linux eBPF is JIT'd. It has native performance.

tempaccount4202y ago

Even WASM doesn't have native performance, so I question this claim.

scottlamb2y ago

Sigh, anyone have a name suggestion for a (Rust) RTSP library? https://crates.io/crates/retina

nextaccountic2y ago

emmanueloga_2y ago

https://deadcells.fandom.com/wiki/Conjunctivius :-p

karolist2y ago

The name collisions for opensource projects stopped mattering a long time ago

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse