Insights for Self-Managed Event Brokers

The monitoring capabilities of PubSub+ Insights aren't limited to event broker services. You can use the many monitoring benefits provided by Insights with your self-managed PubSub+ Software Event Broker deployed in Docker, Podman, or Kubernetes, or as a Controlled Availability feature, your PubSub+ Appliance. Monitoring your event broker's metrics and logs using the full suite of Insights dashboards and monitors provided with your Insights Datadog account provides powerful visualizations of your event broker's usage and activity.

Using Insights with your self-managed software event broker or appliance requires an Insights subscription and installation of the Insights Agent. For more information about Insights subscriptions, contact Solace.

Before configuring Insights for your self-managed software event brokers or appliances, review the Considerations for Using Insights with Self-Managed Event Brokers.

For more information about installing the Insights Agent, see:

Considerations for Using Insights with Self-Managed Event Brokers

Below are two sets of considerations, the first set applies to self-managed software event brokers and appliances in general. The second set of considerations apply to self-managed software event brokers deployed to Podman, Docker, or Kubernetes.

Considerations for All Self-Managed Software Event Brokers and Appliances

Be aware of the following considerations that are common to using Insights with all self-managed event brokers:

General considerations for Self-Managed Software Event Brokers deployed to Docker, Podman, and Kubernetes

Be aware of the following considerations that are common to using Insights with self-managed software event broker in Docker and Podman containers, or Kubernetes clusters:

  • Your host environment must be compatible with the linux/amd64 container image architecture.

  • You must configure your container or Kubernetes cluster to allow the Insights Agent to connect to Datadog servers. For more information, see Insights Agent to Datadog Servers.

  • You must enable the port on the software event broker for the plain-text health check service. The default port is 5550.

  • You must deploy the Insights Agent on a per event broker node basis, meaning:

    • standalone software event brokers require one Insights Agent.

    • high availability software event brokers require three Insights Agents, one per node.

  • The Insights Agent only has permission to collect metrics and logs. It does not have write access to your software event broker.

Generating a Registry Secret and Environment Properties for the Insights Agent

You need a registry secret to pull the Insights Agent from the Solace Container Registry. Installing the Insights Agent in Docker, Podman, Kubernetes, or to an appliance requires environment variables. You can generate both the registry secret and the required environment variables using the Add Insights Monitoring page in the Cloud Console.

You must complete the Add Insights Monitoring page form for each software event broker or appliance you plan to monitor with Insights.

If using the Kubernetes Helm-based Quick Start repository to install the Insights Agent in Kubernetes, you only need the INSIGHTS_AGENT_API_KEY, INSIGHTS_AGENT_SITE, and INSIGHTS_AGENT_TAGS entries generated by the Add Insights Monitoring form. After entering your event broker's Service Name and Service ID, you can add placeholder values (for example, 'Insights') into the other fields on the form to generate the values you require more quickly.

To generate the registry secret and your environment variables, do the following:

  1. Log in to the PubSub+ Cloud Console if you have not done so yet. The URL to access the Cloud Console differs based on your authentication scheme. For more information, see Logging In to the PubSub+ Cloud Console.
  2. Select Insights on the navigation bar.
  3. Click Enable a Self-Managed Event Broker.
  4. In the Configuration Type dialog, select the broker type, either Software event broker or Appliance and click Next.
  5. On the Add Insights Monitoring page, complete the fields on the form with your software event broker or appliance information.
  6. Click Generate Instructions.
  7. In the Enable Insights for Your Self-Managed Event Broker dialog, do the following:
    1. In the Get Registry Secret section, click Download for either Kubernetes or Docker to get the registry secret for your environment.
    2. In the Generated Event Broker Properties section, click the copy icon to copy the generated variables to your local clipboard.
    3. Click the Check out Datadog to see your new metrics link to access your Insights Datadog account where you can validate your Insights Agent installation. For more information see:

  8. Repeat steps 3 through 6 for each software event broker or appliance you want to monitor.

Installing and Maintaining the Insights Agent for Self-Managed Event Brokers

After completing the Add Insights Monitoring page form, you can proceed with the installation. The installation procedure for the Insights Agent differs, depending on whether you are installing it to a software event broker in Container Engine environment, or Kubernetes cluster, or to an appliance. For more information, see: