Insights for Self-Managed Software Event Brokers

The monitoring capabilities of PubSub+ Insights aren't limited to cloud-based event broker services. You can leverage the many monitoring benefits provided by Insights with your self-managed PubSub+ software event broker deployed in Docker, Podman, or Kubernetes. Monitoring your software 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 software event broker's usage and activity.

Using Insights with your self-managed software event broker 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, review the Considerations for Using Insights with Self-Managed Software Event Brokers.

For more information about installing the Insights Agent, see:

Considerations for Using Insights with Self-Managed Software Event Brokers

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:

  • You must have access to the Cloud Console with:

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

  • Your self-managed software event broker must be running in one of the following environments:

    • Kubernetes

      • The Kubernetes version must be supported by Solace, see Supported Kubernetes Versions.

      • Solace does not support installing or managing Insights Agents with Solace Operator.

      • If installing the Insights Agent with a PubSub+ Helm Quickstart.

        • Chart version 3.6.0 or later.

        • The latest available Helm version.

    • A Container Engine based deployment, including:

      • Docker version 26.0.0 or greater

      • Podman version 5.4.0 or greater

  • Access to the Insights Agent container image version 0.9.67 or greater.

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

  • If you are not using the Helm Quickstart to install the Insights Agent in a Kubernetes cluster, you must configure a user with read only global access level on the software event broker. This user allows the Insights Agent to monitor the software event broker through SEMP.

  • 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.

  • Someone in your organization with the Administrator role in the Cloud Console must accept the Insights Acceptable Use Policy before you can access Insights Advanced Monitoring and Datadog.

  • You can provide access to Datadog as necessary, for more information, see Configuring an Existing User to Access Datadog.

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, or Kubernetes 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 you plan to monitor with Insights.

If using the Solace Helm Quick Start 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 fake 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 Self-Managed Event Broker.
  4. On the Add Insights Monitoring page, complete the fields on the form with your software event broker information.
  5. Click Generate Instructions.
  6. 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:

  7. Repeat steps 4 through 6 for each software event broker you want to monitor.

Installing and Maintaining the Insights Agent for Software Event Brokers

After generating the 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 Container Engine environment or a Kubernetes cluster. For more information, see: