Prometheus PostgreSQL exporter

Note

This is not the official community helm chart of the Prometheus metric exporter for PostgreSQL databases. You can find the official community chart here.

This helm chart enables the deployment of a Prometheus metrics exporter for PostgreSQL databases and allows the individual configuration of additional containers/initContainers, mounting of volumes, defining additional environment variables, apply a user-defined webConfig.yaml and much more.

Chapter configuration and installation describes the basics how to configure helm and use it to deploy the exporter. It also contains further configuration examples.

Furthermore, this helm chart contains unit tests to detect regressions and stabilize the deployment. Additionally, this helm chart is tested for deployment scenarios with ArgoCD.

Helm: configuration and installation

1. A helm chart repository must be configured, to pull the helm charts from.
2. All available parameters are here in detail document. The parameters can be defined via the helm --set flag or directly as part of a values.yaml file. The following example defines the prometheus-exporter repository and use the --set flag for a basic deployment.

Important

By default is neither a serviceMonitor nor a podMonitor enabled. Use prometheus.metrics.serviceMonitor.enabled=true or prometheus.metrics.podMonitor.enabled=true to enable one monitor deployment. Deploying both monitors at the same time is not possible.

helm repo add prometheus-exporters https://charts.cryptic.systems/prometheus-exporters
helm repo update
helm install prometheus-postgres-exporter prometheus-exporters/prometheus-postgres-exporter \
  --set 'config.database.secret.databaseUsername=postgres' \
  --set 'config.database.secret.databasePassword=postgres' \
  --set 'config.database.secret.databaseConnectionUrl="postgres.example.local:5432/postgres?ssl=disable"' \
  --set 'prometheus.metrics.enabled=true' \
  --set 'prometheus.metrics.serviceMonitor.enabled=true'

Instead of passing all parameters via the set flag, it is also possible to define them as part of the values.yaml. The following command downloads the values.yaml for a specific version of this chart. Please keep in mind, that the version of the chart must be in sync with the values.yaml. Newer minor versions can have new features. New major versions can break something!

CHART_VERSION=0.1.0
helm show values prometheus-exporters/prometheus-postgres-exporter --version "${CHART_VERSION}" > values.yaml

A complete list of available helm chart versions can be displayed via the following command:

helm search repo prometheus-postgres-exporter --versions

The helm chart also contains some prometheusRules. These are deactivated by default and serve as examples/inspiration for customizations. These can be configured in more detail via values.yaml.

Examples

The following examples serve as individual configurations and as inspiration for how deployment problems can be solved.

TLS authentication and encryption

The first example shows how to deploy the metric exporter with TLS encryption. The verification of the custom TLS certification will be skipped by Prometheus.

Warning

The secret prometheus-postgresql-exporter-http containing the TLS certificate is already present. The keys ca.crt, tls.key and tls.crt of the secret can be mounted into the container filesystem for TLS authentication / encryption.

helm install prometheus-postgres-exporter prometheus-exporters/prometheus-postgres-exporter \
  --set 'config.database.secret.databaseUsername=postgres' \
  --set 'config.database.secret.databasePassword=postgres' \
  --set 'config.database.secret.databaseConnectionUrl="postgres.example.local:5432/postgres?ssl=disable"' \
  --set 'config.webConfig.secret.webConfig.cert_file=/etc/prometheus-postgres-exporter/tls/tls.crt' \
  --set 'config.webConfig.secret.webConfig.client_ca_file=/etc/prometheus-postgres-exporter/tls/ca.crt' \
  --set 'config.webConfig.secret.webConfig.key_file=/etc/prometheus-postgres-exporter/tls/tls.key'
  --set 'deployment.volumes[0].name=tls' \
  --set 'deployment.volumes[0].secret.secretName=prometheus-postgresql-exporter-http' \
  --set 'deployment.postgresExporter.volumeMounts[0].name=tls' \
  --set 'deployment.postgresExporter.volumeMounts[0].mountPath=/etc/prometheus-postgres-exporter/tls' \
  --set 'deployment.postgresExporter.volumeMounts[0].readOnly=true' \
  --set 'prometheus.metrics.enabled=true' \
  --set 'prometheus.metrics.serviceMonitor.enabled=true' \
  --set 'prometheus.metrics.serviceMonitor.scheme=https' \
  --set 'prometheus.metrics.serviceMonitor.tlsConfig.insecureSkipVerify=true'

If the Prometheus pod has a TLS certificate mounted and is also signed by the private key of the CA which issued the TLS certificate for the metrics exporter - TLS certificate verification can be enabled. The following flags must be replaced:

  helm install prometheus-postgres-exporter prometheus-exporters/prometheus-postgres-exporter \
    --set 'config.database.secret.databaseUsername=postgres' \
    --set 'config.database.secret.databasePassword=postgres' \
    --set 'config.database.secret.databaseConnectionUrl="postgres.example.local:5432/postgres?ssl=disable"' \
    --set 'config.webConfig.secret.webConfig.cert_file=/etc/prometheus-postgres-exporter/tls/tls.crt' \
    --set 'config.webConfig.secret.webConfig.client_ca_file=/etc/prometheus-postgres-exporter/tls/ca.crt' \
    --set 'config.webConfig.secret.webConfig.key_file=/etc/prometheus-postgres-exporter/tls/tls.key'
    --set 'deployment.volumes[0].name=tls' \
    --set 'deployment.volumes[0].secret.secretName=prometheus-postgresql-exporter-http' \
    --set 'deployment.postgresExporter.volumeMounts[0].name=tls' \
    --set 'deployment.postgresExporter.volumeMounts[0].mountPath=/etc/prometheus-postgres-exporter/tls' \
    --set 'deployment.postgresExporter.volumeMounts[0].readOnly=true' \
    --set 'prometheus.metrics.enabled=true' \
    --set 'prometheus.metrics.serviceMonitor.enabled=true' \
    --set 'prometheus.metrics.serviceMonitor.scheme=https' \
-   --set 'prometheus.metrics.serviceMonitor.tlsConfig.insecureSkipVerify=true' \
+   --set 'prometheus.metrics.serviceMonitor.tlsConfig.caFile=/etc/prometheus/tls/ca.crt' \
+   --set 'prometheus.metrics.serviceMonitor.tlsConfig.certFile=/etc/prometheus/tls/tls.crt' \
+   --set 'prometheus.metrics.serviceMonitor.tlsConfig.keyFile=/etc/prometheus/tls/tls.key'

Grafana dashboard

The helm chart includes Grafana dashboards. These can be deployed as a configMap by activating Grafana integration. It is assumed that the dashboard is consumed by Grafana or a sidecar container itself and that the dashboard is stored in the Grafana container file system so that it is subsequently available to the user. The kube-prometheus-stack deployment makes this possible.

helm install prometheus-postgres-exporter prometheus-exporters/prometheus-postgres-exporter \
  --set 'config.database.secret.databaseUsername=postgres' \
  --set 'config.database.secret.databasePassword=postgres' \
  --set 'config.database.secret.databaseConnectionUrl="postgres.example.local:5432/postgres?ssl=disable"' \
  --set 'grafana.enabled=true'

Avoid deploying on same node / bare metal host as PostgresDB

As a best practice, avoid running the postgres-exporter on the same node / bare-metal host as the PostgresDB. This is because if the postgres-exporter is running on the same node and this node fails, Prometheus can send an alert about the failure of the node or that the postgres-exporter cannot be reached. However, it is not possible to react based on the metrics that the postgres-exporter explicitly provides. Depending on the configuration of alerts, this may mean that the corresponding notifications are not sent to the right person or group of people.

The following example prevent the postgres-exporter from running on nodes with a PostgresDB. The PostgresDB nodes has an additional label database=postgres. The configuration is carried out in values.yaml.

deployment:
  affinity:
    nodeAffinity:
      preferredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:
      - weight: 100
        preference:
          matchExpressions:
          - key: database
            operator: NotIn
            values:
            - postgres

Parameters

Global

Name	Description	Value
nameOverride	Individual release name suffix.	""
fullnameOverride	Override the complete release name logic.	""

Configuration

Name	Description	Value
config.database.existingSecret.enabled	Mount an existing secret containing the application specific DATA_SOURCE_ prefixed environment variables.	false
config.database.existingSecret.secretName	Name of the existing secret containing the application specific DATA_SOURCE_ prefixed environment variables.	""
config.database.secret.annotations	Additional annotations of the secret containing the database credentials.	{}
config.database.secret.labels	Additional labels of the secret containing the database credentials.	{}
config.database.secret.databaseUsername	Database username. Will be defined as env DATA_SOURCE_USER as part of a secret.	""
config.database.secret.databasePassword	Database password. Will be defined as env DATA_SOURCE_PASS as part of a secret.	""
config.database.secret.databaseConnectionUrl	Complex database connection URL. Will be defined as env DATA_SOURCE_URI as part of a secret.	""
config.exporterConfig.existingSecret.enabled	Mount an existing secret containing the key exporterConfig.yaml.	false
config.exporterConfig.existingSecret.secretName	Name of the existing secret containing the key exporterConfig.yaml.	""
config.exporterConfig.secret.annotations	Additional annotations of the secret containing the exporterConfig.yaml.	{}
config.exporterConfig.secret.labels	Additional labels of the secret containing the exporterConfig.yaml.	{}
config.exporterConfig.secret.exporterConfig	Content of the exporterConfig.yaml. Further information can be found here.	{}
config.webConfig.existingSecret.enabled	Mount an existing secret containing the key webConfig.yaml.	false
config.webConfig.existingSecret.secretName	Name of the existing secret containing the key webConfig.yaml.	""
config.webConfig.secret.annotations	Additional annotations of the secret containing the webConfig.yaml.	{}
config.webConfig.secret.labels	Additional labels of the secret containing the webConfig.yaml.	{}
config.webConfig.secret.webConfig	Content of the webConfig.yaml. Further information can be found here.	{}

Deployment

Name	Description	Value
deployment.annotations	Additional deployment annotations.	{}
deployment.labels	Additional deployment labels.	{}
deployment.additionalContainers	List of additional containers.	[]
deployment.affinity	Affinity for the postgres-exporter deployment.	{}
deployment.initContainers	List of additional init containers.	[]
deployment.dnsConfig	dnsConfig of the postgres-exporter deployment.	{}
deployment.dnsPolicy	dnsPolicy of the postgres-exporter deployment.	""
deployment.hostname	Individual hostname of the pod.	""
deployment.subdomain	Individual domain of the pod.	""
deployment.hostNetwork	Use the kernel network namespace of the host system.	false
deployment.imagePullSecrets	Secret to use for pulling the image.	[]
deployment.postgresExporter.args	Arguments passed to the postgres-exporter container.	[]
deployment.postgresExporter.env	List of environment variables for the postgres-exporter container.	[]
deployment.postgresExporter.envFrom	List of environment variables mounted from configMaps or secrets for the postgres-exporter container.	[]
deployment.postgresExporter.image.registry	Image registry, eg. docker.io.	quay.io
deployment.postgresExporter.image.repository	Image repository, eg. library/busybox.	prometheuscommunity/postgres-exporter
deployment.postgresExporter.image.tag	Custom image tag, eg. 0.1.0. Defaults to appVersion.	""
deployment.postgresExporter.image.pullPolicy	Image pull policy.	IfNotPresent
deployment.postgresExporter.resources	CPU and memory resources of the pod.	{}
deployment.postgresExporter.securityContext	Security context of the container of the deployment.	{}
deployment.postgresExporter.volumeMounts	Additional volume mounts.	[]
deployment.nodeSelector	NodeSelector of the postgres-exporter deployment.	{}
deployment.priorityClassName	PriorityClassName of the postgres-exporter deployment.	""
deployment.replicaCount	Number of replicas for the postgres-exporter deployment.	1
deployment.restartPolicy	Restart policy of the postgres-exporter deployment.	""
deployment.securityContext	Security context of the postgres-exporter deployment.	{}
deployment.strategy.type	Strategy type - Recreate or Rollingupdate.	Recreate
deployment.strategy.rollingUpdate.maxSurge	The maximum number of pods that can be scheduled above the desired number of pods during a rolling update.	1
deployment.strategy.rollingUpdate.maxUnavailable	The maximum number of pods that can be unavailable during a rolling update.	1
deployment.terminationGracePeriodSeconds	How long to wait until forcefully kill the pod.	60
deployment.tolerations	Tolerations of the postgres-exporter deployment.	[]
deployment.topologySpreadConstraints	TopologySpreadConstraints of the postgres-exporter deployment.	[]
deployment.volumes	Additional volumes to mount into the pods of the prometheus-exporter deployment.	[]

Grafana

Name	Description	Value
grafana.enabled	Enable integration into Grafana. Require the Prometheus operator deployment.	false
grafana.dashboardDiscoveryLabels	Labels that Grafana uses to discover resources. The labels may vary depending on the Grafana deployment.	undefined
grafana.dashboards.postgresExporter.enabled	Enable deployment of Grafana dashboard postgresExporter.	true
grafana.dashboards.postgresExporter.annotations	Additional configmap annotations.	{}
grafana.dashboards.postgresExporter.labels	Additional configmap labels.	{}

Ingress

Name	Description	Value
ingress.enabled	Enable creation of an ingress resource. Requires, that the http service is also enabled.	false
ingress.className	Ingress class.	nginx
ingress.annotations	Additional ingress annotations.	{}
ingress.labels	Additional ingress labels.	{}
ingress.hosts	Ingress specific configuration. Specification only required when another ingress controller is used instead of `t1k.	[]
ingress.tls	Ingress TLS settings. Specification only required when another ingress controller is used instead of `t1k``.	[]

Pod disruption

Name	Description	Value
podDisruptionBudget	Pod disruption budget.	{}

Network

Name	Description	Value
networkPolicies	Deploy network policies based on the used container network interface (CNI) implementation - like calico or weave.	{}

Prometheus

Name	Description	Value
prometheus.metrics.enabled	Enable of scraping metrics by Prometheus.	true
prometheus.metrics.podMonitor.enabled	Enable creation of a podMonitor. Excludes the existence of a serviceMonitor resource.	false
prometheus.metrics.podMonitor.annotations	Additional podMonitor annotations.	{}
prometheus.metrics.podMonitor.enableHttp2	Enable HTTP2.	true
prometheus.metrics.podMonitor.followRedirects	FollowRedirects configures whether scrape requests follow HTTP 3xx redirects.	false
prometheus.metrics.podMonitor.honorLabels	Honor labels.	false
prometheus.metrics.podMonitor.labels	Additional podMonitor labels.	{}
prometheus.metrics.podMonitor.interval	Interval at which metrics should be scraped. If not specified Prometheus' global scrape interval is used.	60s
prometheus.metrics.podMonitor.path	HTTP path for scraping Prometheus metrics.	/metrics
prometheus.metrics.podMonitor.relabelings	RelabelConfigs to apply to samples before scraping. Prometheus Operator automatically adds relabelings for a few standard Kubernetes fields.	[]
prometheus.metrics.podMonitor.scrapeTimeout	Timeout after which the scrape is ended. If not specified, global Prometheus scrape timeout is used.	30s
prometheus.metrics.podMonitor.scheme	HTTP scheme to use for scraping. For example http or https.	http
prometheus.metrics.podMonitor.tlsConfig	TLS configuration to use when scraping the metric endpoint by Prometheus.	{}
prometheus.metrics.serviceMonitor.enabled	Enable creation of a serviceMonitor. Excludes the existence of a podMonitor resource.	false
prometheus.metrics.serviceMonitor.annotations	Additional serviceMonitor annotations.	{}
prometheus.metrics.serviceMonitor.labels	Additional serviceMonitor labels.	{}
prometheus.metrics.serviceMonitor.enableHttp2	Enable HTTP2.	true
prometheus.metrics.serviceMonitor.followRedirects	FollowRedirects configures whether scrape requests follow HTTP 3xx redirects.	false
prometheus.metrics.serviceMonitor.honorLabels	Honor labels.	false
prometheus.metrics.serviceMonitor.interval	Interval at which metrics should be scraped. If not specified Prometheus' global scrape interval is used.	60s
prometheus.metrics.serviceMonitor.path	HTTP path for scraping Prometheus metrics.	/metrics
prometheus.metrics.serviceMonitor.relabelings	RelabelConfigs to apply to samples before scraping. Prometheus Operator automatically adds relabelings for a few standard Kubernetes fields.	[]
prometheus.metrics.serviceMonitor.scrapeTimeout	Timeout after which the scrape is ended. If not specified, global Prometheus scrape timeout is used.	30s
prometheus.metrics.serviceMonitor.scheme	HTTP scheme to use for scraping. For example http or https.	http
prometheus.metrics.serviceMonitor.tlsConfig	TLS configuration to use when scraping the metric endpoint by Prometheus.	{}
prometheus.rules	Array of Prometheus rules for monitoring the application and triggering alerts.	[]

Service

Name	Description	Value
services.http.enabled	Enable the service.	true
services.http.annotations	Additional service annotations.	{}
services.http.externalIPs	External IPs for the service.	[]
services.http.externalTrafficPolicy	If service.type is NodePort or LoadBalancer, set this to Local to tell kube-proxy to only use node local endpoints for cluster external traffic. Furthermore, this enables source IP preservation.	Cluster
services.http.internalTrafficPolicy	If service.type is NodePort or LoadBalancer, set this to Local to tell kube-proxy to only use node local endpoints for cluster internal traffic.	Cluster
services.http.ipFamilies	IPFamilies is list of IP families (e.g. IPv4, IPv6) assigned to this service. This field is usually assigned automatically based on cluster configuration and only required for customization.	[]
services.http.labels	Additional service labels.	{}
services.http.loadBalancerClass	LoadBalancerClass is the class of the load balancer implementation this Service belongs to. Requires service from type LoadBalancer.	""
services.http.loadBalancerIP	LoadBalancer will get created with the IP specified in this field. Requires service from type LoadBalancer.	""
services.http.loadBalancerSourceRanges	Source range filter for LoadBalancer. Requires service from type LoadBalancer.	[]
services.http.port	Port to forward the traffic to.	9187
services.http.sessionAffinity	Supports ClientIP and None. Enable client IP based session affinity via ClientIP.	None
services.http.sessionAffinityConfig	Contains the configuration of the session affinity.	{}
services.http.type	Kubernetes service type for the traffic.	ClusterIP

ServiceAccount

Name	Description	Value
serviceAccount.existing.enabled	Use an existing service account instead of creating a new one. Assumes that the user has all the necessary kubernetes API authorizations.	false
serviceAccount.existing.serviceAccountName	Name of the existing service account.	""
serviceAccount.new.annotations	Additional service account annotations.	{}
serviceAccount.new.labels	Additional service account labels.	{}
serviceAccount.new.automountServiceAccountToken	Enable/disable auto mounting of the service account token.	true
serviceAccount.new.imagePullSecrets	ImagePullSecrets is a list of references to secrets in the same namespace to use for pulling any images in pods that reference this serviceAccount.	[]
serviceAccount.new.secrets	Secrets is the list of secrets allowed to be used by pods running using this ServiceAccount.	[]