Adding the APM Insight Python agent in Kubernetes via init containers

Adding the APM Insight Python agent via init containers in Kubernetes enables the seamless integration of performance monitoring for Python applications, ensuring efficient tracking and analysis of application behavior within the Kubernetes environment.

Please follow the steps below to achieve this:

1. Create a secret for the Site24x7 license key in your application namespace.
   
   

   You can obtain the license key from your Site24x7 account by navigating to Admin > Developer > Device Key.
   
   Example:
   
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   kubectl create secret generic app-secret --from-literal=s247licensekey='your_s247_license_key' -n pythonapp

   Replace app-secret, your_s247_license_key, and pythonapp (namespace) with the appropriate values.
   
   
2. Create an empty volume that will be used to copy the agent files during the init containers process.
   
   Example:
   
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   volumes:
           - name: s247agent

3. Include the following init containers command in your Helm chart or deployment YAML file.
   
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   initContainers:
           - name: agent-copy
           image: site24x7/apminsight-pythonagent:latest
           imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
           command: ['cp', '-r', '/opt/site24x7/.', '/home/apm']
           volumeMounts:
           - name: s247agent
           mountPath: /home/apm

4. Mount the volume created in step 2 into your application container.
   
   Example:
   
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   containers:
           - name: pythonapp
           image: pythonapp:latest
           imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
   ports:
           - containerPort: 8080
           volumeMounts:
           - name: s247agent
           mountPath: /home/apm

5. Add the following environment variables to the application container.
   • Environment variable 1
     Name: S247_LICENSE_KEY 
     Value: Enter the s247licensekey from the secret added in step 1.
   • Environment variable 2
     Name: APP_RUN_COMMAND 
     Value: Provide your application startup command.
   • Environment variable 3
     Name: APM_APP_NAME 
     Value: Configure the name of the Python application that will be displayed in the Site24x7 client.
   • Environment variable 4
     Name: APP_ENV_PATH
     Value: If you are using a virtual environment, specify the path of the environment bin directory.
     
     
     

     In this step, we configure the application (Python process) startup command as an argument so that the agent will send data to the specified monitor name.
   
   Example:
   Here is an example of a Python application running in a Gunicorn environment on port 8080 with two worker processes.
   
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   env:
       - name: APP_RUN_COMMAND
   value: gunicorn --bind 127.0.0.1:8080 -w 2 pythonapp_main:app
       - name: S247_LICENSE_KEY
               valueFrom:
               secretKeyRef:
               name: pythonapp-secrets
   key: s247_license_key

6. Change your application container startup command to the Python agent startup script.
   
   

   The script agent_start.sh will start your Python application with the APM Python agent using the command provided in APP_RUN_COMMAND.
   
   
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   containers:
    - name: pythonapp
       image: pythonapp:latest
       imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
       command: ["/bin/sh", "-c", "/home/apm/agent_start.sh"]
       ports:
       - containerPort: 8080
       volumeMounts:
       - name: s247agent
         mountPath: /home/apm

   
   Sample Kubernetes deployment YAML file
   
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   apiVersion: v1
   kind: Namespace
   metadata:
     name: pythonapp
   ---
   apiVersion: v1
   kind: Secret
   type: Opaque
   metadata:
     name: pythonapp-secrets
   data:
     s247licensekey:
   dXNCGfNGPfNTMyZjVjNzAwOTE5YTM4ODQyMDQzOGVjZjAwNGE4NA==
   ---
   apiVersion: apps/v1
   kind: Deployment
   metadata:
     name: pythonapp-deployment
     namespace: pythonapp
     labels:
       app: flask
   spec:
     selector:
       matchLabels:
         name: pythonapp-deployment
     replicas: 1
     template:
       metadata:
         labels:
           name: pythonapp-deployment
       spec:
         containers:
         - name: pythonapp-deployment
           image: pythonapp:version1
           command: ["/bin/sh", "-c", "/home/apm/agent_start.sh"]
           imagePullPolicy: Always
           ports:
           - containerPort: 5000
           env:
           - name: APP_RUN_COMMAND
             value: "gunicorn --bind 127.0.0.1:8080 -w 2 pythonapp_main:app"
   - name: APM_APP_NAME
             value: "Python-application"
           - name: S247_LICENSE_KEY
             valueFrom:
               secretKeyRef:
                 name: pythonapp-secret
                 key: s247licensekey
           volumeMounts:
             - mountPath: /home/apm
               name: s247agent
         initContainers:
         - name: agent-copy-init
           command: ["cp","-r","/opt/site24x7/.","/home/apm"]
           image: site2x7/apminsight-pythonagent:latest
           imagePullPolicy: Always
           volumeMounts:
           - mountPath: /home/apm
             name: s247agent
         volumes:
         - name: s247agent
           # emptyDir: {}
         restartPolicy: Always
   ---
   apiVersion: v1
   kind: Service
   metadata:
     name: pythonapp-deployment
   spec:
     type: NodePort
     selector:
       app: flask
     ports:
     - protocol: TCP
       port: 5000
       targetPort: 5000
   nodePort: 30200
   

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