Kubernetes Retina Configuration

Using Retina For Enhanced Kubernetes Flow Visualization In Coordimap

Coordimap can use Retina to enrich Kubernetes discovery with network flow telemetry. When Retina is configured and the agent points at the Retina Prometheus endpoint, Coordimap can attach network relationships to the same Kubernetes assets already discovered by the Kubernetes crawler.

That only works cleanly when the Kubernetes crawler uses the correct cluster scope_id, which should be the Kubernetes cluster UID.

What Is Retina

Retina is a cloud-agnostic, open-source Kubernetes network observability platform developed by Microsoft. It provides deep insight into traffic patterns, connectivity, and service communication inside the cluster.

You can learn more about Retina on their official website: https://retina.sh/

Installing Retina For Coordimap

To enable Kubernetes flow collection for Coordimap, install Retina in the cluster and then configure the Coordimap Kubernetes crawler with the retina_prometheus endpoint.

Run the following command to install or upgrade Retina with settings suitable for observability data collection:

helm upgrade --install retina oci://ghcr.io/microsoft/retina/charts/retina \
    --version v0.0.12 \
    --namespace kube-system \
    --set image.tag=v0.0.12 \
    --set operator.tag=v0.0.12 \
    --set image.pullPolicy=Always \
    --set logLevel=info \
    --set os.windows=true \
    --set operator.enabled=true \
    --set operator.enableRetinaEndpoint=true \
    --skip-crds \
    --set enabledPlugin_linux="\[dropreason\,packetforward\,dns\,packetparser\]" \
    --set enablePodLevel=true \
    --set remoteContext=true \
    --set enableAnnotations=true

Next Steps

Retina is now ready to provide flow telemetry. Continue with the Kubernetes Configuration guide, make sure the cluster uses the correct Kubernetes UID as scope_id, and then set the retina_prometheus endpoint in the crawler config.