Enable private link for Kubernetes monitoring in Azure Monitor

Azure Private Link enables you to access Azure platform as a service (PaaS) resources to your virtual network by using private endpoints. An Azure Monitor Private Link Scope (AMPLS) connects a private endpoint to a set of Azure Monitor resources to define the boundaries of your monitoring network. This article describes how to configure Container insights and Managed Prometheus to use private link for data ingestion from your Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster.

Prerequisites

• This article describes how to connect your cluster to an existing Azure Monitor Private Link Scope (AMPLS). Create an AMPLS following the guidance in Configure your private link.
• Azure CLI version 2.61.0 or higher.

Managed Prometheus (Azure Monitor workspace)

Data for Managed Prometheus is stored in an Azure Monitor workspace, so you must make this workspace accessible over a private link.

Configure DCEs

Private links for data ingestion for Managed Prometheus are configured on the Data Collection Endpoints (DCE) of the Azure Monitor workspace that stores the data. To identify the DCEs associated with your Azure Monitor workspace, select Data Collection Endpoints from your Azure Monitor workspace in the Azure portal.

If your AKS cluster isn't in the same region as your Azure Monitor workspace, then you need to create another DCE in the same region as the AKS cluster. In this case, open the data collection rule (DCR) created when you enabled Managed Prometheus. This DCR will be named MSProm-<clusterName>-<clusterRegion>. The cluster will be listed on the Resources page. On the Data collection endpoint dropdown, select the DCE in the same region as the AKS cluster.

Ingestion from a private AKS cluster

By default, a private AKS cluster can send data to Managed Prometheus and your Azure Monitor workspace over the public network using a public Data Collection Endpoint.

If you choose to use an Azure Firewall to limit the egress from your cluster, you can implement one of the following:

• Open a path to the public ingestion endpoint. Update the routing table with the following two endpoints:
  • *.handler.control.monitor.azure.cn
  • *.ingest.monitor.azure.cn
• Enable the Azure Firewall to access the Azure Monitor Private Link scope and DCE that's used for data ingestion.

Private link ingestion for remote write

Use the following steps to set up remote write for a Kubernetes cluster over a private link virtual network and an Azure Monitor Private Link scope.

1. Create your Azure virtual network.
2. Configure the on-premises cluster to connect to an Azure VNET using a VPN gateway or ExpressRoutes with private-peering.
3. Create an Azure Monitor Private Link scope.
4. Connect the Azure Monitor Private Link scope to a private endpoint in the virtual network used by the on-premises cluster. This private endpoint is used to access your DCEs.
5. From your Azure Monitor workspace in the portal, select Data Collection Endpoints from the Azure Monitor workspace menu.
6. You'll have at least one DCE which will have the same name as your workspace. Click on the DCE to open its details.
7. Select the Network Isolation page for the DCE.
8. Click Add and select your Azure Monitor Private Link scope. It takes a few minutes for the settings to propagate. Once completed, data from your private AKS cluster is ingested into your Azure Monitor workspace over the private link.

Container insights (Log Analytics workspace)

Data for Container insights, is stored in a Log Analytics workspace, so you must make this workspace accessible over a private link.

Cluster using managed identity authentication

Existing AKS cluster with default Log Analytics workspace

az aks enable-addons --addon monitoring --name <cluster-name> --resource-group <cluster-resource-group-name> --ampls-resource-id "<azure-monitor-private-link-scope-resource-id>"

Example:

az aks enable-addons --addon monitoring --name "my-cluster" --resource-group "my-resource-group" --workspace-resource-id "/subscriptions/my-subscription/resourceGroups/my-resource-group/providers/Microsoft.OperationalInsights/workspaces/my-workspace" --ampls-resource-id "/subscriptions/my-subscription /resourceGroups/my-resource-group/providers/microsoft.insights/privatelinkscopes/my-ampls-resource"

Existing AKS cluster with existing Log Analytics workspace

az aks enable-addons --addon monitoring --name <cluster-name> --resource-group <cluster-resource-group-name> --workspace-resource-id <workspace-resource-id> --ampls-resource-id "<azure-monitor-private-link-scope-resource-id>"

Example:

az aks enable-addons --addon monitoring --name "my-cluster" --resource-group "my-resource-group" --workspace-resource-id "/subscriptions/my-subscription/resourceGroups/my-resource-group/providers/Microsoft.OperationalInsights/workspaces/my-workspace" --ampls-resource-id "/subscriptions/my-subscription /resourceGroups/ my-resource-group/providers/microsoft.insights/privatelinkscopes/my-ampls-resource"

New AKS cluster

az aks create --resource-group rgName --name clusterName --enable-addons monitoring --workspace-resource-id "workspaceResourceId" --ampls-resource-id "azure-monitor-private-link-scope-resource-id"

Example:

az aks create --resource-group "my-resource-group"  --name "my-cluster"  --enable-addons monitoring --workspace-resource-id "/subscriptions/my-subscription/resourceGroups/my-resource-group/providers/Microsoft.OperationalInsights/workspaces/my-workspace" --ampls-resource-id "/subscriptions/my-subscription /resourceGroups/ my-resource-group/providers/microsoft.insights/privatelinkscopes/my-ampls-resource"

Cluster using legacy authentication

Use the following procedures to enable network isolation by connecting your cluster to the Log Analytics workspace using Azure Private Link if your cluster is not using managed identity authentication. This requires a private AKS cluster.

1. Create a private AKS cluster following the guidance in Create a private Azure Kubernetes Service cluster.

2. Disable public Ingestion on your Log Analytics workspace.

   Use the following command to disable public ingestion on an existing workspace.

   az monitor log-analytics workspace update --resource-group <azureLogAnalyticsWorkspaceResourceGroup> --workspace-name <azureLogAnalyticsWorkspaceName>  --ingestion-access Disabled
   

   Use the following command to create a new workspace with public ingestion disabled.

   az monitor log-analytics workspace create --resource-group <azureLogAnalyticsWorkspaceResourceGroup> --workspace-name <azureLogAnalyticsWorkspaceName>  --ingestion-access Disabled
   

3. Configure private link by following the instructions at Configure your private link. Set ingestion access to public and then set to private after the private endpoint is created but before monitoring is enabled. The private link resource region must be same as AKS cluster region.

4. Enable monitoring for the AKS cluster.

   az aks enable-addons -a monitoring --resource-group <AKSClusterResourceGorup> --name <AKSClusterName> --workspace-resource-id <workspace-resource-id> --enable-msi-auth-for-monitoring false
   

Next steps

• If you experience issues while you attempt to onboard the solution, review the Troubleshooting guide.
• With monitoring enabled to collect health and resource utilization of your AKS cluster and workloads running on them, learn how to use Container insights.