Send Prometheus data to Azure Monitor by using Microsoft Entra pod-managed identity (preview) authentication

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This article describes how to set up remote write for Azure Monitor managed service for Prometheus by using Microsoft Entra pod-managed identity (preview) authentication.

Note

The remote write sidecar container that's described in this article should be set up only by using the following steps, and only if the Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster already has a Microsoft Entra pod enabled. Microsoft Entra pod-managed identities have been deprecated to be replaced by Microsoft Entra Workload ID. We recommend that you use Microsoft Entra Workload ID authentication.

Prerequisites

Supported versions

Prometheus versions greater than v2.45 are required for managed identity authentication.

Azure Monitor workspace

This article covers sending Prometheus metrics to an Azure Monitor workspace. To create an Azure monitor workspace, see Manage an Azure Monitor workspace.

Permissions

Administrator permissions for the cluster or resource are required to complete the steps in this article.

Set up an application for Microsoft Entra pod-managed identity

The process to set up Prometheus remote write for an application by using Microsoft Entra pod-managed identity authentication involves completing the following tasks:

  1. Register a user-assigned managed identity with Microsoft Entra ID.
  2. Assign the Managed Identity Operator and Virtual Machine Contributor roles to the managed identity.
  3. Assign the Monitoring Metrics Publisher role to the user-assigned managed identity.
  4. Create an Azure identity binding.
  5. Add the aadpodidbinding label to the Prometheus pod.
  6. Deploy a sidecar container to set up remote write.

The tasks are described in the following sections.

Register a managed identity with Microsoft Entra ID

Create a user-assigned managed identity or register an existing user-assigned managed identity.

For information about creating a managed identity, see Set up remote write for Azure Monitor managed service for Prometheus by using managed identity authentication.

Assign the Managed Identity Operator and Virtual Machine Contributor roles to the managed identity

az role assignment create --role "Managed Identity Operator" --assignee <managed identity clientID> --scope <NodeResourceGroupResourceId> 
          
az role assignment create --role "Virtual Machine Contributor" --assignee <managed identity clientID> --scope <Node ResourceGroup Id>

The node resource group of the AKS cluster contains resources that you use in other steps in this process. This resource group has the name MC_<AKS-RESOURCE-GROUP>_<AKS-CLUSTER-NAME>_<REGION>. You can find the resource group name by using the Resource groups menu in the Azure portal.

Assign the Monitoring Metrics Publisher role to the managed identity

az role assignment create --role "Monitoring Metrics Publisher" --assignee <managed identity clientID> --scope <NodeResourceGroupResourceId>

Create an Azure identity binding

The user-assigned managed identity requires an identity binding for the identity to be used as a pod-managed identity.

Copy the following YAML to the aadpodidentitybinding.yaml file:


apiVersion: "aadpodidentity.k8s.io/v1" 

kind: AzureIdentityBinding 
metadata: 
name: demo1-azure-identity-binding 
spec: 
AzureIdentity: “<AzureIdentityName>” 
Selector: “<AzureIdentityBindingSelector>”

Run the following command:

kubectl create -f aadpodidentitybinding.yaml

Add the aadpodidbinding label to the Prometheus pod

The aadpodidbinding label must be added to the Prometheus pod for the pod-managed identity to take effect. You can add the label by updating the deployment.yaml file or by injecting labels when you deploy the sidecar container as described in the next section.

Deploy a sidecar container to set up remote write

  1. Copy the following YAML and save it to a file. The YAML uses port 8081 as the listening port. If you use a different port, modify that value in the YAML.

    prometheus: 
  prometheusSpec: 
    podMetadata: 
      labels: 
        aadpodidbinding: <AzureIdentityBindingSelector> 
    externalLabels: 
      cluster: <AKS-CLUSTER-NAME> 
    remoteWrite: 
    - url: 'http://localhost:8081/api/v1/write' 
    containers: 
    - name: prom-remotewrite 
      image: <CONTAINER-IMAGE-VERSION> 
      imagePullPolicy: Always 
      ports: 
        - name: rw-port 
      containerPort: 8081 
      livenessProbe: 
        httpGet: 
          path: /health
          port: rw-port
          initialDelaySeconds: 10 
          timeoutSeconds: 10 
      readinessProbe: 
         httpGet: 
          path: /ready
          port: rw-port
          initialDelaySeconds: 10 
          timeoutSeconds: 10 
    env: 
      - name: INGESTION_URL 
        value: <INGESTION_URL> 
      - name: LISTENING_PORT 
        value: '8081' 
      - name: IDENTITY_TYPE 
        value: userAssigned 
      - name: AZURE_CLIENT_ID 
        value: <MANAGED-IDENTITY-CLIENT-ID> 
      # Optional parameter 
      - name: CLUSTER 
        value: <CLUSTER-NAME>

  2. Replace the following values in the YAML:

    Value Description
    <AKS-CLUSTER-NAME> The name of your AKS cluster.
    <CONTAINER-IMAGE-VERSION> mcr.microsoft.com/azuremonitor/containerinsights/ciprod/prometheus-remote-write/images:prom-remotewrite-20240617.1
    The remote write container image version.
    <INGESTION-URL> The value for Metrics ingestion endpoint from the Overview page for the Azure Monitor workspace.
    <MANAGED-IDENTITY-CLIENT-ID> The value for Client ID from the Overview page for the managed identity.
    <CLUSTER-NAME> Name of the cluster that Prometheus is running on.

    Important

    For Microsoft Azure operated by 21Vianet cloud, add the following environment variables in the env section of the YAML file:

    - name: INGESTION_AAD_AUDIENCE value: https://monitor.azure.cn/

  3. Use Helm to apply the YAML file and update your Prometheus configuration:

    # set the context to your cluster 
az aks get-credentials -g <aks-rg-name> -n <aks-cluster-name>

# use Helm to update your remote write config 
helm upgrade -f <YAML-FILENAME>.yml prometheus prometheus-community/kube-prometheus-stack --namespace <namespace where Prometheus pod resides>

Verification and troubleshooting

For verification and troubleshooting information, see Troubleshooting remote write and Azure Monitor managed service for Prometheus remote write.

Next steps