A beginner's guide to Kubernetes application monitoring

Kubernetes application performance monitoring (APM) is essential for maintaining application health and ensuring a positive user experience, but it presents challenges as Kubernetes does not natively provide easy application monitoring. APM focuses on monitoring individual applications within a Kubernetes cluster, while Kubernetes monitoring targets the performance of the cluster itself. Key metrics for APM include request rate, response time, error rate, memory usage, CPU usage, persistent storage usage, and uptime. To monitor applications, developers can build metrics logic into applications, use Kubernetes sidecar containers, or deploy Grafana Agent, with each method offering distinct advantages and potential drawbacks. Effective monitoring involves determining how to collect and visualize metrics and deciding on alerting strategies. Grafana provides tools and integrations to facilitate Kubernetes APM, helping improve both application quality and Kubernetes workflows.