Platform Center
Home / Platform management / Networking / Subnets / Calico Network Monitoring

Calico Network Monitoring

View IPAM, Felix, and BGP route monitoring through the dashboards.

Monitoring Panels

Various monitoring metrics can be viewed through the monitoring panels.

Operating Steps

  1. In the left navigation bar, click Operations Center > Monitoring > Dashboards.

  2. Click Cluster at the top of the page to switch to the cluster you need to monitor.

  3. Click Switch at the top right corner of the page.

  4. You can enter the monitoring dashboard through the following two methods:

    • Method 1: Click the calico card to expand the monitoring directory, then click Calico IPAM and BGP Route to enter the IPAM and BGP Route monitoring dashboard; click Calico/Felix Dashboard to enter the Felix monitoring dashboard. You can set the monitoring dashboard as the main dashboard as needed.

    • Method 2: Enter and search keywords (e.g., calico, felix, etc.) in the search box, then click Calico IPAM and BGP Route to enter the IPAM and BGP Route monitoring dashboard; click Calico/Felix Dashboard to enter the Felix monitoring dashboard. You can set the monitoring dashboard as the main dashboard as needed.

  5. View various monitoring metrics through the dashboard.

Legend Parameters and Explanations

Monitoring Metrics

Calico’s monitoring metrics are divided into three parts: IPAM monitoring, Felix monitoring, and BGP route monitoring.

IPAM Monitoring

Calico provides IP Address Management (IPAM) functionality to help manage and allocate IP addresses for container workloads. Key concepts include:

Monitoring Metrics

Display Name Metric Name Labels Description
ipam blocks on each node ipam_blocks ippool, node Monitors the number of IP address blocks dynamically allocated by IPAM for the current node.
IP allocations on each node ipam_allocations_in_use ippool, node Monitors the number of IP addresses currently allocated and in use by the current node, reflecting the actual usage of IP addresses allocated by IPAM.
IP borrowed on each node ipam_allocations_borrowed ippool, node Monitors the number of IP addresses borrowed by the current node from the address blocks of other nodes.
ipam allocations leaks on each node ipam_allocations_gc_candidates ippool, node Monitors the number of IP addresses marked as allocated and identified as potential leakage risks by garbage collection (GC). Leakage risks may arise from incorrect network configurations or operations, leading to the failure to release IP addresses properly. Under normal GC operations, this metric returns zero.

Label Explanation

Label Name Description
ippool IP address pool in which the IP address block is located. If there is no matching address pool for the block, the value is no_ippool.

Felix Monitoring Metrics

Display Name Metric Name Description
Active hosts on each node felix_cluster_num_hosts Monitors the number of cluster nodes.
ipset errors felix_ipset_errors Monitors the number of failures of the ipset command. When Felix attempts to create, update, or delete IP sets (a data structure used to store a set of IP addresses for management and matching) using the ipset command, errors that occur are recorded in this metric. This metric helps administrators track whether management operations on IP sets were successfully executed and whether errors occurred during the operations.
iptables restore errors felix_iptables_restore_errors Monitors the number of errors encountered by iptables-restore. The Felix component is responsible for managing iptables rules on nodes, which are used to implement container network connectivity and traffic control. When iptables rules need to be restored (e.g., due to configuration changes, restarts, race conditions, etc.), Felix attempts to reload these rules, and this metric records the number of errors that occurred during the attempt to restore iptables rules.
iptables save errors felix_iptables_save_errors Monitors the number of errors encountered by iptables-save, i.e., when attempting to save iptables rules, the number of errors encountered by Calico’s Felix component.
Felix ipsets total felix_ipsets_total Monitors the total number of active IP sets.
Felix cluster policies felix_active_local_policies Monitors the number of active policies on the host. In container networking, policies are typically used to define rules for network communication, such as allowing or denying traffic between specific sources and destinations.
Active calico nodes felix_active_local_endpoints Monitors the number of active endpoint nodes on the host. In container networking, endpoint nodes usually refer to containers or virtual machine instances running on the host.
Felix resync started felix_resyncs_started Monitors the number of times synchronization of ETCD data is started.
calico active ipsets num felix_ipsets_calico Monitors the number of active Calico IP sets.
Errors plot
  • iptables restore errors
  • ipset errors
  • iptables save errors
 Monitors all errors encountered by Calico. Occasional errors are acceptable. However, an increase in the number of errors or constant error counters suggests that Calico may not be functioning properly.
Felix iptables chains felix_iptables_chains Monitors the number of chains created in iptables. In container networking, iptables chains are used to implement network policies, security group rules, and traffic control rules. By monitoring this metric, administrators can understand the scale of iptables chains on the node, evaluate and adjust network policies, traffic control rules, etc. A large number of chains may impact performance, so optimization and adjustment can be made based on this metric.
Felix iptables rules felix_iptables_rules Monitors the number of iptables rules on the node. In container networking, iptables rules are used to define network policies, security group rules, and traffic control rules. By monitoring this metric, administrators can understand the scale of iptables rules on the node, helping to evaluate and adjust network policies, traffic control rules, etc., optimize and adjust network performance, and ensure network security.
Dataplane felix_int_dataplane_apply_time_seconds Measures the time taken for one update of data plane resources, such as ipset, iptables, and routes, in seconds. It provides data for the 0.5, 0.9, and 0.99 percentiles, showing the distribution statistics of the time consumption. The 0.5, 0.9, and 0.99 percentiles indicate that the data collected is sorted from smallest to largest, and the data values at the 50%, 90%, and 99% positions are taken. This helps to understand the distribution of time consumption data and identify various extreme cases.
Route table felix_route_table_list_seconds Measures the time taken for one synchronization operation in Felix, which synchronizes all interfaces, in seconds. It provides data for the 0.5, 0.9, and 0.99 percentiles, showing the distribution statistics of the time consumption.

BGP Route Monitoring Metrics

Display Name Metric Name Description
bird protocol up bird_protocol_up Monitors whether the BGP protocol is running between the current node and other nodes in the Calico network. The metric defaults to 1, indicating that the BGP protocol is working normally, able to exchange route information, and can provide feedback on the status of BGP route neighbor establishment, similar to bgp_peer.
preferred route count bird_protocol_prefix_preferred_count Monitors the number of preferred routes in BGP routes. Preferred routes refer to the optimal paths chosen by BGP routers for forwarding traffic when multiple reachable routes exist.
bgp route updates received bird_protocol_changes_update_import_receive_count Monitors the number of BGP route update received by the current node.
import route count bird_protocol_prefix_import_count Monitors the number of routes imported on the node. Imported routes indicate routes learned through routing protocols imported into the routing table.
export route count bird_protocol_prefix_export_count Monitors the number of routes exported from the routing table on the node. Exported routes indicate routes announced to neighbors from the routing table.