Set up your TinyHat environment

lab

This procedure is part of a lab that teaches you how to monitor your Kubernetes cluster with Pixie. If you haven't already, check out the lab introduction.

Before you learn how you can use Pixie to monitor your Kubernetes clusters, you need to set one up. We've designed a cluster for you to use in this lab.

Step 1 of 3

Clone pixie-lab-materials from GitHub:

bash

$git clone https://github.com/newrelic-experimental/pixie-lab-materials

This repository contains all the code you need to complete this lab.

Step 2 of 3

Change to the main directory, and run the setup script:

bash

$cd pixie-lab-materials/main
$./setup.sh

Important

If you're a windows user, run the PowerShell setup script:

bash

$.\setup.ps1

This script spins up a new minikube cluster using the Pixie-supported hyperkit driver. It also configures your network memory and CPU with limits that work well with this lab. Finally, it creates all the pods and services that make up the TinyHat application.

Tip

If you're using linux, update setup.sh to use the kvm2 driver instead:

bash

$minikube start --driver=kvm2 --cni=flannel --cpus=4 --memory=8000 -p minikube-pixie-lab

If you're missing any dependencies, see the requirements in the lab overview for installation links.

Step 3 of 3

In a new terminal window, open a minikube tunnel:

bash

$minikube tunnel -p minikube-pixie-lab

This exposes the load balancer services in your cluster so you can access them.

Important

You may have to provide your user's password to allow minikube to work.

You should now have two terminal windows:

One that contains your tunnel. This needs to remain open as long as you use your website.
One for running the rest of the commands in this lab

In the next procedure, you familiarize yourself with your cluster and website.

lab

This procedure is part of a lab that teaches you how to monitor your Kubernetes cluster with Pixie. Now that you've set up your environment, explore your cluster.