Heapster is a deprecated monitoring and performance analysis tool for Kubernetes container clusters, written in Go and maintained by the OpenShift project. The repository explicitly marks the project as deprecated, directing users toward metrics-server and third-party metrics pipelines that gather Prometheus-format metrics instead. The deprecation timeline and support information are documented in the repository, with a clear statement that no new features will be added to Heapster going forward.
The core functionality of Heapster centers on collecting and interpreting various signals from container clusters, including compute resource usage and lifecycle events. It was designed to support Kubernetes versions v1.0.6 and higher, as well as platforms that include Kubernetes. The project provides container cluster monitoring capabilities that enable operators to analyze performance characteristics and resource utilization across their deployments. The repository includes documentation on the model API, which was formerly used to provide REST access to collected metrics but is now deprecated itself, with detailed information available in the model documentation.
A key architectural feature of Heapster is its pluggable design for both data sources and storage backends. The project supports multiple sources of data collection, with configuration details documented in the source-configuration documentation. On the storage side, Heapster implements a pluggable backend system that allows metrics to be written to various storage solutions. The repository welcomes patches that add additional storage backends, and documentation for storage sinks and the storage schema are provided to guide integration efforts. Common storage backend choices documented in the repository include InfluxDB and Stackdriver Monitoring and Logging for Google Cloud Platform deployments, with additional backend options available.
The repository includes specific guidance for running Heapster on OpenShift clusters, which requires additional configuration changes beyond standard Kubernetes instructions to enable secure communication between the Heapster instance and OpenShift's secured endpoints. The project references the origin-metrics repository for comprehensive instructions on running standalone Heapster or combinations of Heapster with Hawkular-Metrics in OpenShift environments. A debugging and troubleshooting guide is also provided to assist operators in resolving issues.
The project maintains community engagement through multiple channels, including the Kubernetes Slack workspace in the sig-instrumentation channel and the kubernetes-dev Google Groups mailing list, where contributors are encouraged to prefix heapster-related discussions with the project name. The repository actively welcomes contributions, questions, and comments from the community, though the deprecated status means that engagement is primarily focused on maintenance and migration guidance rather than feature development.
