gke-observability

The saved excerpt is a snapshot from when this skill was listed. The external source remains the complete and most current version.

---
name: gke-observability
description: >-
  Configures GKE observability, including Cloud Logging, Cloud Monitoring, and
  managed Prometheus. Use when configuring GKE monitoring, setting up GKE logging,
  or configuring Prometheus metrics collection. Don't use to configure local
  application logging frameworks or external APMs outside GKE.
metadata:
  category: CloudObservabilityAndMonitoring
---

# GKE Observability

This reference covers monitoring, logging, and metrics configuration for GKE.
The golden path enables comprehensive observability including control-plane
metrics.

> **MCP Tools:** `get_cluster`, `list_k8s_events`, `get_k8s_logs`,
> `get_k8s_cluster_info`, `describe_k8s_resource`. **CLI-only:** `gcloud
> container clusters update --monitoring=...`, `gcloud logging read`

## Golden Path Observability Defaults

Setting                                             | Golden Path Value                                                                                                                                   | Notes
--------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -----
`loggingConfig` components                          | SYSTEM_COMPONENTS, WORKLOADS                                                                                                                        | Full workload logging
`monitoringConfig` components                       | SYSTEM_COMPONENTS, STORAGE, POD, DEPLOYMENT, STATEFULSET, DAEMONSET, HPA, JOBSET, CADVISOR, KUBELET, DCGM, APISERVER, SCHEDULER, CONTROLLER_MANAGER | Full suite including control-plane
`managedPrometheusConfig.enabled`                   | `true`                                                                                                                                              | Google-managed Prometheus
`advancedDatapathObservabilityConfig.enableMetrics` | `true`                                                                                                                                              | Dataplane V2 flow metrics
`loggingService`                                    | `logging.googleapis.com/kubernetes`                                                                                                                 | Cloud Logging
`monitoringService`                                 | `monitoring.googleapis.com/kubernetes`                                                                                                              | Cloud Monitoring

### Control-Plane Metrics (Golden Path Addition)

The golden path adds three control-plane monitoring components not present in
default clusters:

| Component            | What It Monitors                                                       |
| -------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `APISERVER`          | API server request latency, error rates, admission webhook performance |
| `SCHEDULER`          | Scheduling latency, pending pods, scheduling failures                  |
| `CONTROLLER_MANAGER` | Controller work queue depth, reconciliation latency                    |

These are critical for diagnosing cluster-level issues (slow API responses,
scheduling delays, stuck controllers).

## Enabling Full Monitoring

**Say this whenever you hand over a `--monitoring` command:**

1.  **Control-plane metrics are NOT enabled by default.** State this outright in
    your answer — do not leave it implied by the fact that you are supplying an
    enable command. `API_SERVER`, `SCHEDULER`, and `CONTROLLER_MANAGER` are off
    on every new cluster and collect nothing until explicitly turned on, and the
    same is true of `DCGM`, `CADVISOR`, `KUBELET`, and kube-state (`POD`,
    `DEPLOYMENT`, `STATEFULSET`, `DAEMONSET`, `HPA`, `STORAGE`, `JOBSET`).
    `SYSTEM` is the only package on by default. A user aski