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Data visualization and observability

You can view your application’s topology, health and metrics in the Kiali console. If your service is having issues, the Kiali console offers ways to visualize the data flow through your service. You can view insights about the mesh components at different levels, including abstract applications, services, and workloads. It also provides an interactive graph view of your namespace in real time.

You can observe the data flow through your application if you have one installed. If you don’t have your own application installed, you can see how observability works in Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh by installing the Bookinfo sample application.

After installing the Bookinfo sample application, send traffic to the mesh. Enter the following command a few times:

$ curl http://$GATEWAY_URL/productpage

If your sample application is configured correctly, this command simulates a user visiting the productpage microservice of the application.

Accessing the Kiali console

To access the console, in the menu bar, click the Application launcher > Kiali.

  1. In the OpenShift Container Platform menu bar, click the Application launcher > Kiali.

  2. Log in to the Kiali console with the same user name and password as you use to access the OpenShift Container Platform console.

  3. Select the project for your service in the Namespace field. If you have installed the Bookinfo example, select bookinfo.

Procedure from the command line

  1. Run this command from the CLI to obtain the route and Kiali URL:

    $ oc get routes

    In the output on the kiali line, use the URL in the HOST/PORT column to open the Kiali console. Log in to the Kiali console with the same user name and password as you use to access the OpenShift Container Platform console. Select the project for your service in the Namespace field.

When you first log in, you see the Overview page which displays all the namespaces in your mesh that you have permission to view.

Visualizing your service

The Kiali operator works with the telemetry data gathered in Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh to provide graphs and real time network diagrams of the applications, services, and workloads in your namespace.

The Overview page displays all the namespaces that have services in your mesh. You can reveal deeper insights about the data traveling through your Service mesh or help identify problems with services or workloads in your service mesh with the following graphs and visualizations.

Namespace graphs

The namespace graph is a map of the services, deployments and workflows in your namespace and arrows that show how data flows through them. To view a namespace graph:

  1. Click Graph in the main navigation.

  2. Select bookinfo from the Namespace menu.

If your application uses version tags, like the Bookinfo sample application, you can see a Version graph. Select a graph from the Graph Type drop down menu. There are several graphs to choose from:

  • The App graph shows an aggregate workload for all applications that are labeled the same.

  • The Versioned App graph shows a node for each version of an app. All versions of an app are grouped together.

  • The Workload graph shows a node for each workload in your service mesh. This graph does not require you to use the app and version labels. If your app does not use version labels, use this the graph.

  • The Service graph shows a node for each service in your mesh but excludes all apps and workloads from the graph. It provides a high level view and aggregates all traffic for defined services.

To view a summary of metrics, select any node or edge in the graph to display its metric details in the summary details panel.