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Requirements

Kubernetes

groundcover supports any K8s version from v1.21.
groundcover may work on many other K8s flavors, but we might just didn't get a chance to test it yet. Can't find yours in the list? let us know over Slack.

Environments

K8s distribution
Status
Comments
EKS
supported
AKS
supported
GKE
supported
OKE
supported
OpenShift
supported
Rancher
supported
Self-managed
supported
minikube
supported
requires CO:RE
kind
supported
requires CO:RE
Rancher Desktop
supported
k0s
supported
k3s
supported
k3d
supported
Bottlerocket OS
supported
kernel version 5.8+
AWS Fargate
not supported
Docker-desktop
not supported

BPF CO-RE (Compile Once – Run Everywhere)

In order to support the vast variety of linux kernels and distributions groundcover BPF programs require CO:RE support - systems which were compiled with BTF (CONFIG_BTF_ENABLE=Y). This is on by default for most of the common distributions nowadays.
You can check if your kernel has BTF built-in by looking for /sys/kernel/btf/vmlinux file:
$ ls -la /sys/kernel/btf/vmlinux
-r--r--r--. 1 root root 3541561 Jun 2 18:16 /sys/kernel/btf/vmlinuxs

Operating System

groundcover supports any Linux distribution with a kernel version of v4.14 or later (anything since 2017).
OS
Status
Version
Linux
supported
5.3+
Windows
not supported

Linux Distribution

Distribution
Supported Version
Debian
11+
RedHat Enterprise Linux
8.2+
Ubuntu
20.10+
CentOS
7.3+
Fedora
31+

CPU

Architecture
Support
x86-64
supported
ARM
supported

Memory

groundcover requests a total of ~500MB per agent and ~3GB for the data platform (traces, logs, metrics) for a basic installation. Actual usage depends on cluster activity.
Most of the memory requests are aimed at supporting moments of significant traffic peaks. We're constantly working on improving that!
If you're trying groundcover on a smaller cluster - you can tune the resources via the standard values.yaml interface in our helm chart, Contact us on slack if you want help in fine tuning groundcover to your needs

Pod Security Context

groundcover's agent alligator loads BPF programs that generates traces and metrics with no code changes. In order to install BPF programs, alligator pods require privileged access.

Outgoing Traffic

groundcover's portal pod sends HTTP requests to the cloud platform app.groundcover.com on port 443.
This unique architecture keeps the the data inside the cluster and fetches it on-demand keeping the data encrypted all the way without the need to open the cluster for incoming traffic via ingresses.