Using Subtrace on Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS)

If you’re using AWS EKS to deploy your app, Subtrace is a great way to monitor your network requests in realtime.

Subtrace requires Linux kernel version 5.9+.

How do I check what image/kernel version I'm using?

Navigate to your cluster in AWS.
Under the Compute tab, you’ll see your cluster’s nodes.
Click on the node you’re interested in to see the kernel version and the image:

Add Subtrace to your container by making this change to your Dockerfile:

- CMD ["node", "./app.js"]
+ RUN curl -fsSL https://subtrace.dev/install.sh | sh
+ CMD ["subtrace", "run", "--", "node", "./app.js"]

Build and push your Docker image as usual.
Update your Kubernetes pod spec to point to the new image. Here is an example deployment.yaml file:

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: node-app
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: node-app
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: node-app
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: node-app
          image: USERID.dkr.ecr.REGION.amazonaws.com/node-app:v2
          ports:
            - containerPort: 3000
          env:
            - name: SUBTRACE_TOKEN
              valueFrom:
                secretKeyRef:
                  name: env-secrets
                  key: SUBTRACE_TOKEN
          securityContext:
            capabilities:
              add: ["SYS_PTRACE"]

Make sure the container has the SUBTRACE_TOKEN environment variable in your deployment YAML. Typically, this is done with a Kubernetes secret, but if you’re using an external secret manager, consult its documentation. If you don’t have a Subtrace token yet, go to the Tokens page on the dashboard and create a tracer token.

Don’t forget to set the securityContext field in the container spec. Subtrace needs the SYS_PTRACE capability in order to trace your app’s requests.

Apply your changes to the EKS cluster. You can do this using the AWS CLI:

aws eks update-kubeconfig --name my-cluster --region cluster-region
kubectl apply -f deployment.yaml

You can verify that your deployments are healthy in the Overview tab for your cluster in AWS:

And that’s it! You should now be able to see your pod’s HTTP requests on the Subtrace dashboard.

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Using Subtrace on Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS)