Add support for Kubernetes Windows nodes (or Beats as containers in Windows)

[jsoriano]

Docker can be run natively on Windows and this way it can run native containers, this allows to have Windows nodes in Kubernetes clusters running native Windows applications. GKE allows to create Kubernetes clusters with Windows nodes (see this blog post). Also Azure (AKS) supports it https://github.com/elastic/beats/issues/20223.

Running Beats as proposed now in Kubernetes guides is not possible there because this requires to run Beats as containers, but so far Beats containers are only created for Linux.

A possible workaround now is to run Beats directly on the hosts, but this makes a complete different experience to the one with usual Linux-based clusters.

Some things that could be done to support this use case:

• [ ] Distribute Beats as Windows containers too
• [ ] Update documentation and reference manifests to use these images if needed (maybe different OSs can have images with the same name)
• [ ] Improve testing of Docker and Kubernetes features on Windows
• [ ] Support deployment of beats using daemonsets in mixed clusters (with Linux and Windows nodes)

Related issues:

• Question on discuss about this
• Beats don't work on nanoserver image

[junneyang]

+1

[cwarnke]

I'd really like to see this. "Support deployment of beats using daemonsets in mixed clusters (with Linux and Windows nodes)"

[joproulx]

We built our own docker images for metricbeat for Windows Nano Server and some of the modules do work.

Kubernetes module seems to work ok. The System module on the other hand doesn't work. So I cannot get CPU for the Host (Node) from metricbeat on a Windows Node.

If I understand correctly on Linux, we map the Host filesystem on the container and therefore metricbeat can read system metrics (reference).

Any idea how we can support this on Windows? Is there any plan on supporting this?

[elasticmachine]

Pinging @elastic/integrations (Team:Integrations)

[akshay-saraswat]

Thanks for the ping and reminder @joproulx! We definitely want to support this but "when?" would be answered after we have prioritized it against all the other tasks we plan to work on. Since this issue involves participation from multiple teams at Elastic, it's difficult to provide a concrete timeline right now. We will keep you posted as we make progress.

[mtloaprhn]

Hi team,

Do you have any update for that ? I have a AKS cluster with many windows nodes and I'm unable to monitor their. I tried to create my own Windows docker image but too many things are not similar to the linux behavior and doesn't working. Thanks

[derbl4ck]

Hey @akshay-saraswat , I also maintain several Kubernetes clusters with Windows nodes and would benefit from this feature.

Is there already a roadmap for this feature?

Best regards

[nimarezainia]

@derbl4ck and @mtloaprhn we are looking at whether this is feasible and include in our planning. Right now we don't have a targeted delivery timeline due to many other higher priority initiatives we are trying to address.

[botelastic[bot]]

Hi! We just realized that we haven't looked into this issue in a while. We're sorry!

We're labeling this issue as Stale to make it hit our filters and make sure we get back to it as soon as possible. In the meantime, it'd be extremely helpful if you could take a look at it as well and confirm its relevance. A simple comment with a nice emoji will be enough :+1. Thank you for your contribution!

[mloskot]

Please, don't drop it 👍

By the way, folks, Microsoft requested for comments about Windows Containers observability requirements here https://github.com/microsoft/Windows-Containers/issues/311 so it may be a good idea to point them at the Elastic/Beats issues.

[PatrickSpies]

👍

[derbl4ck]

👍

[botelastic[bot]]

Hi! We just realized that we haven't looked into this issue in a while. We're sorry!

We're labeling this issue as Stale to make it hit our filters and make sure we get back to it as soon as possible. In the meantime, it'd be extremely helpful if you could take a look at it as well and confirm its relevance. A simple comment with a nice emoji will be enough :+1. Thank you for your contribution!

[PatrickSpies]

👍

[helbros86]

:+1

[OldScratchy]

+1

[LBoraz]

+1