This topic describes the architecture of the Healthwatch for VMware Tanzu, Healthwatch Exporter for VMware Tanzu Application Service for VMs (TAS for VMs), and Healthwatch Exporter for Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Integrated Edition (TKGI) tiles. This topic also describes the possible configurations for monitoring metrics across multiple Ops Manager foundations.
There are three tiles that form the Healthwatch architecture: Healthwatch, Healthwatch Exporter for TAS for VMs, and Healthwatch Exporter for TKGI.
A complete Healthwatch installation includes the Healthwatch tile, as well as at least one Healthwatch Exporter tile. However, you can deploy and use each tile separately as part of an alternate monitoring configuration.
You must install a Healthwatch Exporter tile on each Ops Manager foundation you want to monitor. You can install the Healthwatch tile on the same foundation or on a different foundation, depending on your desired monitoring configuration.
You can also configure the Healthwatch Exporter tiles to expose metrics to a service or database located outside your Ops Manager foundation, such as an external time-series database (TSDB) or an installation of the Healthwatch tile on a separate Ops Manager foundation. This does not require you to install the Healthwatch tile.
For a detailed explanation of the architecture for each tile, a list of open ports required for each component, and the possible configurations for monitoring metrics across Ops Manager foundations, see the following sections:
When you install the Healthwatch tile, Healthwatch deploys instances of Prometheus, Grafana, and MySQL. Healthwatch also deploys an Nginx proxy in front of the Prometheus instance for load-balancing.
The Prometheus instance scrapes and stores metrics from the Prometheus endpoints on the metric exporter VMs that the Healthwatch Exporter tiles deploy. Prometheus also allows you to configure alerts with Alertmanager.
Healthwatch then exports these metrics to dashboards in the Grafana UI, where you can visualize the data in charts and graphs. You can also use Grafana to create customized dashboards for long-term monitoring and troubleshooting.
Note: The MySQL instance that the Healthwatch tile deploys only stores your Grafana settings, and does not store any time-series data.
The diagram below illustrates how metrics travel from the Healthwatch Exporter tiles through Prometheus and to Grafana. It also shows how metrics travel through Prometheus to Alertmanager.
You can deploy the Healthwatch tile in high availability (HA) mode with three MySQL nodes and two MySQL Proxy nodes, or in non-HA mode with one MySQL node and one MySQL Proxy node.
Healthwatch deploys a single Grafana VM by default. If you need Grafana to be HA, you can scale the Grafana instance horizontally.
Healthwatch deploys two Prometheus VMs by default. You can scale the Prometheus instance vertically, but you should not scale it horizontally.
The table below describes the ports you must open for each Healthwatch component:
| This component … | Must communicate with … | Default TCP Port | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
grafana |
|
|
Additional networking rules may be required for any external connections listed. For example, 443 for UAA. |
blackbox-exporter |
External canary target URLs | N/A | Additional networking rules may be required, depending on your external canary target URL configuration. |
tsdb |
|
9090 |
|
tsdb (for TKGI cluster discovery) |
For each cluster:
|
|
You only need to open these ports if you configure TKGI cluster discovery. |
The Healthwatch Exporter for TAS for VMs tile deploys metric exporter VMs to generate each type of metric related to the health of your TAS for VMs deployment.
Healthwatch Exporter for TAS for VMs sends metrics through the Loggregator Firehose to a Prometheus exposition endpoint on the associated metric exporter VMs. The Prometheus instance that exists within your metrics monitoring system then scrapes the exposition endpoints on the metric exporter VMs and imports those metrics into your monitoring system.
You can scale the VMs that Healthwatch Exporter for TAS for VMs deploys vertically, but should not scale them horizontally.
The table below describes the ports you must open for each Healthwatch Exporter for TAS for VMs component:
| This component … | Must communicate with … | Default TCP Port |
|---|---|---|
bosh-deployments-exporter |
|
|
bosh-health-exporter |
|
|
cert-expiration-exporter |
Ops Manager | 443 |
pas-exporter-counter |
Reverse Log Proxy (RLP) nozzle | 8082 |
pas-exporter-gauge |
RLP nozzle | 8082 |
pas-exporter-timer |
RLP nozzle | 8082 |
pas-sli-exporter |
|
|
The Healthwatch Exporter for TKGI tile deploys metric exporter VMs to generate SLIs related to the health of your TKGI deployment.
The Prometheus instance that exists within your metrics monitoring system then scrapes the Prometheus exposition endpoints on the metric exporter VMs and imports those metrics into your monitoring system.
You can scale the VMs that Healthwatch Exporter for TKGI deploys vertically, but should not scale them horizontally.
The table below describes the ports you must open for each Healthwatch Exporter for TKGI component:
| This component … | Must communicate with … | Default TCP Port |
|---|---|---|
bosh-deployments-exporter |
|
|
bosh-health-exporter |
|
|
cert-expiration-exporter |
Ops Manager | 443 |
pks-exporter |
|
|
pks-sli-exporter |
|
|
Healthwatch can be configured in multiple ways, allowing you to monitor metrics across a variety of runtime and Ops Manager foundation configurations. The sections below describe the most common configuration scenarios:
If you only want to monitor a single Ops Manager foundation that has TAS for VMs installed, install the Healthwatch tile and Healthwatch Exporter for TAS for VMs on the same foundation. The Healthwatch tile automatically detects Healthwatch Exporter for TAS for VMs on the same foundation and adds a scrape job for Healthwatch Exporter for TAS for VMs to the Prometheus instance.
For more information about installing and configuring the Healthwatch tile and Healthwatch Exporter for TAS for VMs, see the following topics:
Installing a Tile Manually or Installing, Configuring, and Deploying a Tile Through an Automated Pipeline
If you only want to monitor a single Ops Manager foundation that has TKGI installed, install the Healthwatch tile and Healthwatch Exporter for TKGI on the same foundation. The Healthwatch tile automatically detects Healthwatch Exporter for TKGI on the same foundation and adds a scrape job for Healthwatch Exporter for TKGI to the Prometheus instance.
For more information about installing and configuring the Healthwatch tile and Healthwatch Exporter for TKGI, see the following topics:
Installing a Tile Manually or Installing, Configuring, and Deploying a Tile Through an Automated Pipeline
If you only want to monitor a single Ops Manager foundation that has both TAS for VMs and TKGI installed, install the Healthwatch tile, Healthwatch Exporter for TAS for VMs, and Healthwatch Exporter for TKGI on the same foundation. The Healthwatch tile automatically detects Healthwatch Exporter for TAS for VMs and Healthwatch Exporter for TKGI on the same foundation and adds scrape jobs for both Healthwatch Exporter tiles to the Prometheus instance.
For more information about installing and configuring the Healthwatch tile, Healthwatch Exporter for TAS for VMs, and Healthwatch Exporter for TKGI, see the following topics:
Installing a Tile Manually or Installing, Configuring, and Deploying a Tile Through an Automated Pipeline
You can monitor several Ops Manager foundations from a single monitoring Ops Manager foundation using direct scraping.
When you configure direct scraping for your multi-foundation Healthwatch deployment, the Prometheus instance in the Healthwatch tile on a monitoring Ops Manager foundation scrapes metrics directly from the metric exporter VMs deployed by the Healthwatch Exporter tiles installed on the Ops Manager foundation you monitor.
To configure your Healthwatch deployment to monitor several Ops Manager foundations from a single monitoring Ops Manager foundation using direct scraping, see Configure Multi-Foundation Monitoring Using Direct Scraping in Configuring Multi-Foundation Monitoring.
You can monitor several Ops Manager foundations from a single monitoring Ops Manager foundation using federation.
When you configure federation for your multi-foundation Healthwatch deployment, the Prometheus instance in the Healthwatch tile on a monitoring Ops Manager foundation scrapes a subset of metrics from the Prometheus instances in the Healthwatch tiles installed on the Ops Manager foundations you monitor.
To configure your Healthwatch deployment to monitor several Ops Manager foundations from a single monitoring Ops Manager foundation using federation, see Configure Multi-Foundation Monitoring Using Federation in Configuring Multi-Foundation Monitoring.
