Install Fluent Bit in Workload Clusters Deployed by a Supervisor

This topic explains how to deploy Fluent Bit to Tanzu Kubernetes Grid (TKG) workload clusters deployed to vSphere by a vSphere with Tanzu Supervisor.

Fluent Bit is a fast, lightweight log processor and forwarder that lets you collect application data and logs from different sources, unify them, and send them to multiple destinations.

You can install Fluent Bit on a workload cluster in two ways:

Using the Tanzu CLI
Using kubectl

Install Fluent Bit Using the Tanzu CLI

Prerequisites

Adhere to the following prerequisites.

Prepare to Install Tanzu Packages.
Install Cert Manager Using the Tanzu CLI.
A destination for Fluent Bit log forwarding.

Reference

Refer to the following topic as needed.

Fluent Bit Components, Configuration, Data Values.

Install Fluent Bit

Complete these steps to install the Fluent Bit package.

Create the namespace for Fluent Bit.
```
kubectl create ns tanzu-system-logging
```
Get the latest Fluent Bit version available in the package repository.
```
kubectl -n tkg-system get packages
```
The latest version is 1.9.5+vmware.1-tkg.2 which is what we will install. Adjust the version as necessary to meet your requirements.
Create the fluent-bit-data-values.yaml file using either of the following methods.
1. Copy the example provided and customize it. See Fluent Bit Components, Configuration, Data Values.
2. Or you can generate a fluent-bit-default-values.yaml file.
```
tanzu package available get fluent-bit.tanzu.vmware.com/1.9.5+vmware.1-tkg.2 --default-values-file-output fluent-bit-data-values.yaml
```
Edit the fluent-bit-data-values.yaml file and configure the values.

See Fluent Bit Configuration Parameters (Supervisor) for a full list of available parameters.

Install the Fluent Bit package using the Tanzu CLI.

tanzu package install fluent-bit -p fluent-bit.tanzu.vmware.com -v 1.9.5+vmware.1-tkg.2 --values-file fluent-bit-data-values.yaml -n tanzu-system-logging

Verify Fluent Bit installation using the Tanzu CLI.

tanzu package installed list -n tanzu-system-logging

NAME        PACKAGE-NAME                 PACKAGE-VERSION        STATUS
fluent-bit  fluent-bit.tanzu.vmware.com  1.9.5+vmware.1-tkg.2  Reconcile succeeded

tanzu package installed get fluent-bit -n tanzu-system-logging

NAME:                    fluent-bit
PACKAGE-NAME:            fluent-bit.tanzu.vmware.com
PACKAGE-VERSION:         1.9.5+vmware.1-tkg.2
STATUS:                  Reconcile succeeded

Verify Fluent Bit installation using Kubectl.
```
kubectl -n tanzu-system-logging get all
```

Install Fluent Bit Using Kubectl

Install the Fluent Bit pacakge to collect and forward TKG cluster logs to a supported destination, including Syslog, HTTP, Elastic Search, Kafka, and Splunk.

Requirements

Adhere to the following prerequisites to install the Fluent Bit package.

Reference

Refer to the following topic as needed.

Fluent Bit Components, Configuration, Data Values.

Install Fluent Bit

Install the Fluent Bit package.

List the available Fluent Bit versions in the repository.
```
kubectl get packages -n tkg-system
```
The most current version is fluent-bit.tanzu.vmware.com.1.9.5+vmware.1-tkg.2.

Create the fluent-bit.yaml specification.

The following example can be used for a Syslog endpoint.

Refer to Fluent Bit Components, Configuration, Data Values for additional examples.

apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  name: fluentbit-sa
  namespace: tkg-system
---
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRoleBinding
metadata:
  name: fluentbit-role-binding
roleRef:
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
  kind: ClusterRole
  name: cluster-admin
subjects:
  - kind: ServiceAccount
    name: fluentbit-sa
    namespace: tkg-system
---
apiVersion: packaging.carvel.dev/v1alpha1
kind: PackageInstall
metadata:
  name: fluentbit
  namespace: tkg-system
spec:
  serviceAccountName: fluentbit-sa
  packageRef:
    refName: fluentbit.tanzu.vmware.com
    versionSelection:
      constraints: 1.9.5+vmware.1-tkg.2
  values:
  - secretRef:
      name: fluentbit-data-values
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: fluentbit-data-values
  namespace: tkg-system
stringData:
  values.yml: |
    ---
    namespace: fluentbit-logging
    tkg:
      instance_name: "<TKG_INSTANCE_NAME>"
      cluster_name: "<CLUSTER_NAME>"
    fluentbit:
      pspNames: "vmware-system-restricted"
      output_plugin: "syslog"
      syslog:
        host: "<SYSLOG_HOST>"
        port: "<SYSLOG_PORT>"
        mode: "<SYSLOG_MODE>"
        format: "<SYSLOG_FORMAT>"

Customize the fluentbit-data-values section of the fluent-bit.yaml specification with appropriate values for your environment. For example:

...
    ---
    namespace: fluentbit-logging
    tkg:
      instance_name: "tkg-2.2"
      cluster_name: "tkgs-cluster-9"
    fluentbit:
      pspNames: "vmware-system-restricted"
      output_plugin: "syslog"
      syslog:
        host: "10.182.176.50"
        port: "514"
        mode: "tcp"
        format: "rfc5424"

See Fluent Bit Configuration Parameters (Supervisor) for a full list of available parameters.

Install the Fluent Bit package.
```
kubectl apply -f fluentbit.yaml
```
Verify Fluent Bit installation.
```
kubectl get all -n fluentbit-logging
```