Adding the APM Insight Python agent in Kubernetes via init containers

Adding the APM Insight Python agent via init containers in Kubernetes enables the seamless integration of performance monitoring for Python applications, ensuring efficient tracking and analysis of application behavior within the Kubernetes environment.

Please follow the steps below to achieve this:

Create a secret for the Site24x7 license key in your application namespace.

Note

You can obtain the license key from your Site24x7 account by navigating to Admin > Developer > Device Key.

Example:
copied
```
kubectl create secret generic app-secret --from-literal=s247licensekey='your_s247_license_key' -n pythonapp
```
Replace app-secret, your_s247_license_key, and pythonapp (namespace) with the appropriate values.
Create an empty volume that will be used to copy the agent files during the init containers process.

Example:
copied
```
volumes:
        - name: s247agent
```

Include the following init containers command in your Helm chart or deployment YAML file.

initContainers:
        - name: agent-copy
        image: site24x7/apminsight-pythonagent:latest
        imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
        command: ['cp', '-r', '/opt/site24x7/.', '/home/apm']
        volumeMounts:
        - name: s247agent
        mountPath: /home/apm

Mount the volume created in step 2 into your application container.

Example:

containers:
        - name: pythonapp
        image: pythonapp:latest
        imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
ports:
        - containerPort: 8080
        volumeMounts:
        - name: s247agent
        mountPath: /home/apm

Add the following environment variables to the application container.
- Environment variable 1
  Name: S247_LICENSE_KEY
  Value: Enter the s247licensekey from the secret added in step 1.
- Environment variable 2
  Name: APP_RUN_COMMAND
  Value: Provide your application startup command.
- Environment variable 3
  Name: APM_APP_NAME
  Value: Configure the name of the Python application that will be displayed in the Site24x7 client.
- Environment variable 4
  Name: APP_ENV_PATH
  Value: If you are using a virtual environment, specify the path of the environment bin directory.
  
  Note
  
  In this step, we configure the application (Python process) startup command as an argument so that the agent will send data to the specified monitor name.
Example:
Here is an example of a Python application running in a Gunicorn environment on port 8080 with two worker processes.
copied
```
env:
    - name: APP_RUN_COMMAND
value: gunicorn --bind 127.0.0.1:8080 -w 2 pythonapp_main:app
    - name: S247_LICENSE_KEY
            valueFrom:
            secretKeyRef:
            name: pythonapp-secrets
key: s247_license_key
```

Change your application container startup command to the Python agent startup script.

The script agent_start.sh will start your Python application with the APM Python agent using the command provided in APP_RUN_COMMAND.

containers:
 - name: pythonapp
    image: pythonapp:latest
    imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
    command: ["/bin/sh", "-c", "/home/apm/agent_start.sh"]
    ports:
    - containerPort: 8080
    volumeMounts:
    - name: s247agent
      mountPath: /home/apm

Sample Kubernetes deployment YAML file

apiVersion: v1
kind: Namespace
metadata:
  name: pythonapp
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
type: Opaque
metadata:
  name: pythonapp-secrets
data:
  s247licensekey:
dXNCGfNGPfNTMyZjVjNzAwOTE5YTM4ODQyMDQzOGVjZjAwNGE4NA==
---
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: pythonapp-deployment
  namespace: pythonapp
  labels:
    app: flask
spec:
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      name: pythonapp-deployment
  replicas: 1
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        name: pythonapp-deployment
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: pythonapp-deployment
        image: pythonapp:version1
        command: ["/bin/sh", "-c", "/home/apm/agent_start.sh"]
        imagePullPolicy: Always
        ports:
        - containerPort: 5000
        env:
        - name: APP_RUN_COMMAND
          value: "gunicorn --bind 127.0.0.1:8080 -w 2 pythonapp_main:app"
- name: APM_APP_NAME
          value: "Python-application"
        - name: S247_LICENSE_KEY
          valueFrom:
            secretKeyRef:
              name: pythonapp-secret
              key: s247licensekey
        volumeMounts:
          - mountPath: /home/apm
            name: s247agent
      initContainers:
      - name: agent-copy-init
        command: ["cp","-r","/opt/site24x7/.","/home/apm"]
        image: site2x7/apminsight-pythonagent:latest
        imagePullPolicy: Always
        volumeMounts:
        - mountPath: /home/apm
          name: s247agent
      volumes:
      - name: s247agent
        # emptyDir: {}
      restartPolicy: Always
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: pythonapp-deployment
spec:
  type: NodePort
  selector:
    app: flask
  ports:
  - protocol: TCP
    port: 5000
    targetPort: 5000
nodePort: 30200

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How to install various APM Insight agents in a Kubernetes environment
Java | .NET | PHP | Node.js

Adding the APM Insight Python agent in Kubernetes via init containers

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