Sakuli Dashboard

The Sakuli Dashboard streamlines your e2e application monitoring with Sakuli. It helps you start your Sakuli test automatically with a cronjob to monitor your application continuously or trigger it manually with a button. While watching a live video feed of your Sakuli check, you can track the monitoring metrics of your application by embedding your monitoring graphs into the Sakuli Dashboard.

How to get the Sakuli Dashboard

Sakuli Dashboard releases are versioned following the semantic versioning scheme. Images for stable releases are tagged accordingly. Tech-previews of upcoming stable releases are available via the latest tag.
It is highly discouraged to run tech-previews in production as there is no guarantee of stability.

You will come across configurations such as the DASHBOARD_CONFIG, the ACTION_CONFIG, the CLUSTER_CONFIG and the CRONJOB_CONFIG which configure your Sakuli Dashboard. For further information about how to properly configure the dashboard check out the Sakuli Dashboard Configuration documentation.

Sakuli Dashboard with Docker

1 Obtaining the image

docker pull taconsol/sakuli-dashboard:<IMAGE_TAG>

2 Running the Sakuli Dashboard

docker run --rm \
 -p 8080:8080 \
 -e DASHBOARD_CONFIG="${DASHBOARD_CONFIG}" \
 -e ACTION_CONFIG="${ACTION_CONFIG}" \
 -e CLUSTER_CONFIG="${CLUSTER_CONFIG}" \
 -e CRONJOB_CONFIG="${CRONJOB_CONFIG}" \
 taconsol/sakuli-dashboard:<IMAGE_TAG>

Parameters:

  • --rm: The dashboard container will be removed after execution, not just stopped
  • -p: Port forwarding to access the dashboard container on port 8080
  • -e: Environment variable flags which are used to configure the dashboard

Sakuli Dashboard with Docker-Compose

The following template allows you to run a dashboard using docker-compose:

version: "3"
services:
    sakuli:
        container_name: sakuli-dashboard
        image: taconsol/sakuli-dashboard:<IMAGE_TAG>
        ports:
            - 8080:8080
        environment:
            - DASHBOARD_CONFIG=${DASHBOARD_CONFIG}
            - ACTION_CONFIG=${ACTION_CONFIG}
            - CLUSTER_CONFIG=${CLUSTER_CONFIG}
            - CRONJOB_CONFIG=${CRONJOB_CONFIG}

After creating the <filename>.yml configuration file, you can start the dashboard with: 

docker-compose up -f /path/to/file/<filename>.yml

Sakuli Dashboard on Kubernetes

You can start your Sakuli Dashboard using two different approaches:

  • Set up the Sakuli Dashboard manually via CLI.
  • Set up the Sakuli Dashboard using a ready to use template.

Set up the Sakuli Dashboard manually

As a first step, create a deployment based on the Sakuli Dashboard image and expose the service.

kubectl create deployment sakuli-dashbaord --image=taconsol/sakuli-dashboard:<IMAGE_TAG>

kubectl expose deployment sakuli-dashboard --type=LoadBalancer --port=8080

The --type=LoadBalancer flag is important to make your service available outside your cluster.

Now add your Sakuli Dashboard configurations such as the dashboard, action, cluster and cronjob configs to the environment of your deployment.

kubectl set env deployment/sakuli-dashboard --overwrite \
 DASHBOARD_CONFIG="${DASHBOARD_CONFIG}" \
 ACTION_CONFIG="${ACTION_CONFIG}" \
 CLUSTER_CONFIG="${CLUSTER_CONFIG}" \
 CRONJOB_CONFIG="${CRONJOB_CONFIG}"

Set up Sakuli Dashboard using a Template

The following ready-to-use template will configure a Sakuli Dashboard and deploy it to your cluster Just copy and save the dashboard template below as dashboard-template.yml. Furthermore, add your dashboard, action, cluster and cronjob configurations listed under ConfigMap as well as the image tag.

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: sakuli-dashboard
  labels:
    app: sakuli-dashboard
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: sakuli-dashboard
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: sakuli-dashboard
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: sakuli-dashboard
          # Specify the Sakuli Dashboard version you want to use
          image: taconsol/sakuli-dashboard:${IMAGE_TAG}
          imagePullPolicy: Always
          env:
            - name: ACTION_CONFIG
              valueFrom:
                configMapKeyRef:
                  name: sakuli-dashboard
                  key: ACTION_CONFIG
            - name: CLUSTER_CONFIG
              valueFrom:
                configMapKeyRef:
                  name: sakuli-dashboard
                  key: CLUSTER_CONFIG
            - name: DASHBOARD_CONFIG
              valueFrom:
                configMapKeyRef:
                  name: sakuli-dashboard
                  key: DASHBOARD_CONFIG
            - name: CRONJOB_CONFIG
              valueFrom:
                configMapKeyRef:
                  name: sakuli-dashboard
                  key: CRONJOB_CONFIG
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: sakuli-dashboard
spec:
  selector:
    app: sakuli-dashboard
  ports:
    - protocol: TCP
      port: 8080
      targetPort: 8080
  type: LoadBalancer
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: sakuli-dashboard
data:
  DASHBOARD_CONFIG: >-
    Dashboard configuration
  ACTION_CONFIG: >-
    Action configuration
  CLUSTER_CONFIG: >-
    Cluster configuration
  CRONJOB_CONFIG: >-
    Cronjob configuration

To create the deployment in your Kubernetes cluster, just use the following command.

kubectl apply -f dashboard-template.yml

Sakuli Dashboard on Openshift

Prerequisites

A Sakuli Dashboard setup on your OpenShift cluster requires you to import the Sakuli Dashboard image from Docker Hub.

oc import-image sakuli-dashboard \
 --from=docker.io/taconsol/sakuli-dashboard \
 --confirm \
 --scheduled=true \
 --all=true

When using OpenShift v3.10 or v3.11, add the --reference-policy=local flag:

oc import-image sakuli-dashboard \
 --from=docker.io/taconsol/sakuli-dashboard \
 --confirm \
 --scheduled=true \
 --all \
 --reference-policy=local

Note: The oc import-image statement is configured to not only import all available sakuli-dashboard images but also to check for updates automatically.

You can start your Sakuli Dashboard using two different approaches:

  • Set up the Sakuli Dashboard manually via CLI.
  • Set up the Sakuli Dashboard using a ready to use template.

Set up the Sakuli Dashboard manually via CLI

An easy way to set up a Sakuli Dashboard is by using oc new-app. Required environment variables can be passed along via the -e parameter.

oc new-app sakuli-dashboard \ 
 -e DASHBOARD_CONFIG="${DASHBOARD_CONFIG}"  \
 -e ACTION_CONFIG="${ACTION_CONFIG}"  \
 -e CLUSTER_CONFIG="${CLUSTER_CONFIG}"  \
 -e CRONJOB_CONFIG="${CRONJOB_CONFIG}"

Once completed, the service has to be exposed to make available from outside the cluster.

oc expose svc/sakuli-dashboard

Set up the Sakuli Dashboard using a ready to use template

The following ready-to-use template will configure a Sakuli Dashboard and deploy it to your cluster Just copy and save the dashboard template below as dashboard-template.yml. Furthermore, add your dashboard, action, cluster and cronjob configurations listed under ConfigMap as well as the containers image configuration.

apiVersion: v1
kind: Template
metadata:
  name: ${SERVICE_NAME}
objects:
  - apiVersion: v1
    kind: DeploymentConfig
    metadata:
      name: ${SERVICE_NAME}
      labels:
        app: ${SERVICE_NAME}
    spec:
      replicas: 1
      selector:
        app: ${SERVICE_NAME}
      template:
        metadata:
          labels:
            app: ${SERVICE_NAME}
        spec:
          containers:
            - name: ${SERVICE_NAME}
              #change the address to your openshift registry, your namespace and the image tag you want to use
              image: ${OPENSHIFT_REGISTRY_ADDRESS}/${NAMESPACE}/sakuli-dashboard:${IMAGE_TAG}
              imagePullPolicy: Always
              ports:
                - containerPort: 8080
                  protocol: TCP
              env:
                - name: ACTION_CONFIG
                  valueFrom:
                    configMapKeyRef:
                      name: ${SERVICE_NAME}
                      key: ACTION_CONFIG
                - name: DASHBOARD_CONFIG
                  valueFrom:
                    configMapKeyRef:
                      name: ${SERVICE_NAME}
                      key: DASHBOARD_CONFIG
                - name: CLUSTER_CONFIG
                  valueFrom:
                    configMapKeyRef:
                      name: ${SERVICE_NAME}
                      key: CLUSTER_CONFIG
                - name: CRONJOB_CONFIG
                  valueFrom:
                    configMapKeyRef:
                      name: ${SERVICE_NAME}
                      key: CRONJOB_CONFIG
      triggers:
        - type: ConfigChange
  - apiVersion: v1
    kind: Service
    metadata:
      name: ${SERVICE_NAME}
      labels:
        app: ${SERVICE_NAME}
    spec:
      ports:
        - name: 8080-tcp
          port: 8080
          protocol: TCP
          targetPort: 8080
      selector:
        app: ${SERVICE_NAME}
  - apiVersion: v1
    kind: ConfigMap
    metadata:
      name: ${SERVICE_NAME}
    data:
      ACTION_CONFIG: >-
        <action configuration>
      CLUSTER_CONFIG: >-
        <cluster Configuration>
      DASHBOARD_CONFIG: >-
        <dashboard configuration>
      CRONJOB_CONFIG: >-
        <cronjob configuration>
parameters:
  - name: SERVICE_NAME
    description: Service name for dashboard
    value: sakuli-dashboard

After configuring the template, run:

oc process -f <filename> | oc create -f -
Whereas <filename> is the name of a file containing the template above.

Expose the service to make the dashboard available to clients outside of your cluster:

oc expose svc/sakuli-dashboard