In this tutorial, we'll walk through how to set up MySQL on a Kubernetes (K8s) cluster, along with integrating Prometheus and Grafana for monitoring. We'll use the Bitnami Helm charts for MySQL, Prometheus, and Grafana, and show you how to create a custom Grafana dashboard to monitor MySQL.
1. Create a Namespace for Your Lab
First, create a Kubernetes namespace where you’ll deploy your MySQL and monitoring components.
kubectl create namespace my-lab
To verify the creation of the namespace, run:
kubectl get namespaces
This should list my-lab as one of the namespaces in your cluster.
2. Install MySQL Using Helm
We'll use the Bitnami Helm chart to install MySQL in the my-lab namespace. If you haven't added the Bitnami chart repository yet, do so with the following command:
helm repo add bitnami https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami
Now, install MySQL with this command:
helm upgrade --install mysql bitnami/mysql --namespace my-lab
To check the status and ensure MySQL is running, use:
kubectl get pods --namespace my-lab
Access the MySQL Pod
To connect to MySQL, first, you’ll need to retrieve the MySQL password from the Kubernetes secrets. Use this command to get the secret:
kubectl get secret -n my-lab
Then decode the mysql-root-password and mysql-password as follows:
kubectl get secret/mysql -oyaml -n my-lab
You can decode the password using base64:
echo <encoded-password> | base64 -d
Now, access the MySQL pod using kubectl exec:
kubectl exec -it mysql-0 --namespace my-lab -- /bin/bash
Once inside the pod, connect to MySQL using the root password:
mysql -u root -p
Enter the decoded root password when prompted.
Create a Database and Some Tables
Once inside MySQL, create a database and some tables to monitor:
create database my_db_1;
use my_db_1;
create table my_table_1 (a varchar(100));
create table my_table_2 (a varchar(100));
create table my_table_3 (a varchar(100));
insert into my_table_1 values('One');
insert into my_table_1 values('One-One');
select * from my_table_1;
3. Install Prometheus and Grafana
Next, we will install Prometheus and Grafana to monitor MySQL.
Install Prometheus and Grafana
First, add the Prometheus community Helm charts:
helm repo add prometheus-community https://prometheus-community.github.io/helm-charts
helm repo update
Create a grafana namespace:
kubectl create ns grafana
Now, install the Prometheus-Grafana stack using Helm:
helm upgrade --install grafana prometheus-community/kube-prometheus-stack --namespace grafana
You can verify the installation by checking the pods:
kubectl get pods -n grafana
Expose MySQL with LoadBalancer
To access MySQL from outside the Kubernetes cluster, we need to expose the MySQL service using a LoadBalancer. Edit the MySQL service:
kubectl edit svc/mysql -n my-lab
Change the service type from ClusterIP to LoadBalancer:
spec:
type: LoadBalancer
Verify the external IP has been assigned:
kubectl get svc -n my-lab
If you're using Minikube, you may need to run minikube tunnel to expose the service externally:
minikube tunnel
Now, access MySQL externally using the IP assigned:
mysql -h <external-ip> -u root -p
4. Install Prometheus MySQL Exporter
We need to install the MySQL Exporter to collect MySQL metrics and expose them for Prometheus to scrape.
Create Exporter Configuration
Create a file mysql-exporter-values.yaml with your MySQL connection details:
mysql:
db: ""
host: "<mysql-external-ip>"
user: "root"
pass: "<mysql-root-password>"
port: 3306
protocol: ""
serviceMonitor:
enabled: true
additionalLabels:
release: grafana
Now, install the MySQL exporter using Helm:
helm upgrade --install mysql-exporter prometheus-community/prometheus-mysql-exporter -f mysql-exporter-values.yaml
Port-Forward Prometheus MySQL Exporter
To forward the MySQL exporter metrics to your local machine for testing, use:
kubectl port-forward svc/mysql-exporter-prometheus-mysql-exporter 9104 -n my-lab
Verify the metrics are being exposed by visiting http://localhost:9104/metrics.
5. Connect Grafana to Prometheus
Now that Prometheus and the MySQL exporter are set up, let’s connect Grafana to Prometheus.
Port-Forward Grafana
To access the Grafana dashboard, run the following port-forward command:
kubectl port-forward svc/grafana 3000:80 -n grafana
This will make Grafana accessible at http://localhost:3000. The default login credentials are:
Username: admin
Password: prom-operator
Once logged in, add Prometheus as a data source in Grafana:
Go to Configuration > Data Sources.
Add Prometheus as a data source with the URL http://prometheus-operated:9090.
6. Import Grafana Dashboards
To monitor MySQL, we can import pre-configured dashboards from Grafana's dashboard repository.
Import Dashboards
Go to Dashboards > Import and enter the following dashboard IDs:
Dashboard ID 14057 (MySQL Overview)
Dashboard ID 7362 (MySQL Performance)
These dashboards will automatically load and show relevant MySQL metrics, such as connections, queries, and resource utilization.
7. Conclusion
You've successfully set up MySQL in Kubernetes and integrated Prometheus and Grafana for monitoring. You can now monitor your MySQL instance in real-time using Grafana dashboards.
Key Takeaways:
- MySQL is running on Kubernetes using the Bitnami Helm chart.
- Prometheus is used to scrape metrics from MySQL using the MySQL exporter.
- Grafana is configured to visualize the data collected by Prometheus.
- You can access MySQL externally using a LoadBalancer service.
With this setup, you can easily scale and monitor your database infrastructure on Kubernetes.
Top comments (1)
This is a comprehensive guide to setting up a MySQL cluster on Kubernetes and implementing monitoring with Prometheus and Grafana. The step-by-step instructions are clear and helpful, especially for beginners.