FAQ

How do I see all of the configuration for Mixer ?

Configuration for instances, handlers, and rules is stored as Kubernetes Custom Resources. Configuration may be accessed by using kubectl to query the Kubernetes API server for the resources.

Rules

To see the list of all rules, execute the following:

kubectl get rules --all-namespaces

Output will be similar to:

NAMESPACE      NAME        KIND
default        mongoprom   rule.v1alpha2.config.istio.io
istio-system   promhttp    rule.v1alpha2.config.istio.io
istio-system   promtcp     rule.v1alpha2.config.istio.io
istio-system   stdio       rule.v1alpha2.config.istio.io

To see an individual rule configuration, execute the following:

kubectl -n <namespace> get rules <name> -o yaml

Handlers

Handlers are defined based on Kubernetes Custom Resource Definitions for adapters.

First, identify the list of adapter kinds:

kubectl get crd -listio=mixer-adapter

The output will be similar to:

NAME                           KIND
deniers.config.istio.io        CustomResourceDefinition.v1beta1.apiextensions.k8s.io
listcheckers.config.istio.io   CustomResourceDefinition.v1beta1.apiextensions.k8s.io
memquotas.config.istio.io      CustomResourceDefinition.v1beta1.apiextensions.k8s.io
noops.config.istio.io          CustomResourceDefinition.v1beta1.apiextensions.k8s.io
prometheuses.config.istio.io   CustomResourceDefinition.v1beta1.apiextensions.k8s.io
stackdrivers.config.istio.io   CustomResourceDefinition.v1beta1.apiextensions.k8s.io
statsds.config.istio.io        CustomResourceDefinition.v1beta1.apiextensions.k8s.io
stdios.config.istio.io         CustomResourceDefinition.v1beta1.apiextensions.k8s.io
svcctrls.config.istio.io       CustomResourceDefinition.v1beta1.apiextensions.k8s.io

Then, for each adapter kind in that list, issue the following command:

kubectl get <adapter kind name> --all-namespaces

Output for stdios will be similar to:

NAMESPACE      NAME      KIND
istio-system   handler   stdio.v1alpha2.config.istio.io

To see an individual handler configuration, execute the following:

kubectl -n <namespace> get <adapter kind name> <name> -o yaml

Instances

Instances are defined according to Kubernetes Custom Resource Definitions for instances.

First, identify the list of instance kinds:

kubectl get crd -listio=mixer-instance

The output will be similar to:

NAME                             KIND
checknothings.config.istio.io    CustomResourceDefinition.v1beta1.apiextensions.k8s.io
listentries.config.istio.io      CustomResourceDefinition.v1beta1.apiextensions.k8s.io
logentries.config.istio.io       CustomResourceDefinition.v1beta1.apiextensions.k8s.io
metrics.config.istio.io          CustomResourceDefinition.v1beta1.apiextensions.k8s.io
quotas.config.istio.io           CustomResourceDefinition.v1beta1.apiextensions.k8s.io
reportnothings.config.istio.io   CustomResourceDefinition.v1beta1.apiextensions.k8s.io

Then, for each instance kind in that list, issue the following command:

kubectl get <instance kind name> --all-namespaces

Output for metrics will be similar to:

NAMESPACE      NAME                 KIND
default        mongoreceivedbytes   metric.v1alpha2.config.istio.io
default        mongosentbytes       metric.v1alpha2.config.istio.io
istio-system   requestcount         metric.v1alpha2.config.istio.io
istio-system   requestduration      metric.v1alpha2.config.istio.io
istio-system   requestsize          metric.v1alpha2.config.istio.io
istio-system   responsesize         metric.v1alpha2.config.istio.io
istio-system   tcpbytereceived      metric.v1alpha2.config.istio.io
istio-system   tcpbytesent          metric.v1alpha2.config.istio.io

To see an individual instance configuration, execute the following:

kubectl -n <namespace> get <instance kind name> <name> -o yaml

What is the full set of attribute expressions supported by Mixer ?

Please see the Expression Language Reference for the full set of supported attribute expressions.

Does Mixer provide any self-monitoring ?

Mixer provides self-monitoring in the form of debug endpoints, Prometheus metrics, access and application logs, and generated trace data for all requests.

Mixer monitoring

Mixer exposes an monitoring endpoint(default port: 9093). There are a few useful paths that can be used to investigate Mixer performance and audit function:

/metrics provides Prometheus metrics on the Mixer process as well as gRPC metrics related to API calls and metrics on adapter dispatch.
/debug/pprof provides an endpoint for profiling data in pprof format.
/debug/vars provides an endpoint exposing server metrics in JSON format.

Mixer logs

Mixer logs can be accessed via a kubectl logs command, as follows:

kubectl -n istio-system logs $(kubectl -n istio-system get pods -listio=mixer -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}') mixer

Mixer traces

Mixer trace generation is controlled by the command-line flag traceOutput. If the flag value is set to STDOUT or STDERR trace data will be written directly to those locations. If a URL is provided, Mixer will post Zipkin-formatted data to that endpoint (example: http://zipkin:9411/api/v1/spans).

In the 0.2 release, Mixer only supports Zipkin tracing.

How can I write a custom adapter for Mixer ?

To implement a new adapter for Mixer, please refer to the Adapter Developer’s Guide.

Tasks

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