Replicated Troubleshoot

Replicated Troubleshoot is a framework for collecting, redacting, and analyzing highly customizable diagnostic information about a Kubernetes cluster. Troubleshoot specs are created by 3rd-party application developers/maintainers and run by cluster operators in the initial and ongoing operation of those applications.

Troubleshoot provides two CLI tools as kubectl plugins (using Krew): kubectl preflight and kubectl support-bundle. Preflight provides pre-installation cluster conformance testing and validation (preflight checks) and support-bundle provides post-installation troubleshooting and diagnostics (support bundles).

Preflight Checks

Preflight checks are an easy-to-run set of conformance tests that can be written to verify that specific requirements in a cluster are met.

To run a sample preflight check from a sample application, install the preflight kubectl plugin:

curl https://krew.sh/preflight | bash

and run:

kubectl preflight https://preflight.replicated.com

For more details on creating the custom resource files that drive preflight checks, visit creating preflight checks.

Support Bundle

A support bundle is an archive that's created in-cluster, by collecting logs and cluster information, and executing specified commands (including redaction of sensitive information). After creating a support bundle, the cluster operator will normally deliver it to the 3rd-party application vendor for analysis and disconnected debugging. Another Replicated project, KOTS, provides k8s apps an in-cluster UI for processing support bundles and viewing analyzers (as well as support bundle collection).

To collect a sample support bundle, install the troubleshoot kubectl plugin:

curl https://krew.sh/support-bundle | bash

and run:

kubectl support-bundle https://support-bundle.replicated.com

For more details on creating the custom resource files that drive support-bundle collection, visit creating collectors and creating analyzers.

Community

For questions about using Troubleshoot, there's a Replicated Community forum, and a #app-troubleshoot channel in Kubernetes Slack.

Software Bill of Materials

A signed SBOM that includes Troubleshoot dependencies is included in each release.

• troubleshoot-sbom.tgz contains a software bill of materials for Troubleshoot.
• troubleshoot-sbom.tgz.sig is the digital signature for troubleshoot-sbom.tgz
• key.pub is the public key from the key pair used to sign troubleshoot-sbom.tgz

The following example illustrates using cosign to verify that troubleshoot-sbom.tgz has not been tampered with.

$ cosign verify-blob -key key.pub -signature troubleshoot-sbom.tgz.sig troubleshoot-sbom.tgz
Verified OK