There is no faster or easier way to monitor your Kubernetes cluster and workloads than using the Dash0 operator for Kubernetes. It is built on open standards and tailored for the optimal user experience. Simply install the operator into your cluster to get OpenTelemetry data flowing from your Kubernetes workloads to Dash0.

The Dash0 operator for Kubernetes installs an OpenTelemetry collector into your cluster that sends data to your Dash0 ingress endpoint, with authentication already configured out of the box. It also gathers OpenTelemetry data from applications deployed to the cluster, including traces, logs and metrics.

Supported Runtimes

Supported runtimes for automatic workload instrumentation:

Java 8+
Node.js 16+
.NET
Python (opt-in)

Metrics and log collection are independent of the runtime of workloads.

Quick Start

Prerequisites

Kubernetes 1.25.16 or later.
Helm >= 3.x, please refer to Helm's documentation for more information on installing Helm.

You will need:

endpoint: The OTLP/gRPC endpoint of your Dash0 organization (from https://app.dash0.com → organization settings → "Endpoints" → "OTLP/gRPC")
token or secretRef: Your Dash0 authorization token (from https://app.dash0.com → organization settings → "Auth Tokens")

Installation

Add the Dash0 operator's Helm repository:

console

12
helm repo add dash0-operator https://dash0hq.github.io/dash0-operator
helm repo update dash0-operator

Install the operator:

console

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helm install \
  --wait \
  --namespace dash0-system \
  --create-namespace \
  --set operator.dash0Export.enabled=true \
  --set operator.dash0Export.endpoint=REPLACE THIS WITH YOUR DASH0 INGRESS ENDPOINT \
  --set operator.dash0Export.apiEndpoint=REPLACE THIS WITH YOUR DASH0 API ENDPOINT \
  --set operator.dash0Export.token=REPLACE THIS WITH YOUR DASH0 AUTH TOKEN \
  dash0-operator \
  dash0-operator/dash0-operator

For detailed installation instructions including secret references, Prometheus CRD support, and target-allocator configuration, see Installation.

Next Steps

After installation:

Configure the Dash0 backend connection (if not done via Helm) - see Configuration
Enable monitoring for namespaces - see Enable Dash0 Monitoring for a Namespace

The operator will automatically instrument workloads in monitored namespaces. Learn more in Auto-Instrumentation.

Documentation

This README provides a quick overview. Detailed documentation is organized by topic:

Core Documentation

Installation - Comprehensive installation guide
Configuration - Backend connections, namespace monitoring, secrets, datasets, and operator configuration
Auto-Instrumentation - Workload instrumentation details, Python support, disabling instrumentation, and custom label selectors
Metrics and Scraping - Metrics collection, Prometheus endpoint scraping, and Prometheus CRD support
Profiling - Profiling support and OpenTelemetry eBPF profiler setup

Advanced Topics

Managing Dash0 Resources - Managing dashboards, check rules, synthetic checks, views, notification channels, spam filters, and signal-to-metrics via infrastructure-as-code
Advanced Configuration - cert-manager, node affinity, tolerations, sysctls, and filelog offset volumes
Platform Specific - Notes for AWS EKS, GKE Autopilot, Azure AKS, Docker Desktop, Minikube, Apple Silicon, and compatibility with OPA and Kyverno

Operations

Upgrading - Upgrade procedures, CRD version migrations, and uninstallation
Troubleshooting - Common issues and debugging techniques

Key Features

Automatic Workload Instrumentation - Automatically add OpenTelemetry tracing to Java, Node.js, .NET, and Python applications
Kubernetes Metrics Collection - Collect cluster, node, pod, and container metrics
Log Collection - Gather pod logs and forward them to Dash0
Prometheus Scraping - Scrape Prometheus endpoints and support for Prometheus CRDs (ServiceMonitor, PodMonitor, ScrapeConfig)
Infrastructure as Code - Manage Dash0 dashboards, check rules, synthetic checks, and more via Kubernetes custom resources
Flexible Configuration - Per-namespace configuration with filters, transformations, and export overrides
Auto-Namespace Monitoring - Optionally monitor all namespaces automatically

Overview