Workload Metrics

ACTIVATE provides built-in observability charts for Kubernetes workloads. CPU, memory, and storage usage are collected from the Kubernetes metrics-server and displayed as time-series charts on each workload's detail page.

Accessing Metrics

Metrics are available on the detail page for workload-level resources (Deployments, StatefulSets, DaemonSets, Jobs, CronJobs, and ReplicaSets). To view them:

Go to Kubernetes > Workloads
Select a cluster and namespace
Click on a workload name to open its detail page
The Observability panel is displayed at the top of the page

Workload-Level Only

Metrics are shown for workload-level resources, not individual pods. To view metrics for a Deployment, click on the Deployment itself rather than one of its pods.

Available Charts

The Observability panel displays three charts side by side:

CPU Usage

Shows CPU consumption in cores over time. The chart plots:

Usage — Actual CPU consumed by all containers in the workload's pods
Request — The sum of CPU requests configured across containers (displayed when set)
Limit — The sum of CPU limits configured across containers (displayed when set)

Memory Usage

Shows memory consumption in GB over time. The chart plots:

Usage — Actual memory used by all containers in the workload's pods
Request — The sum of memory requests configured across containers (displayed when set)
Limit — The sum of memory limits configured across containers (displayed when set)

Storage Usage

Shows ephemeral storage consumption in GiB over time. The chart plots:

Usage — Actual ephemeral storage used by the workload's pods
Limit — The node's ephemeral storage capacity (displayed when available)

Ephemeral Storage

Storage metrics are collected from the Kubernetes node's /stats/summary endpoint and reflect ephemeral storage usage, not persistent volume usage. For persistent volume information, see Services & Storage.

Time Range Selection

A dropdown in the Observability panel header lets you select the time window for all three charts:

Option	Description
1 Hour	Show metrics from the last 1 hour
3 Hours	Show metrics from the last 3 hours
8 Hours	Show metrics from the last 8 hours (default)

The selected time range applies to all three charts simultaneously. The default view is 8 Hours, giving you a broad view of workload behavior.

Auto-Refresh

Metrics data refreshes automatically. There is no need to manually reload the page — the charts update in place with the latest data points from the metrics-server.

Data Source

ACTIVATE collects metrics from the Kubernetes metrics-server, which must be installed on each connected cluster. The metrics-server provides point-in-time CPU and memory usage for pods and nodes.

The platform's metrics collection process works as follows:

Pod metrics — CPU and memory usage are read from the metrics-server's PodMetrics API (metrics.k8s.io/v1beta1)
Resource requests and limits — CPU, memory, and ephemeral storage requests/limits are read from each pod's container spec
Storage metrics — Ephemeral storage usage is read from each node's /stats/summary proxy endpoint
Aggregation — Metrics are aggregated at the workload level (Deployment, StatefulSet, etc.) by resolving each pod's parent owner reference
Storage — Collected metrics are stored with timestamps and can be queried over the selected time range

Metrics Server Required

If the metrics-server is not installed on a cluster, the Observability panel will not display any data. Ensure that metrics-server is deployed and running in the kube-system namespace of each cluster you want to monitor.

Workload Types

Metrics aggregation resolves each pod's owner to determine which workload it belongs to:

Pod Owner	Resolved Workload
ReplicaSet (owned by Deployment)	Deployment
StatefulSet	StatefulSet
Job	Job
DaemonSet	DaemonSet (excluded from metrics)
Standalone pod	Excluded

Excluded Workloads

DaemonSet pods and standalone pods (pods with no owner reference) are excluded from workload-level metrics collection because they are not typically associated with a user-managed workload.