Troubleshoot Install
Once an installation is complete, access the Kubecost frontend to view the status of the product. If the Kubecost UI is unavailable, review these troubleshooting resources to determine the problem:
These Kubernetes commands can be helpful when finding issues with deployments:
- 1.This command will find all events that aren't normal, with the most recent listed last. Use this if pods are not even starting:kubectl get events --sort-by=.metadata.creationTimestamp --field-selector type!=Normal
- 2.Another option is to check for a describe command of the specific pod in question. This command will give a list of the Events specific to this pod.> kubectl -n kubecost get podsNAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGEkubecost-cost-analyzer-5cb499f74f-c5ndf 0/2 ContainerCreating 0 2m14skubecost-kube-state-metrics-99bb8c55b-v2bgd 1/1 Running 0 2m14skubecost-prometheus-server-f99987f55-86snj 2/2 Running 0 2m14s> kubectl -n kubecost describe pod kubecost-cost-analyzer-5cb499f74f-c5ndfName: kubecost-cost-analyzer-5cb499f74f-c5ndfNamespace: kubecostPriority: 0Node: gke-kc-integration-test--default-pool-e04c72e7-vsxl/10.128.0.102Start Time: Wed, 19 Oct 2022 04:15:05 -0500Labels: app=cost-analyzerapp.kubernetes.io/instance=kubecostapp.kubernetes.io/name=cost-analyzerpod-template-hash=b654c4867...Events:<RELEVANT ERROR MESSAGES HERE><RELEVANT ERROR MESSAGES HERE><RELEVANT ERROR MESSAGES HERE>
- 3.If a pod is in CrashLoopBackOff, check its logs. Commonly it will be a misconfiguration in Helm. If the cost-analyzer pod is the issue, check the logs with:kubectl logs deployment/kubecost-cost-analyzer -c cost-model
- 4.Alternatively, Lens is a great tool for diagnosing many issues in a single view. See our blog post on using Lens with Kubecost to learn more.
The log output can be adjusted while deploying through Helm by using the
LOG_LEVEL
and/or LOG_FORMAT
environment variables. These variables include:trace
debug
info
warn
error
fatal
For example, to set the log level to
debug
, add the following flag to the Helm command:--set 'kubecostModel.extraEnv[0].name=LOG_LEVEL,kubecostModel.extraEnv[0].value=debug'
LOG_FORMAT
options:JSON
- A structured logging output
{"level":"info","time":"2006-01-02T15:04:05.999999999Z07:00","message":"Starting cost-model (git commit \"1.91.0-rc.0\")"}
pretty
- A nice human readable output
2006-01-02T15:04:05.999999999Z07:00 INF Starting cost-model (git commit "1.91.0-rc.0")
To temporarily set the log level without restarting the pod, you can send a POST request to
/logs/level
with one of the valid log levels. This does not persist between pod restarts, Helm deployments, etc. Here's an example:curl -X POST \
'http://localhost:9090/model/logs/level' \
-d '{"level": "debug"}'
A GET request can be sent to the same endpoint to retrieve the current log level.
Your clusters need a default storage class for the Kubecost and Prometheus persistent volumes to be successfully attached.
To check if a storage class exists, you can run
kubectl get storageclass
You should see a storageclass name with (default) next to it as in this example.
NAME PROVISIONER AGE
standard (default) kubernetes.io/gce-pd 10d
If you see a name but no (default) next to it, run
kubectl patch storageclass <name> -p '{"metadata": {"annotations":{"storageclass.kubernetes.io/is-default-class":"true"}}}'
If you don’t see a name, you need to add a storage class. For help doing this, see the following guides:
Alternatively, you can deploy Kubecost without persistent storage to store by following these steps:
Note: This setup is only for experimental purpose. The metric data is reset when Kubecost's pod is rescheduled.
- 1.On your terminal, run this command to add the Kubecost Helm repository:
helm repo add kubecost https://kubecost.github.io/cost-analyzer/
- 2.Next, run this command to deploy Kubecost without persistent storage:helm upgrade -install kubecost kubecost/cost-analyzer \--namespace kubecost --create-namespace \--set persistentVolume.enabled="false" \--set prometheus.server.persistentVolume.enabled="false"
If the PVC is in a pending state for more than 5 minutes, and the cluster is Amazon EKS 1.23+ the error message appears as the following example:
kubectl describe pvc cost-analyzer -n kubecost | grep "ebs.csi.aws.com"
Example result:
Annotations: volume.beta.kubernetes.io/storage-provisioner: ebs.csi.aws.com
volume.kubernetes.io/storage-provisioner: ebs.csi.aws.com
Normal ExternalProvisioning 69s (x82 over 21m) persistentvolume-controller waiting for a volume to be created, either by external provisioner "ebs.csi.aws.com" or manually created by system administrator
You need to install the AWS EBS CSI driver because the Amazon EKS cluster version 1.23+ uses "ebs.csi.aws.com" provisioner and the AWS EBS CSI driver has not been installed yet.
Review the output of the port-forward command:
$ kubectl port-forward --namespace kubecost deployment/kubecost-cost-analyzer 9090
Forwarding from 127.0.0.1:9090 -> 9090
Forwarding from [::1]:9090 -> 9090
Forwarding from
127.0.0.1
indicates kubecost should be reachable via a browser at http://127.0.0.1:9090
or http://localhost:9090
.In some cases it may be necessary for kubectl to bind to all interfaces. This can be done with the addition of the flag
--address 0.0.0.0
.$ kubectl port-forward --address 0.0.0.0 --namespace kubecost deployment/kubecost-cost-analyzer 9090
Forwarding from 0.0.0.0:9090 -> 9090
Navigating to Kubecost while port-forwarding should result in "Handling connection" output in the terminal:
kubectl port-forward --address 0.0.0.0 --namespace kubecost deployment/kubecost-cost-analyzer 9090
Forwarding from 0.0.0.0:9090 -> 9090
Handling connection for 9090
Handling connection for 9090
To troubleshoot further, check the status of pods in the Kubecost namespace:
kubectl get pods -n kubecost`
All
kubecost-*
pods should have Running
or Completed
status.NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
kubecost-cost-analyzer-599bf995d4-rq8g8 2/2 Running 0 5m
kubecost-grafana-5cdd75755b-5s9j9 1/1 Running 0 5m
kubecost-prometheus-kube-state-metrics-bd985f98b-bl8xd 1/1 Running 0 5m
kubecost-prometheus-node-exporter-24b8x 1/1 Running 0 5m
kubecost-prometheus-server-6fb8f99bb7-4tjwn 2/2 Running 0 5m
If the cost-analyzer or prometheus-server pods are missing, we recommend reinstalling with Helm using
--debug
which enables verbose output.If any pod is not Running other than cost-analyzer-checks, you can use the following command to find errors in the recent event log:
kubectl describe pod <pod-name> -n kubecost
If there is an existing
node-exporter
daemonset, the Kubecost Helm chart may timeout due to a conflict. You can disable the installation of node-exporter
by passing the following parameters to the Helm install.helm install kubecost/cost-analyzer --debug --wait --namespace kubecost --name kubecost \
--set kubecostToken="<INSERT_YOUR_TOKEN>" \
--set prometheus.nodeExporter.enabled=false \
--set prometheus.serviceAccounts.nodeExporter.create=false
You may encounter the following screen if the Kubecost frontend is unable to connect with a live Kubecost server.

No clusters found
Recommended troubleshooting steps are as follows:
If you are using a port other than 9090 for your port-forward, try adding the url with port to the "Add new cluster" dialog.
Next, you can review messages in your browser's developer console. Any meaningful errors or warnings may indicate an unexpected response from the Kubecost server.
Next, point your browser to the
/model
endpoint on your target URL. For example, visit http://localhost:9090/model/
in the scenario shown above. You should expect to see a Prometheus config file at this endpoint. If your cluster address has changed, you can visit Settings in the Kubecost product to update or you can also add a new cluster.If you are unable to successfully retrieve your config file from this /model endpoint, we recommend the following:
- 1.Check your network connection to this host
- 2.View the status of all Prometheus and Kubecost pods in this cluster's deployment to determine if any container are not in a
Ready
orCompleted
state. When performing the default Kubecost install this can be completed withkubectl get pods -n kubecost
. All pods should be either Running or Completed. You can runkubectl describe
on any pods not currently in this state. - 3.Finally, view pod logs for any pod that is not in the Running or Completed state to find a specific error message.
If all Kubecost pods are running and you can connect/port-forward to the kubecost-cost-analyzer pod but none of the app's UI will load, we recommend testing the following:
- 1.Connect directly to a backend service with the following command:
kubectl port-forward --namespace kubecost service/kubecost-cost-analyzer 9001
- 2.Ensure that
http://localhost:9001
returns the prometheus YAML file
If this is true, you are likely to be hitting a CoreDNS routing issue. We recommend using local routing as a solution:
- 2.Replace
{{ $serviceName }}.{{ .Release.Namespace }}
withlocalhost
PodSecurityPolicy has been removed from Kubernetes v1.25. This will result in the following error during install.
$ helm install kubecost kubecost/cost-analyzer
Error: INSTALLATION FAILED: unable to build kubernetes objects from release manifest: [
resource mapping not found for name: "kubecost-grafana" namespace: "" from "": no matches for kind "PodSecurityPolicy" in version "policy/v1beta1" ensure CRDs are installed first,
resource mapping not found for name: "kubecost-cost-analyzer-psp" namespace: "" from "": no matches for kind "PodSecurityPolicy" in version "policy/v1beta1" ensure CRDs are installed first
]
To disable PodSecurityPolicy in your deployment:
$ helm upgrade -i kubecost kubecost/cost-analyzer --namespace kubecost \
--set podSecurityPolicy.enabled=false \
--set networkCosts.podSecurityPolicy.enabled=false \
--set prometheus.podSecurityPolicy.enabled=false \
--set grafana.rbac.pspEnabled=false
Since PodSecurityPolicy have been removed from Kubernetes v1.25, it's possible to encounter a state where all Kubecost-related Helm commands fail after Kuberntes has been upgraded to v1.25.
$ helm upgrade kubecost kubecost/cost-analyzer
Error: UPGRADE FAILED: unable to build kubernetes objects from current release manifest: [
resource mapping not found for name: "kubecost-grafana" namespace: "" from "": no matches for kind "PodSecurityPolicy" in version "policy/v1beta1"
ensure CRDs are installed first, resource mapping not found for name: "kubecost-cost-analyzer-psp" namespace: "" from "": no matches for kind "PodSecurityPolicy" in version "policy/v1beta1"
ensure CRDs are installed first
]
To prevent this Helm error state please upgrade Kubecost to at least v1.99 prior to upgrading Kubernetes to v1.25. Additionally please follow the above instructions for disabling PSP.
If Kubecost PSP is not disabled prior to Kubernetes v1.25 upgrades, you may need to manually delete the Kubecost install. Prior to doing this please ensure you have ETL backups enaabledas well as Helm values, and Prometheus/Thanos data backed up. Manual removal can be done by deleteing the Kubecost namespace.
This error found in the
kube-state-metrics
logs occurs when API's are not present in Kubernetes. This will cause the KSM pod startup to fail. The full error is as follows.E0215 13:33:44.225827 1 reflector.go:156] pkg/mod/k8s.io/[email protected]/tools/cache/reflector.go:108: Failed to list *v1beta1.Ingress: the server could not find the requested resource (get ingresses.extensions)
E0215 13:33:44.225870 1 reflector.go:156] pkg/mod/k8s.io/[email protected]/tools/cache/reflector.go:108: Failed to list *v1beta1.CertificateSigningRequest: the server could not find the requested resource
To resolve this error you can disable the corrosponding KSM metrics collectors by setting the following Helm values to flase.
You can verify the changes are in place by describing the KSM deployment, the collectors should no longer be present in the Container Arguments list.
kubectl get deployment -n kubecost kubecost-kube-state-metrics -o yaml
This error appears when you install Kubecost using AWS optimized version on your Amazon EKS cluster. There are a few reasons that generate this error message:
- Resolution: check our ECR public gallery for the latest available version at https://gallery.ecr.aws/kubecost/cost-analyzer
- Resolution: Try to login to the Amazon ECR public gallery again to refresh the auth token with the following commands:
aws ecr-public get-login-password --region us-east-1 | docker login --username AWS --password-stdin public.ecr.aws
export HELM_EXPERIMENTAL_OCI=1
aws ecr-public get-login-password --region us-east-1 | helm registry login --username AWS --password-stdin public.ecr.aws
- 1.Edit nginx configmap
kubectl edit cm nginx-conf -n kubecost
- 2.Search for 9001 and 9003 (should find kubecost-cost-analyzer.kubecost:9001 & kubecost-cost-analyzer.kubecost:9003)
- 3.Change both entries to localhost:9001 and localhost:9003
- 4.Restart the kubecost-cost-analyzer pod in the kubecost namespace
.Values.kubecostToken
is primarily used to manage trial access and is provided to you when visiting http://kubecost.com/install..Values.kubecostProductConfigs.productKey
is used to apply a Enterprise license. More info in this doc.Kubecost makes use of cloud provider metadata servers to access instance and cluster metadata. If a restrictive network policy is place this may need to be modified to allow connections from the kubecost pod or namespace.
Error example:
gcpprovider.go Error loading metadata cluster-name: Get "http://169.254.169.254/computeMetadata/v1/instance/attributes/cluster-name": dial tcp 169.254.169.254:80: i/o timeout
Have a question not answered on this page? Email us at [email protected] or join the Kubecost Slack community!