Managed Observability
See what's happening inside your Kubernetes clusters without running your own observability stack. CloudPirates Managed Observability gives you cluster visibility through a single lightweight agent.
What Is Managed Observability?
CloudPirates Managed Observability gives you quick insight into your Kubernetes clusters without setting up Prometheus, Grafana, or any other stack yourself. Run it standalone, or alongside a full observability stack if you already have one.
Two Approaches to Observability
Managed Observability (this service):
- Single helm chart installation (ClusterPirate agent)
- Cluster insights through the web portal
- Automated security and best practice checks
- No infrastructure to maintain
- Unique features: Kubernetes event monitoring, CVE scanning, AI-assisted insights, and automated resource recommendations
Full Observability Stack (available separately):
- Complete observability platform with Grafana, Prometheus, Loki, Tempo, and Alloy
- Advanced metrics, custom dashboards, and alerting rules
- Powerful query capabilities and long-term metric storage
- Available as fully managed (hosted by CloudPirates) or managed in-house (in your cluster)
Choose What Fits Your Needs
Use Managed Observability for quick visibility with minimal setup, or the full observability stack when you need custom metrics and deep instrumentation. Both are supported by CloudPirates.
Why Choose Managed Observability?
1. Quick to Deploy
Get cluster visibility running in minutes:
- Single helm chart installation (ClusterPirate agent)
- Automatic resource discovery
- Immediate access to cluster insights through the web portal
- Minimal resource footprint (10m CPU, 100Mi memory)
2. Insights That Matter Day to Day
- Resource health and status
- Security and best practice validation
- Event tracking and troubleshooting guidance
- Contextual information for common issues
3. Zero Infrastructure Management
Let CloudPirates handle the backend:
- No servers or databases to maintain
- Automatic updates and scaling
- Secure data transmission and storage
- Professional support included
4. Built-In Security and Event Tracking
Kubernetes Event Monitoring: contextual event tracking with plain-language explanations and troubleshooting guidance for common issues.
Best Practice Validation: every workload is checked against Pod Security Standards, resource configuration, and certificate management rules, see Best Practices.
- Container Vulnerability Scanning: daily CVE scans of your images with Trivy
- AI-Assisted Insights: automated analysis of cluster health and pattern recognition
- Resource Recommendations: right-sizing and cost-optimization suggestions based on actual usage
5. Flexible Observability Options
Choose the right level of observability for your needs:
- Start Simple: Begin with Managed Observability for quick visibility with minimal setup
- Scale Up: Add our full observability stack when you need advanced capabilities
- Combine Both: Use Managed Observability alongside the full stack for complementary insights
Who Is This For?
Built for Small to Medium Teams
You don't need a dedicated platform engineering team to run Kubernetes effectively. Managed Observability is designed for:
- Development Teams who want to understand their production deployments without learning complex observability tools
- Startups that need observability without maintaining a Prometheus/Grafana stack themselves
- Platform Teams looking to reduce operational complexity and maintenance burden
- Anyone who wants clear, actionable insights instead of overwhelming metrics
Ideal Use Cases
Good Fit For:
- Quick cluster visibility with minimal setup
- Security and best practice validation
- Development and staging environments
- Getting started with Kubernetes observability
- Teams that need basic visibility without managing infrastructure
Works Well With:
- Our full observability stack, for custom metrics and deep instrumentation
- Existing observability tools, for additional perspectives
- CI/CD pipelines, for deployment validation
Need More? See full observability stack above for custom metrics, advanced dashboards, and detailed application instrumentation.
How It Works
Simple 5-Minute Setup
- Register a Cluster: Register at portal.cloudpirates.io and create a cluster in your workspace to receive an access token
- Install Agent: Deploy ClusterPirate helm chart with your access token
- Start Monitoring: Access all insights through the web console
What Gets Observed
The ClusterPirate agent automatically discovers and observes:
- All Kubernetes Resources: Nodes, namespaces, deployments, pods, services, ingresses
- Performance Metrics: CPU, memory, disk, and network usage
- Application Health: Container status, restart counts, probe failures
- Security Posture: Policy violations, CVE vulnerabilities
- Events: Real-time access to Kubernetes events
Platform Features
Cluster Resource Explorer
Browse and inspect all Kubernetes resources in your cluster.
View all cluster components with clear status information and troubleshooting guidance. Access everything through the web portal.
- Infrastructure (nodes) and organization (namespaces)
- Applications (Deployments, StatefulSets, DaemonSets)
- Individual pods and containers
- Services and networking
Performance Insights
Track resource usage per node and pod.
- Resource utilization (CPU, memory, disk, and network)
Events & Troubleshooting
Access Kubernetes events with context.
Observe cluster events in real-time with clear descriptions and troubleshooting guidance for common issues.
- Normal events (confirmations)
- Warning events (potential issues with guidance)
Security & Best Practices
Automated validation against industry security standards.
Every workload is checked against best practices with clear descriptions of issues, their impact, and remediation steps.
- Pod Security Standards (Baseline & Restricted)
- Resource configuration validation
- Security context checks
- Certificate and image management
Container Vulnerability Scanning
Daily automated scanning of container images for security vulnerabilities.
Scan all images with Trivy to identify CVEs, with severity ratings and recommendations for updating to secure versions.
- Daily automated scanning
- Clear severity classifications
- Affected images and deployment locations
- Update recommendations
Smart Alerting
Only get notified when you need to take action.
Alerts are carefully designed to avoid noise. Each alert includes context, impact explanation, and recommended actions.
- Critical issues that need immediate attention
- Resource exhaustion warnings
- Certificate expiration notices
- Deployment health
API Reference
Only EXTERNAL Clusters Are Supported
Creating a cluster with clusterType: "MANAGED" always fails with 501 Not Implemented. Register with clusterType: "EXTERNAL" instead; the response includes the accessToken you use to install the ClusterPirate agent.
See the Cluster API Reference for the list/create/get/rename/rotate-token/delete endpoints.