Overview
EKS Fargate runs Kubernetes pods on serverless compute without exposing the underlying node. Because node-level DaemonSets and host mounts are not supported on Fargate, you need to deploy an OpenTelemetry Collector as a sidecar container within each pod you want to observe.
This guide is specific to EKS Fargate. For standard EKS clusters running on EC2 nodes, see Monitor EKS EC2 Nodes which uses the K8s-Infra Helm chart with DaemonSet agents.
Prerequisites
- An EKS cluster with Fargate profiles configured
- SigNoz Cloud account or Self-Hosted SigNoz
kubectlaccess to your cluster- Helm installed (for k8s-infra cluster-level components)
Why Sidecar on Fargate?
- DaemonSets are not supported on Fargate nodes
- HostPath mounts and host network/ports are not available
- The sidecar provides a local OTLP endpoint (
localhost) for your app to send traces, metrics, and logs
Architecture
Pod (Fargate)
├─ app container(s)
│ └─ sends OTLP telemetry data to the sidecar
└─ otel-collector sidecar
├─ receives OTLP data from the app container(s)
└─ exports telemetry to SigNoz (cloud or self-hosted)
What You Can Collect
| Data Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Kubelet Metrics | Pod and container resource utilization from the Kubelet API |
| Container Logs | Logs generated by containers in the pod |
| Traces | Distributed traces from instrumented applications |
Setup
For complete setup instructions, follow the EKS Fargate Installation Guide.
The setup involves:
- Install k8s-infra Helm chart for cluster-level collection (with
otelAgentdisabled for Fargate) - Create ConfigMaps for the sidecar collector configuration and in-cluster kubeconfig
- Set up RBAC (ServiceAccount, ClusterRole, ClusterRoleBinding) for kubelet stats access
- Add the sidecar container to your application Deployment/Pod specs
- Apply the manifests and verify data in SigNoz
Validate
Once set up, verify your data appears in SigNoz:
- Logs: Navigate to Logs tab → Logs Explorer
- Metrics: Navigate to Infrastructure Monitoring → Kubernetes to see pods and containers
- Traces: Navigate to Traces tab to see distributed traces from your applications
Next Steps
- EKS Fargate Installation Guide – Complete sidecar setup instructions
- EKS Fargate Configuration – Configure log routing and collector receivers
- Send Application Traces – Configure application instrumentation
- Infrastructure Monitoring Overview – View your Kubernetes metrics in SigNoz
