Core Operator and Core Instance

In Chronosphere Telemetry Pipeline, pipelines are self-contained Kubernetes entities for collecting, processing, and routing telemetry data.

Each pipeline is managed by a Core Instance, which is a way to group pipelines. Core Instances run inside your Kubernetes cluster, and sync the statuses of your pipelines with the Telemetry Pipeline backend. You can create multiple Core Instances inside each Kubernetes cluster.

Core Operator runs alongside Core Instances, and watches them for changes. Core Operator manages all Core Instance resources within a given Kubernetes cluster. You must deploy Core Operator to any Kubernetes cluster where you want to deploy pipelines.

Core Operator

Core Operator is a Kubernetes operator (opens in a new tab) for managing Telemetry Pipeline resources. Core Operator integrates with your existing Kubernetes infrastructure by letting you manage Core Instances and pipelines as Kubernetes-native resources.

Core Operator is deployed at the Kubernetes cluster level (one per cluster), and can manage multiple Core Instances across any Kubernetes namespace. You can install Core Operator using either Pipeline CLI or Helm.

After you install it, Core Operator registers itself with the Kubernetes API. Core Operator then watches all Core Instances in your Kubernetes cluster. When you create or update pipelines using Pipeline CLI or Telemetry Pipeline web interface, the Core Instance completes the following actions:

1. Syncs data about the pipeline from the Telemetry Pipeline backend.
2. Acknowledges changes to pipelines made with Pipeline CLI, which are read from all Core Instances.
3. Creates the Kubernetes resources necessary to support and run your pipelines, such as a Kubernetes Deployment, Service, and Secret.

Core Instance

Core Instance is a functional grouping you create to manage pipelines. When you install a Core Instance, Telemetry Pipeline adds it to your Kubernetes cluster within a Kubernetes namespace. Each Core Instance syncs data about your pipelines with the Telemetry Pipeline backend. For every pipeline you create, Core Operator generates the resources in your Kubernetes cluster.

Regardless of how you install Telemetry Pipeline, you deploy the Core Operator and create a Core Instance as part of the installation process. You can install Core Instance with either Pipeline CLI or the Telemetry Pipeline web interface.