Core Operator and Core Instance
In Chronosphere Telemetry Pipeline, pipelines are self-contained Kubernetes entities for collecting, processing, and routing telemetry data. This is true of all pipelines, regardless of where they're deployed.
Pipelines deployed within a Kubernetes cluster can take advantage of built-in Kubernetes features. For pipelines in a Linux environment, Telemetry Pipeline first creates a K3s (opens in a new tab) cluster in that environment, then installs components and resources within that cluster.
The underlying component that creates and manages each Telemetry Pipeline installation is called a Core Operator. A Core Operator oversees one or more Core Instances, which are components that group pipelines and sync their status with the Telemetry Pipeline backend. You can interact with these components to configure pipelines' behavior.
Core Operators
A Core Operator is a Kubernetes operator (opens in a new tab) for managing Telemetry Pipeline resources. After you install a Core Operator, it registers itself with the Kubernetes API. That Core Operator then watches for changes from any Core Instances in your Kubernetes or K3s cluster, and creates or modifies resources as necessary. Each Core Operator can manage multiple Core Instances across any Kubernetes namespace.
You must install a Core Operator in each Kubernetes cluster or Linux environment where you want to use Telemetry Pipeline. If you have multiple clusters or environments, you'll need to install multiple Core Operators.
Core Instances
Core Instances are functional groupings of pipelines. Each Core Instance provides you with the tools to manage its associated pipelines, and each Core Instance is managed by its corresponding Core Operator. When you create a Core Instance, Telemetry Pipeline adds it to your Kubernetes or K3s cluster within a specified namespace.
You must create at least one Core Instance for each Core Operator you install. You can also create more than one Core Instance for a single Core Operator.
For every pipeline you create, that pipeline's Core Instance performs the following actions:
- Syncs data about that pipeline with the Telemetry Pipeline backend.
- Acknowledges any changes you make to that pipeline.
- Prompts the corresponding Core Operator to create and update the necessary resources for that pipeline, including Deployments, Services, and Secrets.
Pipelines rely on custom resource definitions (CRDs), which exist within Kubernetes. However, you don't need to directly interact with Kubernetes or K3s to use Telemetry Pipeline. Instead, you can use Pipeline CLI interact with your Core Operators and Core Instances, which make changes to those resources on your behalf.