install.md

title	weight	description
Installation	10	How to install Inspektor Gadget

• Installing kubectl gadget
  • Using krew
  • Install a specific release
  • Compile from source
• Installing in the cluster
  • Quick installation
  • Choosing the gadget image
  • Hook Mode
  • Specific Information for Different Platforms
    • Minikube
• Uninstalling from the cluster
• Version skew policy
• Installing ig
  • Install a specific release
  • Compile from source

Inspektor Gadget is composed of a kubectl plugin executed in the user's system and a DaemonSet deployed in the cluster.

Installing kubectl gadget

Choose one way to install the Inspektor Gadget kubectl plugin.

Using krew

krew is the recommended way to install kubectl gadget. You can follow the krew's quickstart to install it and then install kubectl gadget by executing the following commands.

$ kubectl krew install gadget
$ kubectl gadget --help

Install a specific release

Download the asset for a given release and platform from the releases page, uncompress and move the kubectl-gadget executable to your PATH.

$ curl -sL https://github.com/inspektor-gadget/inspektor-gadget/releases/latest/download/kubectl-gadget-linux-amd64.tar.gz | sudo tar -C /usr/local/bin -xzf - kubectl-gadget
$ kubectl gadget version

Compile from source

To build Inspektor Gadget from source, you'll need to have a Golang version 1.19 or higher installed.

$ git clone https://github.com/inspektor-gadget/inspektor-gadget.git
$ cd inspektor-gadget
$ make kubectl-gadget-linux-amd64
$ sudo cp kubectl-gadget-linux-amd64 /usr/local/bin/kubectl-gadget
$ kubectl gadget version

Installing in the cluster

Quick installation

$ kubectl gadget deploy

This will deploy the gadget DaemonSet along with its RBAC rules.

Choosing the gadget image

If you wish to install an alternative gadget image, you could use the following commands:

$ kubectl gadget deploy --image=ghcr.io/myfork/inspektor-gadget:tag

Deploy to specific nodes

The --node-selector flag accepts a label selector that defines the nodes where Inspektor Gadget will be deloyed to:

# Deploy only to the minikube-m02 node
$ kubectl gadget deploy --node-selector kubernetes.io/hostname=minikube-m02

# Deploy to all nodes but minikube
$ kubectl gadget deploy --node-selector kubernetes.io/hostname!=minikube

# Deploy to minikube and minikube-m03 nodes only
$ kubectl gadget deploy --node-selector 'kubernetes.io/hostname in (minikube, minikube-m03)'

Hook Mode

Inspektor Gadget needs to detect when containers are started and stopped. The different supported modes can be set by using the hook-mode option:

• auto(default): Inspektor Gadget will try to find the best option based on the system it is running on.
• crio: Use the CRIO hooks support. Inspektor Gadget installs the required hooks in /etc/containers/oci/hooks.d, be sure that path is part of the hooks_dir option on crio.conf. If hooks_dir is not declared at all, that path is considered by default.
• podinformer: Use a Kubernetes controller to get information about new pods. This option is racy and the first events produced by a container could be lost. This mode is selected when auto is used and the above modes are not available.
• nri: Use the Node Resource Interface. It requires containerd v1.5 and it's not considered when auto is used.
• fanotify: Uses the Linux fanotify API. It only works with runc.

Specific Information for Different Platforms

This section explains the additional steps that are required to run Inspektor Gadget in some platforms.

Minikube

You can deploy Inspektor Gadget in minikube. We recommend to use the docker driver:

$ minikube start --driver=docker
# Deploy Inspektor Gadget in the cluster as described above

But can also use the kvm one:

$ minikube start --driver=kvm
# Deploy Inspektor Gadget in the cluster as described above

Uninstalling from the cluster

The following command will remove all the resources created by Inspektor Gadget from the cluster:

$ kubectl gadget undeploy

Version skew policy

Inspektor Gadget requires the kubectl-gadget plugin and the DaemonSet deployed on the cluster to be the exact same version. Even if this is possible that different versions work well together, we don't provide any guarantee in those cases. We'll visit this policy again once we approach to the v1.0 release.

Installing ig

The ig tool can be built and installed independently. The result is a single binary (statically linked) that can be copied to a Kubernetes node or any host to trace its containers.

Install a specific release

It is possible to download the asset for a given release and platform from the releases page.

For instance, to download the latest release for linux-amd64:

$ curl -sL https://github.com/inspektor-gadget/inspektor-gadget/releases/latest/download/ig-linux-amd64.tar.gz | sudo tar -C /usr/local/bin -xzf - ig
$ ig version

Compile from source

ig is built using a Docker container, so you don't have to worry about installing dependencies:

$ make ig
$ sudo cp ig /usr/local/bin/