Update readme

README.md

@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@
 This is a meta-monitoring chart for GEL, GEM and GET. It should be installed in a
 separate namespace next to GEM, GEL or GET installations.
 
+Note that this is pre-production software at the moment.
+
 ## Preparation
 
 Create a values.yaml file based on the [default one](../charts/meta-monitoring/values.yaml).
@@ -15,29 +17,54 @@ Create a values.yaml file based on the [default one](../charts/meta-monitoring/v
 
 ## Local and cloud modes
 
-The chart has 2 modes: local and cloud. In the local mode logs, metrics and traces are sent
+The chart has 2 modes: local and cloud. In the local mode logs, metrics and/or traces are sent
 to small Loki, Mimir and Tempo installations running in the meta-monitoring namespace.
 
 ![local mode](docs/images/Meta%20monitoring%20local.png)
 
-To enable local mode set `local.enabled` to true.
+To enable local mode set `local.<logs|metrics|traces>.enabled` to true.
 
-In the cloud mode the logs, metrics and traces are sent to
+In the cloud mode the logs, metrics and/or traces are sent to Grafana Cloud.
 
 ![cloud mode](docs/images/Meta%20monitoring%20cloud.png)
 
-To enable cloud mode set `cloud.enabled` to true. The `endpoint`, `username` and `password` settings for your Grafana Cloud logs, metrics and traces instances have to be filled in as well.
+To enable cloud mode set `cloud.<logs|metrics|traces>.enabled` to true. The `endpoint`, `username` and `password` settings for your Grafana Cloud logs, metrics and traces instances have to be filled in as well.
 
 Both modes can be enabled at the same time.
 
 ## Installation
 
 ```
-helm install -n meta -f values.yaml meta ./charts/meta-monitoring
+helm install -n meta --skip-crds -f values.yaml meta ./charts/meta-monitoring
 ```
 
+If the platform supports CRDs the `--skip-crds` option can be removed. However the CRDs are not used by this chart.
+
 For more instructions including how to update the chart go to the [installation](docs/installation.md) page.
 
+## Supported features
+
+- Specify which namespaces are monitored
+- Specify if logs, metrics or traces should be enabled for cloud or local
+- Specify the cluster name used for the logs, metrics and traces
+- Specify PII regexes that are applied to logs before they are sent to Loki (cloud or local). The capture group in the regex is replaced with *****.
+- a Grafana instance is installed (when local mode is used) with the relevant datasources installed. The following dashboards are installed:
+  - logs dashboards
+  - metrics dashboards
+  - traces dashboards
+  - agent dashboards
+- Retention is set to 24 hours
+
+Most of these features are enabled by default. See the values.yaml file for how to enable/disable them.
+
+## Caveats
+
+- The [loki.source.kubernetes](https://grafana.com/docs/agent/latest/flow/reference/components/loki.source.kubernetes/) component of the Grafana Agent is used to scrape Kubernetes log files. This component is marked experimental at the moment.
+- This has not been tested on Openshift yet.
+- The underlying Loki, Mimir and Tempo are at the default size installed by the Helm chart. This might need changing when monitoring bigger Loki, Mimir or Tempo installations.
+- MinIO is used as storage at the moment with a limited retention. At the moment this chart cannot be used for monitoring over longer periods.
+- Agent self monitoring is not done at the moment.
+
 ## Developer help topics
 
-- [update dependencies](docs/dev_update_dependencies.md)
+- [update dependencies](docs/dev_update_dependencies.md)

charts/meta-monitoring/values.yaml

@@ -1,9 +1,12 @@
+# Specify the namespaces to monitor here
 namespacesToMonitor:
 - loki
 - mimir
 - tempo
-clusterName: "meta-monitoring"  # TODO check if this can be derived
+# The name of the cluster where this will be installed
+clusterName: "meta-monitoring"
 
+# Set to true for a local version of logs, metrics or traces
 local:
   logs:
     enabled: false
@@ -14,6 +17,7 @@ local:
   minio:
     enabled: false  # This should be set to true if any of the previous is enabled
 
+# Set to true to write logs, metrics or traces to Grafana Cloud
 cloud:
   logs:
     enabled: true
@@ -31,7 +35,7 @@ cloud:
     username:
     password:
 
-# Adding regexes here will add a stage.replace block. For more information see
+# Adding regexes here will add a stage.replace block for logs. For more information see
 # https://grafana.com/docs/agent/latest/flow/reference/components/loki.process/#stagereplace-block
 logs:
   piiRegexes:
@@ -63,7 +67,7 @@ kubeStateMetrics:
   endpoint: kube-state-metrics.kube-state-metrics.svc.cluster.local:8080
 
 # The following are configuration for the dependencies.
-# These should not be changed.
+# These should usually not be changed.
 
 loki:
   loki: