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<h1 style='display: inline' id='f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd---part-8-observability'>f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part 8: Observability</h1><br />
<br />
<span class='quote'>Published at 2025-12-06T23:58:24+02:00</span><br />
<br />
<span>This is the 8th blog post about the f3s series for my self-hosting demands in a home lab. f3s? The "f" stands for FreeBSD, and the "3s" stands for k3s, the Kubernetes distribution I use on FreeBSD-based physical machines.</span><br />
<br />
<a class='textlink' href='./2024-11-17-f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd-part-1.html'>2024-11-17 f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part 1: Setting the stage</a><br />
<a class='textlink' href='./2024-12-03-f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd-part-2.html'>2024-12-03 f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part 2: Hardware and base installation</a><br />
<a class='textlink' href='./2025-02-01-f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd-part-3.html'>2025-02-01 f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part 3: Protecting from power cuts</a><br />
<a class='textlink' href='./2025-04-05-f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd-part-4.html'>2025-04-05 f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part 4: Rocky Linux Bhyve VMs</a><br />
<a class='textlink' href='./2025-05-11-f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd-part-5.html'>2025-05-11 f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part 5: WireGuard mesh network</a><br />
<a class='textlink' href='./2025-07-14-f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd-part-6.html'>2025-07-14 f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part 6: Storage</a><br />
<a class='textlink' href='./2025-10-02-f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd-part-7.html'>2025-10-02 f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part 7: k3s and first pod deployments</a><br />
<a class='textlink' href='./2025-12-07-f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd-part-8.html'>2025-12-07 f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part 8: Observability (You are currently reading this)</a><br />
<br />
<a href='./f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd-part-1/f3slogo.png'><img alt='f3s logo' title='f3s logo' src='./f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd-part-1/f3slogo.png' /></a><br />
<br />
<h2 style='display: inline' id='table-of-contents'>Table of Contents</h2><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><a href='#f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd---part-8-observability'>f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part 8: Observability</a></li>
<li>⇢ <a href='#introduction'>Introduction</a></li>
<li>⇢ <a href='#update-lan-ingress-support-february-2026'>Update: LAN Ingress Support (February 2026)</a></li>
<li>⇢ <a href='#important-note-gitops-migration'>Important Note: GitOps Migration</a></li>
<li>⇢ <a href='#persistent-storage-recap'>Persistent storage recap</a></li>
<li>⇢ <a href='#the-monitoring-namespace'>The monitoring namespace</a></li>
<li>⇢ <a href='#installing-prometheus-and-grafana'>Installing Prometheus and Grafana</a></li>
<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#prerequisites'>Prerequisites</a></li>
<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#deploying-with-the-justfile'>Deploying with the Justfile</a></li>
<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#exposing-grafana-via-ingress'>Exposing Grafana via ingress</a></li>
<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#exposing-services-via-lan-ingress'>Exposing services via LAN ingress</a></li>
<li>⇢ <a href='#installing-loki-and-alloy'>Installing Loki and Alloy</a></li>
<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#prerequisites'>Prerequisites</a></li>
<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#deploying-loki-and-alloy'>Deploying Loki and Alloy</a></li>
<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#configuring-alloy'>Configuring Alloy</a></li>
<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#adding-loki-as-a-grafana-data-source'>Adding Loki as a Grafana data source</a></li>
<li>⇢ <a href='#the-complete-monitoring-stack'>The complete monitoring stack</a></li>
<li>⇢ <a href='#using-the-observability-stack'>Using the observability stack</a></li>
<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#viewing-metrics-in-grafana'>Viewing metrics in Grafana</a></li>
<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#querying-logs-with-logql'>Querying logs with LogQL</a></li>
<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#creating-alerts'>Creating alerts</a></li>
<li>⇢ <a href='#monitoring-external-freebsd-hosts'>Monitoring external FreeBSD hosts</a></li>
<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#installing-node-exporter-on-freebsd'>Installing Node Exporter on FreeBSD</a></li>
<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#adding-freebsd-hosts-to-prometheus'>Adding FreeBSD hosts to Prometheus</a></li>
<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#freebsd-memory-metrics-compatibility'>FreeBSD memory metrics compatibility</a></li>
<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#disk-io-metrics-limitation'>Disk I/O metrics limitation</a></li>
<li>⇢ <a href='#monitoring-external-openbsd-hosts'>Monitoring external OpenBSD hosts</a></li>
<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#installing-node-exporter-on-openbsd'>Installing Node Exporter on OpenBSD</a></li>
<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#adding-openbsd-hosts-to-prometheus'>Adding OpenBSD hosts to Prometheus</a></li>
<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#openbsd-memory-metrics-compatibility'>OpenBSD memory metrics compatibility</a></li>
<li>⇢ <a href='#summary'>Summary</a></li>
</ul><br />
<h2 style='display: inline' id='introduction'>Introduction</h2><br />
<br />
<span>In this blog post, I set up a complete observability stack for the k3s cluster. Observability is crucial for understanding what's happening inside the cluster—whether its tracking resource usage, debugging issues, or analysing application behaviour. The stack consists of four main components, all deployed into the <span class='inlinecode'>monitoring</span> namespace:</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Prometheus: time-series database for metrics collection and alerting</li>
<li>Grafana: visualisation and dashboarding frontend</li>
<li>Loki: log aggregation system (like Prometheus, but for logs)</li>
<li>Alloy: telemetry collector that ships logs from all pods to Loki</li>
</ul><br />
<span>Together, these form the "PLG" stack (Prometheus, Loki, Grafana), which is a popular open-source alternative to commercial observability platforms.</span><br />
<br />
<span>All manifests for the f3s stack live in my configuration repository:</span><br />
<br />
<a class='textlink' href='https://codeberg.org/snonux/conf/src/branch/master/f3s'>codeberg.org/snonux/conf/f3s</a><br />
<br />
<h2 style='display: inline' id='update-lan-ingress-support-february-2026'>Update: LAN Ingress Support (February 2026)</h2><br />
<br />
<span>Update (2026-02-05):** This blog post has been updated to include a new section on exposing services via LAN ingress. The original blog post focused on external access through OpenBSD edge relays. The new section documents how to:</span><br />
<br />
<h2 style='display: inline' id='important-note-gitops-migration'>Important Note: GitOps Migration</h2><br />
<br />
<span>**Note:** After publishing this blog post, the f3s cluster was migrated from imperative Helm deployments to declarative GitOps using ArgoCD. The Kubernetes manifests, Helm charts, and Justfiles in the repository have been reorganized for ArgoCD-based continuous deployment.</span><br />
<br />
<span>**To view the exact configuration as it existed when this blog post was written** (before the ArgoCD migration), check out the pre-ArgoCD revision:</span><br />
<br />
<!-- Generator: GNU source-highlight 3.1.9
by Lorenzo Bettini
http://www.lorenzobettini.it
http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
<pre>$ git clone https://codeberg.org/snonux/conf.git
$ cd conf
$ git checkout 15a86f3 <i><font color="silver"># Last commit before ArgoCD migration</font></i>
$ cd f3s/prometheus/
</pre>
<br />
<span>**Current master branch** contains the ArgoCD-managed versions with:</span><br />
<span>- Application manifests organized under <span class='inlinecode'>argocd-apps/{monitoring,services,infra,test}/</span></span><br />
<span>- Resources organized under <span class='inlinecode'>prometheus/manifests/</span>, <span class='inlinecode'>loki/</span>, etc.</span><br />
<span>- Justfiles updated to trigger ArgoCD syncs instead of direct Helm commands</span><br />
<br />
<span>The deployment concepts and architecture remain the same—only the deployment method changed from imperative (<span class='inlinecode'>helm install/upgrade</span>) to declarative (GitOps with ArgoCD). </span><br />
<br />
<h2 style='display: inline' id='persistent-storage-recap'>Persistent storage recap</h2><br />
<br />
<span>All observability components need persistent storage so that metrics and logs survive pod restarts. As covered in Part 6 of this series, the cluster uses NFS-backed persistent volumes:</span><br />
<br />
<a class='textlink' href='./2025-07-14-f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd-part-6.html'>f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part 6: Storage</a><br />
<br />
<span>The FreeBSD hosts (<span class='inlinecode'>f0</span>, <span class='inlinecode'>f1</span>) serve as master-standby NFS servers, exporting ZFS datasets that are replicated across hosts using <span class='inlinecode'>zrepl</span>. The Rocky Linux k3s nodes (<span class='inlinecode'>r0</span>, <span class='inlinecode'>r1</span>, <span class='inlinecode'>r2</span>) mount these exports at <span class='inlinecode'>/data/nfs/k3svolumes</span>. This directory contains subdirectories for each application that needs persistent storage—including Prometheus, Grafana, and Loki.</span><br />
<br />
<span>For example, the observability stack uses these paths on the NFS share:</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span class='inlinecode'>/data/nfs/k3svolumes/prometheus/data</span> — Prometheus time-series database</li>
<li><span class='inlinecode'>/data/nfs/k3svolumes/grafana/data</span> — Grafana configuration, dashboards, and plugins</li>
<li><span class='inlinecode'>/data/nfs/k3svolumes/loki/data</span> — Loki log chunks and index</li>
</ul><br />
<span>Each path gets a corresponding <span class='inlinecode'>PersistentVolume</span> and <span class='inlinecode'>PersistentVolumeClaim</span> in Kubernetes, allowing pods to mount them as regular volumes. Because the underlying storage is ZFS with replication, we get snapshots and redundancy for free.</span><br />
<br />
<h2 style='display: inline' id='the-monitoring-namespace'>The monitoring namespace</h2><br />
<br />
<span>First, I created the monitoring namespace where all observability components will live:</span><br />
<br />
<!-- Generator: GNU source-highlight 3.1.9
by Lorenzo Bettini
http://www.lorenzobettini.it
http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
<pre>$ kubectl create namespace monitoring
namespace/monitoring created
</pre>
<br />
<h2 style='display: inline' id='installing-prometheus-and-grafana'>Installing Prometheus and Grafana</h2><br />
<br />
<span>Prometheus and Grafana are deployed together using the <span class='inlinecode'>kube-prometheus-stack</span> Helm chart from the Prometheus community. This chart bundles Prometheus, Grafana, Alertmanager, and various exporters (Node Exporter, Kube State Metrics) into a single deployment. Ill explain what each component does in detail later when we look at the running pods.</span><br />
<br />
<h3 style='display: inline' id='prerequisites'>Prerequisites</h3><br />
<br />
<span>Add the Prometheus Helm chart repository:</span><br />
<br />
<!-- Generator: GNU source-highlight 3.1.9
by Lorenzo Bettini
http://www.lorenzobettini.it
http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
<pre>$ helm repo add prometheus-community https://prometheus-community.github.io/helm-charts
$ helm repo update
</pre>
<br />
<span>Create the directories on the NFS server for persistent storage:</span><br />
<br />
<!-- Generator: GNU source-highlight 3.1.9
by Lorenzo Bettini
http://www.lorenzobettini.it
http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
<pre>[root@r0 ~]<i><font color="silver"># mkdir -p /data/nfs/k3svolumes/prometheus/data</font></i>
[root@r0 ~]<i><font color="silver"># mkdir -p /data/nfs/k3svolumes/grafana/data</font></i>
</pre>
<br />
<h3 style='display: inline' id='deploying-with-the-justfile'>Deploying with the Justfile</h3><br />
<br />
<span>The configuration repository contains a <span class='inlinecode'>Justfile</span> that automates the deployment. <span class='inlinecode'>just</span> is a handy command runner—think of it as a simpler, more modern alternative to <span class='inlinecode'>make</span>. I use it throughout the f3s repository to wrap repetitive Helm and kubectl commands:</span><br />
<br />
<a class='textlink' href='https://github.com/casey/just'>just - A handy way to save and run project-specific commands</a><br />
<a class='textlink' href='https://codeberg.org/snonux/conf/src/branch/master/f3s/prometheus'>codeberg.org/snonux/conf/f3s/prometheus</a><br />
<br />
<span>To install everything:</span><br />
<br />
<!-- Generator: GNU source-highlight 3.1.9
by Lorenzo Bettini
http://www.lorenzobettini.it
http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
<pre>$ cd conf/f3s/prometheus
$ just install
kubectl apply -f persistent-volumes.yaml
persistentvolume/prometheus-data-pv created
persistentvolume/grafana-data-pv created
persistentvolumeclaim/grafana-data-pvc created
helm install prometheus prometheus-community/kube-prometheus-stack \
--namespace monitoring -f persistence-values.yaml
NAME: prometheus
LAST DEPLOYED: ...
NAMESPACE: monitoring
STATUS: deployed
</pre>
<br />
<span>The <span class='inlinecode'>persistence-values.yaml</span> configures Prometheus and Grafana to use the NFS-backed persistent volumes I mentioned earlier, ensuring data survives pod restarts. It also enables scraping of etcd and kube-controller-manager metrics:</span><br />
<br />
<pre>
kubeEtcd:
enabled: true
endpoints:
- 192.168.2.120
- 192.168.2.121
- 192.168.2.122
service:
enabled: true
port: 2381
targetPort: 2381
kubeControllerManager:
enabled: true
endpoints:
- 192.168.2.120
- 192.168.2.121
- 192.168.2.122
service:
enabled: true
port: 10257
targetPort: 10257
serviceMonitor:
enabled: true
https: true
insecureSkipVerify: true
</pre>
<br />
<span>By default, k3s binds the controller-manager to localhost only, so the "Kubernetes / Controller Manager" dashboard in Grafana will show no data. To expose the metrics endpoint, add the following to <span class='inlinecode'>/etc/rancher/k3s/config.yaml</span> on each k3s server node:</span><br />
<br />
<!-- Generator: GNU source-highlight 3.1.9
by Lorenzo Bettini
http://www.lorenzobettini.it
http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
<pre>[root@r0 ~]<i><font color="silver"># cat >> /etc/rancher/k3s/config.yaml << 'EOF'</font></i>
kube-controller-manager-arg:
- bind-address=<font color="#000000">0.0</font>.<font color="#000000">0.0</font>
EOF
[root@r0 ~]<i><font color="silver"># systemctl restart k3s</font></i>
</pre>
<br />
<span>Repeat for <span class='inlinecode'>r1</span> and <span class='inlinecode'>r2</span>. After restarting all nodes, the controller-manager metrics endpoint will be accessible and Prometheus can scrape it.</span><br />
<br />
<span>The persistent volume definitions bind to specific paths on the NFS share using <span class='inlinecode'>hostPath</span> volumes—the same pattern used for other services in Part 7:</span><br />
<br />
<a class='textlink' href='./2025-10-02-f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd-part-7.html'>f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part 7: k3s and first pod deployments</a><br />
<br />
<h3 style='display: inline' id='exposing-grafana-via-ingress'>Exposing Grafana via ingress</h3><br />
<br />
<span>The chart also deploys an ingress for Grafana, making it accessible at <span class='inlinecode'>grafana.f3s.foo.zone</span>. The ingress configuration follows the same pattern as other services in the cluster—Traefik handles the routing internally, while the OpenBSD edge relays terminate TLS and forward traffic through WireGuard.</span><br />
<br />
<span>Once deployed, Grafana is accessible and comes pre-configured with Prometheus as a data source. You can verify the Prometheus service is running:</span><br />
<br />
<!-- Generator: GNU source-highlight 3.1.9
by Lorenzo Bettini
http://www.lorenzobettini.it
http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
<pre>$ kubectl get svc -n monitoring prometheus-kube-prometheus-prometheus
NAME TYPE CLUSTER-IP PORT(S)
prometheus-kube-prometheus-prometheus ClusterIP <font color="#000000">10.43</font>.<font color="#000000">152.163</font> <font color="#000000">9090</font>/TCP,<font color="#000000">8080</font>/TCP
</pre>
<br />
<span>Grafana connects to Prometheus using the internal service URL <span class='inlinecode'>http://prometheus-kube-prometheus-prometheus.monitoring.svc.cluster.local:9090</span>. The default Grafana credentials are <span class='inlinecode'>admin</span>/<span class='inlinecode'>prom-operator</span>, which should be changed immediately after first login.</span><br />
<br />
<a href='./f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd-part-8/grafana-prometheus.png'><img alt='Grafana dashboard showing Prometheus metrics' title='Grafana dashboard showing Prometheus metrics' src='./f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd-part-8/grafana-prometheus.png' /></a><br />
<br />
<a href='./f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd-part-8/grafana-dashboard.png'><img alt='Grafana dashboard showing cluster metrics' title='Grafana dashboard showing cluster metrics' src='./f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd-part-8/grafana-dashboard.png' /></a><br />
<br />
<h3 style='display: inline' id='exposing-services-via-lan-ingress'>Exposing services via LAN ingress</h3><br />
<br />
<span>In addition to external access through the OpenBSD relays, services can also be exposed on the local network using LAN-specific ingresses. This is useful for accessing services from within the home network without going through the internet, reducing latency and providing an alternative path if the external relays are unavailable.</span><br />
<br />
<span>The LAN ingress architecture leverages the existing FreeBSD CARP (Common Address Redundancy Protocol) failover infrastructure that's already in place for NFS-over-TLS (see Part 5). Instead of deploying MetalLB or another LoadBalancer implementation, we reuse the CARP virtual IP (<span class='inlinecode'>192.168.1.138</span>) by adding HTTP/HTTPS forwarding alongside the existing stunnel service on port 2323.</span><br />
<br />
<span>*Architecture overview*:</span><br />
<br />
<span>The LAN access path differs from external access:</span><br />
<br />
<span>**External access (*.f3s.foo.zone):**</span><br />
<pre>
Internet → OpenBSD relayd (TLS termination, Let's Encrypt)
→ WireGuard tunnel
→ k3s Traefik :80 (HTTP)
→ Service
</pre>
<br />
<span>**LAN access (*.f3s.lan.foo.zone):**</span><br />
<pre>
LAN → FreeBSD CARP VIP (192.168.1.138)
→ FreeBSD relayd (TCP forwarding)
→ k3s Traefik :443 (TLS termination, cert-manager)
→ Service
</pre>
<br />
<span>The key architectural decisions:</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>FreeBSD <span class='inlinecode'>relayd</span> performs pure TCP forwarding (Layer 4) for ports 80 and 443, not TLS termination</li>
<li>Traefik inside k3s handles TLS offloading using certificates from cert-manager</li>
<li>Self-signed CA for LAN domains (no external dependencies)</li>
<li>CARP provides automatic failover between f0 and f1</li>
<li>No code changes to applications—just add a LAN ingress resource</li>
</ul><br />
<span>*Installing cert-manager*:</span><br />
<br />
<span>First, install cert-manager to handle certificate lifecycle management for LAN services. The installation is automated with a Justfile:</span><br />
<br />
<a class='textlink' href='https://codeberg.org/snonux/conf/src/branch/master/f3s/cert-manager'>codeberg.org/snonux/conf/f3s/cert-manager</a><br />
<br />
<!-- Generator: GNU source-highlight 3.1.9
by Lorenzo Bettini
http://www.lorenzobettini.it
http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
<pre>$ cd conf/f3s/cert-manager
$ just install
kubectl apply -f cert-manager.yaml
<i><font color="silver"># ... cert-manager CRDs and resources created ...</font></i>
kubectl apply -f self-signed-issuer.yaml
clusterissuer.cert-manager.io/selfsigned-issuer created
clusterissuer.cert-manager.io/selfsigned-ca-issuer created
kubectl apply -f ca-certificate.yaml
certificate.cert-manager.io/selfsigned-ca created
kubectl apply -f wildcard-certificate.yaml
certificate.cert-manager.io/f3s-lan-wildcard created
</pre>
<br />
<span>This creates:</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>A self-signed ClusterIssuer</li>
<li>A CA certificate (<span class='inlinecode'>f3s-lan-ca</span>) valid for 10 years</li>
<li>A CA-signed ClusterIssuer</li>
<li>A wildcard certificate (<span class='inlinecode'>*.f3s.lan.foo.zone</span>) valid for 90 days with automatic renewal</li>
</ul><br />
<span>Verify the certificates:</span><br />
<br />
<!-- Generator: GNU source-highlight 3.1.9
by Lorenzo Bettini
http://www.lorenzobettini.it
http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
<pre>$ kubectl get certificate -n cert-manager
NAME READY SECRET AGE
f3s-lan-wildcard True f3s-lan-tls 5m
selfsigned-ca True selfsigned-ca-secret 5m
</pre>
<br />
<span>The wildcard certificate (<span class='inlinecode'>f3s-lan-tls</span>) needs to be copied to any namespace that uses it:</span><br />
<br />
<!-- Generator: GNU source-highlight 3.1.9
by Lorenzo Bettini
http://www.lorenzobettini.it
http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
<pre>$ kubectl get secret f3s-lan-tls -n cert-manager -o yaml | \
sed <font color="#808080">'s/namespace: cert-manager/namespace: services/'</font> | \
kubectl apply -f -
</pre>
<br />
<span>*Configuring FreeBSD relayd for LAN access*:</span><br />
<br />
<span>On both FreeBSD hosts (f0, f1), install and configure <span class='inlinecode'>relayd</span> for TCP forwarding:</span><br />
<br />
<!-- Generator: GNU source-highlight 3.1.9
by Lorenzo Bettini
http://www.lorenzobettini.it
http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
<pre>paul@f0:~ % doas pkg install -y relayd
</pre>
<br />
<span>Create <span class='inlinecode'>/usr/local/etc/relayd.conf</span>:</span><br />
<br />
<pre>
# k3s nodes backend table
table <k3s_nodes> { 192.168.1.120 192.168.1.121 192.168.1.122 }
# TCP forwarding to Traefik (no TLS termination)
relay "lan_http" {
listen on 192.168.1.138 port 80
forward to <k3s_nodes> port 80 check tcp
}
relay "lan_https" {
listen on 192.168.1.138 port 443
forward to <k3s_nodes> port 443 check tcp
}
</pre>
<br />
<span>Note: The IP addresses <span class='inlinecode'>192.168.1.120-122</span> are the LAN IPs of the k3s nodes (r0, r1, r2), not their WireGuard IPs. FreeBSD <span class='inlinecode'>relayd</span> requires PF (Packet Filter) to be enabled. Create a minimal <span class='inlinecode'>/etc/pf.conf</span>:</span><br />
<br />
<pre>
# Basic PF rules for relayd
set skip on lo0
pass in quick
pass out quick
</pre>
<br />
<span>Enable PF and relayd:</span><br />
<br />
<!-- Generator: GNU source-highlight 3.1.9
by Lorenzo Bettini
http://www.lorenzobettini.it
http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
<pre>paul@f0:~ % doas sysrc pf_enable=YES pflog_enable=YES relayd_enable=YES
paul@f0:~ % doas service pf start
paul@f0:~ % doas service pflog start
paul@f0:~ % doas service relayd start
</pre>
<br />
<span>Verify <span class='inlinecode'>relayd</span> is listening on the CARP VIP:</span><br />
<br />
<!-- Generator: GNU source-highlight 3.1.9
by Lorenzo Bettini
http://www.lorenzobettini.it
http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
<pre>paul@f0:~ % doas sockstat -<font color="#000000">4</font> -l | grep <font color="#000000">192.168</font>.<font color="#000000">1.138</font>
_relayd relayd <font color="#000000">2903</font> <font color="#000000">11</font> tcp4 <font color="#000000">192.168</font>.<font color="#000000">1.138</font>:<font color="#000000">80</font> *:*
_relayd relayd <font color="#000000">2903</font> <font color="#000000">12</font> tcp4 <font color="#000000">192.168</font>.<font color="#000000">1.138</font>:<font color="#000000">443</font> *:*
</pre>
<br />
<span>Repeat the same configuration on f1. Both hosts will run <span class='inlinecode'>relayd</span> listening on the CARP VIP, but only the CARP MASTER will respond to traffic. When failover occurs, the new MASTER takes over seamlessly.</span><br />
<br />
<span>*Adding LAN ingress to services*:</span><br />
<br />
<span>To expose a service on the LAN, add a second Ingress resource to its Helm chart. Here's an example for Grafana:</span><br />
<br />
<pre>
---
# LAN Ingress for grafana.f3s.lan.foo.zone
apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
name: grafana-ingress-lan
namespace: monitoring
annotations:
spec.ingressClassName: traefik
traefik.ingress.kubernetes.io/router.entrypoints: web,websecure
spec:
tls:
- hosts:
- grafana.f3s.lan.foo.zone
secretName: f3s-lan-tls
rules:
- host: grafana.f3s.lan.foo.zone
http:
paths:
- path: /
pathType: Prefix
backend:
service:
name: prometheus-grafana
port:
number: 80
</pre>
<br />
<span>Key points:</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Use <span class='inlinecode'>web,websecure</span> entrypoints (both HTTP and HTTPS)</li>
<li>Reference the <span class='inlinecode'>f3s-lan-tls</span> secret in the <span class='inlinecode'>tls</span> section</li>
<li>Use <span class='inlinecode'>.f3s.lan.foo.zone</span> subdomain pattern</li>
<li>Same backend service as the external ingress</li>
</ul><br />
<span>Apply the ingress and test:</span><br />
<br />
<!-- Generator: GNU source-highlight 3.1.9
by Lorenzo Bettini
http://www.lorenzobettini.it
http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
<pre>$ kubectl apply -f grafana-ingress-lan.yaml
ingress.networking.k8s.io/grafana-ingress-lan created
$ curl -k https://grafana.f3s.lan.foo.zone
HTTP/<font color="#000000">2</font> <font color="#000000">302</font>
location: /login
</pre>
<br />
<span>*Client-side DNS and CA setup*:</span><br />
<br />
<span>To access LAN services, clients need DNS entries and must trust the self-signed CA.</span><br />
<br />
<span>Add DNS entries to <span class='inlinecode'>/etc/hosts</span> on your laptop:</span><br />
<br />
<!-- Generator: GNU source-highlight 3.1.9
by Lorenzo Bettini
http://www.lorenzobettini.it
http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
<pre>$ sudo tee -a /etc/hosts << <font color="#808080">'EOF'</font>
<i><font color="silver"># f3s LAN services</font></i>
<font color="#000000">192.168</font>.<font color="#000000">1.138</font> grafana.f3s.lan.foo.zone
<font color="#000000">192.168</font>.<font color="#000000">1.138</font> navidrome.f3s.lan.foo.zone
EOF
</pre>
<br />
<span>The CARP VIP <span class='inlinecode'>192.168.1.138</span> provides high availability—traffic automatically fails over to the backup host if the master goes down.</span><br />
<br />
<span>Export the self-signed CA certificate:</span><br />
<br />
<!-- Generator: GNU source-highlight 3.1.9
by Lorenzo Bettini
http://www.lorenzobettini.it
http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
<pre>$ kubectl get secret selfsigned-ca-secret -n cert-manager -o jsonpath=<font color="#808080">'{.data.ca</font>\.<font color="#808080">crt}'</font> | \
base64 -d > f3s-lan-ca.crt
</pre>
<br />
<span>Install the CA certificate on Linux (Fedora/Rocky):</span><br />
<br />
<!-- Generator: GNU source-highlight 3.1.9
by Lorenzo Bettini
http://www.lorenzobettini.it
http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
<pre>$ sudo cp f3s-lan-ca.crt /etc/pki/ca-trust/source/anchors/
$ sudo update-ca-trust
</pre>
<br />
<span>After trusting the CA, browsers will accept the LAN certificates without warnings.</span><br />
<br />
<span>*Scaling to other services*:</span><br />
<br />
<span>The same pattern can be applied to any service. To add LAN access:</span><br />
<br />
<span>1. Copy the <span class='inlinecode'>f3s-lan-tls</span> secret to the service's namespace (if not already there)</span><br />
<span>2. Add a LAN Ingress resource using the pattern above</span><br />
<span>3. Configure DNS: <span class='inlinecode'>192.168.1.138 service.f3s.lan.foo.zone</span></span><br />
<span>4. Commit and push (ArgoCD will deploy automatically)</span><br />
<br />
<span>No changes needed to:</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>relayd configuration (forwards all traffic)</li>
<li>cert-manager (wildcard cert covers all <span class='inlinecode'>*.f3s.lan.foo.zone</span>)</li>
<li>CARP configuration (VIP shared by all services)</li>
</ul><br />
<span>*TLS offloaders summary*:</span><br />
<br />
<span>The f3s infrastructure now has three distinct TLS offloaders:</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>**OpenBSD relayd**: External internet traffic (<span class='inlinecode'>*.f3s.foo.zone</span>) using Let's Encrypt</li>
<li>**Traefik (k3s)**: LAN HTTPS traffic (<span class='inlinecode'>*.f3s.lan.foo.zone</span>) using cert-manager</li>
<li>**stunnel**: NFS-over-TLS (port 2323) using custom PKI</li>
</ul><br />
<span>Each serves a different purpose with appropriate certificate management for its use case.</span><br />
<br />
<h2 style='display: inline' id='installing-loki-and-alloy'>Installing Loki and Alloy</h2><br />
<br />
<span>While Prometheus handles metrics, Loki handles logs. It's designed to be cost-effective and easy to operate—it doesn't index the contents of logs, only the metadata (labels), making it very efficient for storage.</span><br />
<br />
<span>Alloy is Grafana's telemetry collector (the successor to Promtail). It runs as a DaemonSet on each node, tails container logs, and ships them to Loki.</span><br />
<br />
<h3 style='display: inline' id='prerequisites'>Prerequisites</h3><br />
<br />
<span>Create the data directory on the NFS server:</span><br />
<br />
<!-- Generator: GNU source-highlight 3.1.9
by Lorenzo Bettini
http://www.lorenzobettini.it
http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
<pre>[root@r0 ~]<i><font color="silver"># mkdir -p /data/nfs/k3svolumes/loki/data</font></i>
</pre>
<br />
<h3 style='display: inline' id='deploying-loki-and-alloy'>Deploying Loki and Alloy</h3><br />
<br />
<span>The Loki configuration also lives in the repository:</span><br />
<br />
<a class='textlink' href='https://codeberg.org/snonux/conf/src/branch/master/f3s/loki'>codeberg.org/snonux/conf/f3s/loki</a><br />
<br />
<span>To install:</span><br />
<br />
<!-- Generator: GNU source-highlight 3.1.9
by Lorenzo Bettini
http://www.lorenzobettini.it
http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
<pre>$ cd conf/f3s/loki
$ just install
helm repo add grafana https://grafana.github.io/helm-charts || <b><u><font color="#000000">true</font></u></b>
helm repo update
kubectl apply -f persistent-volumes.yaml
persistentvolume/loki-data-pv created
persistentvolumeclaim/loki-data-pvc created
helm install loki grafana/loki --namespace monitoring -f values.yaml
NAME: loki
LAST DEPLOYED: ...
NAMESPACE: monitoring
STATUS: deployed
...
helm install alloy grafana/alloy --namespace monitoring -f alloy-values.yaml
NAME: alloy
LAST DEPLOYED: ...
NAMESPACE: monitoring
STATUS: deployed
</pre>
<br />
<span>Loki runs in single-binary mode with a single replica (<span class='inlinecode'>loki-0</span>), which is appropriate for a home lab cluster. This means there's only one Loki pod running at any time. If the node hosting Loki fails, Kubernetes will automatically reschedule the pod to another worker node—but there will be a brief downtime (typically under a minute) while this happens. For my home lab use case, this is perfectly acceptable.</span><br />
<br />
<span>For full high-availability, you'd deploy Loki in microservices mode with separate read, write, and backend components, backed by object storage like S3 or MinIO instead of local filesystem storage. That's a more complex setup that I might explore in a future blog post—but for now, the single-binary mode with NFS-backed persistence strikes the right balance between simplicity and durability.</span><br />
<br />
<h3 style='display: inline' id='configuring-alloy'>Configuring Alloy</h3><br />
<br />
<span>Alloy is configured via <span class='inlinecode'>alloy-values.yaml</span> to discover all pods in the cluster and forward their logs to Loki:</span><br />
<br />
<!-- Generator: GNU source-highlight 3.1.9
by Lorenzo Bettini
http://www.lorenzobettini.it
http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
<pre>discovery.kubernetes <font color="#808080">"pods"</font> {
role = <font color="#808080">"pod"</font>
}
discovery.relabel <font color="#808080">"pods"</font> {
targets = discovery.kubernetes.pods.targets
rule {
source_labels = [<font color="#808080">"__meta_kubernetes_namespace"</font>]
target_label = <font color="#808080">"namespace"</font>
}
rule {
source_labels = [<font color="#808080">"__meta_kubernetes_pod_name"</font>]
target_label = <font color="#808080">"pod"</font>
}
rule {
source_labels = [<font color="#808080">"__meta_kubernetes_pod_container_name"</font>]
target_label = <font color="#808080">"container"</font>
}
rule {
source_labels = [<font color="#808080">"__meta_kubernetes_pod_label_app"</font>]
target_label = <font color="#808080">"app"</font>
}
}
loki.<b><u><font color="#000000">source</font></u></b>.kubernetes <font color="#808080">"pods"</font> {
targets = discovery.relabel.pods.output
forward_to = [loki.write.default.receiver]
}
loki.write <font color="#808080">"default"</font> {
endpoint {
url = <font color="#808080">"http://loki.monitoring.svc.cluster.local:3100/loki/api/v1/push"</font>
}
}
</pre>
<br />
<span>This configuration automatically labels each log line with the namespace, pod name, container name, and app label, making it easy to filter logs in Grafana.</span><br />
<br />
<h3 style='display: inline' id='adding-loki-as-a-grafana-data-source'>Adding Loki as a Grafana data source</h3><br />
<br />
<span>Loki doesn't have its own web UI—you query it through Grafana. First, verify the Loki service is running:</span><br />
<br />
<!-- Generator: GNU source-highlight 3.1.9
by Lorenzo Bettini
http://www.lorenzobettini.it
http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
<pre>$ kubectl get svc -n monitoring loki
NAME TYPE CLUSTER-IP PORT(S)
loki ClusterIP <font color="#000000">10.43</font>.<font color="#000000">64.60</font> <font color="#000000">3100</font>/TCP,<font color="#000000">9095</font>/TCP
</pre>
<br />
<span>To add Loki as a data source in Grafana:</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Navigate to Configuration → Data Sources</li>
<li>Click "Add data source"</li>
<li>Select "Loki"</li>
<li>Set the URL to: <span class='inlinecode'>http://loki.monitoring.svc.cluster.local:3100</span></li>
<li>Click "Save & Test"</li>
</ul><br />
<span>Once configured, you can explore logs in Grafana's "Explore" view. I'll show some example queries in the "Using the observability stack" section below.</span><br />
<br />
<a href='./f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd-part-8/loki-explore.png'><img alt='Exploring logs in Grafana with Loki' title='Exploring logs in Grafana with Loki' src='./f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd-part-8/loki-explore.png' /></a><br />
<br />
<h2 style='display: inline' id='the-complete-monitoring-stack'>The complete monitoring stack</h2><br />
<br />
<span>After deploying everything, here's what's running in the monitoring namespace:</span><br />
<br />
<!-- Generator: GNU source-highlight 3.1.9
by Lorenzo Bettini
http://www.lorenzobettini.it
http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
<pre>$ kubectl get pods -n monitoring
NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
alertmanager-prometheus-kube-prometheus-alertmanager-<font color="#000000">0</font> <font color="#000000">2</font>/<font color="#000000">2</font> Running <font color="#000000">0</font> 42d
alloy-g5fgj <font color="#000000">2</font>/<font color="#000000">2</font> Running <font color="#000000">0</font> 29m
alloy-nfw8w <font color="#000000">2</font>/<font color="#000000">2</font> Running <font color="#000000">0</font> 29m
alloy-tg9vj <font color="#000000">2</font>/<font color="#000000">2</font> Running <font color="#000000">0</font> 29m
loki-<font color="#000000">0</font> <font color="#000000">2</font>/<font color="#000000">2</font> Running <font color="#000000">0</font> 25m
prometheus-grafana-868f9dc7cf-lg2vl <font color="#000000">3</font>/<font color="#000000">3</font> Running <font color="#000000">0</font> 42d
prometheus-kube-prometheus-operator-8d7bbc48c-p4sf4 <font color="#000000">1</font>/<font color="#000000">1</font> Running <font color="#000000">0</font> 42d
prometheus-kube-state-metrics-7c5fb9d798-hh2fx <font color="#000000">1</font>/<font color="#000000">1</font> Running <font color="#000000">0</font> 42d
prometheus-prometheus-kube-prometheus-prometheus-<font color="#000000">0</font> <font color="#000000">2</font>/<font color="#000000">2</font> Running <font color="#000000">0</font> 42d
prometheus-prometheus-node-exporter-2nsg9 <font color="#000000">1</font>/<font color="#000000">1</font> Running <font color="#000000">0</font> 42d
prometheus-prometheus-node-exporter-mqr<font color="#000000">25</font> <font color="#000000">1</font>/<font color="#000000">1</font> Running <font color="#000000">0</font> 42d
prometheus-prometheus-node-exporter-wp4ds <font color="#000000">1</font>/<font color="#000000">1</font> Running <font color="#000000">0</font> 42d
</pre>
<br />
<span>And the services:</span><br />
<br />
<!-- Generator: GNU source-highlight 3.1.9
by Lorenzo Bettini
http://www.lorenzobettini.it
http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
<pre>$ kubectl get svc -n monitoring
NAME TYPE CLUSTER-IP PORT(S)
alertmanager-operated ClusterIP None <font color="#000000">9093</font>/TCP,<font color="#000000">9094</font>/TCP
alloy ClusterIP <font color="#000000">10.43</font>.<font color="#000000">74.14</font> <font color="#000000">12345</font>/TCP
loki ClusterIP <font color="#000000">10.43</font>.<font color="#000000">64.60</font> <font color="#000000">3100</font>/TCP,<font color="#000000">9095</font>/TCP
loki-headless ClusterIP None <font color="#000000">3100</font>/TCP
prometheus-grafana ClusterIP <font color="#000000">10.43</font>.<font color="#000000">46.82</font> <font color="#000000">80</font>/TCP
prometheus-kube-prometheus-alertmanager ClusterIP <font color="#000000">10.43</font>.<font color="#000000">208.43</font> <font color="#000000">9093</font>/TCP,<font color="#000000">8080</font>/TCP
prometheus-kube-prometheus-operator ClusterIP <font color="#000000">10.43</font>.<font color="#000000">246.121</font> <font color="#000000">443</font>/TCP
prometheus-kube-prometheus-prometheus ClusterIP <font color="#000000">10.43</font>.<font color="#000000">152.163</font> <font color="#000000">9090</font>/TCP,<font color="#000000">8080</font>/TCP
prometheus-kube-state-metrics ClusterIP <font color="#000000">10.43</font>.<font color="#000000">64.26</font> <font color="#000000">8080</font>/TCP
prometheus-prometheus-node-exporter ClusterIP <font color="#000000">10.43</font>.<font color="#000000">127.242</font> <font color="#000000">9100</font>/TCP
</pre>
<br />
<span>Let me break down what each pod does:</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span class='inlinecode'>alertmanager-prometheus-kube-prometheus-alertmanager-0</span>: the Alertmanager instance that receives alerts from Prometheus, deduplicates them, groups related alerts together, and routes notifications to the appropriate receivers (email, Slack, PagerDuty, etc.). It runs as a StatefulSet with persistent storage for silences and notification state.</li>
</ul><br />
<ul>
<li><span class='inlinecode'>alloy-g5fgj, alloy-nfw8w, alloy-tg9vj</span>: three Alloy pods running as a DaemonSet, one on each k3s node. Each pod tails the container logs from its local node via the Kubernetes API and forwards them to Loki. This ensures log collection continues even if a node becomes isolated from the others.</li>
</ul><br />
<ul>
<li><span class='inlinecode'>loki-0</span>: the single Loki instance running in single-binary mode. It receives log streams from Alloy, stores them in chunks on the NFS-backed persistent volume, and serves queries from Grafana. The <span class='inlinecode'>-0</span> suffix indicates it's a StatefulSet pod.</li>
</ul><br />
<ul>
<li><span class='inlinecode'>prometheus-grafana-...</span>: the Grafana web interface for visualising metrics and logs. It comes pre-configured with Prometheus as a data source and includes dozens of dashboards for Kubernetes monitoring. Dashboards, users, and settings are persisted to the NFS share.</li>
</ul><br />
<ul>
<li><span class='inlinecode'>prometheus-kube-prometheus-operator-...</span>: the Prometheus Operator that watches for custom resources (ServiceMonitor, PodMonitor, PrometheusRule) and automatically configures Prometheus to scrape new targets. This allows applications to declare their own monitoring requirements.</li>
</ul><br />
<ul>
<li><span class='inlinecode'>prometheus-kube-state-metrics-...</span>: generates metrics about the state of Kubernetes objects themselves: how many pods are running, pending, or failed; deployment replica counts; node conditions; PVC status; and more. Essential for cluster-level dashboards.</li>
</ul><br />
<ul>
<li><span class='inlinecode'>prometheus-prometheus-kube-prometheus-prometheus-0</span>: the Prometheus server that scrapes metrics from all configured targets (pods, services, nodes), stores them in a time-series database, evaluates alerting rules, and serves queries to Grafana.</li>
</ul><br />
<ul>
<li><span class='inlinecode'>prometheus-prometheus-node-exporter-...</span>: three Node Exporter pods running as a DaemonSet, one on each node. They expose hardware and OS-level metrics: CPU usage, memory, disk I/O, filesystem usage, network statistics, and more. These feed the "Node Exporter" dashboards in Grafana.</li>
</ul><br />
<h2 style='display: inline' id='using-the-observability-stack'>Using the observability stack</h2><br />
<br />
<h3 style='display: inline' id='viewing-metrics-in-grafana'>Viewing metrics in Grafana</h3><br />
<br />
<span>The kube-prometheus-stack comes with many pre-built dashboards. Some useful ones include:</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Kubernetes / Compute Resources / Cluster: overview of CPU and memory usage across the cluster</li>
<li>Kubernetes / Compute Resources / Namespace (Pods): resource usage by namespace</li>
<li>Node Exporter / Nodes: detailed host metrics like disk I/O, network, and CPU</li>
</ul><br />
<h3 style='display: inline' id='querying-logs-with-logql'>Querying logs with LogQL</h3><br />
<br />
<span>In Grafana's Explore view, select Loki as the data source and try queries like:</span><br />
<br />
<pre>
# All logs from the services namespace
{namespace="services"}
# Logs from pods matching a pattern
{pod=~"miniflux.*"}
# Filter by log content
{namespace="services"} |= "error"
# Parse JSON logs and filter
{namespace="services"} | json | level="error"
</pre>
<br />
<h3 style='display: inline' id='creating-alerts'>Creating alerts</h3><br />
<br />
<span>Prometheus supports alerting rules that can notify you when something goes wrong. The kube-prometheus-stack includes many default alerts for common issues like high CPU usage, pod crashes, and node problems. These can be customised via PrometheusRule CRDs.</span><br />
<br />
<h2 style='display: inline' id='monitoring-external-freebsd-hosts'>Monitoring external FreeBSD hosts</h2><br />
<br />
<span>The observability stack can also monitor servers outside the Kubernetes cluster. The FreeBSD hosts (<span class='inlinecode'>f0</span>, <span class='inlinecode'>f1</span>, <span class='inlinecode'>f2</span>) that serve NFS storage can be added to Prometheus using the Node Exporter.</span><br />
<br />
<h3 style='display: inline' id='installing-node-exporter-on-freebsd'>Installing Node Exporter on FreeBSD</h3><br />
<br />
<span>On each FreeBSD host, install the node_exporter package:</span><br />
<br />
<!-- Generator: GNU source-highlight 3.1.9
by Lorenzo Bettini
http://www.lorenzobettini.it
http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
<pre>paul@f0:~ % doas pkg install -y node_exporter
</pre>
<br />
<span>Enable the service to start at boot:</span><br />
<br />
<!-- Generator: GNU source-highlight 3.1.9
by Lorenzo Bettini
http://www.lorenzobettini.it
http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
<pre>paul@f0:~ % doas sysrc node_exporter_enable=YES
node_exporter_enable: -> YES
</pre>
<br />
<span>Configure node_exporter to listen on the WireGuard interface. This ensures metrics are only accessible through the secure tunnel, not the public network. Replace the IP with the host's WireGuard address:</span><br />
<br />
<!-- Generator: GNU source-highlight 3.1.9
by Lorenzo Bettini
http://www.lorenzobettini.it
http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
<pre>paul@f0:~ % doas sysrc node_exporter_args=<font color="#808080">'--web.listen-address=192.168.2.130:9100'</font>
node_exporter_args: -> --web.listen-address=<font color="#000000">192.168</font>.<font color="#000000">2.130</font>:<font color="#000000">9100</font>
</pre>
<br />
<span>Start the service:</span><br />
<br />
<!-- Generator: GNU source-highlight 3.1.9
by Lorenzo Bettini
http://www.lorenzobettini.it
http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
<pre>paul@f0:~ % doas service node_exporter start
Starting node_exporter.
</pre>
<br />
<span>Verify it's running:</span><br />
<br />
<!-- Generator: GNU source-highlight 3.1.9
by Lorenzo Bettini
http://www.lorenzobettini.it
http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
<pre>paul@f0:~ % curl -s http://<font color="#000000">192.168</font>.<font color="#000000">2.130</font>:<font color="#000000">9100</font>/metrics | head -<font color="#000000">3</font>
<i><font color="silver"># HELP go_gc_duration_seconds A summary of the wall-time pause...</font></i>
<i><font color="silver"># TYPE go_gc_duration_seconds summary</font></i>
go_gc_duration_seconds{quantile=<font color="#808080">"0"</font>} <font color="#000000">0</font>
</pre>
<br />
<span>Repeat for the other FreeBSD hosts (<span class='inlinecode'>f1</span>, <span class='inlinecode'>f2</span>) with their respective WireGuard IPs.</span><br />
<br />
<h3 style='display: inline' id='adding-freebsd-hosts-to-prometheus'>Adding FreeBSD hosts to Prometheus</h3><br />
<br />
<span>Create a file <span class='inlinecode'>additional-scrape-configs.yaml</span> in the prometheus configuration directory:</span><br />
<br />
<pre>
- job_name: 'node-exporter'
static_configs:
- targets:
- '192.168.2.130:9100' # f0 via WireGuard
- '192.168.2.131:9100' # f1 via WireGuard
- '192.168.2.132:9100' # f2 via WireGuard
labels:
os: freebsd
</pre>
<br />
<span>The <span class='inlinecode'>job_name</span> must be <span class='inlinecode'>node-exporter</span> to match the existing dashboards. The <span class='inlinecode'>os: freebsd</span> label allows filtering these hosts separately if needed.</span><br />
<br />
<span>Create a Kubernetes secret from this file:</span><br />
<br />
<!-- Generator: GNU source-highlight 3.1.9
by Lorenzo Bettini
http://www.lorenzobettini.it
http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
<pre>$ kubectl create secret generic additional-scrape-configs \
--from-file=additional-scrape-configs.yaml \
-n monitoring
</pre>
<br />
<span>Update <span class='inlinecode'>persistence-values.yaml</span> to reference the secret:</span><br />
<br />
<pre>
prometheus:
prometheusSpec:
additionalScrapeConfigsSecret:
enabled: true
name: additional-scrape-configs
key: additional-scrape-configs.yaml
</pre>
<br />
<span>Upgrade the Prometheus deployment:</span><br />
<br />
<!-- Generator: GNU source-highlight 3.1.9
by Lorenzo Bettini
http://www.lorenzobettini.it
http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
<pre>$ just upgrade
</pre>
<br />
<span>After a minute or so, the FreeBSD hosts appear in the Prometheus targets and in the Node Exporter dashboards in Grafana.</span><br />
<br />
<a href='./f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd-part-8/grafana-freebsd-nodes.png'><img alt='FreeBSD hosts in the Node Exporter dashboard' title='FreeBSD hosts in the Node Exporter dashboard' src='./f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd-part-8/grafana-freebsd-nodes.png' /></a><br />
<br />
<h3 style='display: inline' id='freebsd-memory-metrics-compatibility'>FreeBSD memory metrics compatibility</h3><br />
<br />
<span>The default Node Exporter dashboards are designed for Linux and expect metrics like <span class='inlinecode'>node_memory_MemAvailable_bytes</span>. FreeBSD uses different metric names (<span class='inlinecode'>node_memory_size_bytes</span>, <span class='inlinecode'>node_memory_free_bytes</span>, etc.), so memory panels will show "No data" out of the box.</span><br />
<br />
<span>To fix this, I created a PrometheusRule that generates synthetic Linux-compatible metrics from the FreeBSD equivalents:</span><br />
<br />
<pre>
apiVersion: monitoring.coreos.com/v1
kind: PrometheusRule
metadata:
name: freebsd-memory-rules
namespace: monitoring
labels:
release: prometheus
spec:
groups:
- name: freebsd-memory
rules:
- record: node_memory_MemTotal_bytes
expr: node_memory_size_bytes{os="freebsd"}
- record: node_memory_MemAvailable_bytes
expr: |
node_memory_free_bytes{os="freebsd"}
+ node_memory_inactive_bytes{os="freebsd"}
+ node_memory_cache_bytes{os="freebsd"}
- record: node_memory_MemFree_bytes
expr: node_memory_free_bytes{os="freebsd"}
- record: node_memory_Buffers_bytes
expr: node_memory_buffer_bytes{os="freebsd"}
- record: node_memory_Cached_bytes
expr: node_memory_cache_bytes{os="freebsd"}
</pre>
<br />
<span>This file is saved as <span class='inlinecode'>freebsd-recording-rules.yaml</span> and applied as part of the Prometheus installation. The <span class='inlinecode'>os="freebsd"</span> label (set in the scrape config) ensures these rules only apply to FreeBSD hosts. After applying, the memory panels in the Node Exporter dashboards populate correctly for FreeBSD.</span><br />
<br />
<a class='textlink' href='https://codeberg.org/snonux/conf/src/branch/master/f3s/prometheus/freebsd-recording-rules.yaml'>freebsd-recording-rules.yaml on Codeberg</a><br />
<br />
<h3 style='display: inline' id='disk-io-metrics-limitation'>Disk I/O metrics limitation</h3><br />
<br />
<span>Unlike memory metrics, disk I/O metrics (<span class='inlinecode'>node_disk_read_bytes_total</span>, <span class='inlinecode'>node_disk_written_bytes_total</span>, etc.) are not available on FreeBSD. The Linux diskstats collector that provides these metrics doesn't have a FreeBSD equivalent in the node_exporter.</span><br />
<br />
<span>The disk I/O panels in the Node Exporter dashboards will show "No data" for FreeBSD hosts. FreeBSD does expose ZFS-specific metrics (<span class='inlinecode'>node_zfs_arcstats_*</span>) for ARC cache performance, and per-dataset I/O stats are available via <span class='inlinecode'>sysctl kstat.zfs</span>, but mapping these to the Linux-style metrics the dashboards expect is non-trivial. Creating custom ZFS-specific dashboards is left as an exercise for another day.</span><br />
<br />
<h2 style='display: inline' id='monitoring-external-openbsd-hosts'>Monitoring external OpenBSD hosts</h2><br />
<br />
<span>The same approach works for OpenBSD hosts. I have two OpenBSD edge relay servers (<span class='inlinecode'>blowfish</span>, <span class='inlinecode'>fishfinger</span>) that handle TLS termination and forward traffic through WireGuard to the cluster. These can also be monitored with Node Exporter.</span><br />
<br />
<h3 style='display: inline' id='installing-node-exporter-on-openbsd'>Installing Node Exporter on OpenBSD</h3><br />
<br />
<span>On each OpenBSD host, install the node_exporter package:</span><br />
<br />
<!-- Generator: GNU source-highlight 3.1.9
by Lorenzo Bettini
http://www.lorenzobettini.it
http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
<pre>blowfish:~ $ doas pkg_add node_exporter
quirks-<font color="#000000">7.103</font> signed on <font color="#000000">2025</font>-<font color="#000000">10</font>-13T22:<font color="#000000">55</font>:16Z
The following new rcscripts were installed: /etc/rc.d/node_exporter
See rcctl(<font color="#000000">8</font>) <b><u><font color="#000000">for</font></u></b> details.
</pre>
<br />
<span>Enable the service to start at boot:</span><br />
<br />
<!-- Generator: GNU source-highlight 3.1.9
by Lorenzo Bettini
http://www.lorenzobettini.it
http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
<pre>blowfish:~ $ doas rcctl <b><u><font color="#000000">enable</font></u></b> node_exporter
</pre>
<br />
<span>Configure node_exporter to listen on the WireGuard interface. This ensures metrics are only accessible through the secure tunnel, not the public network. Replace the IP with the host's WireGuard address:</span><br />
<br />
<!-- Generator: GNU source-highlight 3.1.9
by Lorenzo Bettini
http://www.lorenzobettini.it
http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
<pre>blowfish:~ $ doas rcctl <b><u><font color="#000000">set</font></u></b> node_exporter flags <font color="#808080">'--web.listen-address=192.168.2.110:9100'</font>
</pre>
<br />
<span>Start the service:</span><br />
<br />
<!-- Generator: GNU source-highlight 3.1.9
by Lorenzo Bettini
http://www.lorenzobettini.it
http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
<pre>blowfish:~ $ doas rcctl start node_exporter
node_exporter(ok)
</pre>
<br />
<span>Verify it's running:</span><br />
<br />
<!-- Generator: GNU source-highlight 3.1.9
by Lorenzo Bettini
http://www.lorenzobettini.it
http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
<pre>blowfish:~ $ curl -s http://<font color="#000000">192.168</font>.<font color="#000000">2.110</font>:<font color="#000000">9100</font>/metrics | head -<font color="#000000">3</font>
<i><font color="silver"># HELP go_gc_duration_seconds A summary of the wall-time pause...</font></i>
<i><font color="silver"># TYPE go_gc_duration_seconds summary</font></i>
go_gc_duration_seconds{quantile=<font color="#808080">"0"</font>} <font color="#000000">0</font>
</pre>
<br />
<span>Repeat for the other OpenBSD host (<span class='inlinecode'>fishfinger</span>) with its respective WireGuard IP (<span class='inlinecode'>192.168.2.111</span>).</span><br />
<br />
<h3 style='display: inline' id='adding-openbsd-hosts-to-prometheus'>Adding OpenBSD hosts to Prometheus</h3><br />
<br />
<span>Update <span class='inlinecode'>additional-scrape-configs.yaml</span> to include the OpenBSD targets:</span><br />
<br />
<pre>
- job_name: 'node-exporter'
static_configs:
- targets:
- '192.168.2.130:9100' # f0 via WireGuard
- '192.168.2.131:9100' # f1 via WireGuard
- '192.168.2.132:9100' # f2 via WireGuard
labels:
os: freebsd
- targets:
- '192.168.2.110:9100' # blowfish via WireGuard
- '192.168.2.111:9100' # fishfinger via WireGuard
labels:
os: openbsd
</pre>
<br />
<span>The <span class='inlinecode'>os: openbsd</span> label allows filtering these hosts separately from FreeBSD and Linux nodes.</span><br />
<br />
<h3 style='display: inline' id='openbsd-memory-metrics-compatibility'>OpenBSD memory metrics compatibility</h3><br />
<br />
<span>OpenBSD uses the same memory metric names as FreeBSD (<span class='inlinecode'>node_memory_size_bytes</span>, <span class='inlinecode'>node_memory_free_bytes</span>, etc.), so a similar PrometheusRule is needed to generate Linux-compatible metrics:</span><br />
<br />
<pre>
apiVersion: monitoring.coreos.com/v1
kind: PrometheusRule
metadata:
name: openbsd-memory-rules
namespace: monitoring
labels:
release: prometheus
spec:
groups:
- name: openbsd-memory
rules:
- record: node_memory_MemTotal_bytes
expr: node_memory_size_bytes{os="openbsd"}
labels:
os: openbsd
- record: node_memory_MemAvailable_bytes
expr: |
node_memory_free_bytes{os="openbsd"}
+ node_memory_inactive_bytes{os="openbsd"}
+ node_memory_cache_bytes{os="openbsd"}
labels:
os: openbsd
- record: node_memory_MemFree_bytes
expr: node_memory_free_bytes{os="openbsd"}
labels:
os: openbsd
- record: node_memory_Cached_bytes
expr: node_memory_cache_bytes{os="openbsd"}
labels:
os: openbsd
</pre>
<br />
<span>This file is saved as <span class='inlinecode'>openbsd-recording-rules.yaml</span> and applied alongside the FreeBSD rules. Note that OpenBSD doesn't expose a buffer memory metric, so that rule is omitted.</span><br />
<br />
<a class='textlink' href='https://codeberg.org/snonux/conf/src/branch/master/f3s/prometheus/openbsd-recording-rules.yaml'>openbsd-recording-rules.yaml on Codeberg</a><br />
<br />
<span>After running <span class='inlinecode'>just upgrade</span>, the OpenBSD hosts appear in Prometheus targets and the Node Exporter dashboards.</span><br />
<br />
<h2 style='display: inline' id='summary'>Summary</h2><br />
<br />
<span>With Prometheus, Grafana, Loki, and Alloy deployed, I now have complete visibility into the k3s cluster, the FreeBSD storage servers, and the OpenBSD edge relays:</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>metrics: Prometheus collects and stores time-series data from all components</li>
<li>Logs: Loki aggregates logs from all containers, searchable via Grafana</li>
<li>Visualisation: Grafana provides dashboards and exploration tools</li>
<li>Alerting: Alertmanager can notify on conditions defined in Prometheus rules</li>
</ul><br />
<span>This observability stack runs entirely on the home lab infrastructure, with data persisted to the NFS share. It's lightweight enough for a three-node cluster but provides the same capabilities as production-grade setups.</span><br />
<br />
<span>Other *BSD-related posts:</span><br />
<br />
<a class='textlink' href='./2025-12-07-f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd-part-8.html'>2025-12-07 f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part 8: Observability (You are currently reading this)</a><br />
<a class='textlink' href='./2025-10-02-f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd-part-7.html'>2025-10-02 f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part 7: k3s and first pod deployments</a><br />
<a class='textlink' href='./2025-07-14-f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd-part-6.html'>2025-07-14 f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part 6: Storage</a><br />
<a class='textlink' href='./2025-05-11-f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd-part-5.html'>2025-05-11 f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part 5: WireGuard mesh network</a><br />
<a class='textlink' href='./2025-04-05-f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd-part-4.html'>2025-04-05 f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part 4: Rocky Linux Bhyve VMs</a><br />
<a class='textlink' href='./2025-02-01-f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd-part-3.html'>2025-02-01 f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part 3: Protecting from power cuts</a><br />
<a class='textlink' href='./2024-12-03-f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd-part-2.html'>2024-12-03 f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part 2: Hardware and base installation</a><br />
<a class='textlink' href='./2024-11-17-f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd-part-1.html'>2024-11-17 f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part 1: Setting the stage</a><br />
<a class='textlink' href='./2024-04-01-KISS-high-availability-with-OpenBSD.html'>2024-04-01 KISS high-availability with OpenBSD</a><br />
<a class='textlink' href='./2024-01-13-one-reason-why-i-love-openbsd.html'>2024-01-13 One reason why I love OpenBSD</a><br />
<a class='textlink' href='./2022-10-30-installing-dtail-on-openbsd.html'>2022-10-30 Installing DTail on OpenBSD</a><br />
<a class='textlink' href='./2022-07-30-lets-encrypt-with-openbsd-and-rex.html'>2022-07-30 Let's Encrypt with OpenBSD and Rex</a><br />
<a class='textlink' href='./2016-04-09-jails-and-zfs-on-freebsd-with-puppet.html'>2016-04-09 Jails and ZFS with Puppet on FreeBSD</a><br />
<br />
<span>E-Mail your comments to <span class='inlinecode'>paul@nospam.buetow.org</span></span><br />
<br />
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