Installing APM Insight PHP Agent and Data Exporter in Kubernetes using Init Containers

To monitor PHP applications deployed in Kubernetes using Applications Manager, both the APM Insight PHP Agent and the Applications Manager Data Exporter must be configured inside your pods. This can be accomplished by using init containers to copy the necessary agent files before the main application starts.

Step 1. Declare a Shared Volume

Create a shared volume that will be used by the init container to extract the agent files and make them accessible to the main application container.

 volumes:
   - name: apminsight-volume

Step 2. Add Init Container

Use an init container to extract the APM Insight PHP Agent into the shared volume.

 initContainers:
   - name: init-apminsight
     image: site24x7/apminsight-phpagent:latest
     imagePullPolicy: Always
     command: ["unzip", "/opt/apminsight.zip", "-d", "/opt"]
     volumeMounts:
       - name: apminsight-volume
         mountPath: /opt/apminsight

Step 3. Mount Volume and Configure Application Container

Mount the volume in your PHP application container, set environment variables, and run the installation script during the container’s lifecycle using the postStart hook.

 containers:
 - name: php-app
   image: my-php-app:8.2-alpine3.18-apache
   lifecycle:
     postStart:
       exec:
         command: ["/bin/sh", "-c", "chmod +x /apm/DockerInstallAgentPHP.sh && /apm/DockerInstallAgentPHP.sh && kill -USR1 1"]
   env:
     - name: APPMANAGER_LICENSE_KEY
       value: "your-license-key"
 - name: ZPA_APPLICATION_NAME
       value: "name-for-your-application"
 - name: APM_HOST
       value: "https:<apm_host>/<apm_port>"
 
   ports:
     - containerPort: 80
   volumeMounts:
     - mountPath: /apm
       name: apminsight-volume

Example Kubernetes Deployment YAML

The following is an example YAML configuration for deploying a PHP application integrated with the APM Insight PHP Agent and Applications Manager Data Exporter.

 apiVersion: apps/v1
 kind: Deployment
 metadata:
   name: php-app
 spec:
   selector:
     matchLabels:
       app: php-app
   template:
     metadata:
       labels:
         app: php-app
     spec:
       volumes:
       - name: apminsight-volume
       initContainers:
       - name: init-apminsight
         image: site24x7/apminsight-phpagent:latest
         imagePullPolicy: Always
         command: ["unzip", "/opt/apminsight.zip", "-d", "/opt"]
         volumeMounts:
         - name: apminsight-volume
           mountPath: /opt/apminsight
       containers:
       - name: php-app
         image: my-php-app:8.2-alpine3.18-apache
         lifecycle:
           postStart:
             exec:
               command: ["/bin/sh", "-c", "chmod +x /apm/DockerInstallAgentPHP.sh && /apm/DockerInstallAgentPHP.sh && kill -USR1 1"]
         env:
         - name: APPMANAGER_LICENSE_KEY
       value: "your-license-key"
 - name: ZPA_APPLICATION_NAME
       value: "name-for-your-application"
 - name: APM_HOST
       value: "https:<apm_host>/<apm_port>"
 
    ports:
         - containerPort: 80
         volumeMounts:
         - mountPath: /apm
           name: apminsight-volume

Service YAML

 apiVersion: v1
 kind: Service
 metadata:
   name: php-app-service
 spec:
   type: NodePort
   selector:
     app: php-app
   ports:
   - port: 8080
     targetPort: 80
     nodePort: 31000

Note:

The APM Insight PHP Agent and Applications Manager Data Exporter must be in the same container or volume-accessible environment.
Ensure your Kubernetes nodes have internet access to fetch the agent and exporter scripts.

Was this content helpful?