FAQ

Frequently asked questions about Varax Monitor.

Does Varax Monitor work with kube-state-metrics?

Yes, it complements it. kube-state-metrics provides general Kubernetes object metrics (pod counts, deployment replicas, resource usage). Varax Monitor adds CronJob-specific execution tracking — duration, success/failure per run, missed schedules — that kube-state-metrics doesn’t cover. Run both side by side with no conflicts.

What Kubernetes versions are supported?

Kubernetes v1.21 and above. Works with all major managed providers (EKS, AKS, GKE) and self-hosted clusters.

Can I monitor specific namespaces only?

Yes. Configure via Helm values:

# values.yaml
namespaces:
  - production
  - staging
helm install varax-monitor varaxlabs/varax-monitor -f values.yaml

By default, Varax Monitor watches all namespaces.

How much resources does it use?

  • Memory: less than 50MB
  • CPU: less than 0.05 cores
  • Storage: None (stateless — all data is in Prometheus)
  • Access: Read-only cluster role

Does it require Prometheus?

Yes. Varax Monitor exports metrics on a Prometheus-compatible endpoint. You need Prometheus (or a compatible scraper like Grafana Agent, Victoria Metrics, or Datadog agent with Prometheus scraping enabled) to collect the metrics. We recommend kube-prometheus-stack.

Is it really free?

Yes. Apache 2.0 licensed, free forever. No per-job pricing, no telemetry, no usage limits, no vendor lock-in. The source code is on GitHub.

How does it discover CronJobs?

Varax Monitor uses Kubernetes Informers to watch for CronJob resources across all namespaces (or your configured namespaces). When a new CronJob is created, it’s automatically detected and monitored. No annotations, labels, or per-job configuration required.

Can I use it without Grafana?

Yes. The metrics are standard Prometheus metrics accessible at the /metrics endpoint. Grafana dashboards are optional — you can query metrics directly with PromQL, use any Prometheus-compatible visualization tool, or build your own dashboards in whatever tool you prefer.