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groundcover-com/caretta

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Instant K8s service dependency map, right to your Grafana.

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Type
Open Source
Company
groundcover
Visit Website GitHub (38 stars)

About groundcover-com/caretta

Caretta is a lightweight, standalone, open-source tool that instantly creates a visual network map of the services running in a Kubernetes cluster. It leverages eBPF to efficiently map all service network interactions without requiring any modifications to the cluster. The collected data is stored in Victoria Metrics and visualized using a pre-configured Grafana dashboard shipped with the Helm chart. Caretta resolves Kubernetes entities to their owners (e.g., pods to deployments) by default. It is built by groundcover and is designed to be minimal in footprint while providing powerful observability into service dependencies.

Key Features

eBPF-based network mapping without cluster modifications
Pre-configured Grafana dashboard for visualization
Built-in Victoria Metrics for metric storage
Helm chart installation for easy deployment
Resolves Kubernetes entities to their owners (e.g., pods to deployments)
Configurable polling interval and tolerations
Support for persistent volume storage
Lightweight with minimal system footprint

Pros & Cons

Pros
  • Lightweight and efficient due to eBPF technology
  • No need to modify existing cluster or applications
  • Simple installation via Helm chart with sensible defaults
  • Integrates seamlessly with Grafana for rich visualization
  • Open source (MIT license) with community support
  • Automatically resolves Kubernetes owner references to reduce noise
Cons
  • Requires Linux kernel version 4.16 or higher with CO-RE support
  • Not compatible with Docker for Mac (unsupported Linux distribution)
  • Storage of metrics without persistent volume may lead to data loss on pod restart
  • Dependency on Victoria Metrics and Grafana (both can be disabled but reduce functionality)
  • Limited to Kubernetes environments only

Best For

Visualizing service dependencies in Kubernetes clustersTroubleshooting network interactions between servicesGaining observability into microservice architectureMonitoring service communication patterns for performance analysisUnderstanding the impact of deployments on network traffic

FAQ

What is Caretta?
Caretta is a lightweight, standalone tool that creates an instant visual network map of services in a Kubernetes cluster using eBPF, with data visualized in Grafana.
How do I install Caretta?
Caretta is installed via a Helm chart. Run 'helm repo add groundcover https://helm.groundcover.com/' then 'helm install caretta --namespace caretta --create-namespace groundcover/caretta'.
What are the system requirements for Caretta?
Caretta requires a Linux kernel version 4.16 or higher with CO-RE support. Docker for Mac is not supported.
Can I disable the built-in Victoria Metrics and Grafana?
Yes, you can set 'victoria-metrics-single.enabled' or 'grafana.enabled' to false in the Helm values to disable them.