Kubernetes Runtime Inventory

Overview

Anchore uses a go binary called anchore-k8s-inventory that leverages the Kubernetes Go SDK to reach out and list containers in a configurable set of namespaces to determine which images are running.

anchore-k8s-inventory can be deployed via its helm chart, embedded within your Kubernetes cluster as an agent. It will require access to the Anchore API.

KAI (Kubernetes Automated Inventory) - Deprecated

Prior to the v1.0.0 release of anchore-k8s-inventory Kubernetes inventory was called kai. Anchore Enterprise 5.X+ no longer supports kai. For documentation related to the integration & configuration of kai please refer to the Anchore Enterprise v4.6 documentation.

Deployment

The most common way to track inventory is to install anchore-k8s-inventory as an agent in your cluster. To do this you will need to configure credentials and information about your deployment in the values file. It is recommended to first configure a specific robot user for the account where you’ll want to track your Kubernetes inventory.

As an agent anchore-k8s-inventory is installed using helm and the helm chart is hosted as part of the https://charts.anchore.io repo. It is based on the anchore/k8s-inventory docker image.

To install the helm chart, follow these steps:

  1. Configure your username, password, Anchore URL and cluster name in the values file.
k8sInventory:
  # Path should not be changed, cluster value is used to tell Anchore which cluster this inventory is coming from
  kubeconfig:
    cluster: <unique-name-for-your-cluster>

  anchore:
    url: <URL for your>

    # Note: recommend using the inventory-agent role
    user: <user>
    password: <password>
  1. Run helm install in the cluster(s) you wish to track
$ helm repo add anchore https://charts.anchore.io
$ helm install <release> -f <values.yaml> anchore/k8s-inventory

anchore-k8s-inventory must be able to resolve the Anchore URL and requires API credentials. Review the anchore-k8s-inventory logs if you are not able to see the inventory results in the UI.

Note: the Anchore API Password can be provided via a Kubernetes secret, or injected into the environment of the anchore-k8s-inventory container

  • For injecting the environment variable, see: injectSecretsViaEnv
  • For providing your own secret for the Anchore API Password, see: useExistingSecret. K8s Inventory creates it’s own secret based on your values.yaml file for key k8sInventory.anchore.password, but the k8sInventory.useExistingSecret key allows you to create your own secret and provide it in the values file. See the K8s Inventory repo for more information about the K8s Inventory specific configuration

Usage

To verify that you are tracking Kubernetes Inventory you can access inventory results with the command anchorectl inventory list and look for results where the TYPE is kubernetes.

The UI also displays the Kubernetes Inventory and allows operators to visually navigate the images, vulnerability results, and see the results of the policy evaluation.

For more details about watching clusters, and reviewing policy results see the Using Kubernetes Inventory section.

General Runtime Management

See Data Management

Last modified September 30, 2024