---
title: Add Kubernetes metadata
description: The add_kubernetes_metadata processor annotates each event with relevant metadata based on which Kubernetes pod the event originated from. This processor...
url: https://www.elastic.co/docs/reference/beats/packetbeat/add-kubernetes-metadata
products:
  - Beats
  - Packetbeat
applies_to:
  - Elastic Stack: Generally available
---

# Add Kubernetes metadata
The `add_kubernetes_metadata` processor annotates each event with relevant metadata based on which Kubernetes pod the event originated from. This processor only adds metadata to the events that do not have it yet present.
At startup, it detects an `in_cluster` environment and caches the Kubernetes-related metadata. Events are only annotated if a valid configuration is detected. If it’s not able to detect a valid Kubernetes configuration, the events are not annotated with Kubernetes-related metadata.
Each event is annotated with:
- Pod Name
- Pod UID
- Namespace
- Labels

In addition, the node and namespace metadata are added to the pod metadata.
The `add_kubernetes_metadata` processor has two basic building blocks:
- Indexers
- Matchers

Indexers use pod metadata to create unique identifiers for each one of the pods. These identifiers help to correlate the metadata of the observed pods with actual events. For example, the `ip_port` indexer can take a Kubernetes pod and create identifiers for it based on all its `pod_ip:container_port` combinations.
Matchers use information in events to construct lookup keys that match the identifiers created by the indexers. For example, when the `fields` matcher takes `["metricset.host"]` as a lookup field, it would construct a lookup key with the value of the field `metricset.host`. When one of these lookup keys matches with one of the identifiers, the event is enriched with the metadata of the identified pod.
Each Beat can define its own default indexers and matchers which are enabled by default. For example, Filebeat enables the `container` indexer, which identifies pod metadata based on all container IDs, and a `logs_path` matcher, which takes the `log.file.path` field, extracts the container ID, and uses it to retrieve metadata.
You can find more information about the available indexers and matchers, and some examples in [Indexers and matchers](#kubernetes-indexers-and-matchers).
The configuration below enables the processor when packetbeat is run as a pod in Kubernetes.
```yaml
processors:
  - add_kubernetes_metadata:
      # Defining indexers and matchers manually is required for packetbeat, for instance:
      #indexers:
      #  - ip_port:
      #matchers:
      #  - fields:
      #      lookup_fields: ["metricset.host"]
      #labels.dedot: true
      #annotations.dedot: true
```

The configuration below enables the processor on a Beat running as a process on the Kubernetes node.
```yaml
processors:
  - add_kubernetes_metadata:
      node: <kubernetes_node_name>
      # If kube_config is not set, KUBECONFIG environment variable will be checked
      # and if not present it will fall back to InCluster
      kube_config: $Packetbeat Reference/.kube/config
      # Defining indexers and matchers manually is required for packetbeat, for instance:
      #indexers:
      #  - ip_port:
      #matchers:
      #  - fields:
      #      lookup_fields: ["metricset.host"]
      #labels.dedot: true
      #annotations.dedot: true
```

The configuration below has the default indexers and matchers disabled and enables ones that the user is interested in.
```yaml
processors:
  - add_kubernetes_metadata:
      node: <kubernetes_node_name>
      # If kube_config is not set, KUBECONFIG environment variable will be checked
      # and if not present it will fall back to InCluster
      kube_config: ~/.kube/config
      default_indexers.enabled: false
      default_matchers.enabled: false
      indexers:
        - ip_port:
      matchers:
        - fields:
            lookup_fields: ["metricset.host"]
      #labels.dedot: true
      #annotations.dedot: true
```

The `add_kubernetes_metadata` processor has the following configuration settings:
<definitions>
  <definition term="node">
    (Optional) Specify the node to scope packetbeat to in case it cannot be accurately detected, as when running packetbeat in host network mode.
  </definition>
  <definition term="scope">
    (Optional) Specify if the processor should have visibility at the node level or at the entire cluster level. Possible values are `node` and `cluster`. Scope is `node` by default.
  </definition>
  <definition term="namespace">
    (Optional) Select the namespace from which to collect the metadata. If it is not set, the processor collects metadata from all namespaces. It is unset by default.
  </definition>
  <definition term="add_resource_metadata">
    (Optional) Specify filters and configuration for the extra metadata, that will be added to the event. Configuration parameters:
    - `node` or `namespace`: Specify labels and annotations filters for the extra metadata coming from node and namespace. By default all labels are included while annotations are not. To change default behaviour `include_labels`, `exclude_labels` and `include_annotations` can be defined. Those settings are useful when storing labels and annotations that require special handling to avoid overloading the storage output. Note: wildcards are not supported for those settings. The enrichment of `node` or `namespace` metadata can be individually disabled by setting `enabled: false`.
    - `deployment`: If resource is `pod` and it is created from a `deployment`, by default the deployment name is added, this can be disabled by setting `deployment: false`.
    - `cronjob`: If resource is `pod` and it is created from a `cronjob`, by default the cronjob name is added, this can be disabled by setting `cronjob: false`.
    Example:
  </definition>
</definitions>

```yaml
      add_resource_metadata:
        namespace:
          include_labels: ["namespacelabel1"]
          #labels.dedot: true
          #annotations.dedot: true
        node:
          include_labels: ["nodelabel2"]
          include_annotations: ["nodeannotation1"]
          #labels.dedot: true
          #annotations.dedot: true
        deployment: false
        cronjob: false
```

<definitions>
  <definition term="kube_config">
    (Optional) Use given config file as configuration for Kubernetes client. It defaults to `KUBECONFIG` environment variable if present.
  </definition>
  <definition term="use_kubeadm">
    (Optional) Default true. By default requests to kubeadm config map are made in order to enrich cluster name by requesting /api/v1/namespaces/kube-system/configmaps/kubeadm-config API endpoint.
  </definition>
  <definition term="kube_client_options">
    (Optional) Additional options can be configured for Kubernetes client. Currently client QPS and burst are supported, if not set Kubernetes client’s [default QPS and burst](https://pkg.go.dev/k8s.io/client-go/rest#pkg-constants) will be used. Example:
  </definition>
</definitions>

```yaml
      kube_client_options:
        qps: 5
        burst: 10
```

<definitions>
  <definition term="cleanup_timeout">
    (Optional) Specify the time of inactivity before stopping the running configuration for a container. This is `60s` by default.
  </definition>
  <definition term="sync_period">
    (Optional) Specify the timeout for listing historical resources.
  </definition>
  <definition term="default_indexers.enabled">
    (Optional) Enable or disable default pod indexers when you want to specify your own.
  </definition>
  <definition term="default_matchers.enabled">
    (Optional) Enable or disable default pod matchers when you want to specify your own.
  </definition>
  <definition term="labels.dedot">
    (Optional) Default to be true. If set to true, then `.` in labels will be replaced with `_`.
  </definition>
  <definition term="annotations.dedot">
    (Optional) Default to be true. If set to true, then `.` in labels will be replaced with `_`.
  </definition>
</definitions>


## Indexers and matchers


## Indexers

Indexers use pods metadata to create unique identifiers for each one of the pods.
Available indexers are:
<definitions>
  <definition term="container">
    Identifies the pod metadata using the IDs of its containers.
  </definition>
  <definition term="ip_port">
    Identifies the pod metadata using combinations of its IP and its exposed ports. When using this indexer metadata is identified using the IP of the pods, and the combination if `ip:port` for each one of the ports exposed by its containers.
  </definition>
  <definition term="pod_name">
    Identifies the pod metadata using its namespace and its name as `namespace/pod_name`.
  </definition>
  <definition term="pod_uid">
    Identifies the pod metadata using the UID of the pod.
  </definition>
</definitions>


## Matchers

Matchers are used to construct the lookup keys that match with the identifiers created by indexes.

### `field_format`

Looks up pod metadata using a key created with a string format that can include event fields.
This matcher has an option `format` to define the string format. This string format can contain placeholders for any field in the event.
For example, the following configuration uses the `ip_port` indexer to identify the pod metadata by combinations of the pod IP and its exposed ports, and uses the destination IP and port in events as match keys:
```yaml
processors:
- add_kubernetes_metadata:
    ...
    default_indexers.enabled: false
    default_matchers.enabled: false
    indexers:
      - ip_port:
    matchers:
      - field_format:
          format: '%{[destination.ip]}:%{[destination.port]}'
```


### `fields`

Looks up pod metadata using as key the value of some specific fields. When multiple fields are defined, the first one included in the event is used.
This matcher has an option `lookup_fields` to define the files whose value will be used for lookup.
For example, the following configuration uses the `ip_port` indexer to identify pods, and defines a matcher that uses the destination IP or the server IP for the lookup, the first it finds in the event:
```yaml
processors:
- add_kubernetes_metadata:
    ...
    default_indexers.enabled: false
    default_matchers.enabled: false
    indexers:
      - ip_port:
    matchers:
      - fields:
          lookup_fields: ['destination.ip', 'server.ip']
```

It’s also possible to extract the matching key from fields using a regex pattern. The optional `regex_pattern` field can be used to set the pattern. The pattern **must** contain a capture group named `key`, whose value will be used as the matching key.
For example, the following configuration uses the `container` indexer to identify containers by their id, and extracts the matching key from the cgroup id field added to system process metrics. This field has the form `cri-containerd-<id>.scope`, so we need a regex pattern to obtain the container id.
```yaml
processors:
  - add_kubernetes_metadata:
      indexers:
        - container:
      matchers:
        - fields:
            lookup_fields: ['system.process.cgroup.id']
            regex_pattern: 'cri-containerd-(?P<key>[0-9a-z]+)\.scope'
```