Dynamic Packet Capture

Overview

In a distributed environment, packet capture (PCAP) can be a valuable technique for debugging microservices and application communication in day-to-day operations and incident response.

Applications are made up of composite microservices, and a single request often moves through 4 or more services. When you have hundreds of services interacting, pinpointing and troubleshooting becomes difficult. PacketCapture can capture and evaluate packets and endpoints to determine the source of an issue. But in Kubernetes, packets move across distributed, short-lived endpoints—sometimes across different cloud and Kubernetes environments. Therefore, performing packet capture can be a frustrating exercise in a dynamic environment where hundreds, possibly thousands of pods are continually being created and destroyed.

Calico Dynamic Packet Capture is a self-service, on-demand, tool for performing packet capture for a specific pod or collection of pods. It integrates with Kubernetes RBAC to limit and secure users’ access to the endpoints and namespaces assigned to them.