Kubernetes Agent v1.9.0

Includes Java Agent v2.2.68

January 14, 2026

New Improved Kubernetes Label Collection Policy

The label collection mechanism for Pods and Containers in Kubernetes environments has been improved. This update resolves tag collision issues present in the previous approach and enhances data identification and storage efficiency by controlling unnecessary label collection.

• Enhanced Label Identification (Prefix Support)

  • Clearly distinguishes Kubernetes labels from agent internal tags (System Tags)

  • Adds an option to store user-defined Kubernetes labels with a configurable prefix

• Introduction of Label Filtering

  • Introduces filtering based on an Allowlist or Blocklist to prevent indiscriminate label collection

• New Configuration Options (whatap.conf)

  Key	Default	Description
  kube_label_prefix_enabled	false	When set to true, prefixes are added to collected label keys
  kube_label_prefix	whatap_kube_label_	Prefix string to use when enabled - Example: app → whatap_kube_label_app
  kube_label_keys	-	Allowlist When set, only the specified comma-separated label keys are collected (recommended)
  kube_label_exclude_keys	-	Blocklist Applied only when no allowlist is set; labels with these keys are excluded

• Label Processing Order and Priority

  During data collection, label processing follows this order:

  1. Allowlist Check (kube_label_keys): If set, only labels included in the list are collected

  2. Blocklist Check (kube_label_exclude_keys): If no allowlist is set, labels included in the blocklist are excluded

  3. Prefix Application (kube_label_prefix_enabled): Applies the prefix to the final collected label keys (original keys are not stored)

• Configuration Examples

  • Case 1: Prevent Data Collisions and Collect Only Essential Labels (Recommended)
    Completely prevents collisions with system tags and reduces costs by collecting only required labels.

    Prevent data collisions and collect only essential labels (Recommended)

    kube_label_prefix_enabled=true
    kube_label_keys=app,env,version,service

  • Case 2: Exclude Only Specific Unnecessary Labels
    Removes automatically generated unnecessary labels (e.g., Helm or CI/CD metadata).

    Exclude only specific unnecessary labels

    kube_label_prefix_enabled=true
    kube_label_exclude_keys=helm.sh/chart,jenkins-build-id,controller-uid

Note

Upcoming Default Value Changes (Planned in 6 Months)

To optimize collection server load and improve data identification, the default values will be changed.

• kube_label_prefix_enabled: false → true
• kube_label_keys: (none) → app

After the change, only the app label will be collected by default as whatap_kube_label_app.
If additional labels are required, they must be explicitly specified in kube_label_keys.
For environments requiring backward compatibility, please review and adjust settings in advance.

Info

Agent download: kube_mon_1.9.0.tar