Incorrect example configuration for LoadBalancingExporter?

[alexchowle]

Component(s)

exporter/loadbalancing

Describe the issue you're reporting

The loadbalancingexporter has an examples directory with one specifically demonstrating use of the k8s resolver. Said example:

...
exporters:
      loadbalancing:
        protocol:
          otlp:
            tls:
              insecure: true
        resolver:
          k8s:
            service: backends-collector-headless.observability
...

I was under the impression that the k8s resolver was for standard k8s Service resources, not headless services. The documentation on the official website also states:

You can configure the load-balancing exporter to use the list of hosts behind a given DNS A entry, such as a Kubernetes headless service.

This leads me to the following conclusions:

• headless = use dns resolver
• standard service = use k8s resolver

Should the k8s example imply that a headless Service should be used?

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[github-actions]

Pinging code owners:

• exporter/loadbalancing: @rlankfo

See Adding Labels via Comments if you do not have permissions to add labels yourself.

[Frapschen]

Thanks for your report. Would you mind sending a PR to fix it?

[pankaj101A]

@Frapschen i am interested and like to raise PR for same, can you assign this to me

[odubajDT]

I think the headless service is on purpose here. For headless services DNS returns pod IPs directly, which is crucial for loadbalancing exporter, as it needs to have direct access to pods for loadbalancing. Also, headless service does not do any loadbalancing (that's what the exporter is there for).

With the usage of standard service, there is a risk of loadbalancing and therefore the behavior and data distribution won't be deterministic.