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Instana Quickstart Guide

This quickstart guide will help you get Causely up and running with Instana. This setup allows Causely to ingest service dependencies, traces, and metrics from Instana to build a unified causal model.

1

Get Your Installation Command​

  1. Log in to the Causely portal.
  2. Visit the mediators page.
  3. Click the "Add new" button (or "Add ➕" button) on the mediators page.
  4. In the instructions panel, you'll see the Helm installation command with your access token pre-filled.
  5. Copy the complete Helm command. It will look similar to the example below.
Example Command

The command you copy will include your specific access token and cluster name. Here's what it typically looks like:

export CAUSELY_TOKEN=<your_token>
export CAUSELY_CLUSTER_NAME=<your_cluster_name>
export CAUSELY_VERSION=<version>
helm upgrade --install causely \\
  --create-namespace oci://us-docker.pkg.dev/public-causely/public/causely \\
  --version "${CAUSELY_VERSION}" \\
  --namespace=causely \\
  --set image.tag="${CAUSELY_VERSION}" \\
  --set global.cluster_name="\${CAUSELY_CLUSTER_NAME}" \\
  --set mediator.gateway.token="\${CAUSELY_TOKEN}"
Screenshot Placeholder

Screenshots of the mediators page, "Add new" button, and instructions panel will be added here.

4

Create a Values File to Disable eBPF​

Since you'll be using Instana for instrumentation, create a causely-values.yaml file to disable eBPF instrumentation:

global:
  cluster_name: <your_cluster_name>
mediator:
  gateway:
    token: <your_token>
scrapers:
  bpf:
    enabled: false

Replace <your_cluster_name> and <your_token> with your actual values from the portal.

5

Run the Installation Command​

  1. Open a terminal with kubectl configured to access your cluster.
  2. Run the Helm command with your values file:
export CAUSELY_VERSION=<version>
helm upgrade --install causely \\
  --create-namespace oci://us-docker.pkg.dev/public-causely/public/causely \\
  --version "${CAUSELY_VERSION}" \\
  --namespace=causely \\
  --set image.tag="${CAUSELY_VERSION}" \\
  --set global.cluster_name="<your_cluster_name>" \\
  --set mediator.gateway.token="<your_token>" \\
  --values causely-values.yaml
  1. Wait for the installation to complete:
kubectl wait --for=condition=Ready pod -l app.kubernetes.io/part-of=causely -n causely --timeout=300s
6

Configure Instana Integration​

Now you need to configure Causely to scrape data from your Instana account.

Step 6a: Create an API Token in Instana​

  1. Log in to your Instana instance.
  2. Create an API token with read access to applications, endpoints, metrics, and infrastructure.

Step 6b: Create a Kubernetes Secret​

Create a Kubernetes secret with your Instana URL and API token:

kubectl create secret generic \
  --namespace causely instana-credentials \
  --from-literal=url="https://your-instana.example.com" \
  --from-literal=api-token="<your_instana_api_token>"

If your Instana instance uses a self-signed certificate, you can optionally add:

  --from-literal=insecure-skip-verify="true"

Step 6c: Update Causely Configuration​

Update your causely-values.yaml to enable Instana scraping:

global:
  cluster_name: <your_cluster_name>
mediator:
  gateway:
    token: <your_token>
scrapers:
  bpf:
    enabled: false
  instana:
    enabled: true
    accounts:
      - secretName: instana-credentials
        # namespace: causely  # optional; defaults to the pod namespace

Then upgrade your Causely installation:

helm upgrade --install causely \\
  --namespace=causely \\
  --values causely-values.yaml \\
  oci://us-docker.pkg.dev/public-causely/public/causely \\
  --version "${CAUSELY_VERSION}"
Alternative: Credentials Autodiscovery

You can also use credentials autodiscovery by labeling the secret:

kubectl --namespace causely label secret instana-credentials "causely.ai/scraper=Instana"

This allows you to add new accounts without editing the configuration. See the Instana integration documentation for more details.

7

What to Expect​

Once configured, Causely will:

  • Ingest Instana data: Causely will scrape service dependencies, traces, metrics, and topology from your Instana account.
  • Discover service dependencies: Causely automatically discovers service dependencies and maps them to Kubernetes workloads.
  • Collect endpoint metrics: HTTP paths, RPC methods, and their metrics (requests, errors, latency) are collected and analyzed.
  • Database insights: Database queries and access patterns are discovered and mapped to services.
  • Show data in the UI: Within a few minutes, you should start seeing services, endpoints, and their relationships appearing in the Causely UI at https://portal.causely.app.

For more details on what data is collected, see the Instana integration documentation.

8

Add More Telemetry Sources​

To help Causely identify root causes more effectively, connect additional telemetry sources. Visit the Telemetry Sources page to learn about the data sources that Causely supports, including:

9

Add Workflow Integrations​

Push insights into your existing workflows and notification tools. Visit the Workflow Integrations page to set up integrations with:

10

What's Your Goal?​

What's your goal?

Choose a goal to explore how Causely can help you achieve it.

Accelerate resolution

Get precise root cause insights during incidents to resolve issues faster.

Proactively prevent incidents

Identify emerging risks before they impact your services and SLOs.

Understand system behavior

Gain deep insights into why your systems behave the way they do.

Scale reliability

Maintain reliability across complex, fast-changing systems at scale.

Optimize performance

Continuously improve system performance with actionable insights.

Other Platforms Supported

While this quickstart guide focuses on Kubernetes, Causely also supports:

  • Container Orchestration: Nomad, Docker, ECS
  • GitOps: Argo CD, Flux
  • Virtual Machines: Direct installation on VMs

For detailed installation instructions for these platforms, visit the Installation Overview page.