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Kubernetes Pods and Docker Containers views empty when using EDOT

After configuring the Elastic Distribution of OpenTelemetry (EDOT) Collector to monitor a Kubernetes cluster on version 9.2 or later, several views in the Kibana Infrastructure Inventory might appear empty.

The following views under Observability → Infrastructure → Inventory show no data:

  • Kubernetes Pods
  • Docker Containers
  • The main summary metrics (CPU, memory, traffic) at the top of the Inventory page

The Hosts view (also under Inventory) works correctly and displays data.

This is expected behavior, not a configuration error in the EDOT Collector.

In version 9.2.0, the inframetrics processor was removed from the EDOT Collector Helm charts for Kubernetes and on-premise deployments. Without this processor, data shipped by EDOT is no longer compatible with the Kubernetes Pods and Docker Containers views of the Infrastructure UI, which only support Elastic Agent data formats.

Use the out-of-the-box dashboards provided by the Kubernetes and System OpenTelemetry Assets integrations.

Step 1: Install the required integrations

Use one of these methods:

  • Recommended: Use the Kibana "Add Data" wizard

    1. In Kibana, go to Management → Integrations, or click Add Data on the Observability home page.
    2. Search for and select the Kubernetes integration.
    3. Choose the OpenTelemetry: Full Observability guide.
    4. The wizard automatically installs the Kubernetes OpenTelemetry Assets package and provides the correct configuration steps for the EDOT Collector.

  • Manual installation

    1. In Kibana, go to Management → Integrations.
    2. Search for and install the Kubernetes OpenTelemetry Assets integration.
    3. Repeat for the System OpenTelemetry Assets integration, which is required for host-level metrics on the nodes.

Step 2: Access the dashboards

  1. In Kibana, go to Dashboards.
  2. In the search bar, type OTEL.
  3. Select the [OTEL][Metrics Kubernetes] Cluster Overview dashboard to view your cluster's performance.

For a full end-to-end setup guide, refer to Quickstart: Unified Kubernetes Observability with EDOT.

You can re-add the inframetrics processor as it was configured in versions 9.1.x YAML and Helm charts for the EDOT K8s use case. This is not recommended — the future-proof solution is to use the OpenTelemetry Assets dashboards.