Telemetry Plugin support in DevWorkspaces (workspaces started with the DevWorkspace engine)

[ibuziuk]

Is your task related to a problem? Please describe.

As part of this task, we need to make sure that the telemetry plugin that is possible to enable for Che 7 workspaces can be re-used, or need to be adapted, for the DevWorkspaces - https://www.eclipse.org/che/docs/che-7/extensions/telemetry/

Describe the solution you'd like

It should be possible to enable telemetry plugin for all DevWorkspaces running on a cluster.
Currently, in Che 7 plugin the can be enabled via

spec:
  server:
    customCheProperties:
      CHE_WORKSPACE_DEVFILE_DEFAULT__EDITOR_PLUGINS: 'eclipse/che-machine-exec-plugin/7.32.0,https://your-web-server/meta.yaml'

Describe alternatives you've considered

N/A

Additional context

telemetry - https://www.eclipse.org/che/docs/che-7/extensions/telemetry/
Devfile v2 and IDE plug-ins - https://che.eclipseprojects.io/2021/06/23/@florent.benoit-devfile-v2-and-ide-plug-ins.html

[ibuziuk]

@sleshchenko I have created this issue in order to start the discussion regarding telemetry for the new type of workspaces. Basically, before the DevWorkspace becomes a default engine we need to make sure that the telemetry plugin can be enabled for this type of workspace. In case you already have some input on the telemetry https://www.eclipse.org/che/docs/che-7/extensions/telemetry/ for DevWorskapce, please share it in the issue

[amisevsk]

Is there a sample (testing) meta.yaml or similar for the telemetry plugin? If there is, then I can help in preparing a devfile 2.0-formatted version of it (as a DevWorkspaceTemplate CR), which we can use to start testing telemetry in DevWorkspaces.

A URL that serves the DWT maps fairly nicely onto how plugins are defined for DevWorkspaces. For example, it's possible to add the Che-Theia editor to a DevWorkspace using the yaml below:

spec:
  template:
    components:
      - name: theia
        plugin:
          uri: https://che-plugin-registry-main.surge.sh/v3/plugins/eclipse/che-theia/next/devfile.yaml

a similar approach could be used to get the telemetry plugin.

[sleshchenko]

The current blocker for this to make it live - provision telemetry plugin info as an environment variable into all other containers since devfile 2.x spec does not provide such an ability.
Possible ways:

1. using variable mechanism from devfile 2.x spec.

pros:

• it's mechanism from devfile 2.x spec;

cons:

• all components which needs telemetry info, should be adapted to:
  • be ready that value can be empty;
  • inject it into their containers with using of variable;

2. introduce a special attribute on devworkspace level, which would behave as workspaceEnv from devfile 1.x, if it's present in devfile - it's propagated to all the containers of dev workspace;

pros:

• Che components do not need to be adapted;

cons:

• it's devworkspace specific feature we may introduce while it may make sense to keep close to devfile 2.x as much as possible.

@amisevsk please review and let me know if there is a place for inaccuracy or I missed anything.

[sleshchenko]

it's done from DWO point of view.
Now dashboard needs to support default plugin from URL and maybe should provision it for existing DW instances?

[dkwon17]

Hello, after a discussion with @benoitf , the default plugins that are specified using a v2 devfile uri can be added to new devworkspaces by creating a devworkspace template from the v2 devfile, and referencing the template on newly created devworkspaces.

The devworkspace templates should be managed on the che-operator side, is that right? Every time the CR is updated with new default plugins, the devworkspace templates would be created accordingly by the che-operator?

Also, should the default plugins be also injected on workspace start too, instead of only on workspace create?

[amisevsk]

For managing default plugin templates, we can do what the Web Terminal Operator does in order to avoid maintaining DWTs across the cluster. If we create DevWorkspaceTemplates in a known namespace (WTO uses its current namespace) and add the annotation

controller.devfile.io/allow-import-from: "*"

then these DWTs can be used in any workspace on the cluster via

spec:
  template:
    components:
      - name: my-default-plugin
        plugin:
          kubernetes:
            name: k8s-dwt-object-name
            namespace: k8s-dwt-namespace

[benoitf]

moving issue to 7.42 milestone as this issue is part of the endgame

[l0rd]

Moving to 7.44 as 7.43 has been released.

[ibuziuk]

@dkwon17 going to close the issue since the initial plugin is contributed to the https://github.com/che-incubator/devworkspace-telemetry-woopra-plugin

Documentation is tracked as part of the https://github.com/che-incubator/devworkspace-telemetry-woopra-plugin

[l0rd]

@dkwon17 @ibuziuk do we need to backport something to 7.44 to be able to use the plugin in hosted che once we switch to devworkspace? I am assuming we don't as the plugin will be downloaded from the upstream registry but asking to make sure I am not wrong.

[dkwon17]

@l0rd , yes, we don't need to backport anything.