# Deploy the MLOps agent on GKE > Deploy the MLOps agent on GKE - Deploy the MLOps agent on GKE to monitor DataRobot models. This Markdown file sits beside the HTML page at the same path (with a `.md` suffix). It summarizes the topic and lists links for tools and LLM context. Companion generated at `2026-04-24T16:03:56.550843+00:00` (UTC). ## Primary page - [Deploy the MLOps agent on GKE](https://docs.datarobot.com/en/docs/classic-ui/integrations/google/mlops-agent-with-gke.html): Full documentation for this topic (HTML). ## Sections on this page - [Overview](https://docs.datarobot.com/en/docs/classic-ui/integrations/google/mlops-agent-with-gke.html#overview): In-page section heading. - [Prerequisites](https://docs.datarobot.com/en/docs/classic-ui/integrations/google/mlops-agent-with-gke.html#prerequisites): In-page section heading. - [Procedure](https://docs.datarobot.com/en/docs/classic-ui/integrations/google/mlops-agent-with-gke.html#procedure): In-page section heading. - [Create an external deployment](https://docs.datarobot.com/en/docs/classic-ui/integrations/google/mlops-agent-with-gke.html#create-an-external-deployment): In-page section heading. - [Create a Pub/Sub topic and subscription](https://docs.datarobot.com/en/docs/classic-ui/integrations/google/mlops-agent-with-gke.html#create-a-pub-sub-topic-and-subscription): In-page section heading. - [Embed MLOps agent in Docker](https://docs.datarobot.com/en/docs/classic-ui/integrations/google/mlops-agent-with-gke.html#embed-mlops-agent-in-docker): In-page section heading. - [Run Docker locally](https://docs.datarobot.com/en/docs/classic-ui/integrations/google/mlops-agent-with-gke.html#run-docker-locally): In-page section heading. - [Push Docker image to the Container Registry](https://docs.datarobot.com/en/docs/classic-ui/integrations/google/mlops-agent-with-gke.html#push-docker-image-to-the-container-registry): In-page section heading. - [Create the GKE cluster](https://docs.datarobot.com/en/docs/classic-ui/integrations/google/mlops-agent-with-gke.html#create-the-GKE-cluster): In-page section heading. - [Create a cloud router](https://docs.datarobot.com/en/docs/classic-ui/integrations/google/mlops-agent-with-gke.html#create-a-cloud-router): In-page section heading. - [Create K8s ConfigMaps](https://docs.datarobot.com/en/docs/classic-ui/integrations/google/mlops-agent-with-gke.html#create-k8s-configmaps): In-page section heading. - [Create the K8s Deployment](https://docs.datarobot.com/en/docs/classic-ui/integrations/google/mlops-agent-with-gke.html#create-the-k8s-deployment): In-page section heading. - [Score the model](https://docs.datarobot.com/en/docs/classic-ui/integrations/google/mlops-agent-with-gke.html#score-the-model): In-page section heading. - [Clean up](https://docs.datarobot.com/en/docs/classic-ui/integrations/google/mlops-agent-with-gke.html#clean-up): In-page section heading. ## Related documentation - [Classic UI documentation](https://docs.datarobot.com/en/docs/classic-ui/index.html): Linked from this page. - [Integrations](https://docs.datarobot.com/en/docs/classic-ui/integrations/index.html): Linked from this page. - [Google](https://docs.datarobot.com/en/docs/classic-ui/integrations/google/index.html): Linked from this page. - [DataRobot MLOps](https://docs.datarobot.com/en/docs/api/dev-learning/python/mlops/index.html): Linked from this page. - [MLOps agent](https://docs.datarobot.com/en/docs/classic-ui/mlops/deployment/mlops-agent/index.html): Linked from this page. - [create an external deployment](https://docs.datarobot.com/en/docs/classic-ui/mlops/deployment/deploy-methods/deploy-external-model.html): Linked from this page. - [API keys and tools](https://docs.datarobot.com/en/docs/platform/acct-settings/api-key-mgmt.html#mlops-agent-tarball): Linked from this page. - [monitoring agent log](https://docs.datarobot.com/en/docs/classic-ui/mlops/deployment/mlops-agent/agent-event-log.html): Linked from this page. ## Documentation content # Deploy the MLOps agent on GKE The following steps describe how to deploy the MLOps agent on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) with Pub/Sub as a spooler. This allows you to monitor a custom Python model developed outside DataRobot. The custom model will be scored at the local machine and will send the statistics to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) [Pub/Sub](https://cloud.google.com/pubsub#section-5). Finally, the agent (deployed on GKE) will consume this data and send it back to the DataRobot MLOps dashboard. ## Overview [DataRobot MLOps](https://docs.datarobot.com/en/docs/api/dev-learning/python/mlops/index.html) offers the ability to monitor all your ML models (trained in DataRobot or outside) in a centralized dashboard with the DataRobot [MLOps agent](https://docs.datarobot.com/en/docs/classic-ui/mlops/deployment/mlops-agent/index.html). The agent, a Java utility running in parallel with the deployed model, can monitor models developed in Java, Python, and R programming languages. The MLOps agent communicates with the model via a spooler (i.e., file system, GCP Pub/Sub, AWS SQS, or RabbitMQ) and sends model statistics back to the MLOps dashboard. These can include the number of scored records, number of features, scoring time, data drift, and more. You can embed the agent can into a Docker image and deploy it on a Kubernetes cluster for scalability and robustness. ## Prerequisites You must complete the following steps before creating the main configuration. 1. Install the Google Cloud SDKspecific to your operating system. 2. Run the following at a command prompt: gcloud init You will be asked to choose an existing project or create a new one, as well as to select the compute zone. 3. Install the Kubernetes command-line tool: gcloud components install kubectl 4. Retrieve your Google Cloud service account credentials to call Google Cloud APIs. If you don’t have adefault service account, you can create it by following thisprocedure. 5. Once credentials are in place, download the JSON file that contains them. Later, when it is time to pass your credentials to the application that will call Google Cloud APIs, you can use one of these methods: ## Procedure The following sections, each a step in the process, describe the procedure for deploying the MLOps agent on GKE with the Pub/Sub. ### Create an external deployment First, [create an external deployment](https://docs.datarobot.com/en/docs/classic-ui/mlops/deployment/deploy-methods/deploy-external-model.html). You will use the resulting model ID and deployment ID to configure communications with the agent (described in the instructions for [running Docker locally](https://docs.datarobot.com/en/docs/classic-ui/integrations/google/mlops-agent-with-gke.html#run-docker-locally)). ### Create a Pub/Sub topic and subscription Second, create a Pub/Sub topic and subscription: 1. Go to your Google Cloud console Pub/Sub service and create a topic (i.e., a named resource where publishers can send messages). 2. Create a subscription—a named resource representing the stream of messages from a single, specific topic, to be delivered to the subscribing application. Use the Pub/Sub topic from the previous step and setDelivery typetoPull. This provides a Subscription ID. Additionally, you can configure message retention duration and other parameters. ### Embed MLOps agent in Docker To create a Docker image that embeds the agent: 1. Create the working directory on the machine where you will prepare the necessary files. 2. Create a directory namedconf. 3. Download and unzip the tarball file with the MLOps agent fromAPI keys and tools. 4. Copy themlops.log4j2.propertiesfile from/confto your. 5. Copy the filemlops.agent.conf.yamlto the working directory. Provide the following parameters (the example uses defaults for all other parameters): ParameterDefinitionmlopsUrlInstallation URL for Self-Managed AI Platform;app.datarobot.comfor managed AI PlatformapiTokenDataRobot keyprojectIdGCP ProjectIdtopicNameCreated in thePub/Sub section For example: mlopsUrl:"MLOPS-URL"apiToken:"YOUR-DR-API-TOKEN"channelConfigs:-type:"PUBSUB_SPOOL"details:{name:"pubsub",projectId:"YOUR-GOOGLE-PROJECT-ID",topicName:"YOUR-PUBSUB-TOPIC-ID-DEFINED-AT-STEP-2"} 6. Copy the/lib/mlops-agent-X.X.X.jarfile to your working directory. 7. In the working directory, create the Dockerfile using the following content: FROMopenjdk:8ENVAGENT_BASE_LOC=/opt/datarobot/maENVAGENT_LOG_PROPERTIES=mlops.log4j2.propertiesENVAGENT_CONF_LOC=$AGENT_BASE_LOC/conf/mlops.agent.conf.yamlCOPYmlops-agent-*.jar${AGENT_BASE_LOC}/mlops-agent.jarCOPYconf$AGENT_BASE_LOC/confCOPYentrypoint.sh/RUNchmod+x/entrypoint.shENTRYPOINT["./entrypoint.sh"] 8. Createentrypoint.shwith the following content: #!/bin/shecho"######## STARTING MLOPS-AGENT ########"echoexecjava-Dlog.file=$AGENT_BASE_LOC/logs/mlops.agent.log-Dlog4j.configurationFile=file:$AGENT_BASE_LOC/conf/$AGENT_LOG_PROPERTIES-cp$AGENT_BASE_LOC/mlops-agent.jarcom.datarobot.mlops.agent.Agent--config$AGENT_CONF_LOC 9. Create the Docker image, ensuring you include the period (.) at the end of the Docker build command. exportPROJECT_ID=ai-XXXXXXX-111111 dockerbuild-tgcr.io/${PROJECT_ID}/monitoring-agents:v1. 10. Run thedocker imagescommand to verify a successful build. ### Run Docker locally > [!NOTE] Note > While technically an optional step, best practice advises always testing your image locally to save time and network bandwidth. The monitoring agent tarball includes the necessary library (along with Java and R libraries) for sending statistics from the custom Python model back to MLOps. You can find the libraries in the `lib` directory. To run locally: 1. Install theDataRobot_MLOpslibrary for Python: pip install datarobot_mlops_package-/lib/datarobot_mlops--py2.py3-none-any.whl 2. Run your Docker container image. NoteYou will need the JSON file with credentials that you downloaded in theprerequisites(the step that describes downloading Google Cloud account credentials). dockerrun-it--rm--namema-v/path-to-you-directory/mlops.agent.conf.yaml:/opt/datarobot/ma/conf/mlops.agent.conf.yaml-v/path-to-your-directory/your-google-application-credentials.json:/opt/datarobot/ma/conf/gac.json-eGOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="/opt/datarobot/ma/conf/gac.json"gcr.io/${PROJECT_ID}/monitoring-agents:v1 The following is the example of the Python code where your model is scored (all package import statements are omitted from this example): fromdatarobot_mlops.mlopsimportMLOpsDEPLOYMENT_ID="EXTERNAL-DEPLOYMENT-ID-DEFINED-AT-STEP-1"MODEL_ID="EXTERNAL-MODEL-ID-DEFINED-AT-STEP-1"PROJECT_ID="YOUR-GOOGLE-PROJECT-ID"TOPIC_ID="YOUR-PUBSUB-TOPIC-ID-DEFINED-AT-STEP-2"# MLOPS: initialize the MLOps instancemlops=MLOps()\.set_deployment_id(DEPLOYMENT_ID)\.set_model_id(MODEL_ID)\.set_pubsub_spooler(PROJECT_ID,TOPIC_ID)\.init()# Read your custom model pickle file (model has been trained outside DataRobot)model=pd.read_pickle('custom_model.pickle')# Read scoring datafeatures_df_scoring=pd.read_csv('features.csv')# Get predictionsstart_time=time.time()predictions=model.predict_proba(features_df_scoring)predictions=predictions.tolist()num_predictions=len(predictions)end_time=time.time()# MLOPS: report the number of predictions in the request and the execution timemlops.report_deployment_stats(num_predictions,end_time-start_time)# MLOPS: report the features and predictionsmlops.report_predictions_data(features_df=features_df_scoring,predictions=predictions)# MLOPS: release MLOps resources when finishedmlops.shutdown() 3. Set theGOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALSenvironment variable: export GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="" 4. Score your data locally to test if the model works as expected. You will then be able to see a new record inmonitoring agent log: python score-your-model.py The statistics in the MLOps dashboard are updated as well: ### Push Docker image to the Container Registry After you have tested and validated the container image locally, upload it to a registry so that your Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) cluster can download and run it. 1. Configure the Docker command-line tool to authenticate to Container Registry: gcloud auth configure-docker 2. Push the Docker imageyou builtto the Container Registry: docker push gcr.io/${PROJECT_ID}/monitoring-agents:v1 ### Create the GKE cluster After storing the Docker image in the Container Registry, you next create a GKE cluster, as follows: 1. Set your project ID and Compute Engine zone options for thegcloudtool: gcloud config set project $PROJECT_ID gcloud config set compute/zone europe-west1-b 2. Create a cluster. NoteThis example, for simplicity, creates a private cluster with unrestricted access to the public endpoint. For security, be sure to restrict access to the control plane for your production environment. Find detailed information about configuring different GKE private clustershere. gcloudcontainerclusterscreatemonitoring-agents-cluster\--networkdefault\--create-subnetworkname=my-subnet-0\--no-enable-master-authorized-networks\--enable-ip-alias\--enable-private-nodes\--master-ipv4-cidr172.16.0.32/28\--no-enable-basic-auth\--no-issue-client-certificate Where: ParameterResult--create-subnetwork name=my-subnet-0Causes GKE to automatically create a subnet namedmy-subnet-0.--no-enable-master-authorized-networksDisables authorized networks for the cluster.--enable-ip-aliasMakes the cluster VPC-native.--enable-private-nodesIndicates that the cluster's nodes do not have external IP addresses.--master-ipv4-cidr 172.16.0.32/28Specifies an internal address range for the control plane. This setting is permanent for this cluster.--no-enable-basic-authDisables basic auth for the cluster.--no-issue-client-certificateDisables issuing a client certificate. 3. Run the following command to see the cluster worker instances: gcloud compute instances list ### Create a cloud router The MLOps agent running on a GKE private cluster needs access to the DataRobot MLOps service. To do this, you must give the private nodes outbound access to the internet, which you can achieve using a NAT cloud router ( [Google documentation here](https://cloud.google.com/nat/docs/gke-example#gcloud_4)). 1. Create a cloud router: gcloudcomputerouterscreatenat-router\--networkdefault\--regioneurope-west1 2. Add configuration to the router. gcloudcomputeroutersnatscreatenat-config\--router-regioneurope-west1\--routernat-router\--nat-all-subnet-ip-ranges\--auto-allocate-nat-external-ips​ #### Create K8s ConfigMaps With the cloud router configured, you can now create K8s ConfigMaps to contain the MLOps agent configuration and Google credentials. You will need the downloaded JSON credentials file created during the [prerequisites](https://docs.datarobot.com/en/docs/classic-ui/integrations/google/mlops-agent-with-gke.html#prerequisites) stage. > [!NOTE] Note > Use K8s Secrets to save your configuration files for production usage. Use the following code to create ConfigMaps: ``` kubectl create configmap ma-configmap --from-file=mlops.agent.conf.yaml=your-path/mlops.agent.conf.yaml kubectl create configmap gac-configmap --from-file=gac.json=your-google-application-credentials.json ``` #### Create the K8s Deployment To create the deployment, create the `ma-deployment.yaml` file with the following content: > [!NOTE] Note > This example uses three always-running replicas; for autoscaling, use `kubectl autoscale deployment`. ``` apiVersion: apps/v1 kind: Deployment metadata: name: ma-deployment labels: app: ma spec: replicas: 3 selector: matchLabels: app: ma template: metadata: labels: app: ma spec: containers: - name: ma image: gcr.io/${PROJECT_ID}/monitoring-agents:v1 volumeMounts: - name: agent-conf-volume mountPath: /opt/datarobot/ma/conf/mlops.agent.conf.yaml subPath: mlops.agent.conf.yaml - name: gac-conf-volume mountPath: /opt/datarobot/ma/conf/gac.json subPath: gac.json env: - name: GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS value: /opt/datarobot/ma/conf/gac.json ports: - containerPort: 80 volumes: - name: agent-conf-volume configMap: items: - key: mlops.agent.conf.yaml path: mlops.agent.conf.yaml name: ma-configmap - name: gac-conf-volume configMap: items: - key: gac.json path: gac.json name: gac-configmap ``` Next, create the deployment with the following command: `kubectl apply -f ma-deployment.yaml` Finally, check the running pods: `kubectl get pods` ### Score the model Score your local model and verify the output. 1. Score your local model: python score-your-model.py 2. Check the GKE Pod log; it shows that one record has been sent to DataRobot. 3. Check the Pub/Sub log. 4. Check the DataRobot MLOps dashboard. ### Clean up 1. Delete the NAT in the cloud router: gcloud compute routers nats delete nat-config --router=nat-router --router-region=europe-west1 2. Delete the cloud router: gcloud compute routers delete nat-router --region=europe-west1 3. Delete the cluster: gcloud container clusters delete monitoring-agents-cluster