Inspector Gadget is a simple web app that you can use to get a lot of info on the web server where it's running (the inspector) and perform additional tasks (the gadgets) from there.
The full-featured .NET Core based web app can run on Linux or Windows. You can compile the source code and publish the app to your host of choice directly, or build and run it as a container. Or even more easily, you can also find the latest published version of the Docker container publicly on Docker Hub at jelledruyts/inspectorgadget. The following images are available:
| OS | Image Name and Tag | Deploy |
|---|---|---|
| Linux | jelledruyts/inspectorgadget:latest or simply jelledruyts/inspectorgadget |
|
| Windows | jelledruyts/inspectorgadget:latest-windows |
Alternatively, there's also a single default.aspx page that you can simply drop in any Windows and ASP.NET Framework based host (like IIS or Azure App Service). You can just copy this file into e.g. the wwwroot directory of your site (optionally rename it) and navigate to it directly without any compilation required. This version does not have all the bells and whistles of the full web app (so not all features and configuration settings mentioned below will apply, e.g. it does not have all gadgets and no support for API and Call Chaining), but it can still be a useful drop-in page for basic tasks.
The following gadgets are available:
- DNS Lookup allows you to perform a DNS lookup from the web server.
- HTTP Request allows you to perform an HTTP request lookup from the web server.
- SQL Connection allows you to perform a (scalar) query on a SQL Connection from the web server to a database (optionally using an Azure Managed Identity where supported).
- Azure Managed Identity allows you to request an access token for the managed identity representing your application (when running on a supported Azure service).
- Socket Connection allows you to perform a raw TCP socket connection from the web server (optionally with a request body and reading back the response).
- Process Run allows you to run a process on the host and capture the output.
- Health Check allows you to configure the health check endpoint, e.g. for testing load balancers or container orchestrators.
- Introspector allows you to perform an inspector request from the web server, returning all information the inspector knows about or only a subset (group) or even single item (key).
Each gadget can also be accessed through a REST API:
| Method | Path | Parameters |
|---|---|---|
| POST | /api/dnslookup |
host |
| POST | /api/httprequest |
requestUrl, requestHostName, ignoreServerCertificateErrors |
| POST | /api/sqlconnection |
databaseType (can be sqlserver, postgresql, mysql, cosmosdb), sqlConnectionString, sqlConnectionStringSuffix, sqlQuery, azureManagedIdentityClientId |
| POST | /api/azuremanagedidentity |
scopes, azureManagedIdentityClientId |
| POST | /api/socketconnection |
requestHostName, requestPort, requestBody, readResponse |
| POST | /api/processrun |
fileName, arguments, timeoutSeconds |
| POST | /api/healthcheck |
healthCheckMode (can be AlwaysSucceed, AlwaysFail, FailNextNumberOfTimes), failNextNumberOfTimes |
| GET | /api/introspector |
|
| GET | /api/introspector/<group> |
|
| GET | /api/introspector/<group>/<key> |
|
| POST | /api/introspector |
group, key |
The main purpose for these API's is so that you can perform call chains of requests from one deployed instance of the application to one or more other instances. This makes it easy to set up a multi-tier test environment (e.g. on Kubernetes or other microservice platforms) and perform queries across multiple hops.
Imagine for example that you deploy a Kubernetes cluster with 4 pods, each of these running the exact same Inspector Gadget container. You can then add an info message or environment variable like
tierto each pod indicating which tier they logically represent, e.g.front-end,api-gateway,api-1andapi-2. With that configuration in place, you can then perform a call chain to hop from thefront-endto theapi-gatewayand from there toapi-1.For example, to validate that the tiers are able to reach each other (e.g. if you've deployed network policies or when you're using a service mesh), you can browse to the Inspector Gadget web page on the
front-end, and from there perform an Introspector request by setting the "Call Chain" tohttp://api-gateway http://api-1(if those would be the URL's of the other pods of course). If you set the requested Introspector "Group" toEnvironmentand the "Key" totier(or whatever environment variable you picked), then you can see the simple value returned by each hop to show which tier it represents.Note that this would work even if only the
front-endis exposed externally, with the other tiers only accessible from within the cluster, because each call in the chain is done from the previous hop.
The app can be configured with the configuration settings below (using environment variables).
| Setting | Gadget | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
PathBase |
The path under which the application is hosted externally (e.g. via a proxy which modifies the URL path); must start with '/' | |
BackgroundColor |
An HTML/CSS color value to set as the background color for all pages, e.g. to easily distinguish multiple instances of this app | |
InfoMessage |
An informational message to put at the top of all pages, e.g. to easily distinguish multiple instances of this app | |
DefaultCallChainUrls |
(All) | The default value for the Call Chain URL's |
DisableDnsLookup |
DNS Lookup | Allows you to disable the DNS Lookup gadget |
DefaultDnsLookupHost |
DNS Lookup | The default value for the host |
DisableHttpRequest |
HTTP Request | Allows you to disable the HTTP Request gadget |
DefaultHttpRequestUrl |
HTTP Request | The default value for the URL |
DefaultHttpRequestHostName |
HTTP Request | The default value for the host name |
DefaultHttpRequestIgnoreServerCertificateErrors |
HTTP Request | The default value for the setting to ignore server certificate errors |
DisableSqlConnection |
SQL Connection | Allows you to disable the SQL Connection gadget |
DefaultSqlConnectionDatabaseType |
SQL Connection | The default value for the database type (can be sqlserver, postgresql, mysql, cosmosdb) |
DefaultSqlConnectionSqlConnectionString |
SQL Connection | The default value for the SQL connection string |
DefaultSqlConnectionSqlConnectionStringSuffix |
SQL Connection | The default value for the SQL connection string suffix |
DefaultSqlConnectionSqlQuery |
SQL Connection | The default value for the SQL query |
DefaultSqlConnectionUseAzureManagedIdentity |
SQL Connection | The default value for the setting to use the Azure Managed Identity of the app |
DefaultSqlConnectionAzureManagedIdentityClientId |
SQL Connection | The default value for the Client ID when using a User-Assigned Managed Identity |
DisableAzureManagedIdentity |
Azure Managed Identity | Allows you to disable the Azure Managed Identity gadget |
DefaultAzureManagedIdentityScopes |
Azure Managed Identity | The default value for the scopes |
DefaultAzureManagedIdentityClientId |
Azure Managed Identity | The default value for the Client ID when using a User-Assigned Managed Identity |
DisableSocketConnection |
Socket Connection | Allows you to disable the Socket Connection gadget |
DefaultSocketConnectionRequestHostName |
Socket Connection | The default value for the request host name |
DefaultSocketConnectionRequestPort |
Socket Connection | The default value for the request port |
DefaultSocketConnectionRequestBody |
Socket Connection | The default value for the request body |
DefaultSocketConnectionReadResponse |
Socket Connection | The default value for the setting to read the response |
DisableProcessRun |
Process Run | Allows you to disable the Process Run gadget |
DefaultProcessRunFileName |
Process Run | The default value for the file name |
DefaultProcessRunArguments |
Process Run | The default value for the arguments |
DefaultProcessRunTimeoutSeconds |
Process Run | The default value for the timeout (in seconds) |
DisableHealthCheck |
Health Check | Allows you to disable the Health Check gadget |
DefaultHealthCheckMode |
Health Check | The default value for the health check mode (can be AlwaysSucceed, AlwaysFail, FailNextNumberOfTimes) |
DefaultHealthCheckFailNumberOfTimes |
Health Check | The default value for the next number of times to fail the health check |
DisableIntrospector |
Introspector | Allows you to disable the Introspector gadget |
DefaultIntrospectorGroup |
Introspector | The default value for the group |
DefaultIntrospectorKey |
Introspector | The default value for the key |
This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.