Cloud Setup

Set up the mirrord usage dashboard served from the cloud

This page covers setup for the dashboard served from the cloud. See Dashboard for what the interface looks like once it's running, or License Server Setup if your operator authenticates with a self-hosted license server instead.

If your operator authenticates with a cloud API key rather than a self-hosted license server, you get the usage dashboard at app.metalbear.com with nothing to deploy in your cluster.

The cloud API key needs operator chart 3.179.0 or newer; identity detail (usernames and targets) needs 3.193.0 or newer.

The cloud dashboard needs the operator to reach analytics.metalbear.com and app.metalbear.com. Air-gapped or network-restricted deployments should use License Server Setup instead.

New customers: set up the cloud dashboard

The onboarding in the app does these steps for you and checks each one. To set it up by hand:

1. Sign in at app.metalbear.com (or create your organization).
2. Generate a cloud API key (organization admins only, under API Keys). Identity sharing is pre-ticked: with it on, the dashboard shows real usernames and service names instead of hashes. It's your organization's choice; turn it off to keep telemetry anonymized.

   Copy the key when it appears. It's only shown once, and regenerating replaces the current key.

   cloud.anonymizeData: true in the operator's Helm values overrides identity sharing: telemetry stays anonymized even with consent granted.
3. Install the operator with the key:

   helm repo add metalbear https://metalbear-co.github.io/charts
   helm repo update metalbear
   helm install --set cloud.apiKey.key=<YOUR_API_KEY> mirrord-operator metalbear/mirrord-operator

   In production, don't pass the key inline. Put it in a Kubernetes secret and reference it with cloud.apiKey.keyRef, or point at Google Secret Manager with cloud.apiKey.gsmRef. See Cloud API key.
4. Install the mirrord CLI and run a session (mirrord wizard generates a config to start from).

Once the operator is connected and a session has been recorded, your Home page at app.metalbear.com is the usage dashboard - see Dashboard for what you'll see there.

Per-user and per-target detail only appears if identity sharing was on for the API key you installed with; with it off, the same activity shows anonymized.

Enabling on an existing install

If your operator already runs with a license key (no license server), add the API key to its Helm values and upgrade:

# values.yaml
cloud:
  apiKey:
    keyRef: mirrord-operator-cloud-api-key

helm upgrade mirrord-operator metalbear/mirrord-operator -f values.yaml

Existing license.* values stay as they are. Create the referenced secret as shown in Cloud API key, or use cloud.apiKey.gsmRef or an inline key instead. The key is read at startup, so the upgrade's pod restart is what picks it up.

Your existing anonymized usage is already on the dashboard; it doesn't start from zero. From the upgrade forward, sessions carry identity (if sharing is on). Usernames also fill in on historical sessions once each developer runs a session with the key in place, since names resolve per user across all time; per-service detail for old sessions doesn't backfill.

Migrating from the license server dashboard

A self-hosted license server is different: an operator configured with license.licenseServer authenticates only against it and ignores a cloud API key entirely, so switching means removing that setting.

1. Generate a cloud API key at app.metalbear.com, as above.
2. In your operator Helm values, add cloud.apiKey as shown in the previous section and remove license.licenseServer, then upgrade.
3. Sign in and run a session. Your usage shows up on the dashboard. Usage recorded by the license server stays in its database; if you want that history on the cloud dashboard, get in touch and we'll import it. Once the operator is reporting to the cloud, the mirrord-license-server chart can be uninstalled if you only ran it for the dashboard.

Don't migrate an air-gapped or network-restricted deployment. The cloud dashboard needs outbound connectivity to the mirrord cloud; keep those clusters on License Server Setup.