Introduction

nmaas ActiveMon extends the nmaas platform into the domain of distributed network observability by enabling active monitoring capabilities to be deployed directly at the edge of the infrastructure being monitored. By placing measurement tools close to services, users and network boundaries, organizations can collect performance data that reflects real production paths and actual user experience. This approach provides visibility into connectivity characteristics that are difficult to observe from centrally located monitoring systems alone.

The platform treats remote Kubernetes clusters as managed monitoring locations capable of hosting active measurement applications such as perfSONAR Testpoints and SmokePing instances. Once onboarded, these clusters become part of a centrally managed monitoring infrastructure where applications can be deployed, upgraded and maintained through a single nmaas portal. This operational model reduces the complexity of managing active monitoring deployments across campuses, edge nodes, regional datacenters and geographically distributed research facilities.

A fundamental design principle of ActiveMon is that monitoring infrastructure should follow the same operational practices as modern cloud-native applications. Configuration changes are therefore managed through GitOps workflows, allowing measurement schedules, application settings and monitoring definitions to be version controlled, reviewed and automatically synchronized to running deployments. The result is improved traceability, reproducibility and consistency across large-scale monitoring environments while minimizing configuration drift between locations.

Active monitoring deployments frequently operate in heterogeneous network environments where measurement accuracy depends on the selected network path. For this reason, ActiveMon supports multiple deployment models including Kubernetes networking, host networking and Multus-based secondary interfaces. These options allow measurements to traverse the intended physical network paths and enable deployments in environments where dedicated interfaces, VLANs or complex routing policies are required.

The Getting Started guide explains the process of onboarding remote clusters, configuring secure access, managing application configuration through GitOps workflows and deploying active monitoring applications in both standard and advanced networking topologies.