KCNA Cloud Native Observability Practice Question
Which component is responsible for aggregating metrics from Kubernetes nodes and exposing them to the metrics API?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse Prometheus (a full monitoring system) with the metrics-server (a lightweight, Kubernetes-native component for the Metrics API), assuming Prometheus is required for `kubectl top` or HPA when in fact the metrics-server is the dedicated and simpler solution.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
metrics-server
The metrics-server is the correct component because it is specifically designed to collect resource metrics (CPU and memory) from the kubelet on each node via the Summary API and expose them through the Kubernetes Metrics API. This allows tools like `kubectl top` and the Horizontal Pod Autoscaler to access real-time resource usage without requiring a full monitoring stack.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Prometheus Server
Why it's wrong here
Prometheus is a monitoring system that can scrape metrics but is not part of the default Kubernetes metrics API.
- ✗
Grafana
Why it's wrong here
Grafana is a visualization tool, not a metrics aggregator.
- ✓
metrics-server
Why this is correct
Correct. The metrics-server is a cluster-wide aggregator of resource usage data.
- ✗
Fluentd
Why it's wrong here
Fluentd is a log aggregator, not for metrics.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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