Install the Datadog Agent on Kubernetes using the Datadog Operator — required before enabling Single Step Instrumentation (SSI), which automatically instruments applications for APM without code changes. Only use if no Datadog Agent is deployed on the cluster yet.
Enable Single Step Instrumentation (SSI) on Kubernetes — automatically instruments applications for APM without code changes. Only use if the Datadog Agent is already running on the cluster — if not, use agent-install first.
Verify Single Step Instrumentation (SSI) is working end-to-end on Kubernetes — SSI automatically instruments applications for APM without code changes. Only use after enable-ssi has run.
Diagnose and fix Single Step Instrumentation (SSI) issues on Kubernetes — SSI automatically instruments applications for APM without code changes. Only use if the agent and SSI are already configured but traces are missing or instrumentation is not working.
Plan, create, and configure production-ready Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) clusters using the golden path Autopilot configuration. Covers Day-0 checklist, Autopilot vs Standard, networking (private clusters, VPC-native, Gateway API), security (Workload Identity, Secret Manager, RBAC hardening), observability, scaling, cost optimization, and AI/ML inference. WHEN: create GKE cluster, provision GKE environment, design GKE networking, secure GKE, optimize GKE cost, GKE autoscaling, GKE inference, GKE upgrade, GKE observability, GKE multi-tenancy, GKE batch, GKE HPC, GKE compute class.
Plans, executes, and validates Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) cluster upgrades and maintenance operations for both Standard and Autopilot clusters. Produces upgrade plans, pre/post-upgrade checklists, maintenance runbooks with gcloud commands, release channel strategy, and troubleshooting guides. Handles node pool upgrade strategies (surge, blue-green), version compatibility, PDB management, and workload-specific concerns (stateful, GPU, operators). Use this skill whenever the user mentions GKE upgrades, Kubernetes version bumps, node pool maintenance, GKE patching, cluster version management, release channel selection, maintenance windows, surge upgrades, stuck upgrades, or any GKE lifecycle management task — even casual mentions like "we need to upgrade our clusters" or "plan our next GKE maintenance" or "our upgrade is stuck." Don't use for GKE cluster creation, application onboarding, general networking/routing setup, or security policy configurations (use gke-basics or relevant GKE skills instead).