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Status Under review
Workspace Instana
Categories Backend Enablement
Created by Guest
Created on Sep 14, 2026

RELATED IDEAS

Provide a complete machine-readable image inventory for each Instana Custom Edition release

Problem

Customers with controlled or revision-safe deployment processes need to know the complete set of container images required for a specific Instana Custom Edition release before deployment.

The rendered Helm manifests do not provide the full image inventory because some images are selected and deployed later by operators. In addition, datastore images are not necessarily covered by the same mechanism.

Existing tooling can provide parts of the inventory, for example the Agent Operator mirroring script for the Operator, Agent and k8sensor, but there does not appear to be a single authoritative source for the complete release-specific image set.

Proposed Solution

Provide an official machine-readable image inventory for each Instana Custom Edition release, or a supported mechanism that can generate one.

The inventory should include all required images, including:

  • Instana Enterprise Operator

  • Core and Unit components

  • BeeInstana components

  • Agent Operator

  • Instana Agent

  • k8sensor

  • datastore operators

  • datastore runtime images

  • supporting and helper images

Where possible, include repository, tag, digest, component and release information.


Customer Value

This would allow customers to integrate Instana into standardized CI pipelines, mirror and approve all required artifacts before deployment, and maintain a revision-safe record of the exact container images associated with a release.

Idea priority Urgent
  • Admin
    Marcelo Ibanez
    Oct 1, 2026

    Thank you for this submission, Janina, the underlying need is clear. Organizations running controlled deployment processes need visibility into the full set of artifacts associated with a release.

    We want to be transparent that the solution as described, deriving the complete image list from rendered Helm manifests, does not fully reflect how Instana Custom Edition works. Some components are resolved and deployed dynamically at runtime by the operator, and datastore images are managed independently with flexible version requirements, which means a static Helm-rendered manifest cannot serve as a complete authoritative source.

    That said, we are exploring whether we can leverage existing internal tooling to produce a supported, release-specific image inventory that addresses this need. We will update this idea as that investigation progresses.

    Reply

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