<#import "/templates/guide.adoc" as tmpl>
<#import "/templates/kc.adoc" as kc>
<#import "/templates/options.adoc" as opts>
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<@tmpl.guide
title="Enabling Keycloak Health checks"
summary="Learn how to enable and use Keycloak health checks"
includedOptions="health-enabled">

Keycloak has built in support for health checks. This guide describes how to enable and use the Keycloak health checks.

== Keycloak Health checks

Keycloak exposed health endpoints are three:

* `/health`
* `/health/live`
* `/health/ready`

The result is returned in json format and it looks as follows:
[source, json]
----
{
    "status": "UP",
    "checks": []
}
----

== Enabling the health checks
It is possible to enable the health checks using the build time option `health-enabled`:

<@kc.build parameters="--health-enabled=true"/>

By default, no check is returned from the health endpoints.

== Using the health checks

It is recommended that the health endpoints be monitored by external HTTP requests. Due to security measures that remove `curl` and other packages from the Keycloak container image, local command-based monitoring will not function easily.

If you are not using Keycloak in a container, use whatever you want to access the health check endpoints.

=== curl

You may use a simple HTTP HEAD request to determine the `+live+` or `+ready+` state of Keycloak. `+curl+` is a good HTTP client for this purpose.

If Keycloak is deployed in a container, you must run this command from outside it due to the previously mentioned security measures. For example:

[source, bash]
----
curl --head -fsS http://localhost:8080/health/ready
----

If the command returns with status 0, then Keycloak is `+live+` or `+ready+`, depending on which endpoint you called. Otherwise there is a problem.

=== Kubernetes

Define a https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/configure-pod-container/configure-liveness-readiness-startup-probes/#http-probes[HTTP Probe] so that Kubernetes may externally monitor the health endpoints. Do not use a liveness command.

=== HEALTHCHECK

The Dockerfile image `+HEALTHCHECK+` instruction defines a command that will be periodically executed inside the container as it runs. The Keycloak container does not have any CLI HTTP clients installed. Consider installing `+curl+` as an additional RPM, as detailed by the containers guide. Note that your container may be less secure because of this.

== Available Checks

The table below shows the available checks.

|===
|*Check* | *Description* | *Requires Metrics*

|Database
|Returns the status of the database connection pool.
|Yes

|===

For some checks, you'll need to also enable metrics as indicated by the `Requires Metrics` column. To enable metrics
use the `metrics-enabled` option as follows:

<@kc.build parameters="--health-enabled=true --metrics-enabled=true"/>

</@tmpl.guide>
