Agents for Observability & Management

To use Observability & Management (O&M) services, there is the option to deploy OCI agents depending on which service you wish to enable.

There are two types of agents that can be used.

  1. Oracle Cloud Agent (OCA) – This agent is deployed by default if you provision hosts via the OCI Compute Service. OCA has extensions and plugins which can be used to enable other features native to OCI Compute Services.
  2. Management Agent (OMA) – This agent is a standalone version where you can deploy to hosts or VMs:
    – That do not have OCA installed on OCI eg. OCI Database Services (eg. Oracle Base VM/BM, ExaCS).
    – On-Premise
    – Third Party Cloud (AWS, Azure etc..)

Please see the current O&M support we have for each agent:

OCI AgentLogging AnalyticsStack MonitoringDatabase ManagementOperations InsightsTarget
Oracle Cloud Agent (OCA)YesYes  YesOCI Compute VM / BM Host
Oracle Management Agent (OMA)YesYesYesYesOther VM Host (including on-premise and 3rd party cloud)

OMA Agent Install


In previous post, I have provided steps on how you can install the Oracle Management Agent.

OCA Agent Install

For this post, let me show you how easy it is to enable the O&M services for Oracle Cloud Agent (OCA).

Continue reading “Agents for Observability & Management”
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OCI Observability & Management Platform (O&M) – Agent Based Monitoring

There are various ways you can bring telemetry and operational data into OCI Observability & Management (O&M) to proactively monitor and gain operational insights into your IT fleet.

Example of ways you can do this are:

  • Service Connector Hub – Route and move data from one OCI service to Another OCI Service (eg. OCI Logging to Logging Analytics)
  • API Call – Collect data from files stored on Object Storage or Upload Log data on demand
  • Agent Based – Deployment of Agent on Host

If you have targets you want to monitor on-premise or in the cloud (OCI, AWS, Azure etc…) and you have access to the VM or Compute instance (ie. you can SSH or Remote Desktop to the host), then an Agent based method will allow you to collect and bring that data into unified platform in O&M.

In this example we will show how you can deploy Agent based method (on Linux OS) so you can leverage the O&M services including:

  • Logging Analytics
  • DB Management
  • Operations Insights
  • Java Management Service

1 – NETWORK COMMUNICATION (For External Targets to OCI)

NOTE: The additional network communication setup is not required if the targets you are monitoring are within your OCI tenancy account.

2 – ADDITIONAL PRE-REQUISITES

For Setup Compartments, IAM Groups and Policies

Please also check the following tasks has been completed.
https://docs.oracle.com/en-us/iaas/management-agents/doc/perform-prerequisites-deploying-management-agents.html

NOTE: You may need to contact your OCI administrator to grant you the appropriate permissions.

3 – DOWNLOAD AND CREATE KEY

  1. From OCI Console navigate to:

OBSERVABILITY & MANAGEMENT > MANAGEMENT AGENTS > DOWNLOADS AND KEYS > CREATE KEY

2. Specify details and Click on CREATE

  • Key Name (eg. oci-reg-key)
  • Compartment (eg. shared_resources)

3. Review Key and Download Key to File (eg. oci-reg-key.txt)

NOTE: Your Key File will be in the format of <Key Name>.txt. Copy it to your target host.

4. Download Agent by clicking on the Agent for your OS (eg. Agent for LINUX) and copy to your target host

Alternatively you can download the agent file using wget:
wget https://objectstorage.<oci-region>.oraclecloud.com/n/idtskf8cjzhp/b/installer/o/Linux-x86_64/latest/oracle.mgmt_agent.rpm 

Example:
wget https://objectstorage.ap-sydney-1.oraclecloud.com/n/idtskf8cjzhp/b/installer/o/Linux-x86_64/latest/oracle.mgmt_agent.rpm 

4 – INSTALL AGENT

1. Login to the host and locate the downloaded agent file oracle.mgmt_agent.rpm

$ sudo rpm -ivh oracle.mgmt_agent.rpm
Preparing...                          ################################# [100%]
Checking pre-requisites
        Checking if any previous agent service exists
        Checking if OS has systemd or initd
        Checking available disk space for agent install
        Checking if /opt/oracle/mgmt_agent directory exists
        Checking if 'mgmt_agent' user exists
        Checking Java version
                JAVA_HOME is not set or not readable to root
                Trying default path /usr/bin/java
                Java version: 1.8.0_271 found at /usr/bin/java
Updating / installing...
   1:oracle.mgmt_agent-201113.1621-1  ################################# [100%]

Executing install
        Unpacking software zip
        Copying files to destination dir (/opt/oracle/mgmt_agent)
        Initializing software from template
        Creating 'mgmt_agent' daemon
        Agent Install Logs: /opt/oracle/mgmt_agent/installer-logs/installer.log.0

        Setup agent using input response file (run as any user with 'sudo' privileges)
        Usage:
                sudo /opt/oracle/mgmt_agent/agent_inst/bin/setup.sh opts=[FULL_PATH_TO_INPUT.RSP]

Agent install successful


2. Verify that the agent has been installed.

$ rpm -qa|grep mgmt_agent
oracle.mgmt_agent-201113.1621-1.x86_64

3. Copy the Downloaded key file (eg. oci-reg-key.txt)

$ cp oci-demo-key.txt /tmp/input.rsp
$ chmod 755 /tmp/input.rsp

4. Update the parameter CredentialWalletPassword with your own password in the input.rsp file and then save file.

CredentialWalletPassword = YourP8ssW0rd123!

5. Then execute the setup script to install the agent

$ sudo /opt/oracle/mgmt_agent/agent_inst/bin/setup.sh opts=/tmp/input.rsp

6. When completed, check status of agent on host

For Oracle Linux 6: sudo /sbin/initctl status mgmt_agent
For Oracle Linux 7 or later: sudo systemctl status mgmt_agent

$ sudo systemctl status mgmt_agent
● mgmt_agent.service - mgmt_agent
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/mgmt_agent.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: active (running) since Thu 2020-12-03 05:20:43 GMT; 6min ago
  Process: 3072 ExecStart=/opt/oracle/mgmt_agent/agent_inst/bin/agentcore start sysd (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 3148 (wrapper)
   Memory: 248.5M
   CGroup: /system.slice/mgmt_agent.service
           ├─3148 /opt/oracle/mgmt_agent/agent_inst/bin/./wrapper /opt/oracle/mgmt_agent/agent_inst/bin/../config/wrapper.conf wrapper.syslog.ident=mgmt_agent wrapper.pidfile=/opt/oracle/mgmt_agent/agent_inst/bin/../log/mgmt_agent.pid wrapper.daemonize=TRU...
           └─3163 /usr/java/jre1.8.0_271-amd64/bin/java -Dorg.tanukisoftware.wrapper.WrapperSimpleApp.maxStartMainWait=5 -Djava.security.egd=file:///dev/./urandom -XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError -Xmx512m -Djava.library.path=../../201113.1621/lib -classpath...

Dec 03 05:20:31 oma-host systemd[1]: Starting mgmt_agent...
Dec 03 05:20:31 oma-host agentcore[3072]: Starting mgmt_agent...
Dec 03 05:20:38 oma-host agentcore[3072]: Waiting for mgmt_agent.........
Dec 03 05:20:43 oma-host systemd[1]: Started mgmt_agent.

5 – VERIFY AGENT IN CONSOLE AND DEPLOY PLUGIN

  1. In OCI Console, navigate to:
    OBSERVABILITY & MANAGEMENT > MANAGEMENT AGENTS > AGENTS

    Then click on the link to drill into the Agent (eg. Agent (snoopy))

2. Click on the Deploy Plug-Ins button

3. Choose the Plug-ins to deploy for your agent.

NOTE: If the plug-in is greyed out, then the plug-in is already enabled.

Now you should be ready to configure your service for:

For further details please visit:
https://docs.oracle.com/en-us/iaas/Content/services.htm

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