Logs are often voluminous can be challenging to navigate through, but it can be a gold mine of valuable data to help administrators troubleshoot and identify issues or trends for operational activities.
To overcome the burden of manually eye-balling millions or (even billions) of rows in log records, bringing that data into OCI Logging Analytics (which is part of the Observability & Manageability Portfolio) will allow administrators to get quick insights, to reduce the time to isolate issues, minimising downtime and prevent impact to end users.
Tag: manageability
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)
- We recommend using OCI FastConnect or IPSEC VPN
- Communication Destination to OCI Tenancy – HTTPS (443)
- Whitelist by *.oraclecloud.com (or by IP Range https://docs.cloud.oracle.com/iaas/Content/General/Concepts/addressranges.htm)
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
- 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
- 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:
- Logging Analytics
- DB Management
- Operations Insights
- Java Management Service
For further details please visit:
https://docs.oracle.com/en-us/iaas/Content/services.htm
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- 7 sessions running weekly from October 13 2020
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