AppDynamics provides flexibility for configuring the Machine Agent so that you can choose the best fit for your deployment environment. 

Not all options are available for all properties. See Machine Agent Configuration Properties

Configure the Machine Agent Properties

You can configure the Machine Agent by:

  • Editing the controller-info.xml file located in the <machine_agent_home>/conf directory.
  • Adding Agent system properties (-D<system_property>) to the Machine Agent start-up script or on the command line.
  • Using environment variables. To configure the Agent with environment variables, set the value of the environment variable in the environment where the monitored application runs and restart the Agent. Environment variables exist for most of the Agent settings in the controller-info.xml file, but not all settings are configurable through environment variables. For those settings, you need to use system properties or controller-info.xml. See Machine Agent Configuration Properties.

Empty spaces and special characters are not allowed in either the full path to the Machine Agent home directory, or in the directory name itself. If the Machine Agent does not start up, review the path to determine if it contains empty spaces or special characters. For example, the path /opt/appdynamics/machine agent is problematic, however, the path/opt/appdynamics/machine-agent works correctly.

The JVM system properties and environment variables override the settings in the controller-info.xml file. The Agent applies the first non-empty value for a configuration property. The Machine Agent applies configurations using the following sources (in order).  

  1. Environment variables
  2. System properties passed in the start command for the JVM
  3. Global configuration file: <machine-agent-home>/conf/controller-info.xml


See Where to Specify Machine Agent Configuration for OS environment and install package details

Example Configuration

Machine Agent controller-info.xml File

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<controller-info>    <controller-host>your-controller-host</controller-host>
    <controller-port>your-controller-port</controller-port>   
    <account-access-key>your-access-key</account-access-key>
    <controller-ssl-enabled>true</controller-ssl-enabled>
    <enable-orchestration>false</enable-orchestration>
    <sim-enabled>false</sim-enabled>
    <unique-host-id>your-host-id</unique-host-id>  
    <account-name>your-account-name</account-name>
</controller-info>
XML

 bash command-line Example 

<machine_agent_home>/bin/machine-agent -Dappdynamics.controller.hostName=your-controller-host 
-Dappdynamics.controller.port=your-controller-port -Dappdynamics.agent.accountAccessKey=your-access-key -Dappdynamics.agent.uniqueHostId=your-host-id -Dappdynamics.agent.accountName=your-account-name
BASH