Install Agents

You can install agents on a machine by using the UI only if Smart Agent is installed on the same machine.

If installing Machine Agent with Smart Agent on SELinux, configure SELinux to permissive mode. See SELinux Installation Issues.

If you require to use smartagentctl to install Machine Agent or require to install Machine Agent on a remote host, see Install Machine Agent Using smartagentctl.

Perform the following to install the supported agents:

Click Home > Agent Management > Manage Agents.
Click Install Agent in the right pane.

To ensure that the host is auto-selected on the Install Agent page, select the required single or multiple hosts from the Smart Agents tab, then click Install Agent.
Select the type of agent and then click Next.
Select one of the following to specify the location for deploying the agent, then click Next.
- Select from List: You can select the host on which Smart Agent is installed from the list, then click the left arrow to list it under selected table. You can select multiple hosts.
  You can add multiple agents for a single host and multiple hosts can be selected by repeating this step.
  The Install directory gets auto-populated based on the host operating system.
  
  For .Net Agents, only the Windows Smart Agents are available to select.
  
  The following is an example image of the agent installation page. This screen may change based on the selected agent.
  Machine Agent does not include the Application, Tier, and Node fields.
- Import from CSV file: You can upload a CSV file with required columns such as HostName, SmartAgentID, Application, Tier, Node, and Installation Directory.
Select Custom Prefix if you want a prefix to be added to the application, node and tier names, else proceed with specifying the application details.
(For Java Agent)You can specify the environment variables such as env.Host and env.USER for values under Application, Tier, and Node.
For example, if you want the application name to be TomcatApp with the hostname as prefix, edit the application name under Application as {env.HOST}-TomcatApp.
Configure the agent attributes on the Set Agent Attributes page, then click Install.
1. You can select the download source. The source can be the Splunk AppDynamics download portal (Using Splunk AppDynamics Portal), your local directory (Using Local Directory), or your custom HTTP server (Custom HTTP URL).
  If you select:
  - Using AppDynamics Portal, select the appropriate install version.
  - Custom HTTP URL, and if your HTTP server requires authentication, configure smart agent to use basic authentication. See Configure Authentication for Custom Artifact Location.
  - Using Local Directory, specify Local Directory as the path where you have downloaded the zip file.
2. You can select Additional Configuration to add more configuration details. Use the agent specific custom configurations to specify in Custom Configuration. For the list of keys that you can use, see Custom Configuration.
  You can add multiple attributes in separate lines.
  Machine Agent: Ensure that you have specified the required custom configuration for the agent and Controller communication. To configure the agent endpoint, add the following to the additional configuration field:
  
  analytics_event_endpoint: "https://<IP address or DNS name>:443"
  
  CODE
  
  If you do not specify the endpoint, Smart Agent considers the default value, analytics_event_endpoint: "https://fra-ana-api.saas.appdynamics.com:443".
  .NET MSI: You can configure only Custom AD_Setup file content. See Additional Configuration for .NET MSI. Also, Install Version is a required field when you select Custom HTTP URL or Using Local Directory.
  You can specify the use_sa_info: true additional configuration, if you require the agents to use only the Smart Agent connection configuration. This overwrites the same connection configuration from the Controller.
Check the install status in Tasks in Progress.
You can search for the specific host and check the log file. After the task is completed the task is added to the History tab.

The log file is generated after the task is complete.

Configure Basic Authentication for Custom Artifactory Location

You require to configure Smart Agent to use basic authentication if your HTTP server requests authentication. When you configure Smart Agent to use basic authentication, it communicates with the HTTP sever, such as Nexus, Artifactory, or any custom HTTP server.

To configure basic authentication, include the following variables in the[TaskConfig] section of the Smart Agent config.ini file:

UserPortalUserName
UserPortalPassword
UserPortalAuth

For example,

[TaskConfig]
NativeEnable = true
UserPortalUserName = <username>
UserPortalPassword = <user-password>
UserPortalAuth = basic

CODE

If you are using Smart Agent CLI, specify the variables before running the appd binary:

sudo env ENABLE_CUSTOM_HTTP=true CUSTOM_HTTP_USERNAME=<username> CUSTOM_HTTP_PASSWORD=<password> ./appd install …

CODE

You can specify the agent_source_location as the extra variable that administrator can specify for the custom URL when using the Smart Agent CLI.

sudo env ENABLE_CUSTOM_HTTP=true CUSTOM_HTTP_USERNAME=<username> CUSTOM_HTTP_PASSWORD=<password> .
/appd install <agent-type> —extra-vars agent_source_location=<path-to-agent-zip-from-custom-url>

CODE

Custom Configuration

You can add additional custom configurations for a required agent under Additional Configuration>Custom Configuration to apply those for the agent installation.

If you require to use a non-root user and group for installing the supported agents, specify the following in Custom Configuration:

user: <username>
group: <groupname>

CODE

Apache Web Server Agent Configurations

For the list of all the supported custom configurations for Apache Web Server Agent, see Ansible Configuration for Apache Agent.

Java Agent Configuration

For the list of all the supported custom configurations for Java Agent, see Ansible Configuration for Java Agent.

Machine Agent

By default, Machine Agent runs as a service. To run it as a process, specify the following in Custom Configuration:

start_as_process: true
start_as_service: false

CODE

For the list of all the supported custom configurations for Machine Agent, see Ansible Configuration for Machine Agent.

To install and start Machine Agent automatically, you require the autostart_agent setting.

On the Set Agent Attributes page, you can configure the autostart_agent setting in Custom Configuration:

Setting Description

autostart_agent: true

This is the default setting. This installs and starts the Machine Agent automatically.

When the agent is configured to run as a service, these are the requirements:

Windows: admin privileges are required on Windows to start Machine Agent as a service.
Linux: root privileges are required to install Machine Agent as a system service. If Smart Agent runs as a non-root user, Machine Agent is installed as a user service that runs under the same user account as the Smart Agent.

autostart_agent: false

Installs the Machine Agent, but does not run the agent.

When the agent is configured to run as a service, the service is not created. To create the service later, run the InstallService.vbs script.

cscript <machine_agent_install_dir>\InstallService.vbs <jvm_options>

CODE

.NET MSI Agent Configuration

You can include the following setting as the additional configuration for .Net MSI applications under Additional Configuration:

Custom AD_Setup file content: This is the content of AD_Setup file that will be used during the .NET MSI installation. The format of this content is a template that accepts the variables like controller host, port, and so on. The following is an example of a minimal valid ad_setup file with all possible variables:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<winston>
<appdynamics-agent xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
  <controller host="{{.ControllerHostName}}" port="{{.ControllerPort}}" ssl="false" enable_tls12="false">
    <account name="{{.AccountName}}" password="{{.AccountAccessKey}}"/>
    <application name="{{.ApplicationName}}" />
  </controller>
  <machine-agent />
  <app-agents>
    <IIS>
      <automatic />
    </IIS>
  </app-agents>
</appdynamics-agent>
</winston>

CODE

For more information about AD_Setup file content, see Unattended Installation for .NET.

For the .Net Agent installation through the Custom HTTP, Install Version is a required field.

Node.js Agent

For the list of all the supported custom configurations for Node.js Agent, see Ansible Configuration for Node.js Agent.

PHP Agent

For the list of all the supported custom configurations for PHP Agent, see Ansible Configuration for PHP Agent.

Python Agent

For the list of all the supported custom configurations for Python Agent, see Ansible Configuration for Python Agent.