Foglight 7.3.0 - Getting Started Guide

Foglight command-line interface

Foglight provides commands that allow you to manage and work with Foglight components without having to use the browser interface. These commands allow you to perform tasks such as managing the Management Server, the Agent Manager, agents, cartridges, and licenses, as well as work with entities such as metrics, monitoring policies, and schedules. For example, this interface allows you to automate component-management tasks using scripts or to use regular expressions to select multiple entities.

See the Command-Line Reference Guide for more information.

Foglight Agent Manager

Foglight Agent Manager is a client application that manages Foglight agents installed on monitored hosts. It provides a centralized communications link between the Management Server and the agents. The Agent Manager also provides a number of support services such as the ability to deploy, upgrade, and configure agents.

An instance of the Agent Manager is automatically installed with new installations of the Management Server. This embedded Agent Manager instance runs on the Management Server machine. You can deploy agents to the embedded Agent Manager if you want to monitor the machine on which the Management Server runs. You can also deploy instances of the Agent Manager to remote hosts.

The Agent Manager communicates with Foglight agents using a variety of protocols, as indicated in Figure 2.

For more information, see the Foglight Agent Manager Guide.

Foglight cartridges

Cartridges extend the functionality of Foglight and are installed on the Management Server. A cartridge contains one or more components, such as agents for deployment, communication capabilities, and modifications to the way that data is transformed or handled, as well as rules, reports, and views.

When a cartridge is installed and enabled, its components become part of the Management Server. Adding cartridges allows you to monitor additional parts of your environment.

See the Administration and Configuration Guide for more information about managing cartridges. See the cartridge documentation for information about each cartridge.

Foglight agents

Agents are deployed to hosts in your environment and send data to the Management Server. Agents monitor the availability and performance of many aspects of your environment, including operating systems, databases, virtual hosts, top processes, custom applications, application servers, and Web servers.

There are several types of agents. One or more instances of each type of agent managed by the Agent Manager can be deployed per host. For example, there is an agent that collects metrics from the operating system of the host machine. There are also agents that are embedded into systems or the software that they monitor, such as the Java EE Technology Agent. Foglight also includes internal agents that monitor Foglight components and services.

See the Administration and Configuration Guide for more information about managing and configuring agents. See the documentation for the cartridge in which the agent was included for details about each agent.