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Foglight for Databases 5.9.7 - Administration and Configuration Guide

Administering and Configuring Foglight Extending Your Monitoring Reach with Foglight Cartridges Administering Foglight Configure Rules and Metric Calculations to Discover Bottlenecks Customizing Your Foglight Environment with Tooling

Cartridge Inventory and Components for Download

The Cartridge Inventory dashboard lists the cartridge that exist in your system and contains controls for installing, enabling, disabling, and uninstalling cartridges.

Installation is the first step in adding a cartridge to the Foglight Management Server. A cartridge file has the extension.car. Installing the CAR file causes the Management Server to be aware of all cartridges in the CAR file.

Use the Cartridge Inventory dashboard to install a cartridge. Alternatively, use the cartridge:install command. This fglcmd command allows you to install one or more cartridges at a time. For more information, see the Command-Line Reference Guide.

Some Foglight cartridges are license-protected, while others do not require a license. You can install any cartridges, regardless of their license requirements. However, installing a license-protected cartridge without adding its license results in that cartridge being disabled by default. For more information, see Managing Licenses.

A cartridge must also be enabled before it is added to the Management Server. You can enable a cartridge before or after its installation.

TIP: To view only cartridges which are enabled, click the Only display enabled cartridges check box at the bottom of the screen. In addition, you can sort by the Version and Creation Date columns.
1
On the navigation panel, under Dashboards, click Administration > Cartridges > Cartridge Inventory.
3
In the Install Cartridge dialog box, click Choose Files, and navigate to the cartridge file that you want to install.
4
Ensure that the Enable on Install check box is selected.
5
Click Install Cartridge.
In addition to the message in the top-right corner, the Operation(s) Complete message box opens, indicating a success.
In addition to the message in the top-right corner, the Operation(s) Complete message box opens, providing more information about the failure.
6
Click OK to close the Operation(s) Complete message box.
The Status column contains icons that indicate if a cartridge is enabled , enabled pending dependency , partially enabled , or disabled .
8
License-protected cartridges only. Install the cartridge license.

Enabling a cartridge completes the process of adding it to Foglight by making the cartridge’s components available for use by the Foglight Management Server.

Disabling a cartridge causes its components to no longer be available for use by the Foglight Management Server. A disabled cartridge remains installed on the Management Server. For example, Foglight automatically disables older versions of cartridges when newer versions are installed.

A cartridge can be in one of the following states:

You can install any cartridge, regardless of the contents of your Foglight license. Installing a license-protected cartridge without adding its license results in that cartridge being disabled by default. Before enabling a license-protected cartridge, ensure that its license is installed and current. For more information, see Managing Licenses.

When you install a newer version of an existing cartridge, Foglight detects that, and automatically disables the older version.

1
On the navigation panel, under Dashboards, click Administration > Cartridges > Cartridge Inventory.
2
License-protected cartridges only. Ensure that the appropriate cartridge license is installed and valid. For more information, see Managing Licenses.
TIP: The Status column contains icons that indicate if a cartridge is enabled , enabled pending dependency , partially enabled , or disabled .
4
Click Enable.
In addition to the message in the top-right corner, the Operation(s) Complete message box appears, indicating a success.
In addition to the message in the top-right corner, the Operation(s) Complete message box appears, providing more information about the failure.
5
Click OK to close the Operation(s) Complete message box.
6
Observe the Status column of the newly enabled cartridge. This column contains the Enabled icon , indicating a success.
1
On the navigation panel, under Dashboards, select Administration > Cartridges > Cartridge Inventory.
TIP: The Status column contains icons that indicate if a cartridge is enabled , enabled pending dependency , partially enabled , or disabled . To view only cartridges which are enabled, click the View only Activated Cartridges check box at the bottom of the screen.
3
Click Disable.
4
In the Cartridge Confirmation message box, click OK.
The Cartridge Confirmation message box closes and a progress message appears.
In addition to the message in the top-right corner, Operation(s) Complete message box appears, indicating a success.
5
Click OK to close the Operation(s) Complete message box.
6
Observe the Status column of the newly disabled cartridge.

Uninstalling a cartridge removes the cartridge files from the Foglight Management Server installation.

A .car file can contain multiple cartridges. When you remove all of the cartridges that come in a .car file, the .car file is deleted.

Before removing a cartridge, make sure that the cartridge is disabled, and that any agent instances that come with the cartridge do not collect data. Uninstalling a cartridge while its agents are still collecting data prevents the Foglight Management Server from recognizing the data that the agents collect. For more information about disabling a cartridge, see Enable or disable Foglight cartridges.

1
On the navigation panel, under Dashboards, select Administration > Cartridges > Cartridge Inventory.
TIP: The Status column contains icons that indicate if a cartridge is enabled , enabled pending dependency , partially enabled , or disabled .
3
Click Uninstall.
4
In the Cartridge Confirmation dialog box, click OK.
A progress message appears, and after a few moments, the Operation(s) Complete message box opens, indicating a success.
5
Click OK to close the Operation(s) Complete message box.

The Components for Download dashboard lists the agent components that are included with the Foglight Management Server or any of the installed cartridges, and are available for download. It also provides access to any files that you may need to download following a cartridge installation. If you have access to the browser interface, use this dashboard to view information about the available components, and to download them.

1
On the navigation panel, under Dashboards, choose Administration > Cartridges > Components for Download.
2
OptionalView the component details. On the Components for Download dashboard, click the Name column of the row containing the cartridge component that you want to download.
The Download Message dialog box opens, showing additional information about the selected cartridge component.
TIP: The Component for Download URL contains a direct link to the component file that is accessible without needing to login. This can be used to download components in headless environments when browser access is not possible.
3
On the Components for Download dashboard, click the Installer column of the row containing the cartridge component that you want to download.
The Installer column indicates which components are installers. Some components are not, they are typically agent packages or any files that may be useful for a particular business need that can be extracted from the Management Server.

If you do not have access to the browser interface and want to use a direct URL to download agent components, you can do that either by typing the URL into the web browser address field, or use it in combination with a command-line utility such as wget.

host is the name of the computer on which the Foglight Management Server is running.
port is the HTTP port number used by the Foglight Management Server. The default port number is 8080. For more information about port assignments, see Default port assignments.
downloadId is the download URL you want to download.
command http://host:port/console/installer/download-
command is the name of the command-line utility that you are using to download the agent component.
host is the name of the computer on which the Foglight Management Server is running.
port is the HTTP port number used by the Foglight Management Server. The default port number is 8080.
downloadId is the download URL that you want to update.
For example, if you are using wget to list all the available items, type the following:
The command lists all the available items. Replace the downloadId with the listed download URL. The command downloads the required cartridge component to the desired location.

Some Foglight dashboards have reports associated with them. This allows you to run a report based on the current dashboard. You can generate the report using the Reports menu in the top-right corner.

The Cartridge Inventory dashboard is associated with the Cartridge Inventory Report. Run this report by choosing Cartridge Inventory Report from the Reports menu.

The report wizard provides more information about the Cartridge Inventory Report. For more information about reports in Foglight, see the Foglight User Help.

This dashboard is a starting point for viewing and managing Foglight Agent Managers. It displays a list of all Agent Managers that exist in your environment, and allows you to manage them. To access the Agent Managers dashboard, from the navigation panel, click Dashboards > Administration > Agents > Agent Managers.

You can select one or more hosts and click a button just above the table to perform a desired operation on the selected host. For example, to create an agent instance and manage it by a specific Agent Manager, select an Agent Manager, and click Create Agent. The following commands are available:

Create Agent: Click to create an agent on one or more selected hosts. For more information, see Create agent instances on monitored hosts.
Deploy Agent Package: Click to deploy an agent package to one or more selected hosts. For more information, see Deploy an agent package to a monitored host.
Undeploy Agent Package: Click to remove an agent package from one or more selected hosts. For more information, see Undeploy an agent package.
Upgrade: Click to upgrade one or more selected Agent Managers. For more information, see Upgrade an Agent Manager.
Restart: Click to restart one or more selected Agent Managers.
Edit Tags: Choose Edit Tags to add or edit the tags of one or more selected Agent Managers. For more information, see Edit agent tags.

The upper part of this dashboard lists the connected Agent Manager hosts. Some columns are hidden by default You can control the appearance of columns using the Customizer .

Alarms State: The highest severity alarm generated against the Agent Manager: Normal , Warning , Critical , or Fatal .
Host Name: The name of the machine on which the Agent Manager is installed.
IP Address: The IP address of the machine on which the Agent Manager is installed.
Type: The type of the Agent Manager. FglAM stands for the Foglight Agent Manager.
Version: The version number of the Agent Manager installed on the host.
Build: The build ID of the installed Agent Manager.
OS Name: The OS running on the Agent Manager host.
OS Architecture: The architecture of the host OS: x86_64 (64-bit) or ia32 (32-bit).
Secure Mode: Indicates the type of the connection between the Agent Manager and the Management Server: HTTPS (secure) or HTTP (non-secure).
Upgradeable, Host: Indicates if an upgrade is available for the Agent Manager.
Upgradeable, Agent: Indicates if an upgrade is available for one or more agents running on the Agent Manager.
Concentrator: Indicates whether the Agent Manager is configured to accept downstream connections (Yes or No).
Latest Log File: Click to obtain a copy of the latest Agent Manager log file.
Last Data Submission: Displays the last date submission time when any of the agents running on this agent manager submits the data.
High Availability: Indicates if the Agent Manager is running in High Availability (HA) mode, which includes the following attributes:
Partition Name: Displays the name of the HA partition in which the agent manager locates.
State: Shows current HA state of the agent manager, including PRIMARY, STANDBY, OUT_SYNC, CONFIGURING, MISSING_LOCKBOX, and BROKEN.
PRIMARY: The primary agent manager manages the HA agents and synchronizes its state to other agent managers in the same HA partition.
STANDBY: The agent manager has fully synchronized its state with the primary agent manager and is eligible for fail-over.
OUT_SYNC: The agent manager is out of synchronization with the primary agent manager and is not eligible for fail-over.
CONFIGURING: The agent manager is synchronizing its state with the primary agent manager and is not eligible for fail-over.
MISSING_LOCKBOX: The agent manager is missing some lockboxes compared to the primary agent manager and is not eligible for fail-over.
BROKEN: The agent manager has failed to deploy one or more agent packages during synchronization and is not eligible for fail-over.
Click either Partition Name or State to display the HA Partition Summary dialog box.
In the HA Partition Summary dialog box, move the mouse pointer over either the Lockboxes or Deploy Packages column.
Hover over or click the Lockboxes column to show detailed information of the lockboxes deployed on the target agent manager.
Hover over or click the Deploy Packages column to show the list of packages.
Support Bundle: Click to create an Agent Manager support bundle, if instructed by Quest Support.
Agents: The information of the selected agent host, which includes the following attributes:
Agents Count: Shows the total count of agents.
Agents Summary: Click or hover over this column to see which agents are deployed to the Agent Manager.
Agent Status: Click to navigate to the Agent Status dashboard. For more information about this dashboard, see Explore the Agent Status dashboard.
Debug Level: Click to edit the debug level of logs from the Agent Manager dashboard. For more information, see Edit the debug level.
Tags: The tags of the selected Agent Manager. Click Edit Tags above the table to edit the tag of selected Agent Manager(s). For more information, see Edit agent tags.

This area provides information about any running tasks initiated from this dashboard. For example, when you deploy an agent package, the status of that task appears in this area.

Refresh: Refreshes the Tasks table to reflect the current status of any running or completed tasks.
Clean Completed Tasks: Removes any completed tasks from the table.

The lower part of the Agent Managers dashboard provides information about any completed or running tasks that are initiated on this dashboard. By default, the following columns are displayed:

Status: The task status.
Action: The action performed by the tasks.
Details: Any details related to the task.
Host Name: The name of the host on which the task is running.
Status Message: A message associated with the task status.
Duration Time: The amount of time needed to complete the task.

Two additional columns are not hidden by default. You can display them in the Customizer :

Start Time: The time when the task started.
End Time: The time when the task ended.

This dashboard is a starting point for viewing and managing Foglight Agents. It displays a list of all monitoring agent instances that exist in your environment, and allows you to manage them. To access the Agent Status dashboard, from the navigation panel, click Dashboards > Administration > Agents > Agent Status.

You can select one or more hosts and click a button just above the table to perform a desired operation on the selected host. For example, to activate an agent instance, select it in the table, and click Activate. The following commands are available:

Deploy Agent Package: Click to deploy an agent package to one or more selected hosts. For more information, see Deploy an agent package to a monitored host.
Create Agent: Click to create an agent on one or more selected hosts. For more information, see Create agent instances on monitored hosts.
Edit Properties By Tag: Click to select a tag associated with one or more agent instances whose properties you want to edit.
Activate: Click to activate and initiate data collection for one or more selected agent instances. For more information, see Activate or deactivate agent instances.
Deactivate: Click to deactivate and stop data collection for one or more selected agent instances. For more information, see Activate or deactivate agent instances.
Edit Properties: Choose Edit Properties to edit the properties of one or more selected agent instances. For more information, see Edit instance-specific agent properties.
Delete: Click to delete one or more selected agent instances. For more information, see Delete an agent instance.
Upgrade: Click to upgrade one or more selected agent instances to a more recent version. For more information, see Upgrade an Agent Manager.
Move: Click to move one or more FglAM agents to the other FglAM host. For more information, see Moving FglAM agents.
Edit Tags: Choose Edit Tags to add or edit the tags of one or more selected agent instances. For more information, see Edit agent tags.

The upper part of this dashboard lists the available agent instances. Some columns are hidden by default. You can display the hidden columns using the Customizer .

State: The highest severity alarm generated against the agent instance: Normal , Warning , Critical , or Fatal .
Status: The status of the agent process: Activated or Deactivated . For more information, see Activate or deactivate agent instances.
Private Property: An indication of whether the agent instance uses private properties, or not .
Agent Name: The name of the agent instance.
Agent Manager: The name of the machine on which the Agent Manager that manages this agent instance is installed.
Namespace: The Namespace the agent type belongs to. A namespace is a collection of agent types that share the same concept.
Type: The type of the agent instance.
Tags: Any tags associated with the agent instance. For more information, see Edit agent tags.
Version: The version of the agent.
Upgradeable: If a more recent version of the agent package is deployed to the host, the agent can be upgraded. This column indicates if an upgrade exists for the agent instance.
Log File: Click to obtain a copy of the agent log file.For more information, see Retrieve agent logs.
Target Host: Displays the host that is being monitored by the agent instance. When there are multiple hosts being monitored by the agent instance, this column displays the major host or becomes blank.
Last Data Submission: Displays the date and time when the agent instance submits the data the last time.

This area provides information about any running tasks initiated from this dashboard. For example, when you deploy an agent package, the status of that task appears in this area.

Refresh: Refreshes the Tasks table to reflect the current status of any running or completed tasks.
Clean Completed Tasks: Removes any completed tasks from the table.

The lower part of the Agent Managers dashboard provides information about any completed or running tasks that are initiated on this dashboard. By default, the following columns are displayed:

Status: The task status.
Action: The action performed by the tasks.
Details: Any details related to the task.
Host Name: The name of the host on which the task is running.
Status Message: A message associated with the task status.
Duration Time: The amount of time needed to complete the task.

Two additional columns are hidden by default. You can display them using the Customizer :

Start Time: The time when the task started.
End Time: The time when the task ended.

An administrator uses services to help organize the monitoring environment. The Agent Status dashboard allows you to filter and display the agents that capture data about the monitored objects in the selected service(s). This option helps you better monitor the agent, like checking the agent status, stopping data collection and so on.

To filter agents by services:

1
On the navigation panel, under Dashboards, select Administration > Agents > Agent Status.
The Agent Status dashboard opens.
2
On the Agent Status dashboard, click the filter button .
The Filter Agents By Services dialog box opens.
The Agent Status dashboard refreshes automatically to display the agents based on the selected service(s).
4
Click Close.

Agent Status and Agent Managers

Foglight cartridges use agents to collect information from monitored hosts. Agents communicate with the Foglight Management Server using the Foglight Agent Manager. When you install a cartridge on the Foglight Management Server, the cartridge installation process makes its agent packages available for deployment. You can only deploy those agent packages whose cartridges are already installed on the Foglight Management Server and on which the Foglight Agent Manager is installed and running.

Use the Agent Managers dashboard to deploy one agent package at a time, or to deploy the agent package to multiple hosts. You can also deploy agent packages to a single host from the Agent Status page.

Alternatively, use the agent:deploy command to deploy agent packages from the command line. For complete information about this and other fglcmd commands, see the Command-Line Reference Guide.

1
On the navigation panel, under Dashboards, select Administration > Agents > Agent Managers.
3
Click Deploy Agent Package in the toolbar.
The Deploy Agent Package dialog wizard opens.
The entries that appear in the Agent Packages list include only those agent packages whose platform is compatible with the platform of the hosts you selected in Step 2. For example, if the host runs a particular Windows OS, the list contains only the agent packages that include the agent processes that can run on that Windows OS.
Optional — To see all packages that are available for deployment, including those are not compatible with the selected hosts, select Show Packages for All Platforms.
Click Next.
5
On the Summary page, review the choices you have made. Click Finish.
The task appears in the Tasks list. Use the Tasks list to follow the progress and determine the status of the task.
1
On the navigation panel, under Dashboards, select Administration > Agents > Agent Status.
2
On the Agent Status dashboard, click Deploy Agent Package in the toolbar.
The Deploy Agent Package dialog wizard opens.
3
In the Deploy Agent Package dialog box, on the Host Selector page, select the monitored host to which you want to deploy the agent package.
Click Next.
The entries that appear in the list include only those agent packages whose platform is compatible with the platform of the host you selected in Step 3. For example, if the host runs a particular Windows OS, the list contains only the agent packages that include the agent processes that can run on that Windows OS.
Optional — To see all packages that are available for deployment, including those are not compatible with the selected hosts, select Show Packages for All Platforms.
Click Next.
5
On the Summary page, review the choices you have made. Click Finish.
The task appears in the Tasks list. Use the Tasks list to follow the progress and determine the status of the task.

 

1
On the navigation panel, under Dashboards, choose Administration > Agents > Agent Managers.
2
Select one or more agent managers from the Hosts list and click Deploy Agent Package.
3
In the Deploy Agent Package wizard, observe the Agent Packages list.
By default, the Agent Packages list contains only those packages that are compatible with the selected hosts’ platforms.
Optional — To see all packages that are available for deployment, including those are not compatible with the selected hosts, select Show Packages for All Platforms. Clicking Package shows the list of all agents packages from all installed cartridges, regardless of the platform.
5
Click Next.
6
On the Summary page, review the choices you have made. Click Finish.
The task appears in the Tasks list. Use the Tasks list to follow the progress and determine the status of the task.

After a successful agent package deployment, you can proceed to create agent instances using the agent types included in the newly-deployed agent package. For more information, see Create agent instances on monitored hosts.

You can remove (undeploy) an agent package from a monitored host using the Undeploy agent package option on the Agent Managers dashboard.

1
On the navigation panel, under Dashboards, select Administration > Agents > Agent Managers.
3
Click Undeploy Agent Package in the toolbar.
Click Next.
5
On the Summary page, review your selection. Click Finish.

The Foglight Agent Manager collects information from the agents monitoring hosts and relays it to the Management Server. In some instances, such as making a change to the Agent Manager configuration, you may need to restart the Agent Manager. You can do so from the Agent Managers dashboard.

1
On the navigation panel, under Dashboards, select Administration > Agents > Agent Managers.
3
Click Restart in the toolbar.

Remote updates of the Agent Manager are deployed from the Management Server. Local access to Agent Manager clients is typically not required to perform an upgrade. You cannot use the Agent Manager installer to upgrade. You must upgrade the Agent Manager through the Agent Managers dashboard.

1
On the navigation panel, under Dashboards, select Administration > Agents > Agent Managers.
2
On the Agent Managers dashboard, observe the values in the Upgradeable columns. If either the Host or the Agent is eligible for upgrade, the word Yes appears in the column.

Foglight cartridges use agents to collect information from monitored hosts. To start collecting data from the monitored system, it is necessary to create first and subsequent instances of the desired agent type. You can create an agent instance when the agent package that contains that agent type has been deployed to the monitored host. Creating an agent instance creates an agent process on the monitored host.

Use the Agent Status dashboard to create an agent instance for one host at a time. To create agent instances on multiple hosts, use the Agent Managers dashboard instead.

Alternatively, use the agent:create command to create agent instances from the command line. For complete information about this and other fglcmd commands, see the Command-Line Reference Guide.

1
On the navigation panel, under Dashboards, click Administration > Agents > Agent Status.
The Create Agent wizard opens.
4
The Agent Type and Instance Name page of the Create Agent wizard shows a list of agent types and instance names that can be created on the selected host.
In the Agent Type list, select the agent type. For example, to create a Windows Agent instance, in the Agent Type list, select WindowsAgent.
To assign a specific name to the agent instance, click Specify Name, then type that name in the Name box. For example, MyAgent.
To assign a generic name, select Generic Name. This option is selected by default.
agent_type@host_name
7
Click Next.
8
On the Summary page, review the choices you have made. Click Finish.
The task appears in the Tasks list. Use the Tasks list to follow the progress and determine the status of the task.
1
On the navigation panel, under Dashboards, choose Administration > Agents > Agent Managers.
3
Click Create Agent.
For example, to create a WindowsAgent instance, in the Agent Type and Instance Name list, click WindowsAgent.
To assign a generic name, select Generic Name. This option is selected by default.
agent_type@host_name
6
Click Create.
7
On the Summary page, review the choices you have made. Click Finish.
The task appears in the Tasks list. Use the Tasks list to follow the progress and determine the status of the task.
On the navigation panel, under Dashboards, click Administration > Agents > Agent Status.

After creating an agent instance, you need to its properties. For more information, see Edit instance-specific agent properties.

Agent tagging allows you to form logical groupings of agents for sorting and selection. With tags, you can edit properties for a group of agents. For information on how to use tags to select a group of agents in order to edit their properties, see Edit instance-specific agent properties .

Agent instances can have multiple tags. You can modify the tags for each individual agent instance.

1
On the navigation panel, under Dashboards, click Administration > Agents > Agent Status.
3
Click Edit > Edit Tags.
The Edit Tags dialog box opens, containing the list of selected agent instances and any tags associated with them.
a
To create a tag, in the Edit Tags dialog box, click Add Tag.
In the Edit Tags dialog box, the Tags pane refreshes, showing the newly-added tag.
c
To associate the newly-created tag with the selected agent instance, in the Tags pane, in the row containing the new tag, click the Apply To column and select All.
The Edit Tags dialog box closes and the Agent Status dashboard refreshes, showing any tag-related changes in the Tags column.

Foglight Management Server allows you to set the debug level of FglAM logs from the Agent Managers dashboard. The amount of debug messages depends on the specified debug level.

When “Debug logging disabled” is selected, the debug messages cannot be printed out.
When “Standard debug logging” is selected, the debug messages are written to the log file.
Selecting “Extremely verbose debug logging” results in more detailed logging messages.
NOTE: If the debug level is set to “Extremely verbose debug logging”, many logs are written to the log file and the log file size becomes huge. Therefore it is strongly recommended that you do not select this debug level and print logs over than 20 minutes.
1
On the navigation panel, under Dashboards, click Administration > Agents > Agent Managers.
2
On the Agent Managers dashboard, select the row containing the FglAM that you want to edit the debug level.
4
Select a debug level from the Debug Level drop-down list, and then click Save.
The Set Debug Level dialog box opens to proceed the change of debug level.
5
In the Operation Succeeded dialog box, click OK.
The Operation Succeeded dialog box closes and the Agent Managers dashboard refreshes.

When an agent connects to the Foglight Management Server, it is provided with sets of properties that it uses to configure the agent’s running state. Foglight stores agent properties on the Foglight Management Server.

Default versions of these properties are installed with the cartridge in which the agents are included. You can edit the default properties, create sets of properties that apply only to a specific agent instance, or create edited clones of property sets that are used by a subset of the agents of a certain type.

You have the following options:

Edit the properties of an agent instance. This is useful when a monitoring environment includes multiple instances of the same agent type, each monitoring a different monitored host with a specific set of monitoring requirements. For example, if you use the WindowsAgent to monitor different Windows hosts, and the data sampling frequency for Host A needs to be higher than that of Host B, you need to set the sample frequency lists accordingly, for each instance of the WindowsAgent instance.
Edit the properties of all agent instances that have a specific tag. Agent tagging allows you to form logical groupings of agents for sorting and selection. With tags, you can edit the property for a group of agents that have the same tag.
Edit the properties of all agent instances of the selected type. This feature is useful when you need to globally override one or more agent parameters for all instances of that agent type. For example, if you use the WindowsAgent to monitor a number of Windows hosts, and the requirements for their data sampling frequency are the same for each host, but different than their default values, you can set the data sampling properties of all agent instances by doing a global update of the sample frequency property for the WindowsAgent type.
Delete any custom properties of an agent instance. This is useful in situations when an agent instance has one or more properties set to a custom value and you want to quickly revert them to their global defaults, without having to go through each property and setting it to its default value.

The Agent Status dashboard allows you to choose the scope of the edit operation and edit the properties of an agent instance, or of all properties of that type. Its Property State column allows you to quickly identify the agent instances that have custom properties assigned to them.

Another way to edit type-specific properties is using the Agent Properties dashboard. For more information, see Edit primary type-specific properties.

1
On the navigation panel, under Dashboards, click Administration > Agents > Agent Status.
3
Click Edit > Edit Properties.
5
Editing agent properties only. Edit the properties as required.
6
When you finish editing agent properties, clicking Back To Agent Status to return to the Agent Status dashboard.

Activating an agent instance starts the agent process and data collection on the machine on which the agent is installed. Deactivating an agent stops the agent process and data collection.

The Activated icon () on the Agent Status dashboard indicates if the agent is active, while the Deactivated icon () indicates the agent is inactive.

Alternatively, use the agent:activate or agent:deactivate commands to activate or deactivate agents. These commands come with the fglcmd interface. For complete information, see the Command-Line Reference Guide.

If an agent instance fails to activate, you can use the agent’s log file to determine the cause of the problem. For more information, see Retrieve agent logs.

1
On the navigation panel, under Dashboards, click Administration > Agents > Agent Status.
3
Click Activate.
After a few moments, a green check mark appears in the Status column, indicating a successful operation. The Activated () icon appears in the agent row. Meanwhile the Tasks table on the bottom of the Agent Status dashboard refreshes, showing the status icon () in the agent row.
NOTE: It may take some time for the Activated () and Collecting Data () icons to appear even if activation of the agent was successful.
The Activated icon appears when the Management Server has confirmed that the agent has started and is running.
If the activation command was executed successfully but the agent fails after starting, the Activated icon will not appear.
1
On the navigation panel, under Dashboards, click Administration > Agents > Agent Status.
3
Click Deactivate.
After a few moments, the Deactivated icon () appears in the Status column, indicating a successful operation. Meanwhile the Tasks table on the bottom of the Agent Status dashboard refreshes, showing the status icon () in the agent row.

By default, the Foglight Management Server accepts only the data that is collected within one hour from the moment it is received. The one-hour window allows the server to accept the data that Foglight agents collect during such short-term disruptions. When the connection with the server is lost, Foglight agents continue to collect and store data from monitored hosts, and forward that data to the server when the connection is restored without any additional configuration of the agents or agent manager components.

This feature is useful in situations when an agent temporarily loses a connection with the server. However, in some situations, such as a longer-term network outage, you may need to increase the one-hour time window to prevent the Foglight Management Server to discard the data with timestamps that are older than one hour.

The length of that time window can be controlled with a virtual machine (VM) option, foglight.data_service.max_past_timestamp_delta. Add this option to the configuration file <Foglight_home>/config/server.config to change the length of the store-and-forward period in milliseconds.

Any data with older timestamps that is received and accepted by the Foglight Management Server triggers data-driven rules and derived metrics. Time-driven rules do not re-evaluate data with older timestamps, even if that data meets their conditions and would cause them to fire if collected in real-time.

1
On the computer on which the Foglight Management Server is installed, locate the <Foglight_home>/config/server.config file and open it for editing.
2
In the server.config file, locate the following line of code:
b
Insert the foglight.data_service.max_past_timestamp_delta option and the length of the store and forward period between the quotation marks.
For example, to set the store and forward period to 8 hours, you should set the foglight.data_service.max_past_timestamp_delta option to 28,800,000 milliseconds:

When you delete an agent, that agent instance is removed from the monitored host. You can only delete those agent instances that you create after the installation. This excludes agent adapters that also appear in the Agent Status dashboard, such as the SPI Network adapter. Selecting the row containing the SPI Network adapter entry disables the Delete button.

Alternatively, use the agent:delete command to delete an agent instance. The command comes with the fglcmd interface. For complete information about this command, see the Command-Line Reference Guide.

1
On the navigation panel, under Dashboards, choose Administration > Agents > Agent Status.
3
Click Delete.
4
In the Delete Agent dialog box, click OK. The dialog box closes.

Agent log files contain entries that describe the operations an agent process performs while it is running on the monitored host. Use agent logs to solve problems related to an agent’s state or behavior. For example, if an agent instance fails to activate, you can use an agent log file to determine the cause of the problem.

Foglight stores agent logs on the monitored host, with their path and file names using the following syntax:

<foglight_client_home>/state/default/logs/<cartridge_name>/<cartridge_version>/logs/<agent_type>/<agent_name>_<date>_<time>_<file_ID>.log

Where:

foglight_client_home is the installation directory of the Agent Manager.
cartridge_name is the name of the cartridge. For example, HostAgents.
cartridge_version is the cartridge version. For example, 5.9.x.
agent_type is the agent type. For example, WindowsAgent.
agent_instance_name is the name of the agent instance.
date and time are the date and time the agent was started.
file_ID identifies the log file.

For example:

C:\Quest\Foglight_Agent_Manager\state\default\logs\HostAgents\5.9.x\WindowsAgent\WindowsAgent_on_Host1_2011-11-21_124119_001.log

An agent instance can generate one or more log files, one for each period of time the agent is running. Use the Agent Status dashboard retrieve the latest log file generated for an agent instance.

Alternatively, use the agent:getlog command to obtain an agent’s log file. The command line offers more flexibility in that it allows you to obtain older log files.The command comes with the fglcmd interface. For complete information, see the Command-Line Reference Guide.

1
On the navigation panel, under Dashboards, choose Administration > Agents > Agent Status.
3
Click Get log.
NOTE: Copying agent logs into the <Foglight_home>/logs directory enables them to be added to the server support bundle. For more information about server support bundles, see Managing Support Bundles.

Some Foglight dashboards have reports associated with them. This allows you to run a report based on the current dashboard. You can generate the report using the Reports menu in the top-right corner.

The Agent Managers and Agent Status dashboards are associated with the Hosts Report. Run this report by choosing Hosts Report from the Reports menu, and specifying the input parameters in the report wizard.

The report wizard provides more information about the Hosts Report and instructions on how to set the input values. For more information about reports in Foglight, see the Foglight User Help.

Agent Properties

There are two basic types of agent properties in Foglight: simple (primary) properties and list-based (secondary) properties. Primary properties are specific to the agent type or an instance of that type.

Use the Agent Properties dashboard to edit type-specific properties. Edit a primary property by specifying the desired value or option.

If you do not change agent properties for an instance, Foglight uses the default properties that come with that agent type.

1
On the navigation panel, under Dashboards, choose Administration > Agents > Agent Properties.
On the Agent Properties dashboard, in the Namespace > Type view, ensure the Legacy Agents node is expanded, then select an agent type.
3
On the Agent Properties dashboard, in the Properties view, locate the primary property that you want to edit.
The name and value of the edited property appear red on the Properties view to indicate the change. The Save and Cancel buttons in the lower-right corner of the Properties view are also enabled.
5
Click Save.

Each secondary property can be associated with one or more lists. Cloning a list allows you to create multiple instances of the same list and assign them to different agent instances. This type of configuration can create instance-specific lists, overriding the default behavior of lists in which they are shared amongst agent instances. When you clone a list, its entries remain unchanged. You can alter a cloned list to suit your needs.

1
On the navigation panel, under Dashboards, choose Administration > Agents > Agent Properties.
On the Agent Properties dashboard, in the Namespace > Type view, click an agent type.
The Properties view refreshes, showing the agent properties for the selected agent type.
3
On the Agent Properties dashboard, in the Properties view, locate the secondary property that you want to clone.
4
Click the Clone button to the right of the box that contains the property value.
6
7
In the Properties view, in the lower-right corner, click Save.
The Properties view refreshes.

A list contains one or more rows, with each row containing a name and value pair. Editing a list involves adding, editing or deleting its rows. For example, you can clone a list and edit the cloned version for different agent instances.

1
On the navigation panel, under Dashboards, choose Administration > Agents > Agent Properties.
On the Agent Properties dashboard, in the Namespace > Type view, click an agent type.
The Properties view refreshes, showing the agent properties for the selected agent type.
3
On the Agent Properties dashboard, in the Properties view, locate the secondary property that you want to edit.
4
Click the Edit button to the right of the box that contains the property value.
6
Click Save Changes and close the dialog box.

You can only remove cloned lists. Any lists that are included with Foglight cannot be deleted.

1
On the navigation panel, under Dashboards, choose Administration > Agents > Agent Properties.
On the Agent Properties dashboard, in the Namespace > Type view, click an agent type.
The Properties view refreshes, showing the agent properties for the selected agent type.
3
On the Agent Properties dashboard, in the Properties view, locate the list that you want to delete.
4
Click Delete.
5
Click Yes in the message box.
6
In the Properties view, in the lower-right corner, click Save.

The FglAMAdapter agent comes with Foglight Agent Manager. It includes a set of default agent properties that can be viewed on the Agent Properties dashboard. These settings control how often the Foglight Agent Manager instructs downstream hosts and agents to connect and poll for messages. The more hosts that are connected to the server, the less often they are instructed to poll. Changing these settings is only recommended when instructed to do so by Quest Support. Most instances of the FglAMAdapter agent do not need to change these settings.

1
On the navigation panel, under Dashboards, choose Administration > Agents > Agent Properties.
2
On the Agent Properties dashboard that appears in the display area, in the Namespace > Type view, expand the FglAM node and click FglAMAdapter.
3
In the Properties pane, view the FglAMAdapter properties. These properties control the FglAMAdapter polling rates.
Minimum Polling Interval: The minimum polling interval, in seconds.
Maximum Number of Polls (per minute): The maximum number of polls per minute. Client polling intervals are adjusted to adhere to this.
Polling Max Delay Factor: The multiplier for the maximum delay, based on the computed minimum delay.
Polling Min Timeout: The minimum length of time in seconds before FglAMAdapter checks to see if a host is considered disconnected.
Core Thread Pool Size: The size of the core thread pool.
Maximum Thread Pool Size: The maximum size of the adapter thread pool.

Some Foglight dashboards have reports associated with them. This allows you to run a report based on the current dashboard. You can generate the report using the Reports menu in the top-right corner.

The Agent Properties dashboard is associated with the Agent Properties Report. Run this report by choosing Agent Properties Report from the Reports menu, and specifying the input parameters in the report wizard.

The report wizard provides more information about the Agent Properties Report and instructions on how to set the input values. For more information about reports in Foglight, see the Foglight User Help.

Disconnected Agent Managers

1
On the navigation panel, under Dashboards, choose Administration > Agents > Agent Managers.
The Agent Managers dashboard appears.
2
In the Agent Manager dashboard, click Disconnected Agent Managers.
The Disconnected Agent Manager(s) dialog box appears.
1
In the Disconnected Agent Manager(s) dialog box, select the disconnected agent manager(s) that you want to remove.
2
Click Delete Agent Manager(s).
The Delete Agent Manager Process dialog box appears, and the selected agent manager(s) are removed from the Disconnected Agent Manager(s) table.

To edit tags for the disconnected agent manager(s), see Edit agent tags .

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