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Foglight Agent Manager 5.8.5.2 - Guide

Configuring the Embedded Agent Manager Installing External Agent Managers
Understanding How the Agent Manager Communicates with the Management Server Deploying the Agent Manager Cartridge Downloading the Agent Manager Installer Installing the Agent Manager Starting or Stopping the Agent Manager Process Frequently Asked Questions
Configuring the Agent Manager Advanced System Configuration and Troubleshooting
Configuring Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) Configuring Windows Remote Management (WinRM) UNIX- and Linux-Specific Configuration
Monitoring the Agent Manager Performance Deploying the Agent Manager to Large-Scale Environments

Configuring the Agent Manager to Accept Connections from the Management Server

You can configure the Foglight™ Agent Manager to accept connections from the Management Server and enable reverse data polling. This is useful in situations when the Agent Manager cannot connect to the Management Server due to its location. For example, when the Agent Manager is located in the cloud and the Management Server runs on premises, the Agent Manager has no means to connect to the Management Server and pass on the collected data. Another example is when the Agent Manager resides in a demilitarized zone (DMZ), exposed to untrusted networks, and the Management Server is behind a firewall.
To enable this feature, you must instruct the Agent Manager to accept connections from the Management Server in order to facilitate normal message passing and data polling.
 
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NOTE: Only the Management Server can reverse poll an Agent Manager instance. An Agent Manager instance cannot reverse poll another Agent Manager instance.
You do this by performing the following steps:
•
Configure downstream SSL connections using the configuration interface. You can do that either using the installer interface (see Step 8: Downstream Connection Configuration ), or the command-line interface (see Step 6: Downstream Connection Configuration ).
Or:
Configure downstream non-SSL connections, or connections requiring user-provided certificates or keystores. For instructions, see To configure non-SSL connections or connections using user-provided certificates or keystores:.
•
Using the fglam.config.xml file, disable upstream connections to the Management Server. For instructions, see To prevent the Agent Manager from connecting to the Management Server:.
•
On the Management Server, configure the FglAM Adapter, to instruct the Management Server to connect to this Agent Manager. For instructions, see To configure the Management Server to connect to the Agent Manager:.
To prevent the Agent Manager from connecting to the Management Server:
1
Open the fglam.config.xml file for editing. This file is located in the <fglam_home>/state/default/config directory.
2
In the fglam.config.xml file, locate the <config:http-upstreams> XML element, and within that element, declare a new <config:http-upstream> element using the following lines of code:
<config:http-upstream>
<no-connection/>
</config:http-upstream>
The no-connection element prevents the Agent Manager from connecting to the upstream Management Server.
3
Save your changes and restart the Agent Manager.
To configure non-SSL connections or connections using user-provided certificates or keystores:
1
Open the fglam.config.xml file for editing. This file is located in the <fglam_home>/state/default/config directory.
2
In the fglam.config.xml file, locate the <config:http-downstreams> XML element, and within that element, declare a new <config:http-downstream> sub-element for a non-SSL connection or <config:https-downstream> for an SSL connection.
3
Non-SSL connections only. Within the newly created <config:http-downstream> element, provide the URL and port number that the Agent Manager will use to listen for incoming connections. For example:
<http-downstream port="9090" address="127.0.0.1"/>
4
User-provided certificates or keystores only. Within the newly created <config:https-downstream> element, provide the information about the certificate and keystore you want to use. There is a wide range of attributes that you can use. For complete instructions, review the <config:documentation> element under <config:http-downstreams>.
To configure the Management Server to connect to the Agent Manager:
1
Log in to the Foglight browser interface and navigate to the Agent Properties dashboard.
2
On the Agent Properties dashboard, under Agent Type, select FglAM Adapter, and in the pane on the right, click Edit.
3
In the Agent Type Properties dialog box that appears, under Hosts to Pull Data From, click Edit.
4
In the Edit List of Hosts to Pull Data From dialog box that appears, click Add.
The table refreshes, showing a newly added row.
5
Specify the connection information to the Agent Manager that you want to Management Server to connect to by populating any of the following columns, as required.
•
Enabled: Select this check box if you want the Management Server to connect to this Agent Manager.
•
URL: Type the URL the Agent Manager uses to communicate with the Management Server.
•
Local Address: To specify a local network address for the Management Server connection to the Agent Manager, type the IP address of a NIC (network interface card) on the machine hosting the Agent Manager required to establish connections to the Management Server.
•
Proxy URL: If you want the Agent Manager to connect to the Management Server using a proxy, type the URL of the proxy server.
•
Proxy NTLM Domain: If you are using a proxy server for communication, and the proxy uses Windows authentication, type the Windows domain.
•
Proxy User Name: If you are using a proxy server for communication, type the user name needed to access the proxy server.
•
Proxy Password: If you are using a proxy server for communication, type the password associated with the user name.
•
Allow Self Signed SSL Certificates: Select this check box if you want to enable the Agent Manager to accept self-signed certificates from the Management Server.
•
SSL Certificate Common Name: If you want to enable the Agent Manager to accept self-signed certificates from the Management Server, and the certificate has a different common (host) name than the one reported by the Management Server, type the certificate common name.
•
Compressed Connection: Select this check box if you want the Agent Manager to establish HTTP-compressed communication with the Management Server.
•
Chunked HTTP Connection: Select this check box if you want to use an HTTP connection with chunked transfer encoding enabled.

Configuring Multiple Agent Manager Instances

The files related to the Agent Manager’s run-time state (for example, configuration and log files), are saved in the <fglam_home>/state/ directory tree. Under the state directory, there is a sub-directory for each available Agent Manager instance.
You can run multiple instances of the Agent Manager using a single Agent Manager bin directory.
 
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CAUTION: Running multiple instances of the Agent Manager on the same host is intended for cluster and failover support only and is not intended to be used for any other purposes. Installing separate instances of the Agent Manager on the same system is therefore neither recommended nor supported.
In this type of configuration, you create multiple instances and each instance uses a different state directory but runs from a single Agent Manager bin directory. One example of this type of configuration is to test new agent settings without making changes to the agents you are currently using to monitor your production environment.
 
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CAUTION: In a configuration where multiple Agent Manager instances share one bin directory, each time you deploy agents, upgrade agents, or deploy Agent Manager upgrades to one instance, all other instances are also updated.
You can also configure multiple physical installations of the Agent Manager to use a corresponding state directory that exists on a single shared drive. One example use of this functionality is running the Agent Manager in cluster environments. See Example: Running Multiple Instances in a Cluster Environment for more information.
As described below, you create a new instance (and its associated state sub-directory) by including the --create-state and --location "<state_name>" (or -l "<state_name>") options with the fglam command; you then use the fglam ‑‑location "<state_name>" command to run that new instance.
 
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CAUTION: The --create-state and --location command-line options are not recommended for use with the embedded Agent Manager, because the embedded Agent Manager does not include its own JRE. Instead, it is configured by the Management Server to use the same JRE that the Management Server uses.Since the Management Server is not aware of additional state directories that you may have created, it cannot properly configure them. Instead, you need to manually configure and maintain the JVM location in the Management Server installation.
If you do not create multiple instances (by following the instructions below), the Agent Manager creates an instance called default and stores the state files in the state/default directory.
 
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IMPORTANT: On UNIX® platforms, the entire Agent Manager installation — including all state directories — must be owned by the same system user.
To create a new Agent Manager instance:
1
Launch a command shell on the Agent Manager machine, and navigate to the <fglam_home>/bin directory.
2
Issue the following command:
fglam --create-state --location "<state_name>"
Where <state_name> is the name of the new instance.
A new state directory is created in <fglam_home>/state/<state_name>.
To run an Agent Manager instance:
1
Launch a command shell on the Agent Manager machine, and navigate to the <fglam_home>/bin directory.
2
Issue the following command:
fglam --location "<state_name>"
Where <state_name> is the same instance name you specified above.
When you deploy agents to the instance, files related to the run-time state for these agents (including log files) are stored under the <fglam_home>/state/<state_name>/agents directory for that instance.

Example: Running Multiple Instances in a Cluster Environment

 
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IMPORTANT: This section is provided as an example only. The commands shown are fully supported, but the example itself does not describe a configuration that is supported as part of the product warranty.
One example use of this functionality is running the Agent Manager in cluster environments, since it allows the next assigned host in the cluster to relaunch an Agent Manager instance—and the specific agents it manages—when cluster failover occurs.
In this type of installation, there are multiple physical installations of the Agent Manager on different failover nodes. When one node fails and shuts down, the next one starts and its Agent Manager instance accesses the latest changes stored in its state directory on a shared drive.
The process of running multiple Agent Manager instances in a cluster environment follows the outline presented below.
Part 1: Install the Agent Manager on each node in the cluster
Begin by installing the Agent Manager on each node in your cluster. See Installing the Agent Manager for installation instructions.
Part 2: Initialize a state directory on the shared drive
When the Agent Manager installation is available to the nodes in the cluster, the next step is to initialize a state directory for an instance on the shared drive that is used by the cluster. When setting the state location locally from one of the nodes, you must define the full path to the remotely-mounted state directory.
In the following example, <state_dir> is a path to a state directory on a shared network server that is accessible locally from all machines. For example: on Windows clients, the <state_dir> can be f:\cluster_shared_dir\fglam_states\STATENAME_A, while on UNIX® clients, it is /mnt/cluster_shared_dir/fglam_states/STATENAME_A.
To set the state location, use the following command:
fglam --create-state --location <state_dir>
 
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NOTE: When you provide a full path with the --location parameter, the state directory can be located anywhere on the shared drive, it does not need to be in a subdirectory of an Agent Manager installation.
Part 3: Launch the Agent Manager from the active node
Run the Agent Manager from the active node and provide the full path to this instance’s state directory on the shared drive. For example:
fglam --location <state_dir>
The files related to the Agent Manager instance’s run-time state—for example, configuration and log files—are stored under its remote state directory on the shared drive.
Part 4: Deploy agents and create agent instances
When the Agent Manager is running, you can deploy agents to it and create agent instances. Files related to the run-time state for these agents (including log files) are stored under the remote state directory for this Agent Manager instance. Using the example above, they are stored in <state_dir>.
Part 5: Ensure exclusive access to the shared state directory
Ensure that only one instance of the Agent Manager that uses a particular state directory is running at a time. Do not run two instances of the Agent Manager on separate machines (or separate active nodes in the cluster) and cause these instances to use the same shared state directory simultaneously.

Controlling the Polling Rate

The FglAMAdapter, a component included with the Management Server, controls how often the connected downstream Agent Managers and agent instances connect and poll for messages. In general, the more hosts that are connected to the server, the less often they should be instructed to poll. The properties included with the FglAMAdapter control the polling behavior. They can be found on the Agent Properties dashboard. In most cases, changes to these properties are not required. Doing so is only recommended when instructed by Dell Support.
The polling rate is controlled by the following properties:
•
Minimum Polling Interval (seconds): The minimum polling interval, in seconds.
•
Maximum Polling Interval (seconds): The maximum polling interval, in seconds.
•
Polling Timeout (seconds): A time-out/grace period (in seconds) that the FglAMAdapter waits for a host to respond, before considering it as disconnected. This is used to account for clock skews and changes in timing typically seen on heavily loaded VMware images.
For more information about the Agent Properties dashboard, see the Administration and Configuration Help.
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