Instana agents

The Instana agent is a lightweight software component that automatically discovers and monitors your applications, services, and infrastructure. The agent collects performance metrics, traces, and logs, then sends this data to the Instana backend for analysis and visualization.

Instana requires only a single agent per host. The agent runs as a separate process and automatically discovers technologies that are running in your environment.

After discovery, the agent automatically deploys technology-specific sensors. These sensors collect relevant metrics and send the data to the agent. The agent then forwards the collected data to the Instana backend.

For information about Instana agents types, see Instana agent types.