Installing agents

You can install any combination of monitoring agents on a managed system. For example, if you install the DataPower agent to monitor DataPower Appliances in your enterprise environment, you might want to also install the Linux OS agent. With the Linux OS agent, you can monitor other aspects of the system, such as the overall CPU, memory, and disk.

For a list of the agents that run on Linux systems, see Installing agents on Linux systems.

Before you begin

Review the information in System requirements to make sure that you have the requirements for the agents you plan to install.
Download the agents. See Downloading agents and data collectors from Passport Advantage.
Review the agent preinstallation tasks before you install the agents. See Preinstallation on Linux systems.
Configure the agent images with the connection details for the Monitoring server. See Configuring the downloaded images.

Important: Java™ Runtime is installed only when the agent requires it and is not always available. Also, ksh is no longer required for agent installation. SELinux in enforcing mode is supported.

About this task

You can install monitoring agents as a root user or non-root user. If you do not have root privileges and you want to install a monitoring agent, you can install the agent as a non-root user, see Installing agents as a non-root user. Also, you can install the agent as a non-root user if you are a host administrator and you do not want to run the monitoring agent as a root user. Installation flow is the same as for a root user.

Remember: The default installation directory of Agents is /opt/ibm/apm/ on AIX or Linux systems. If the default directory is used by other programs, specify another directory during installation.

Procedure

Transfer the configured agent images to a temporary directory on the local system where the applications that you want to monitor are located. Remember: Make sure that the directory does not contain an older version of the archive file.
Extract the agent installation files by using the following command:
```
tar -xf ./agent_installation_files
```
where agent_installation_files is the agent installation file name for the current operating system.

The installation script is extracted to a directory named for the archive file and version. Agent binary and configuration-related files are extracted into subdirectories within that directory.
Run the installation script from the directory that is named for the archive file and version:
```
./installAPMAgents.sh
```
To install the agents in silent mode, see Installing agents silently. The installation program checks that the agent images were configured with parameters for connecting to the Monitoring server. If the agents images were not configured, the installation is stopped. You must configure the agent images and start the agent installation procedure from Step 1. See Configuring the downloaded images.
Follow the prompts to complete installation.
1. Specify whether to install individual agents, a combination of the agents, or all of the agents.
2. Depending on whether you are installing or upgrading the agents, take one of the following steps:
  - If you are installing the agents, specify a different agent installation home directory or use the applicable default directory, /opt/ibm/apm/agent.
  - If you are upgrading the agents, after you are prompted for the agent installation home directory, enter the installation directory of the previous version of the agents.
3. When you are asked whether you accept the license agreement, enter 1 to accept the agreement and continue, or enter 2 to decline. After you enter 1 (accept), a prerequisite scan of your environment starts and takes a few moments to complete. If any requirements are missing, a message directs you to a log file with the reason for the failure. A prerequisite, such as a missing library or insufficient disk space, stops the installation. You must address the failure, and start the installation script again.
If you installed the agents by using a non-root user ID, you must update the system startup scripts. See Installing agents as a non-root user.
After installation is complete and the command line is available, you can repeat the steps in this procedure to install more monitoring agents on the managed system.

Results

When installation completes, the selected agents are installed. The installation log file is install_dir/logs/APPMGT_Agents_install_date-time.log.

What to do next

Configure the agent as required. If your monitoring agent requires configuration as described in Postinstallation tasks for the agents or if you want to review the default settings, see Configuring ICAM Agents.
To start an agent, run the following command:
```
./name-agent.sh start
```
For information about the monitoring agent commands, including the name to use, see Using agent commands.
After you configure and start the agent, view the data that the agent is collecting from the IBM Cloud Pak console.