Monitoring on-premises Node.js applications

You can configure the Node.js data collector to monitor the on-premises Node.js applications running on stand-alone Docker containers, VMs, or physical nodes (xLinux only). The Node.js data collector sends monitoring data to the Unified Agent.

Before you begin

Ensure that you install the Unified Agent plug-ins for LWDC and OpenTracing. For more information, see Installing and configuring Unified Agent plug-ins.
Ensure that you installed the data collector, for more information, see Installing the Node.js data collector.

Procedure

To configure the Node.js data collector for VMs or physical nodes, add the following environment variables:
```
UA_LWDC_LISTENER_URL=http://<ip or host>:<port>
UA_JAEGER_ENDPOINT_ZIPKIN_V2=http://<ip or host>:<port>/api/v2/spans
```
Where
- <ip or host> is the ip or host address of your Node.js application.
- <port> is the port that you configure in Installing and configuring Unified Agent plug-ins. By default, it is 8848 for UA_LWDC_LISTENER_URL and 9411 for UA_JAEGER_ENDPOINT_ZIPKIN_V2.
To configure the Node.js data collector for stand-alone Docker environment, do the following steps:
1. Update the Docker file of your Node.js application by adding the following line to get the write access to the work directory:
```
RUN chmod 777 nodejs_dir
```
  Where nodejs_dir is the home directory of your Node.js application, for example, /var/apps/acmeair-nodejs.
2. Add the following environment variables:
```
UA_LWDC_LISTENER_URL=http://<ip or host>:<port>
UA_JAEGER_ENDPOINT_ZIPKIN_V2=http://<ip or host>:<port>/api/v2/spans
```
  Where
  - <ip or host> is the ip or host address where you install Unified Agent in on-premises environment.
  - <port> is the port that you configure in Installing and configuring Unified Agent plug-ins. By default, it is 8848 for UA_LWDC_LISTENER_URL and 9411 for UA_JAEGER_ENDPOINT_ZIPKIN_V2.
3. Rebuild your docker container with Node.js dc (ibmapm).
```
docker build -t <application image name>:<image tag>
```