Preparing for a single-node deployment

Identify the disks on your host

To see the available devices on your system, use the following command:

lsblk

Here is a sample output.

root@vm-node1:~# lsblk
NAME                      MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
loop0                       7:0    0  63.5M  1 loop /snap/core20/2015
loop1                       7:1    0    87M  1 loop /snap/lxd/27037
loop3                       7:3    0 111.9M  1 loop /snap/lxd/24322
loop4                       7:4    0  63.9M  1 loop /snap/core20/2182
loop5                       7:5    0  40.9M  1 loop /snap/snapd/20290
loop6                       7:6    0  40.4M  1 loop /snap/snapd/20671
vda                       252:0    0   250G  0 disk
├─vda1                    252:1    0     1M  0 part
└─vda2                    252:2    0   248G  0 part
   └─ubuntu--vg-ubuntu--lv 253:0    0   248G  0 lvm  /
vdb                       252:16   0  1000G  0 disk
vdc                       252:32   0   500G  0 disk
vdd                       252:48   0   500G  0 disk
vde                       252:64   0   200G  0 disk

Make a file system

For each additional disk that you added, you must make a file system.

You can use any suitable file system for your disks. Ext4 and XFS are two popular Linux file systems. The choice between Ext4 and XFS depends on your preferences and the specific needs of your system. Ext4 is a good choice for most systems, but if you need a more reliable file system, XFS might be a better option.

• Here is an example command of using the ext4 file system.

  for disk in vdb vdc vdd vde; do
     echo "make filesystem for $disk"
     mkfs.ext4 -m 0 -E lazy_itable_init=0,lazy_journal_init=0,discard /dev/$disk
  done
  

• Here is an example of using xfs file system.

for disk in vdb vdc vdd vde; do
   echo "make filesystem for $disk"
   mkfs.xfs -f -i size=1024 -L $disk /dev/$disk
done

Create the directories

On your host, make sure that you create the four directories. See Hardware requirements.

The following example commands use the default directory paths. You can create the directories in any location of your choice. However, make sure that you use the correct path when you mount the directories.

mkdir -p /mnt/instana/stanctl/data
mkdir -p /mnt/instana/stanctl/metrics
mkdir -p /mnt/instana/stanctl/analytics
mkdir -p /mnt/instana/stanctl/objects

Add mount paths

You must add mount paths to the directories that you created.

cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.backup

echo "UUID=<device_vdb_uuid>  /mnt/instana/stanctl/analytics  xfs   discard,defaults,nofail    0 0" >> /etc/fstab
echo "UUID=<device_vdc_uuid>  /mnt/instana/stanctl/metrics    xfs   discard,defaults,nofail    0 0" >> /etc/fstab
echo "UUID=<device_vdd_uuid>  /mnt/instana/stanctl/objects    xfs   discard,defaults,nofail    0 0" >> /etc/fstab
echo "UUID=<device_vde_uuid>  /mnt/instana/stanctl/data       xfs   discard,defaults,nofail    0 0" >> /etc/fstab

Verify the mount paths

Verify that the directory is mounted on the correct disk. For example, the analytics directory needs a larger disk as compared to the objects directory. See Prepare the additional disks to get the device name.

lsblk <device name>

Mount the file systems

Mount all the file systems.

mount -a

vm.swappiness

Set vm.swappiness to 0 to make sure that application pages are not moved to swap space.

sh -c 'echo vm.swappiness=0 >> /etc/sysctl.d/99-stanctl.conf' && sysctl -p /etc/sysctl.d/99-stanctl.conf

fs.inotify.max_user_instances

Set fs.inotify.max_user_instances to 8192 to make sure that the system allows a maximum of 8192 inotify instances.

sh -c 'echo fs.inotify.max_user_instances=8192 >> /etc/sysctl.d/99-stanctl.conf' && sysctl -p /etc/sysctl.d/99-stanctl.conf

Transparent Huge Pages

Disable Transparent Huge Pages (THP) permanently for memory management.

• If you have an Ubuntu or Debian host, run these commands:

  sed -i "s/\(GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=\".*\)\"/\1 transparent_hugepage=never\"/" "/etc/default/grub"
  update-grub
  

• If you have a Red Hat® Enterprise Linux®, CentOS Stream, Amazon Linux, or Oracle Linux host, run this command:

  grubby --args="transparent_hugepage=never" --update-kernel ALL
  

A system reboot is required for these changes to take effect.

After the reboot, verify that the THP is disabled.

cat /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/enabled

The following output indicates that THP is disabled.

always madvise [never]

Amazon Linux 2023 hosts

In Amazon Linux 2023, the container-selinux and k3s-selinux packages are missing. These configurations are necessary for the Standard Edition installer to install Instana without any interruption.

You must install the container-selinux package.

For the k3s-selinux package, you can either install it or set the INSTALL_K3S_SELINUX_WARN environment variable to true.

• Install the container-selinux package.

  dnf install -y container-selinux
  

• Install the k3s-selinux package or set the environment variable.

  • Install the k3s-selinux package

    dnf install -y https://rpm.rancher.io/k3s/stable/common/centos/8/noarch/k3s-selinux-1.5-1.el8.noarch.rpm
    

    (OR)

  • Set the environment variable.

    export INSTALL_K3S_SELINUX_WARN=true
    

Red Hat Enterprise Linux and CentOS Stream hosts

On Red Hat Enterprise Linux and CentOS Stream hosts, the /usr/local/bin directory is not included in the PATH environment variable by default. The Standard Edition installer needs this directory in the PATH to run some commands during installation.

To add /usr/local/bin directory to the PATH environment variable, complete the following steps:

1. Add the export PATH command to .bashrc or .bash_profile file.

   echo 'export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin' >> ~/.bashrc
   

   OR

   echo 'export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin' >> ~/.bash_profile
   

2. Apply the change. Use the name of the file that you updated in the previous command.

   source ~/.bashrc
   

   OR

   source ~/.bash_profile
   

3. Verify that the /usr/local/bin directory is included in the PATH environment variable.

   echo $PATH
   

If the path update is successful, you see /usr/local/bin in the output.

DNS settings

Make sure you have a domain name and a DNS zone for your Instana environment. Then, add DNS A records in the zone for the following domains:

For detailed steps about adding DNS A records, refer to the documentation of your domain registrar.

Firewall rules

Certain Linux distributions might have potential conflicts or restrictions that the firewall imposes. These conflicts might impact network communication and service discovery that are necessary for the installation. Therefore, if your firewall is open, add the required ports and rules to it.

If you have an external firewall, see the firewall documentation for information on how to open ports.

For Standard Edition deployment on Amazon Web Services (AWS), you must open TCP ports 22, 80, 443, and 8443 in the security group even if the firewall is disabled.

 ufw status verbose

ufw allow <port_number>

firewall-cmd --query-port=<port_number>/tcp

firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port=<port_number>/tcp --permanent
firewall-cmd --reload

Configuring an HTTP proxy

Define the HTTP_PROXY, HTTPS_PROXY, and NO_PROXY environment variables.

When you run the stanctl up command to install the Standard Edition, the installation automatically uses the environment variable values from the current shell.

In the NO_PROXY list, make sure to include the IP address ranges (both public and private IP addresses) that the nodes use. Or, if your proxy can access the nodes, then you don't need to set the NO_PROXY environment variable.

Define the environment variables by using the following commands:

HTTP_PROXY=http://your-proxy.example.com:<port_number>

HTTPS_PROXY=http://your-proxy.example.com:<port_number>

NO_PROXY=127.0.0.0/8,10.0.0.0/8,172.16.0.0/12,192.168.0.0/16

nm-cloud-setup utility on RHEL and CentOS Stream hosts

On Red Hat Enterprise Linux and CentOS Stream hosts, if nm-cloud-setup is enabled, you must disable it and reboot the node. Use the following commands:

1. Check whether nm-cloud-setup is enabled.

   systemctl is-enabled nm-cloud-setup.service
   

   If the service is disabled, the command returns disabled, otherwise it returns enabled.

2. If nm-cloud-setup is disabled, proceed to the next section. If nm-cloud-setup is enabled, disable it.

   systemctl disable nm-cloud-setup.service nm-cloud-setup.timer
   

3. Reboot the node.

   systemctl reboot