Installing and configuring self-hosted Instana backend

Install and configure a self-hosted Instana backend instead of using the Instana software as a service (SaaS) solution.

If you want to use the Instana SaaS solution, you don't need to install the self-hosted Instana backend. For an Instana SaaS solution, you need only Instana agents to monitor your systems. For more information, see Installing Instana agents.

About self-hosted Instana backend

The following information provides an overview of a self-hosted Instana backend:

  • You can install self-hosted Instana backend in Kubernetes, Red Hat® OpenShift® Container Platform, and Docker environments.
  • An Instana backend includes an Instana server and data stores.
  • You can install a self-hosted Instana backend in an environment that is connected to the internet or is offline (air-gapped).
  • After you install the self-hosted Instana backend, you need to install the Instana agents for collecting data from systems that you want to monitor.

Self-Hosted editions

For more information about the Self-Hosted editions, see Installation options.

Important:

You can use the same license for any Self-Hosted Edition. For example, from release 271 onwards, if you have a license for the Self-Hosted Classic Edition (Docker), you can use the same license to migrate to the Self-Hosted Standard Edition.

Supported optional features

Some features are not enabled in a self-hosted backend by default. You can enable such features by using more configuration options.

The following table outlines the feature flags for optional features and their supported editions:

Feature name Feature flag Standard Edition Custom Edition Classic Edition
Action & Automation feature.automation.enabled Yes Yes No
Analyze infrastructure (BeeInstana) feature.beeinstana.infra.metrics.enabled Yes Yes Yes
Business monitoring feature.business.observability.enabled Yes Yes No
Log Analytics feature.logging.enabled Yes Yes No
IBM Power HMC feature.phmc.enabled Yes Yes Yes
IBM Power VC feature.powervc.enabled Yes Yes No
IBM Z HMC feature.zhmc.enabled Yes Yes Yes
OpenStack feature.openstack.enabled Yes Yes No
VMware Tanzu feature.pcf.enabled Yes Yes Yes
SAP feature.sap.enabled Yes Yes Yes
Synthetic monitoring feature.synthetics.enabled Yes Yes No
VMware vSphere feature.vsphere.enabled Yes Yes Yes
Smart Alerts for Infrastructure (public preview) feature.infra.smart.alerts.enabled Yes Yes No
Get answers button feature.assistme.enabled Yes Yes Yes

For more information about enabling the optional features, see the following topics:

Related information:

Right arrow Installing Instana agents