Installing the host agent on Windows

You can install the Instana agent on a Windows host by using different methods depending on your requirements. See the following list to learn about all the available installation options:

After the agent installation, the following registry entry is added to your Windows computer: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\PerfProc\Performance]"ProcessNameFormat"=dword:00000002. This registry entry is necessary for the InstanaPCP to correctly correlate all metrics from the performance counters.

Installing the host agent by using a Windows installer interactively

To install the host agent by using a Windows installer interactively, complete the following steps:

  1. On the home page of the Instana UI, click Deploy Agent.

  2. On the agent deployment catalog page, click the tile Windows - Windows Installer 64 bit.

    If you want to run the installation process silently without any interaction, select the Windows - Windows Installer 64 bit (unattended) option, and follow the steps in the Installing the host agent silently section.

  3. Select the packaging option for either a dynamic or static host agent, and the runtime option for your choice of JDK.

  4. Click the download link to save the Windows installer file. Note the configuration values that you need to input to the installer when you run it in the next step.

  5. Run the Windows installer on the Windows host computer where you want to install the host agent. A GUI guides you through the process of installing the agent and takes care of installing the prerequisites (.NET Framework 4.5 and a JVM).

    The installer also registers the agent as a service, sets the service to start automatically, and starts the service after the installation.

After you install the agent, you can manage and configure the agent as you require. For more information, see Administering the agent on Windows.

Installing the host agent silently

To install the host agent without interaction, you can run the Windows installer silently by using the following steps:

  1. On the home page of the Instana UI, click Deploy Agent.

  2. On the agent deployment catalog page, click the tile Windows Installer 64 bit (unattended).

  3. Download the Windows installer by using the link provided.

  4. Copy the installation command extract as shown in the following example:

    @ECHO OFF
    
    <installer_file_name> INSTANA_AGENT_ENDPOINT=<your_host> INSTANA_AGENT_ENDPOINT_PORT=<your_port> INSTANA_AGENT_KEY=<your_agent_key> INSTANA_DOWNLOAD_KEY=<your_agent_key> /quiet
    

    Replace <installer_file_name> with the name of the installer file that you downloaded in step 3.

    You must provide the /quiet switch to prevent the GUI from being displayed, so you can run the installation process silently without any user interaction. All the other required parameters are pre-populated in the agent deployment code.

  5. Run the installation command on the Windows host computer where you want to install the host agent. The installation process runs silently through the process of installing the agent and takes care of installing the prerequisites (.NET Framework 4.5 and a JVM).

    The installer also registers the agent as a service, sets the service to start automatically, and starts the service after the installation.

After you install the agent, you can manage and configure the agent as you require. For more information, see Administering the agent on Windows.

Installing the host agent by using a .zip file

You can install the host agent manually by downloading and extracting a host agent .zip file.

The .zip file contains the agent files, but does not contain a JVM that is needed to run the host agent. Make sure that you install a supported JVM on the Windows host computer on which you want to install the host agent.

To install the host agent by using a .zip file, complete the following steps:

  1. Download the agent archive to your local system:

    1. On the home page of the Instana UI, click More > Agents > Install Agents.

    2. On the agent deployment catalog page, click the tile Windows - Zip Archives.

    3. Select the agent packaging mode, Dynamic or Static. For more information about dynamic and static host agents, see host agent types.

    4. Click the download link for either 32-bit or 64-bit Windows to save the .zip file.

      The .zip file is downloaded to your Windows host computer.

  2. Extract the downloaded .zip file to a folder (for example, <instana-agent-install-dir>).

  3. Start the agent by running the following command:

    <instana-agent-install-dir>\bin\start.bat
    

    The host agent is preconfigured with your account settings.

After you install the agent, you can manage and configure the agent as you require. For more information, see Administering the agent on Windows.

Optional: Installing the host agent as a Windows service

If you want to install the host agent as a Windows service, you are suggested to use the Windows service wrapper. For more information about service wrapper, see WinSW.

To install the host agent as a Windows service, complete the following steps:

  1. Download the service wrapper file, WinSW-<version>.exe, from the WinSW release page, and save it to the folder in which you extracted the archive.

  2. Rename the service wrapper file as instana-agent.exe.

  3. In the same directory, create an instana-agent.xml configuration file, and copy the following configuration into it. Windows calls the service wrapper by using this configuration file to start the host agent.

    <service>
     <id>instana-agent</id>
     <name>Instana Agent</name>
     <description>Instana Agent</description>
     <!-- start -->
     <executable>"<instana-agent-install-dir>\bin\karaf.bat"</executable>
     <startargument>daemon</startargument>
     <!-- stop -->
     <stopexecutable>"<instana-agent-install-dir>\bin\karaf.bat"</stopexecutable>
     <stopargument>stop</stopargument>
     <stoptimeout>10sec</stoptimeout>
     <!-- logging -->
     <logpath><instana-agent-install-dir>\data\log</logpath>
     <log mode="roll-by-time">
       <pattern>yyyyMMdd</pattern>
     </log>
    </service>
    
  4. Install the host agent as a Windows service by running the following command in the directory in which you saved the instana-agent.xml and instana-agent.exe files.

    instana-agent.exe install
    

    Then, start the host agent Windows service by running the following command:

    net start instana-agent-service
    

After you install the agent, you can manage and configure the agent as you require. For more information, see Administering the agent on Windows.