Setting HTTP or HTTPS communications

The default communications protocol between the Cloud APM server and agents is HTTP. Before installing the server, you can use an environment variable to change the protocol to HTTPS for secure communications between the server and monitoring agents.

Before you begin

  • Communications between the server and agents must be consistently HTTP or HTTPS.
  • If you configure the agent images during server installation, the communications protocol for the agents is set to match what is set for the server. However, if you choose to configure the agent images at a later time, be sure to set the communications protocol to the same setting as the server is using.
  • If you change the protocol that is used to communicate between the server and the monitoring agents, change the protocol that is used to communicate between the server and the server agents to match. For details, see Configuring the communications protocol for server agents.
  • The Cloud APM server keystore that is used for HTTPS communication with the agents is the same keystore that is used by the SMTP forwarder for SSL communication with the SMTP server. If a new keystore is created and a CA certificate was added for the SMTP forwarder, the SMTP CA certificate must be re-added to the new keystore. For instructions, see Event Manager in Advanced Configuration.

Procedure

Complete the following step before you install the Cloud APM server to change the communications protocol:

On the system where you plan to install the server, enter one of the following commands:
  • To set HTTPS (secure) communications: export APM_SECURE_COMMUNICATION=y
  • To set HTTP (non-secure) communications: export APM_SECURE_COMMUNICATION=n (Unless the APM_SECURE_COMMUNICATION environment variable was used to set HTTPS, this step is not necessary because the default protocol is HTTP. Thus, while you are using a clean shell session, such as just after logging in, you can start the server installation to establish HTTP communications.)

What to do next