Run Collection Agent via Netprobe

Caution

Collection Agent and its plugins is no longer packaged with the Netprobe in Geneos 5.14.7 and the subsequent 5.x versions. If you want to run Collection Agent via Netprobe, please upgrade to the current 6.x version of Geneos.

This page describes how to run the Collection Agent in managed mode on the same host as a Netprobe. The Netprobe starts, supervises, and restarts the Collection Agent according to Collection agent parameters you define in the Gateway Setup Editor.

Use this path when the Netprobe and Collection Agent run on the same host (normal, floating, or self-announcing Netprobe). To run them on different hosts, see Run Collection Agent as a standalone Java process.

Run the Collection Agent Copied

To run the Collection Agent via Netprobe, follow these steps:

1. In Gateway Setup Editor, click Dynamic entities > Collection agent parameters, and then click New Collection agent parameters.

2. Select Managed in the Collection Agent dropdown list.

3. Choose your preferred YAML type in the Yaml dropdown list and configure your Collection Agent parameters.

   

   YAML type	Configure your Collection Agent in
   Bundled YAML	the collection_agent/collection-agent.yml packaged with the Netprobe binary.
   Custom YAML	the specified YAML file that can have any name. The file can be in any folder but if you are using a relative path, then it should be relative to the working directory.
   Managed YAML	the Gateway Setup Editor. For more information, see Managed Collection Agent in Dynamic Entities.

   Note

   If you are starting the Collection Agent using the Netprobe, all the ports configured in the Gateway Setup Editor will automatically apply to the running Collection Agent.

   For the full YAML reference and section descriptions, see the Collection Agent configuration reference.

4. Configure your plugins.

   YAML type	Configure your plugins by
   Bundled YAML	adding the parameters of the desired plugins in the collection_agent/collection-agent.yml packaged with the Netprobe binary.
   Custom YAML	adding the parameters of the desired plugins in the specified YAML file in Step 3.
   Managed YAML	adding the parameters in the Dynamic Entities > Collectors section in the Gateway Setup Editor. For more configuration information, see Collectors in Dynamic Entities.

   Note

   If you need to set up a new plugin that is not yet included in the package, you can download it from the ITRS Downloads and add it to the collection_agent directory.

Tip

Go to Chapter 2 of this Collection Agent demo to see how to configure the Collection Agent to run via Netprobe.

Self-Announcing Netprobe Copied

For Self-Announcing Netprobes, you can start the Collection Agent by adding the following configuration in the selfAnnounce settings in the Netprobe setup file:

<dynamicEntities>
 <collectionAgentParameters>CollectionAgentParams</collectionAgentParameters>
 <mappingType>DynamicEntitiesMapping</mappingType>
</dynamicEntities>

For more information, see Self-announce settings in Netprobe setup.

Note

 You still have to Create Dynamic Entities and make sure of the following:

• The value inside the collectionAgentParameters tag in the XML above is the name of your Collection agent parameters in Gateway Setup Editor.
• The value inside the mappingType tag in the XML above is the name of your Mapping type in Gateway Setup Editor.

Secure Collection Agent Copied

To use a secure connection between a Netprobe (normal, floating, or self-announcing modes) and Collection Agent, enable TLS using the secure command line option. Additionally, set the relevant SSL files on the command line. For more information, see Netprobe Command-line Options.

Note

Secure Collection Agent does not support Bundled YAML. Use Managed YAML or Custom YAML instead.

Next steps Copied

Now that you have run the Collection Agent, create Dynamic Entities and add it to the Netprobe.

Connection and lifecycle Copied

When run with the Netprobe, Collection Agent runs as a Java process alongside the Netprobe process.

Common failure modes Copied

The Collection Agent will not start in the following scenarios:

• JAVA_HOME is not set in the Netprobe’s environment. For more information, see Configure the Java environment.
• Collection Agent resource files are missing, or are not the same version packaged in the collection_agent directory:
  • collection-agent-<version>-exec.jar
  • collection-agent.yml
• The following Collection Agent ports are not available:
  • Health port
  • Reporter port
• StatsD UDP port is not available

  Note

  The StatsD plugin uses the default which is specified in the collection-agent.yml. If two Netprobes are running with one Collection Agent, then the Address bind already in use. error message is displayed in the Collection Agent log file.

Netprobe connection Copied

The following describes the behaviour of the Netprobe connection depending on the state of the Collection Agent:

• Netprobe restarts the managed Collection Agent if the latter goes down, or cannot be detected after having been detected before.
• Netprobe will attempt to restart an unreachable Collection Agent three times. If on the third time, the Netprobe still cannot detect the Collection Agent, then it no longer attempts to restart the Collection Agent.
• If the Netprobe restarts, the managed Collection Agent is also restarted.

Note

A Collection Agent started independently of the Netprobe is not managed by the Netprobe.

Health checks Copied

The Netprobe periodically pings the managed Collection Agent through the defined health check port.

The health checks are governed by the following variables: