Machine Agent Configuration Properties

This page describes the Agent configuration properties, including controller-info.xml elements, system property options (on the command line or in the startup script), and environment variables (where applicable). You configure Agent system properties based on your operating system and installation package.

The Agent updates dynamically in response to Agent configuration property changes, so you do not need to restart the Agent.

System Property Syntax

  • System properties are case-sensitive
  • Values that contain spaces must be enclosed with double-quotes

Account Access Key

The account access key used to authenticate with the Controller. This key is generated during installation, and you can locate the key by reviewing the license information in the Controller Settings. See Observe License Usage.

Element in controller-info.xml: <account-access-key>

System Property: -Dappdynamics.agent.accountAccessKey

Environment Variable: APPDYNAMICS_AGENT_ACCOUNT_ACCESS_KEY

Type: String

Default: None

Required: Prior to version 4.1, this property was required only for SaaS and multi-tenant Controllers. For versions 4.1 and later, the account access key property is required to authenticate all agent to Controller communications.

Example: -- Dappdynamics.agent.accountAccessKey=165e65645-95c1-40e3-9576-6a1424de9625

Account Name

The account name used to authenticate with the Controller. If you are using the AppDynamics SaaS Controller, the Account Name is provided in the Welcome email sent by AppDynamics.

Element in controller-info.xml: <account-name>

System Property: -Dappdynamics.agent.accountName

Environment Variable: APPDYNAMICS_AGENT_ACCOUNT_NAME

Type: String

Default: None

Required: For AppDynamics SaaS Controller and multi-tenant users, but not for single-tenant mode (the default).

Agent Logging Directory

Deprecated. appdynamics.agent.logs.dir should be used instead. Behavior identical to Agent Logs Directory: <appdynamics.agent.logs.dir>/logs/.

System Property: -Dappdynamics.agent.logging.dir

Environment Variable: N/A

Type: String

Default: None

Required: No

Independent Machine Agent Install Scenario

Typically, you only use the following properties if you are installing the Machine Agent on a server that does not have any AppDynamics App Agents installed.

Application Name

The name of the logical business application that this JVM node belongs to. This is not the deployment name (ear/war/jar) on the application server. If a business application of the configured name does not exist, it is created automatically.

Element in controller-info.xml: <application-name>

System Property:- Dappdynamics.agent.applicationName

Environment Variable: APPDYNAMICS_AGENT_APPLICATION_NAME

Type: String

Defaults: None

Required: No. See Machine Agent Installation Scenarios.

Node Name

The name of the JVM node. When not specified, this defaults to Node1 for the Machine Agent.

Element in controller-info.xml: <node-name>

System Property:- Dappdynamics.agent.nodeName

Environment Variable: APPDYNAMICS_AGENT_NODE_NAME

Type: String

Defaults: None

Required: No. See Machine Agent Installation Scenarios.

Tier Name

The name of the logical tier that this JVM node belongs to. This is not the deployment name (ear/war/jar) on the application server. If a tier of the configured name does not exist, it is created automatically.

Element in controller-info.xml: <tier-name>

System Property:- Dappdynamics.agent.tierName

Environment Variable: APPDYNAMICS_AGENT_TIER_NAME

Type: String

Defaults: None

Required: No. See Machine Agent Installation Scenarios.

Exclude File Cache Memory from Memory Usage

You can use the following system property to exclude the file cache memory while calculating memory usage on AIX with server visibility enabled.

If you set <-Dappdynamics.machine.agent.collect.memoryMetrics.using.vmstat.command = true> and <sim_enabled = true> for AIX, you get memory usage metrics on the Controller UI after excluding the file cache memory.

System Property: -

Dappdynamics.machine.agent.collect.memoryMetrics.using.vmstat.command

Environment Variable: N/A

Type: Boolean

Default: false

Required: No