Configure Smart Agent

You require to configure Smart Agents to register with Controller. Edit the configuration file. For example, if you have downloaded the install files at /opt/appdynamics /opt/appdynamics/appdsmartagent/config.ini.

config.ini

This is an example of a config.ini:

CODE 
ControllerURL    = localhost
ControllerPort   = 8090
FMServicePort    = 8030
AccountAccessKey =
AccountName      = e2e-customer
EnableSSL        = true

[Telemetry]
LogLevel  = info
LogFile   = log.log

[CommonConfig]
PollingIntervalInSec  = 300
ScanningIntervalInSec = 300

[Storage]
Directory =

[TLSClientSetting]
Insecure           = false
InsecureSkipVerify = false
AgentHTTPProxy     =
AgentHTTPSProxy    =
AgentNoProxy       =

[TLSSetting]
CAFile     =
CAPem      =
CertFile   =
CertPem    =
KeyFile    =
KeyPem     =
MinVersion = TLS 1.2
MaxVersion = TLS 1.3
IncludeSystemCACertsPool = true

[AutoDiscovery]
RunAutoDiscovery = true
ExcludeLabels = process.cpu.usage,process.memory.usage
ExcludeProcesses =
ExcludeUsers =
AutoDiscoveryTimeInterval = 4h

Configure Smart Agent with Environment Variables

The Smart Agent provides flexible configuration options through environment variables, allowing dynamic adjustments without directly modifying configuration files. It supports two distinct methods for leveraging environment variables:

Configuration Overrides

The environment variables can directly override specific values defined in the Smart Agent config.ini file. This method is ideal for quickly changing the configuration settings.

When the Smart Agent starts, it checks for predefined environment variable names that correspond to config.ini settings. If an override environment variable is present, its value takes precedence over the value specified in config.ini. For the supported override environment variable corresponding to the required configuration, see the configuration tables in the following sections:

Environment Variable Expansion

You can embed environment variables directly within the config.ini file as values for configuration keys. The Smart Agent will expand and resolve these variables to their system-defined values during startup.

This allows for dynamic configuration values that are resolved at runtime from the environment where the Smart Agent is running.

The Smart Agent supports environment variable expansion within config.ini values, following the supported syntax.

These are the format requirements:

  • Must start with ${
  • Optionally followed by env:

  • Must follow with the name of the environment variable to be substituted. The name:

    • Must start with an alphabetic character or _.
    • Must follow with any number of alphanumeric characters or _.

  • Optionally followed by a default value. The default value:

    • Must start with :-
    • Must follow with DEFAULT-VALUE, which can be any number of printable characters and whitespace except }.

  • Must end with }

The following is an example where the environment variable, ACCESS_KEY is defined for AccountAccessKey and env:USE_SSL:-true is defined for EnableSSL:
JSON 
AccountAccessKey = ${ACCESS_KEY}
EnableSSL        = ${env:USE_SSL:-true}
Use $$ to indicate a literal $ character within a configuration value. For example, to represent an account name of e2e-customer$:
CODE 
AccountName = e2e-customer$$

Basic Configuration

The basic configuration is the required configuration to register Smart Agent with Controller. Ensure that you update the following parameters for the basic Smart Agent configuration:

Parameter Environment Variables to Override Description
ControllerURL SUPERVISOR_CONTROLLER_URL The URL of the Controller on which you want to establish the connection with the Smart Agent.
ControllerPort SUPERVISOR_CONTROLLER_PORT The port to which Controller connects to the Agent Management (FM service). The default port is 8090
FMServicePort: SUPERVISOR_FM_SERVICE_PORT The port to which the Smart Agent connects to the FM service.

It is 8030 for an on-premises Controller and 443 for the Virtual Appliance.
AccountAccessKey SUPERVISOR_ACCOUNT_ACCESS_KEY The account access key on the Controller.
AccountName SUPERVISOR_ACCOUNT_NAME The name of the account on the Controller.
EnableSSL SUPERVISOR_ENABLE_SSL SSL is enabled by default. To turn off SSL, specify the value as false

Advanced Configuration

You can use the following configurations as per your requirement. These are not mandatory parameters. You can also include these configurations after Smart Agent installation, but ensure to restart Smart Agent to apply the configuration.

Proxy Configuration

If you require to configure the proxy settings, specify the following fields under the TLSClientSetting section of the config.ini file.

Parameter Environment Variables to Override Description Example
Insecure None Allows the client transport to operate without TLS when no custom CA is configured. The default is false. Keep this value false for secure production connections. For a plaintext connection, use it consistently with EnableSSL=false. This setting is different from InsecureSkipVerify, and is ignored when InsecureSkipVerify is true. Insecure = false
InsecureSkipVerify None Disables verification of the server's TLS certificate. The default is false. Set this to true only for temporary testing because it reduces connection security InsecureSkipVerify = false
AgentHTTPProxy HTTP_PROXY specify the proxy URL for this parameter when you use an HTTP Controller.

myhost:3128
AgentHTTPSProxy HTTPS_PROXY specify the proxy URL for this parameter when you use an HTTPS Controller. myhost:8443
AgentNoProxy NO_PROXY specify comma-separated values for hosts that should be excluded from proxying . internal.example.com,internal2.example.com

HTTP proxy example

The following example is for using the HTTP proxy for the Smart Agent:

CODE 
[TLSClientSetting]
Insecure = false
AgentHTTPProxy  = localhost:3128
AgentHTTPSProxy =
AgentNoProxy    =

TLS Configuration

If you require to configure the TLS certificate, specify the following fields under the TLSSetting config.ini.

Parameter Environment Variable for configuration Override Description Example
CAFile SUPERVISOR_CA_FILE specify the path to the root certificate file. <cert file path>/ca.crt
CAPem None specify one or more PEM-encoded CA certificates directly in the configuration instead of loading them from CAFile. The certificates are used to verify the server certificate. Do not configure both CAFile and CAPem. Smart Agent does not reject this combination; CAFile takes precedence and CAPem is ignored. CAPem = <PEM-encoded CA certificate>
CertFile SUPERVISOR_CERT_FILE specify the path to the client certificate file. <client cert file path>/clients .crt
KeyFile SUPERVISOR_KEY_FILE specify the path to the client private key of the file. <private key file path>/private.key
KeyPem None specify the PEM-encoded private key corresponding to the configured client certificate. This is an alternative to KeyFile. Protect the configuration file because this value contains sensitive key material. Do not configure both KeyFile and KeyPem. KeyPem = <PEM-encoded private key>
MinVersion None specify the minimum TLS version Smart Agent can use. The default is TLS 1.2. MinVersion = TLS 1.2
MaxVersion None specify the maximum TLS version Smart Agent can use. The default is TLS 1.3. This value must not be lower than MinVersion. MaxVersion = TLS 1.3
IncludeSystemCACertsPool None determines whether certificates from the operating system's trusted CA store are included when building the trust pool from CAFile or CAPem. When true, the configured CA certificates are added to the system CA pool. When false, only the configured CA certificates are trusted. The default is true. This setting takes effect only when CAFile or CAPem is configured. When neither is set, the operating system trust store is used regardless of this value. IncludeSystemCACertsPool = true
CertPem None specify the PEM-encoded client certificate directly in the configuration for mutual TLS authentication. This is an alternative to CertFile. A corresponding private key must be supplied through KeyPem or KeyFile. Do not configure both CertFile and CertPem. CertPem = <PEM-encoded client certificate>

Log Level Configuration

You can specify the log level details in the Telemetry section. You can use any of the following log levels:

  • debug
  • info
  • warn
  • error

Telemetry

Parameters Environment Variable for configuration Override Description
LogLevel SUPERVISOR_LOG_LEVEL The logging level such as info.
LogFile SUPERVISOR_LOG_FILE The path to the log file.

Log level example

The following example is for using the info log level:

CODE 
[Telemetry]
LogLevel=info
LogFile=
Profiling=false

Common Configuration

Parameter Environment Variables to Override Description Example
PollingIntervalInSec None Specifies, in seconds, how frequently Smart Agent polls the Agent Management service. The default is 300. Enter a positive integer. PollingIntervalInSec = 300
ScanningIntervalInSec None Specifies, in seconds, how frequently Smart Agent scans its managed-agent configuration files and reconciles additions, removals, or changes. The default is 300. The value must be a positive integer. ScanningIntervalInSec = 300

Storage

Parameter Environment Variables to Override Description Example
Directory None Directory used for persistent Smart Agent state. If empty, Smart Agent uses <smart-agent-install-directory>/storage. Relative paths are resolved against the installation directory. The Smart Agent process must have write permission to the directory. Directory = /opt/appdynamics/appdsmartagent/storage

Auto Discovery

Parameter Environment Variables to Override Description Example
RunAutoDiscovery None Enables or disables automatic discovery of supported application processes running on the host. The packaged Smart Agent configuration sets this to true; if the field is omitted, the loader default is false. RunAutoDiscovery = true
ExcludeLabels None Specify a comma-separated list of process attribute names that Smart Agent must not collect during auto-discovery. Values are exact label names, not regular expressions. Examples include process.cpu.usage, process.memory.usage, and process.command_line. ExcludeLabels = process.cpu.usage,process.memory.usage
ExcludeProcesses None Specify a comma-separated list of regular-expression patterns. Smart Agent excludes a process from auto-discovery when its full command line matches any configured pattern. Leave empty to avoid excluding processes by command line. ExcludeProcesses = .*internal-tool.*,.*health-check.*
ExcludeUsers None Specify a comma-separated list of operating-system usernames. Smart Agent excludes all processes owned by a listed user. Username matching is exact. Leave empty to discover processes regardless of owner. ExcludeUsers = root,svc_backup
AutoDiscoveryTimeInterval None Specify how frequently Smart Agent performs process auto-discovery and exports the collected information. Use a duration such as 30m, 2h, or 4h. The default is 4h. AutoDiscoveryTimeInterval = 4h