Install the .NET Agent for Linux
Getting Started
Before you begin, review these prerequisites:
Applications and Licenses Overview
Ensure you have these applications and licenses:
- .NET Core application running on Linux.
- .NET license for each .NET Core application running on Linux. See Observe License Usage.
Binaries Overview
Download the agent binaries from the Splunk AppDynamics Download Site and then extract them from the zip file into the desired folder.
The archive contains these files:
AppDynamics.Agent.netstandard.dlllibappdprofiler_arm64.solibappdprofiler_glibc_arm64.solibappdprofiler_musl_arm64.soREADME.md
Deployment
There are two options for starting your deployment using Docker:
- Create Your Own Image, start your agent from scratch.
- Run an Existing Image, if you already have the .NET Agent enabled.
Create Your Own Image
You can use the ASP.NET sample application from Microsoft and a Dockerfile to build your own image, and get started:
- Use a multistage build with
appdynamics/dotnet-core-agent:latestto get agent binaries. - Update the Dockerfile variables to configure the connection to the Controller and your application identity in AppDynamics.
- Create the Docker image.
The following is an example Dockerfile with commented instructions:
FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/core/samples:aspnetapp
####### Requirements
# Have the following files alongside the Dockerfile:
# * libappdprofiler_arm64.so
# * AppDynamics.Agent.netstandard.dll
####### Instructions
# Building image: docker build --rm -t appdynamicstest:latest .
# Running container: docker run --rm -p 8000:80 appdynamicstest:latest
# Open the application using http://localhost:8000/
#######
FROM appdynamics/dotnet
ADD libappdprofiler_arm64.so /opt/appdynamics-core-agent:latest AS appd
FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/
ADD libappdprofiler_glibc_arm64.sosamples:aspnetapp
COPY --from=appd /opt/appdynamics /dotnet/
ADD libappdprofiler_musl_arm64.so /opt/appdynamics/dotnet
# Mandatory settings required to attach the agent to the .NET application
ENV CORECLR_PROFILER={57e1aa68-2229-41aa-9931-a6e93bbc64d8} \
CORECLR_ENABLE_PROFILING=1 \
CORECLR_PROFILER_PATH_ARM64
CORECLR_PROFILER_PATH_ARM64=/opt/appdynamics/dotnet/libappdprofiler_arm64.so \
CORECLR_PROFILER_PATH=/opt/appdynamics/dotnet/libappdprofiler.so
# Configure connection to the controller
ENV APPDYNAMICS_CONTROLLER_HOST_NAME=controller.saas.appdynamics.com
ENV APPDYNAMICS_CONTROLLER_PORT=443
ENV APPDYNAMICS_CONTROLLER_SSL_ENABLED=true
ENV APPDYNAMICS_AGENT_ACCOUNT_NAME=account-name
ENV APPDYNAMICS_AGENT_ACCOUNT_ACCESS_KEY=access-key
# Configure application identity in AppDynamics
ENV APPDYNAMICS_AGENT_APPLICATION_NAME="My Application"
ENV APPDYNAMICS_AGENT_TIER_NAME="Sample Tier"
ENV APPDYNAMICS_AGENT_NODE_NAME="MyNode"
# It is possible to configure .NET agent using AppDynamicsConfig.json configuration file instead of environment variables.
# To do so, rename AppDynamicsConfig.json.template to AppDynamicsConfig.json and update values in the file.
# ADD AppDynamicsConfig.json /opt/appdynamics/dotnet/Run an Existing Image
To quickly deploy an existing Docker image with an agent enabled without building a new image, follow these steps:
- Download the agent binaries. Ensure that the archive matches the target CPU architecture (amd64 or arm64).
- Update the Docker command variables to configure the connection to the Controller and your application identity in AppDynamics..
Execute the Docker command from the directory where you extracted the agent binaries. You can replace
$(pwd)in the command with the path to this directory.
This example runs the sample application. It assumes you have Splunk AppDynamics binaries in the current directory (which contains the extracted agent archive):
docker run \
-p 8000:80 \
-e CORECLR_PROFILER={57e1aa68-2229-41aa-9931-a6e93bbc64d8} \
-e CORECLR_ENABLE_PROFILING=1 \
-e CORECLR_PROFILER_PATH_ARM64=/opt/appdynamics/dotnet/libappdprofiler.so \
-e CORECLR_PROFILER_PATH_ARM64=/opt/appdynamics/dotnet/libappdprofiler_arm64.so \
-e APPDYNAMICS_CONTROLLER_HOST_NAME=controller.saas.appdynamics.com \
-e APPDYNAMICS_CONTROLLER_PORT=443 \
-e APPDYNAMICS_CONTROLLER_SSL_ENABLED=true \
-e APPDYNAMICS_AGENT_ACCOUNT_NAME=account-name \
-e APPDYNAMICS_AGENT_ACCOUNT_ACCESS_KEY=access-key \
-e APPDYNAMICS_AGENT_APPLICATION_NAME="My Application" \
-e APPDYNAMICS_AGENT_TIER_NAME="Sample Tier" \
-e APPDYNAMICS_AGENT_NODE_NAME="MyNode" \
-v "$(pwd)":/opt/appdynamics/dotnet/ \
mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/core/samples:aspnetappThe command mounts agent files as a volume and sets environment variables required for the agent to attach.
Startup Flow
During the application startup, the agent writes messages to the console as well as the application and .NET framework.
This .NET Agent startup console output indicates proper agent initialization:
appd.agent.profiler(Info): ...