Manually registered agent

Register agent

Before installing an agent, it needs to be registered with the NOM server to provide server communication configuration.

  1. Click the top right settings icon that redirects you to the global settings.

    agents settings icon

  2. Click Agents, where you will see a list of all registered agents along with their last contact times and versions.

    agents

  3. Click Register New Agent button, and enter the name and description for your new agent followed by clicking Register button.

    agent new

  4. The agent will be created and randomly generated agent credentials will be displayed on the screen.

    agent credentials

    The credentials and other key agent configuration values are displayed as environment variable declarations. You can copy them over to the host for ease of agent configuration.

  5. After you have captured the credentials, click the confirmation checkbox and Finish button. Newly created agent will be displayed on the list of agents.

Install agent

The following steps are required to install an agent:

  • Standalone binaries (only linux and windows platform binaries are available)

If downloading agents is not a option in some environments, NOM agents are also bundled into Neo4j packages which can be used for the installation as described here

  • Extract the archive:

  • Add the bin folder in the extracted directory to PATH

    • To verify the installation, run the following command:

      agent version

      Which should output:

      <agent name> <agent version> <agent revision>

    • Make sure the agent version is equal to that of the NOM server.

Configure agent

An agent’s run configurations are provided through environment variables. The tables here list configuration keys and values to be set for them.

The following environment variables need to be set to allow the agent to communicate with the NOM Server. Copy these from the Agent Credentials dialog in the register step.

For a self registering agent, token configuration below is not a requirement as specified here.
Variable Description Example

CONFIG_SERVER_ADDRESS

Server GRPC Address

server:9090

CONFIG_TOKEN_URL

Server Token URL

https://server:8080/api/login/agent

CONFIG_TOKEN_CLIENT_ID

Client ID for the agent

` 3ff98478-d6d2-4e1b-b816-e758c835f076`

CONFIG_TOKEN_CLIENT_SECRET

Client secret for the agent

secret

The following environment variables specify start configuration for the agent:

Variable Description Example

CONFIG_TLS_TRUSTED_CERTS

PEM encoded trusted CA list ()

/path/to/a/pem/file

CONFIG_LOG_LEVEL

Log level (debug,info,warn,error)

info

CONFIG_LOG_FILE

Path to the log file

/var/log/nom-agent/log.txt

Since agent-server communication needs to be encrypted, you need to configure the agent so that it trusts the server’s certificates. The file that contains the trusted certificate list (PEM encoded) can be specified through the CONFIG_TLS_TRUSTED_CERTS environment variable. While most operating systems default to the system-wide trusted certificates, that’s not the case on Windows. For that reason, you must set this environment variable on Windows.

For each managed DBMS instance on the host, the following environment variables need to be set to allow the agent to access the instance:

Variable Description Example

CONFIG_INSTANCE_n_NAME

Name of nth instance

my-instance-n

CONFIG_INSTANCE_n_BOLT_URI

Bolt URI for nth instance with bolt or bolt+s protocol

bolt://localhost:7687 or bolt+s://localhost:7687 or bolt+ssc://localhost:7687, depending on the local database setup

CONFIG_INSTANCE_n_BOLT_USERNAME

Bolt user name for nth instance

neo4j

CONFIG_INSTANCE_n_BOLT_PASSWORD

Bolt password for nth instance

password

To enable the query log collection functionality, there are also a few additional environment variables. If CONFIG_INSTANCE_n_QUERY_LOG_PORT is not set, the feature is treated as disabled. The rest of NOM still works.

Variable Description Example

CONFIG_INSTANCE_n_QUERY_LOG_PORT

Port for connecting the agent to the Neo4j log4j appender

9500

CONFIG_INSTANCE_n_LOG_CONFIG_PATH

Path to the instance log4j config. If set, appends the appropriate log appender automatically (including the port specified above).

/var/lib/neo4j/conf/server-logs.xml

CONFIG_INSTANCE_n_QUERY_LOG_MIN_DURATION

Minimum duration in milliseconds for a query to be logged (optional)

100

CONFIG_INSTANCE_n_QUERY_LOG_MIN_DURATION_FILTER_ERRORS

Enable filter for errors under the minimum duration in milliseconds (optional)

true

CONFIG_INSTANCE_n_QUERY_LOG_DISABLE_OBFUSCATION

Disable the string literal obfuscation in queries (optional)

true

Environment variable considerations:

  • n in the above environment variables needs to be replaced with 1, 2, etc. for each of the monitored DBMS instances on the same host. For example, for a single monitored DBMS, the environment variables must be named as CONFIG_INSTANCE_1_NAME, CONFIG_INSTANCE_1_BOLT_URI, CONFIG_INSTANCE_1_BOLT_USERNAME and CONFIG_INSTANCE_1_BOLT_PASSWORD.

  • The instance name that you specify for CONFIG_INSTANCE_n_NAME will be used to identify your instance on NOM. For this reason, it is important that you specify unique names across your cluster.

Agents are supposed to monitor only local instances and should not be configured to connect to remote instances.

Refer to Neo4j instance requirements to ensure that all instances meet the requirements to be managed by NOM.

Run agent

An agent can run in two modes, console or service. Best practice is to run an agent in service mode.

  1. Run an agent in console mode:

    All configuration values for the agent should be set as environment variables before starting the agent

    • Command:

      agent console

  2. Run an agent in service mode:

    To run an agent in service means that the agent process runs in the background and monitors the instance and this is the recommended way. The agent lifecycle is handled by the operating system service manager.

    • Install the service for linux (systemd):

      • Run

        agent service install

      • Execute

        systemctl edit neo4j-ops-manager-agent.service

        and set environment variables by either setting Environment or EnvironmentFile options. For example, using the Environment options, the override file can look like this:

        [Service]
Environment="CONFIG_SERVER_ADDRESS=<server grpc address>"
Environment="CONFIG_TOKEN_URL=<server http login url>"
Environment="CONFIG_TOKEN_CLIENT_ID=<client id>"
Environment="CONFIG_TOKEN_CLIENT_SECRET=<client secret>"
Environment="CONFIG_TLS_TRUSTED_CERTS=</path/to/trusted/certs/pem/file>"
Environment="CONFIG_LOG_FILE=</path/to/nom-agent/log.txt>"
Environment="CONFIG_INSTANCE_1_NAME=<instance name>"
Environment="CONFIG_INSTANCE_1_BOLT_URI=<bolt uri of the local instance>"
Environment="CONFIG_INSTANCE_1_BOLT_USERNAME=<local instance user name>"
Environment="CONFIG_INSTANCE_1_BOLT_PASSWORD=<local instance password>"
Environment="CONFIG_INSTANCE_1_QUERY_LOG_PORT=<an available port>"
Environment="CONFIG_INSTANCE_1_LOG_CONFIG_PATH=<path to server-logs.xml>"

        Please refer to the full list of options here.

      • Start your service

        systemctl start neo4j-ops-manager-agent.service

        or

        systemctl stop neo4j-ops-manager-agent.service

      • Logs are available, using journalctl, via

        journalctl -u neo4j-ops-manager-agent

    • Install the service for Windows:

      • Run

        agent service install

      • Open registry editor and navigate to HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\neo4j-ops-manager-agent.

      • Create a key of type REG_MULTI_SZ named Environment and add your environment variables, each on a separate line, for example:

        CONFIG_SERVER_ADDRESS=<server grpc address>
CONFIG_TOKEN_URL=<server http login url>
CONFIG_TOKEN_CLIENT_ID=<client id>
CONFIG_TOKEN_CLIENT_SECRET=<client secret>
CONFIG_TLS_TRUSTED_CERTS=</path/to/the/trusted/certs/pem>
CONFIG_LOG_FILE=</path/to/nom-agent/log.txt>
CONFIG_INSTANCE_1_NAME=<instance name>
CONFIG_INSTANCE_1_BOLT_URI=<bolt uri of the local instance>
CONFIG_INSTANCE_1_BOLT_USERNAME=<local instance user name>
CONFIG_INSTANCE_1_BOLT_PASSWORD=<local instance password>
CONFIG_INSTANCE_1_QUERY_LOG_PORT=<an available port>
CONFIG_INSTANCE_1_LOG_CONFIG_PATH=<path to server-logs.xml>

        Please refer to the full list of options here.

      • Start your service

        agent service start

    • To uninstall the service

      agent service uninstall

Verify agent setup

Ensure agent has contacted NOM server, is online and is reporting DBMS(s) correctly.

  1. Return to Agents listing in global settings

    agents

  2. Identify the newly created agent.

  3. Check that there is a value for Last contact time.

    • If the agent has never contacted NOM server then go back to where the agent is running and check the logs. It may be that the server address is configured incorrectly or the TLS certificates are not correctly specified.

  4. Verify that the agent has a current status of Online.

    • If the agent is not currently online then go to where it is running and check the logs.

  5. Hover over the newly added agent and click the cog icon to show agent configuration. Check configuration is as expected.

  6. Navigate to the home page (if this agent is the first to manage an instance in a DBMS, it may take a few minutes for the DBMS to appear).

  7. Select the Alerts tab and make sure that there are no alerts for any of the DBMSs managed by the new agent.