Manually registered agent
Register agent
Before installing an agent, it needs to be registered with the NOM server to provide server communication configuration.
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Click the top right settings icon that redirects you to the global settings.
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Click Agents, where you will see a list of all registered agents along with their last contact times and versions.
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Click Register New Agent button, and enter the name and description for your new agent followed by clicking Register button.
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The agent will be created and randomly generated agent credentials will be displayed on the screen.
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.
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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:
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Standalone binaries (only linux and windows platform binaries are available)
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Download: Download
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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 |
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Extract the archive:
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Add the
bin
folder in the extracted directory toPATH
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To verify the installation, run the following command:
agent version
Which should output:
<agent name> <agent version> <agent revision>
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Make sure the agent version is equal to that of the NOM server.
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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 |
---|---|---|
|
Server GRPC Address |
server:9090 |
|
Server Token URL |
https://server:8080/api/login/agent |
|
Client ID for the agent |
` 3ff98478-d6d2-4e1b-b816-e758c835f076` |
|
Client secret for the agent |
secret |
The following environment variables specify start configuration for the agent:
Variable | Description | Example |
---|---|---|
|
PEM encoded trusted CA list () |
|
|
Log level (debug,info,warn,error) |
info |
|
Path to the log file |
|
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 |
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 |
---|---|---|
|
Name of nth instance |
my-instance-n |
|
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 |
|
Bolt user name for nth instance |
neo4j |
|
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 |
---|---|---|
|
Port for connecting the agent to the Neo4j log4j appender |
9500 |
|
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 |
|
Minimum duration in milliseconds for a query to be logged (optional) |
100 |
|
Enable filter for errors under the minimum duration in milliseconds (optional) |
true |
|
Disable the string literal obfuscation in queries (optional) |
true |
Environment variable considerations:
|
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.
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Run an agent in console mode:
All configuration values for the agent should be set as environment variables before starting the agent
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Command:
agent console
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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.
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Install the service for linux (systemd):
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Run
agent service install
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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.
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Start your service
systemctl start neo4j-ops-manager-agent.service
or
systemctl stop neo4j-ops-manager-agent.service
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Logs are available, using journalctl, via
journalctl -u neo4j-ops-manager-agent
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Install the service for Windows:
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Run
agent service install
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Open registry editor and navigate to
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\neo4j-ops-manager-agent
. -
Create a key of type
REG_MULTI_SZ
namedEnvironment
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.
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Start your service
agent service start
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To uninstall the service
agent service uninstall
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Verify agent setup
Ensure agent has contacted NOM server, is online and is reporting DBMS(s) correctly.
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Return to Agents listing in global settings
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Identify the newly created agent.
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Check that there is a value for Last contact time.
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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.
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Verify that the agent has a current status of
Online
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If the agent is not currently online then go to where it is running and check the logs.
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Hover over the newly added agent and click the cog icon to show agent configuration. Check configuration is as expected.
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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).
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Select the Alerts tab and make sure that there are no alerts for any of the DBMSs managed by the new agent.
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