.NET Agent (legacy)
The following content pertains to the legacy AppOptics NET Agent.
AppOptics agents are no long receiving updates. The new SolarWinds Observability libraries are regularly updated with new features and improvements. If you are still relying on the AppOptics agents and your components are supported by the new libraries, consider migrating to SolarWinds Observability.
If you have already transitioned to the new SolarWinds Observability NET Library, see the SolarWinds NET Library documentation for information.
SolarWinds Observability libraries are not compatible with AppOptics agents. Do not use a mix of SolarWinds Observability libraries and AppOptics agents to instrument applications that are part of a distributed trace.
The .NET agent provides automatic tracing and metrics for .NET Framework and .NET Core/5+ (which includes .NET Core, .NET 5.0, and later versions) applications, on a variety of Windows and Linux platforms. For new features, fixed issues, and updated components, see the .NET Agent (legacy) Release Notes.
Get started
Ensure that your platform and application components are supported.
The instrumentation methods available and the components required for their installation are dependent on the operating system and .NET runtime versions that you use. The following tables show the instrumentation installation options available for .NET Framework (2.0 - 4.8) and for .NET Core (3.1), .NET 5+, .NET Standard (1.0 - 2.1) runtime versions.
.NET Framework (2.0 - 4.8)
The following table shows the instrumentation installation options for the .NET Framework 2.0 - 4.8 runtime versions.
| Instrumentation Method | Components Required for Installation | |
|---|---|---|
| Windows | Linux | |
Windows agent installer: DotNetAgent_Setup.exe |
Not Supported | |
|
SDK Interface for custom instrumentation |
SDK interface NuGet package: Windows agent needs to be installed. |
Not Supported |
.NET Core (3.1), .NET 5+, .NET Standard (1.0 - 2.1)
The following table shows the instrumentation installation options for the .NET Core 3.1, .NET 5.0 and later, and .NET Standard 1.0 - 2.1 runtime versions.
| Instrumentation Method | Components Required for Installation | |
|---|---|---|
| Windows | Linux | |
Windows agent installer: DotNetAgent_Setup.exe |
Linux agent package: dotnet-agent-package.tgz |
|
Agent NuGet package: AppOptics.Agent.nupkg |
||
| SDK Interface for custom instrumentation |
SDK interface NuGet package: Windows or Linux agent must be installed |
|
|
|
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Automatic Instrumentation
To get up and running with APM, install the AppOptics .NET Agent for Windows, install the AppOptics .NET Agent for Linux, or deploy your agent with the AppOptics.Agent Nuget package. Restart IIS or the .NET Core application to load the agent and automatically begin reporting data.
To use the agent in the Azure App Service environment, see Installation on Azure App Service (legacy agent).
Custom instrumentation
Custom instrumentation can be used to get extra application-specific visibility in AppOptics, both adding custom spans for distributed tracing and adding custom timers/counters for metric reporting and alerting.
Custom instrumentation is available with one of the following NuGet packages:
- AppOptics.Agent.Api NuGet package: this package contains the Instrumentation SDK interface that works with the agent to enhance tracing for both .NET Framework and .NET Core apps.
- AppOptics.Agent NuGet package: this package can be included in your .NET Core application. It not only provides automatic instrumentation, but includes an Instrumentation SDK that will work with and without the agent.
See our NuGet SDK package and the Instrumentation SDK page for more details.
Code Profiling
Code profiling provides extra insight into code level execution time that is otherwise not captured by auto-instrumentation. See Code Profiling and the .NET-specific details for more on this feature. The recommended agent version is 4.0.4 and above.
Navigation Notice: When the APM Integrated Experience is enabled, AppOptics shares a common navigation and enhanced feature set with other integrated experience products. How you navigate AppOptics and access its features may vary from these instructions.