Documentation forSolarWinds Observability SaaS

Add a self-managed host

Before adding your host entity to SolarWinds Observability SaaS, verify your firewall configuration permits TCP/HTTPS/TLS outbound connections to the SolarWinds Observability Agent endpoints on port 443. See Firewall or access control requirements.

If your firewall or access control requirements do not allow such connections, configure the SolarWinds Observability Agent to send data through a proxy. See Configure proxy for SolarWinds Observability Agents.

Use the Add Host wizard

To monitor your self-managed host with SolarWinds Observability SaaS, install the SolarWinds Observability Agent on the host.

  1. In SolarWinds Observability SaaS, click Add Data at the top.

  2. In the Add Data dialog Intro, click Monitor my hosts.

  3. Click Hosts.

  4. Choose your deployment option and click next to continue.

    If you want to install the Agent manually, select how you want to install the agent:

    • Script-based installation (recommended): select this option to run a provided script on the host where you want to install the agent.
    • Installer: select this option to download an installation file and run it using a provided command.

    If you want to use an automated deployment method, select a supported configuration management tool:

    • Ansible
    • Chef
    • Puppet
    • SaltStack

  5. Specify an Ingestion token that identifies the Agent when sending the data into SolarWinds Observability SaaS and click Next.

    • To create a new token, select Generate New Token and provide a name for the new token.

    • To use an existing token, select Use Existing Token and select a token from the list.

    Not sure? See Create a new or use an existing ingestion API token?

  6. If you selected a manual installation option, complete the Configuration step and click Next.

    1. Select the operating system of your target host.

    2. For Linux, select the architecture of the target host (AMD64 or ARM).

      For Windows, AMD 64 is selected.

    3. Optional: To set up a host name, click Set up host name, and provide a name which will be used to override the default host name.

  7. If you selected a manual installation option, complete the Installation step and click Next.

    • For script-based installation, copy the installation script to the clipboard. On the target host, open the command prompt or terminal as an administrator and run the copied script.

    • For Installer-based installation, download the installer to the target host and run it using the provided script.

      • The scripts contain a unique ID used to track the installation status. Do not reuse this script.

      The scripts already include all relevant parameters. See SolarWinds Observability Agent installation parameters.

  8. If you selected an automated deployment method, use the linked resources to deploy the Agent. Copy the provided parameters to include required attributes or variables.

    For Ansible and Chef, you can use proxy: To set up a proxy, click Set up proxy, and provide the proxy address as proxyAddress, proxyAddress:port, or http://user:password@proxyAddress:port. For proxyAddress, use the proxy IP address, hostname, or domain name.

    • Ansible: Use the Ansible role in galaxy.ansible.com to automatically install the SolarWinds Observability Agent with Ansible.

    • Chef: Use the recipe in supermarket.chef.io to automatically install the SolarWinds Observability Agent with Chef.

    • Puppet: Use the Puppet module in forge.puppet.com to deploy the Agent with Puppet.

    • SaltStack: Use the SaltStack formula in github.com/solarwinds to deploy the Agent with SaltStack.

  9. Optional for manual installation: To collect logs, click Enable log monitoring, provide details for collecting logs, and click Deploy to deploy the log monitoring plugin.

  10. Optional: On Suggested Alerts, review available alerts and enable alerts you find relevant.

    You need to be Admin or Owner in your organization to manage alerts. See User roles and access levels.

  11. Optional for manual installation: When the installation is complete, review the Summary.

    • To change the Agent name and the host display name, click Edit in Basic Settings, and adjust the names. The Agent name and the host display name have the same value.

    • To find out more about the target host, click Host Details and continue to the host details page.

    • To review the list of hosts monitored in SolarWinds Observability SaaS, click Host Lists.

    • To review the Agent details, click Agent Details.

    • To view and manage all Agents and their plugins, click Agent Management to continue to the Agents page.

  12. Optional for manual installation: You can continue to observe host data:

    13. To view data collected for the newly configured entity in the Entity Explorer, click the name of the host in the confirmation dialog in the lower-left corner. It may take a few seconds for data to appear for the newly created entity. See Entity Explorer for details.

See Entities in SolarWinds Observability SaaS for an overview of host entities and how they work in SolarWinds Observability SaaS.

Install the Agent manually

When you install the Agent for Open SUSE or SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, you need to manually add SolarWinds as a trusted distributor and import the key into your RPM configuration to validate the RPM install packages. The installation script does it automatically. When installing the Agent manually, run the following command:

rpm --import https://agent-binaries.cloud.solarwinds.com/uams/PUBLIC-GPG-KEY-solarwinds

  1. Copy or create an API token (Ingestion type), found in the settings area of SolarWinds Observability SaaS. You will need it later. See API Tokens for details.

  2. Download the Agent installation file for your operating system:

  3. In the following code, provide your data and run the code according to your operating system, and distribution (for Linux).

    • Replace YourApiToken in ACCESSTOKEN with the ingestion token you prepared earlier.

    • Replace YourSwoBaseUrl in SWO_URL with the base URL for your organization's endpoints. The base URL is in the form of xx-yy.cloud.solarwinds.com, where xx-yy represents the data center your organization uses. See Find the data center and endpoints for your organization.

    Windows 

    msiexec /i uamsclient.msi ACCESSTOKEN="YourApiToken" METADATA="role:host-monitoring" SWO_URL="YourSwoBaseUrl"

    Linux

    Run the code for the Packet Manager you use to install the Agent.

    DPKG

    env UAMS_ACCESS_TOKEN="YourApiToken" UAMS_METADATA="role:host-monitoring" SWO_URL="YourSwoBaseUrl" dpkg -i uamsclient.deb

    DNF
    env UAMS_ACCESS_TOKEN="YourApiToken" UAMS_METADATA="role:host-monitoring" SWO_URL="YourSwoBaseUrl" dnf install -y uamsclient.rpm
    RPM
    env UAMS_ACCESS_TOKEN="YourApiToken" UAMS_METADATA="role:host-monitoring" SWO_URL="YourSwoBaseUrl" rpm -i uamsclient.rpm
    YUM
    env UAMS_ACCESS_TOKEN="YourApiToken" UAMS_METADATA="role:host-monitoring" SWO_URL="YourSwoBaseUrl" yum localinstall -y uamsclient.rpm
    ZYPPER
    env UAMS_ACCESS_TOKEN="YourApiToken" UAMS_METADATA="role:host-monitoring" SWO_URL="YourSwoBaseUrl" zypper install uamsclient.rpm