Install SolarWinds Observability Agent as a Docker image

You can deploy Agents using a Docker image and use the Agent for OTel integrations. When adding an integration, just select the deployed Agent to install the appropriate integration plugin on it.

When you already have the Agent running, specify what you want to monitor. See Add entities for monitoring .

Download the Docker image

The Agent Docker image is periodically pushed to the DockerHub repository. To pull it, run the following command:

docker pull solarwinds/swo-agent:latest 

You can also browse available tags on https://hub.docker.com/r/solarwinds/swo-agent.

Run the image as a Docker container without using Docker volumes

When working with SolarWinds Observability Agents, SolarWinds recommends that you use Docker volumes to store local data, such as manifests, logs, or plugin data between the restarts of the Docker container. Sensitive information, such as encryption keys for credential support, must be stored locally for security reasons and should not be synchronized with SolarWinds Observability SaaS.

When running Agent Docker image with docker run, all the plugins, manifests, and logs will be destroyed after the container is stopped. After each start of the container, the Agent will communicate with the cluster and download a list of installed plugins and their configuration.

Run the following command to start the container and print the output from the uamsclient process:

docker run -it --rm -e UAMS_CLIENT_ID_OVERRIDE="<your uams client id override>" -e UAMS_ACCESS_TOKEN="<your access token to communicate with the cluster>" -e SWO_URL="<xx-yy.cloud.solarwinds.com>" solarwinds/swo-agent:latest

Example command with UAMS_OVERRIDE_HOSTNAME and UAMS_CONTAINER_HOSTNAME variable

docker run -it --rm -e UAMS_CLIENT_ID_OVERRIDE="<your uams client id override>" -e UAMS_ACCESS_TOKEN="<your access token to communicate with the cluster>" -e SWO_URL="<xx-yy.cloud.solarwinds.com>" -e UAMS_OVERRIDE_HOSTNAME="<custom hostname>" -e UAMS_CONTAINER_HOSTNAME="<custom hostname>" solarwinds/swo-agent:latest

You need to provide an access token, an endpoint for your organization, and a Client ID override as the required environment variables.

Logs

Logs from Agent and plugins are available in the following location in the container /var/log/solarwinds/uamsclient

Use Docker volumes

• Use a volume as a working directory
• Persist logs
• Provide a custom configuration

Use a volume as a working directory

SolarWinds recommends that you use a Docker volume as the working directory of the Agent running in the container. The Docker volume is used to preserve the state of the application (installed plugins, current manifests, credentials store) between runs of the container. This way, plugins don't need to be downloaded and installed after each start of the container, which speeds up the startup process.

To use the volume, create it first by running:

docker volume create uams-volume

Then you can mount the volume in the following location in the container /uamsclient/workdir:

docker run -d --name=uams-client --rm=true -v uams-volume:/uamsclient/workdir -e UAMS_CLIENT_ID_OVERRIDE="<client id>" -e UAMS_ACCESS_TOKEN="<token>" -e SWO_URL="<xx-yy.cloud.solarwinds.com>" solarwinds/swo-agent:latest

Persist logs

To keep logs from the Agent, you need to mount your local directory to the logs location in the container /var/log/solarwinds/uamsclient:

docker run -d --name=uams-client --rm=true -v ${PWD}:/var/log/solarwinds/uamsclient -e UAMS_CLIENT_ID_OVERRIDE="<client id>" -e UAMS_ACCESS_TOKEN="<token>" -e SWO_URL="<xx-yy.cloud.solarwinds.com>" solarwinds/swo-agent:latest

Replace ${PWD} by global path to your local directory where you want save logs from the container.

Use docker-compose

To run the Agent Container using docker-compose, use the file below:

services: 
  uamsclient: 
    image: solarwinds/swo-agent:latest 
    environment: 
      UAMS_CLIENT_ID_OVERRIDE: <client id> 
      UAMS_ACCESS_TOKEN: <token> 
      SWO_URL: <organization endpoint> 
      UAMS_CONTAINER_HOSTNAME: <custom hostname>
      UAMS_OVERRIDE_HOSTNAME: <custom hostname>
    volumes: 
      - ./config.yaml:/uamsclient/config/config.yaml 
      - uamsclient-volume:/uamsclient/workdir 
volumes: 
  uamsclient-volume: {}