Linux

Utilizes well known command line utilities such as vmstat and ps to extract information about a Linux system. Along with Oracle and other Unix agents it is a good example for creating your own custom monitoring data providers.

Local/Remote Modes

The agent can be run locally using a telnet or ssh session or in remote mode on the target machine under the Host Manager.

Supported Versions

The agent has been specifically tested with RedHat Linux 9 and RedHat AS 3, although it can be used as a good base for writing custom monitoring agents for any Unix based systems.

Configuration

No additional configuration is required to run this agent. However a prerequisite is that the following utilities must be present on the system: iostat, mpstat, df, vmstat, ps and netstat.

The agent configuration depends on the 'Process Execution Mode' as follows:

  • Normal: the agent is executed under the Host Manager, no other configuration required
  • Telnet:
    • Username: the username to use for the telnet session.
    • Password: the password to use for the telnet session.
    • Port: the port number where the telnet daemon is configure to listen to on the remote host; it defaults to 23.
    • UsernamePrompt: the prompt for the username used by the telnet session.
    • PasswordPrompt: the password prompt used by the telnet session.
    • ShellPrompt: the shell prompt used by the telnet session.
    • NOTE: You can use a terminal emulator like Putty to open a telnet connection and find out the username, password, and shell prompt.
  • SSH2:
    • Username: the username to use for the SSH2 session.
    • Password: the password to use for the SSH2 session.
    • Port: the port number where the SSH2 daemon is configure to listen to on the remote host; it defaults to 22.

Contents

The agent provides the following information:

  • Per CPU data: on multiple processor systems contains usage detailed per each CPU.
  • I/O Data: holds statistics about read and write operations to devices.
  • File System Data: contains details about Linux's file systems.
  • System Data: contains global system information, such as memory and processor usage.
  • Process: holds details for each running process.
  • Network interfaces: contains information about network interfaces.
  • Network protocols: contains details for each network protocol.