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What is a Nodinite Monitoring Agent?

The Nodinite Monitoring Agents helpts you Monitor your entire systems integration chain, end to end:

Resources
Monitoring Monitoring Agents Monitoring Service Log Databases Web API Web Client Monitor View Roles User

Nodinite uses the concept of Monitoring Agents to monitor Resources on-premise, hybrid and in the cloud. These Resources can be of any service, endpoint or function in the systems integration chain. The design goal here is to monitor all dependencies, end to end, and optionally to provide metrics, alerts and remote actions with relevant and up-to-date information to stakeholders. In addition, to further help organizations create personal independence, the documentation from the Repository Model, including the use of Articles, is tightly integrated with the Monitoring and is readily available.

You can install any number of Nodinite Monitoring Agents on any number of hosts. To separate these from each other, Nodinite keeps track of them by using a Monitoring Agent Configuration. Each entry point to exactly one Monitoring.

The Monitoring Service is responsible for communicating with the Monitoring Agent Configuration (Monitoring) using the provided connection details set on a Monitoring Agent Configuration.
Monitoring Agents provide run-time information about Resources. Nodinite keeps track of changes, and you can use this data for further analysis and reporting.

The list of supported agents grows over time. However, we put particular focus on developing support for the ever-evolving and maturing Azure technologies.

The installed Nodinite Monitoring Agents are governed according to a user-defined configuration by the Nodinite Monitoring Service. A Monitoring Agents configuration holds the connectivity (whereabouts) information for a specific instance of the Monitoring Agent.

You can find information about installed Monitoring Agents using the Monitoring Agents Overview available in the Administration section of the Nodinite Web Client.

Any Technology, Any Device

A Monitoring Agent can be installed on-premise or in the cloud. The implemented design pattern is generic and provides a foundation for customers and partners to extend and build their Monitoring Agents. In addition, we provide Templates and SDKs for further custom development. Don't hesitate to contact our support at support@nodinite.com if you are interested in exploring this topic further.

The Nodinite Monitoring Agents are usually a Windows Service that you install on a Windows Server.

.NET Framework 4.8 or later running on-premise or in the cloud (.NET 4.8.1 or later is our recommendation). Different agents have different prerequisites.
- Windows Server
Node.js based running on just about any device
- Azure ASE as a Web Application
- Linux
- Apple
- IOT devices

Installing and running

You must install and configure the Nodinite Monitoring Agents. Eventually, these need maintenance. Whenever there's a new version available, a Release note is created and you can get an email alert by logging on to the support page and opt to subscribe. The release note for each Monitoring Agent is available on the Nodinite Portal page.

Documentation-wise, all agents generally share the following structure:

Prerequisites
Install
Configure
Update
Uninstall

You need to be aware of the following topics in order to get operational:

Connectivity - Configure the way to communicate.
Service account requirements, make sure you run with the least privileges.
Diagnostics - Download the diagnostics for troubleshooting problems.
Culture settings - User-defined setting to format dates and times.
Clone - Installation of multiple instances on the same server (advanced topic)

Connectivity

The Monitoring Agents must be able to communicate between the installed agent and the Monitoring Service.

The Monitoring Agents are designed to conserve bandwidth and use etag caching to achieve excellent performance and less costs (money-wise).

All Windows-based agents support a connection to use either of the following:

TCP/IP (default) local or VPN access
Service Bus Relaying - use when Agents are installed in other networks where VPN or WAN links are not available.

TCP/IP

For both local and VPN access; It is required to provide an authentication key to enable the Remote Configuration. See documentation for the usage of Port 8000.

Service Bus Relaying

Service Bus Relaying - run anywhere. This connectivity type is secure by default.

Service account requirements

The account running the Windows Service (Monitoring Agent instance) requires a Windows account and depending on technology additional access rights to cloud- and/or line of business systems (for example SQL, Azure subscriptions, MSMQ, NFS, FTP...).

Logon rights
On Windows, the account running the Monitoring Agent Service requires special rights, see Logon As A Service for more information.
Access rights
Depending on the specific agent, see prerequisites within the documentation for each Monitoring Agent

Diagnostics

If you experience any problems; you can download the diagnostics files as a ZIP package from the Nodinite Monitoring Agents using the Nodinite Web Client. Please attach this ZIP file to our support whenever there is a question or an incident. According to Nodinite policies, these files do not contain any sensitive data like passwords.

!
Example icon in the browser of downloaded ZIP file with diagnostics information

Use the Remote Configuration modal to toggle the debug flag to increase the verbosity level when logging (default unchecked).

Culture settings

Many of the Monitoring Agents provide customization for formatting time-related data.

Use the Remote Configuration modal to change the Culture Information.

Clone

You can host multiple instances of the Nodinite Monitoring Agents either on the same host or on multiple hosts.
This topic is detailed in the Installation of multiple instances on the same server

Next Step

Monitoring Agents Overview
Add or manage Monitoring Agent
Remote Configuration
Articles