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Agent Installation

The following guides you to the basic installation method for using the WhaTap database monitoring service.

To use the WhaTap monitoring service, after Sign in, create a project and install the agent to the target server. For more information about registration as a member, see the following.

See the following video guide.

Creating a project​

Create a project before installing the agent.

  1. Log in WhaTap monitoring service.

  2. To create a project, on the left of the screen, select All Projects > + Project.

  3. Select a product in Select product for installation.

  4. Configure the settings for Project name, Data server region, and Time zone.

    Create Project

  5. In Notification language setting, select the language for alert messages.

  6. After all settings are finished, select Creating a project.

Note

  • A Data server region refers to a region (a bundle of data centers installed to provide cloud services). Selecting a specific region stores your data in the datacenter that belongs to that region.

  • Time zone is the reference time for generating alerts and reports.

  • To group multiple projects for management, select a group from Project groups or add a group. For more information about grouping, see the following.

  • To add a project with an organization selected, Groups of organization must be set.

Checking the project access key​

Project access key is the unique ID for activating the WhaTap services.

In the installation guide section, select Getting the access key. After automatic reception of project access key, proceed to the next step.

Tip

After a project has been created, the Agent installation page appears automatically. If the Agent installation does not appear, select All projects on the left and then select a newly created project.

Downloading the WhaTap database agent​

  1. Download the agent file. Use the following two methods.

    • On the WhaTap monitoring service screen, select Download for downloading.

    • You can download with the Linux wget method. Use the following command.

      wget -O whatap.agent.database.tar.gz "https://service.whatap.io/download/dbx_agent?type=mssql&format=tar.gz"
    Note

    For those who cannot download tar files due to security settings, ZIP files are also provided. On the installation screen, select the .zip Download button.

  2. Copy the downloaded file to the server to be analyzed, and then unzip it. (Same for Windows and Linux)

    Agent configuration file
    File nameDescription
    whatap.confThis is the file where you can enter the address of the collection server that collects data from the database server and the server's project access key. For more information about the agent configuration, see the following.
    alert/alert.confThis is the file that sets thresholds for monitoring items to be collected. An alert occurs when the threshold is exceeded.
    scripts/This directory contains the scripts that can remotely run SQL scripts.
    ps.shThis script fetches the process ID. When ending the agent process, the ID is referenced.
    stop.shThis script is used when ending the agent process.
    uid.sh (uid.bat)This shell script file generates an encrypted UID by combining the database connection data. It creates the db.user file. Once you have set it for the first time, it collects data from the database server to be monitored through the encrypted UID.
    For more details about creation of an account for monitoring, see the following.
    start.sh (start.bat)This shell script file runs the agent. When the agent starts, it starts collecting monitoring data from the database server.
    startd.sh (startd.bat)This shell script file runs the agent, which can be run in the background.
    whatap.agent.dbx-X.Y.Z.jarThe Tracer program is a program that collects data from the database server and transmits the collected data to the server.
    jdbcThis directory collects the libraries referenced for database server connection. Download the library for connecting the agent and database server and use it by setting the path in the class path option of Java.
    xos/The directory contains the optional agent that can monitor the process usage of the database server.
    ⎿ xos.confThis file is used to enter the address and communication port of the agent server for collecting the process usage of the database server and transmitting the data.
    * xcub/This directory contains additional agent files that collect SQL texts from the CUBRID database and calculate metrics.
    ⎿ * xcub.confThis file is used to enter the CUBRID database and additional agent connection settings.
    Note

    *: The files in the xcub path are dedicated files for CUBRID Monitoring.

  1. Enter the unzipped folder and then check the whatap.conf file. In whatap.conf, enter the project access key, WhaTap server data, and DB connection data.

    whatap.conf
    license=Project Access Key
    whatap.server.host=13.124.11.223/13.209.172.35 // WhaTap Server Info

    dbms=mssql
    db=master
    db_ip=Database IP
    db_port=Database port
    Note

    In case the SQL Server and agents are installed in localhost (default 1433 port)

    whatap.conf
    dbms=mssql
    db=master
    db_ip=127.0.0.1
    db_port=1433

  2. Download the JDBC driver to the following directory. /unzipped folder/jdbc

    Download the JDBC driver for the OS and version of your database server.

    MS SQL 2005 or later

Note

In /unzipped folder/jdbc/README.md, you can also see the JDBC driver installation paths for each database.

Account creation​

Create an account with roles required for database monitoring. Log in with the root account and then create accounts.

Note

  • To use the previous accounts, go to Create DB User File. If you do not have any permission, you may not be able to proceed with normal monitoring.

  • In the example code, whatap is the DB user account name. Change it to your account name.

  • Enter your password in DB_Password in the example code.
create login whatap with password='DB_PASSWORD'; ## Enter the desired password.
grant view server state to whatap;
create user whatap for login whatap;
grant execute to whatap;
EXEC sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1;
RECONFIGURE;
EXEC sp_configure 'Ole Automation Procedures', 1;
RECONFIGURE;
 
## In case the kill session is used - SQL Server
grant alter any connection to whatap;

## In case the kill session is used - Azure SQL Database
grant kill database connection to whatap;

DB user file creation​

Generate an encrypted UID for database connection. Enter the username and password and then run the shell script (or batch file).

The uid.sh shell script file (or uid.bat batch file) can be found in the path where the WhaTap database agent has been installed. Set DB_USER to default if there is only a password without user.

./uid.sh DB_USER DB_PASSWORD
Note

  • After setting it once, it collects data from the database server to be monitored through the encrypted UID.

  • To create a DB user file, enter the project access key in the whatap.conf file. Checking the project access key

  • In the Azure database environment, enter DB_USER in the form of DB_USER@DB_name.

  • If special characters are included in DB_USER or DB_PASSWORD, enter the escape character (\) together before any special characters.

    Example
    ./uid.sh whatap whatap\!pwd

    # If there are multiple special characters, add the escape character(\) for each.
    ./uid.sh whatap whatap\!\@pwd

Starting the monitoring​

Execute a shell script (or batch file) from the path where you have installed the agent.

./start.sh

To use it like a daemon, execute the following command. However, it works only in the environment where nohup has been installed.

./startd.sh

You completed installing the agent for database monitoring. In the following, check the post-installation checklist.

Monitoring ASW CloudWatch resources​

Set the following options in the whatap.conf file on the agent server. Due to the nature of CloudWatch, it is recommended to call every 60 seconds (cloud_watch_interval).

whatap.conf
aws_region={AWS_RDS_Region_Name}
aws_arn=arn:aws:iam::999999999999:role/UpdateApp
cloud_watch=on
cloud_watch_instance=RDS_DB_Instance_Name
cloud_watch_interval=60
cloud_watch_metrics=CPUUtilization,FreeableMemory,FreeStorageSpace,NetworkTransmitThroughput,NetworkReceiveThroughput

Execute the following command to view the AWS CloudWatch metrics. Change the DB_Instance_Name and then execute the following command.

aws cloudwatch list-metrics --namespace AWS/RDS --dimensions Name=DBInstanceIdentifier,Value={DB_Instance_Name}
Note

  • In Agent Installation, enter values for AWS RDS Region, RDS DB Instance Name, and DB Instance Name. Then the agent options and commands are automatically generated.

  • For more information about the AWS CLI installation and update, see the following link.

  • For more information about the AWS CLI configuration, see the following link.

Next steps​

  • Checking the installation

    If you have created a project, installed an agent, and applied all agent options, see the checklist in the following.

  • Installation troubleshooting

    It provides various problems that may occur when installing the agent and specific instructions for resolving them. For more information, see the following.

  • Agent setting

    It provides various features for monitoring by applying some options to the agent configuration file (whatap.conf). For more information, see the following.

    To additionally monitor the database server resources, set more options in the additional agent (XOS). For more information, see the following.

  • Starting the monitoring

    After configuring all settings, the agent starts collecting metrics data from the database server. First, check whether the monitoring data has been collected in Instance List. For more information about Instance List, see the following.