Debian / Ubuntu servers – Server Density

The Server Density agent is delivered as an OS package for Debian & Ubuntu. The core agent is required for monitoring key metrics, with plugins installed as an additional package. Because the agent and plugins are installed as separate system packages, they'll be kept up to date as you update your OS normally. For non-LTS Ubuntu distributions, follow this guide.

Upgrading from agent v1? View the upgrade instructions.

Automatic installation

You can install the agent automatically using our shell script, or with our Puppet, Chef, Ansible and Salt modules. See automatically scaling and deploying the agent.

Prerequisites

A device created in your server density account (Find out how to create a device in the UI)
sudo (root access) is required but the agent runs as its own user (sd-agent) once installed.
The agent requires sysstat to be installed to collect some key metrics. This will be installed as a dependency during installation.
Our repository requires that apt-transport-https be installed before adding to your sources list. You can install apt-transport-https with the command:
```
apt-get install apt-transport-https
```

Add repository to apt, dependant on your version

Debian 9 - Stretch

echo "deb https://archive.serverdensity.com/debian/ stretch main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/sd-agent.list

Debian 10 - Buster

echo "deb https://archive.serverdensity.com/debian/ buster main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/sd-agent.list

Debian 11 - Bullseye

echo "deb https://archive.serverdensity.com/debian/ bullseye main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/sd-agent.list

Ubuntu 14.04 - Trusty

echo "deb https://archive.serverdensity.com/ubuntu/ trusty main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/sd-agent.list

Ubuntu 16.04 - Xenial

echo "deb https://archive.serverdensity.com/ubuntu/ xenial main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/sd-agent.list

Ubuntu 18.04 - Bionic

echo "deb https://archive.serverdensity.com/ubuntu/ bionic main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/sd-agent.list

Ubuntu 20.04 - Focal

echo "deb https://archive.serverdensity.com/ubuntu/ focal main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/sd-agent.list

Ubuntu 22.04 - Jammy

echo "deb https://archive.serverdensity.com/ubuntu/ jammy main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/sd-agent.list

Download and install our key

curl -Ls https://archive.serverdensity.com/sd-packaging-public.key | sudo apt-key add -

Update the package lists

sudo apt-get update -y

Install the agent

sudo apt-get install sd-agent

Configure the agent

sudo nano -w /etc/sd-agent/config.cfg

Enter the following values. Other settings are optional.

[Main]
sd_account:
agent_key:

Restart the agent after any config changes:

init.d

sudo /etc/init.d/sd-agent restart

SystemD

sudo systemctl restart sd-agent
sudo systemctl restart sd-agent-forwarder

You should now see data posting back to Server Density. If you're having trouble and need assistance, check out agent troubleshooting or get in touch.

Plugins

The agent can use a number of additional plugins, read information about plugins or check our plugin directory

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