Monitor Azure Virtual Machine Scale Set (VMSS)

How-to guide
6-min read
Published Jul 19, 2017

Capabilities

Full-stack monitoring powered OneAgent
Extensions for easy deployment of OneAgent
Integration with Azure Monitor
Enhanced support for Azure VM Metadata such as Azure regions, AutoScale detection, and more

Dynatrace provides a VM extension to install OneAgent on Azure Virtual Machine Scale Set (VMSS). The extension doesn't include the OneAgent installer. Instead, it uses the Dynatrace REST API to download the latest version from the cluster, unless a default OneAgent version is configured. OneAgent updates are provided automatically.

Prerequisites

Create a PaaS token.
Determine your environment ID.
Determine your server URL if required.

The server URL is required only if you use an ActiveGate for a Dynatrace SaaS endpoint. The URL is automatically generated from the environment ID.
- ActiveGate server URL:
  https://<your-active-gate-IP-or-hostname>:9999/e/<your-environment-id>/api (the ActiveGate port is configurable)

Installation

The Dynatrace VM extension is available for Windows and Linux in all public Azure regions.

Run the command below.

Replace all values marked with <...> with your actual values.
```
az vmss extension set
  --publisher dynatrace.ruxit
  -n "<Extension-Type>"
  -g "<Resource-Group>"
  --vmss-name "<VMSS-Name>"
  --settings "{\"tenantId\":\"<Environment-ID>\",\"token\":\"<API-Token>\", \"server\":\"<Server-Url>\", \"enableLogAnalytics\":\"yes\", \"hostGroup\":\"<Host-Group>\"}"
```
When using the Azure CLI within PowerShell, you need to format the settings as a here-string.
```
--settings @'"{\"tenantId\":\"<Environment-ID>\",\"token\":\"<API-Token>\"}"'@
```
Parameter
Required
Description
Resource-Group
required
Name of the resource group on which the VM is deployed.
VMSS-Name
required
Name of the VMSS where you want to install the extension.
Extension-Type
required
For Windows-based VMs, use oneAgentWindows. For Linux-based VMs, use oneAgentLinux.
tenantId
required
The environment ID as described in Prerequisites.
token
required
The PaaS token as described in Prerequisites.
server
optional
The server URL, if you want to configure an alternative communication endpoint as described in Prerequisites.
enableLogAnalytics
optional
Set to yes if you want to enable Log Monitoring.
hostGroup
optional
Define the host group to which the VM belongs.

Update the VMSS virtual machines.

az vmss update-instances --instance-ids '*' --resource-group $CLUSTER_RESOURCE_GROUP --name $SCALE_SET_NAME

To check the deployment status, go to Deployment Status.

After installation is complete, restart your applications on the VMs. Immediately after restart, OneAgent will begin monitoring them.

Install Dynatrace OneAgent VM extension via an ARM template

Alternatively to the main installation methods, you can make the Dynatrace site extension part of your ARM templates.

Place the JSON configuration for a virtual machine extension in the VMSS resource, under extensions in extensionProfile.

Example:

{
  "type": "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachineScaleSets",
  "sku": {...},
  "name": "<VMSS-Name>",
  "apiVersion": "2018-06-01",
  "location": "centralus",
  "properties": {
    "upgradePolicy": {...},
    "virtualMachineProfile": {
      "osProfile": {...},
      "storageProfile": {...},
      "networkProfile": {...},
      "extensionProfile": {
        "extensions": [
          {
            "name": "dynatrace",
            "properties": {
              "publisher": "dynatrace.ruxit",
              "type": "<Extension-Type>",
              "typeHandlerVersion": "<Extension-Version>",
              "autoUpgradeMinorVersion": true,
              "settings": {
                "tenantId": "<Environment-ID>",
                "token": "<API-Token>",
                "enableLogAnalytics": "yes"

              }
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  }
}

Configure the JSON file.
```
{
  "name": "dynatrace",
  "properties": {
    "publisher": "dynatrace.ruxit",
    "type": "<Extension-Type>",
    "typeHandlerVersion": "<Extension-Version>",
    "autoUpgradeMinorVersion": true,
    "settings": {
        "tenantId": "<Environment-ID>",
        "token": "<API-Token>",
        "server": "<Server-Url>",
        "enableLogAnalytics": "yes",
        "hostGroup": "<Host-Group>"
    },
  }
}
```
Parameter
Required
Description
Resource-Group
required
Name of the resource group on which the VM is deployed.
VMSS-Name
required
Name of the VMSS where you want to install the extension.
Extension-Type
required
For Windows-based VMs, use oneAgentWindows. For Linux-based VMs, use oneAgentLinux.
tenantId
required
The environment ID as described in Prerequisites.
token
required
The PaaS token as described in Prerequisites.
Extension-Version
optional
Required version¹ of the extension.
server
optional
The server URL, if you want to configure an alternative communication endpoint as described in Prerequisites.
enableLogAnalytics
optional
Set to yes if you want to enable Log Monitoring.
hostGroup
optional
Define the host group to which the VM belongs.

¹
o fetch the list of extension versions, run
```
az vm extension image list --name oneAgentLinux --publisher dynatrace.ruxit
```
To check the deployment status, go to Deployment Status.

After installation is complete, restart your applications on the VM. Immediately after restart, OneAgent will begin monitoring them.

Troubleshooting

Restart the VMSS nodes via PowerShell, replacing all values marked with <...> with your actual values:

Restart-AzureRmVmss -ResourceGroupName "<Resource-Group>" -VMScaleSetName "<VMSS-Name>"

Parameter

Required

Description

Resource-Group

required

Name of the resource group on which the Virtual Machine is deployed

VMSS-Name