Start and Configure MariaDB Agent Manager on MariaDB Server Nodes

Compatibility

Prerequisites

Before performing this procedure, install MariaDB Agent Manager on each Forwarding Host and Monitored Host.

Step 1: Login as Appropriate OS User

Login as the appropriate user, which depends on which systemd mode MariaDB Agent Manager uses for your operating system:

• On operating systems that use MariaDB Agent Manager in user systemd mode, perform the procedure as the non-root OS user that runs the services. When logging in, do not use su to switch to the user, because a full login session is required to start the systemd user manager instance used by MariaDB Agent Manager's systemd services.

• On operating systems that use MariaDB Agent Manager in system systemd mode, perform the procedure as the root OS user.

Step 2: Configure Firewalls

MariaDB Agent Manager communicates over TCP between the Forwarding Host and each Monitored Host. MariaDB Agent Manager also communicates over TCP between the Forwarding Host and the SkySQL Observability service.

Firewall configuration must support this communication.

Step 3: Create Database Accounts

If you previously created a database user when you ran the mariadb_agent_manager install sub-command, you can skip this step.

MariaDB Agent Manager connects to database user accounts on Monitored Hosts.

A dedicated database user account should be created for MariaDB Agent Manager. In each topology, the user account needs to be created on different nodes:

• With Single Node Server, the user account should be created on the server node.

• With the Replicated Transactions and Multi-Node Analytics topologies, the user account should be created on the primary node, and the primary node replicates the user to all replica nodes.

• With the Galera Cluster topology, the user account should be created on a single node in the Primary Component, and the node replicates the user account to all nodes in the Primary Component.

On each server node that should get the account based on the rules above, create a dedicated database user account using one of the following methods:

• To have MariaDB Agent Manager automatically create the account with the correct privileges, execute the mariadb_agent_manager create-user sub-command:

  $ mariadb_agent_manager create-user
  

• Or to manually create the user account, expand the section below that contains the privileges required for your specific version of MariaDB Server:

CREATE USER mariadbagent@'localhost'
   IDENTIFIED BY 'passwd';

GRANT PROCESS, BINLOG MONITOR, REPLICA MONITOR
   ON *.*
   TO mariadbagent@'localhost';

GRANT SELECT
   ON mysql.global_priv
   TO mariadbagent@'localhost';

CREATE USER mariadbagent@'localhost'
   IDENTIFIED BY 'passwd';

GRANT PROCESS, REPLICATION CLIENT
   ON *.*
   TO mariadbagent@'localhost';

GRANT SELECT
   ON mysql.user
   TO mariadbagent@'localhost';

Step 4: Prepare mariadb-credentials.json

On each Monitored Host, exporters authenticate using credentials that are stored locally. These credentials must initially be provided in a credentials file.

If you created a database user account on this server using the mariadb_agent_manager create-user or mariadb_agent_manager create-user install sub-commands, the file should have been created automatically by MariaDB Agent Manager. If not, you need to create the file manually or copy it from another server that has the same credentials.

The MariaDB Agent Manager credentials file is in JSON format. These instructions assume that the credentials file is named mariadb-credentials.json

On each Monitored Host running MariaDB Server, create a credentials file.

Create a mariadb section with the user account and password details from "Step 3: Create Database Accounts":

{
  "cred_store": {
    "mariadb": {
      "user": "mariadbagent",
      "pwd": "USER_PASSWORD"
    }
  }
}

Step 5: Encrypt Passwords

On each Monitored Host running MariaDB Server, the passwords in the credentials file must be encrypted by executing the mariadb_agent_manager encrypt-creds sub-command:

$ mariadb_agent_manager encrypt-creds -p ~/mariadb-credentials.json

The following files have been successfully created:
Encrypted credentials:    /home/USER/.config/mariadb-agent-manager/cred.json
Secret key:               /home/USER/.config/mariadb-agent-manager/.key.txt

• The -p option specifies the path to the credentials file. Alternatively, the REMOTE_AGENT_CREDENTIALS environment variable can be used.

MariaDB Agent Manager encrypts the credentials and saves the encrypted credentials to its configuration directory.

After the credentials have been encrypted, MariaDB Agent Manager deletes the credentials file. If you need to preserve the credentials file, ensure that you have a backup.

Step 6: Prepare configuration.json

MariaDB Agent Manager reads a configuration file to understand the database infrastructure. These instructions assume that the configuration file is named configuration.json. The MariaDB Agent Manager configuration file is in JSON format.

Create a configuration file:

• Select the example configuration file for your topology and edit to reflect your database infrastructure and parameters.

• Alternatively, a configuration file can be created using the configuration wizard by executing the mariadb_agent_manager init sub-command.

The configuration file must be copied to each Forwarding Host and each Monitored Host.

{
  "datacenter": {
    "name": "Example Data Center",
    "location": "Oregon, US",
    "database_services": [
      {
        "name": "example-standalone",
        "type": "standalone",
        "servers": [
          {
            "name": "mdb1",
            "type": "server",
            "hostname": "mdb1.example.com"
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

{
  "datacenter": {
    "name": "Example Data Center",
    "location": "Oregon, US",
    "database_services": [
      {
        "name": "example-replicated",
        "type": "replicated",
        "servers": [
          {
            "name": "mxs1",
            "type": "maxscale",
            "hostname": "mxs1.example.com"
          },
          {
            "name": "mdb1",
            "type": "server",
            "hostname": "mdb1.example.com"
          },
          {
            "name": "mdb2",
            "type": "server",
            "hostname": "mdb2.example.com"
          },
          {
            "name": "mdb3",
            "type": "server",
            "hostname": "mdb3.example.com"
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

{
  "datacenter": {
    "name": "Example Data Center",
    "location": "Oregon, US",
    "database_services": [
      {
        "name": "example-columnstore",
        "type": "columnstore",
        "servers": [
          {
            "name": "mxs1",
            "type": "maxscale",
            "hostname": "mxs1.example.com"
          },
          {
            "name": "cs_node1",
            "type": "server",
            "hostname": "mdb1.example.com"
          },
          {
            "name": "cs_node2",
            "type": "server",
            "hostname": "mdb2.example.com"
          },
          {
            "name": "cs_node3",
            "type": "server",
            "hostname": "mdb3.example.com"
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

{
  "datacenter": {
    "name": "Example Data Center",
    "location": "Oregon, US",
    "database_services": [
      {
        "name": "example-galera",
        "type": "galera",
        "servers": [
          {
            "name": "mxs1",
            "type": "maxscale",
            "hostname": "mxs1.example.com"
          },
          {
            "name": "mdb1",
            "type": "server",
            "hostname": "mdb1.example.com"
          },
          {
            "name": "mdb2",
            "type": "server",
            "hostname": "mdb2.example.com"
          },
          {
            "name": "mdb3",
            "type": "server",
            "hostname": "mdb3.example.com"
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

Step 7: Start MariaDB Agent Manager

On each Forwarding Host and Monitored Host running MariaDB Server, MariaDB Agent Manager must be started by executing the mariadb_agent_manager start sub-command.

• If the server node is also acting as a Forwarding Host, MariaDB Agent Manager can be started for the first time with the following options:

  $ mariadb_agent_manager start -c ~/configuration.json -k ~/api_token.txt -f
  

  • The -c option specifies the path to the configuration file. Alternatively, the REMOTE_AGENT_CONFIG environment variable can be used.

  • The -k option specifies the path to a file that contains your SkySQL API Key. Alternatively, the REMOTE_AGENT_API_KEY environment variable can be used. Setting the API key is only required the first time that the services are started on the Forwarding Host, because MariaDB Agent Manager saves the API key to a file. If the option or environment variable are not set, MariaDB Agent Manager prompts the user to enter the API key.

  • The -f option indicates that the node is a Forwarding Host. Alternatively, the FORWARDING_SERVER environment variable can be used. If the host is not defined in the configuration file, MariaDB Agent Manager assumes that it is a dedicated Forwarding Host. If the host is defined in the configuration file, MariaDB Agent Manager handles it as a combination Forwarding and Monitored Host.

• On each Monitored Host running MariaDB Server, MariaDB Agent Manager can be started with the following options:

  $ mariadb_agent_manager start -c ~/configuration.json -k ~/api_token.txt
  

  • The -c option specifies the path to the configuration file. Alternatively, the REMOTE_AGENT_CONFIG environment variable can be used.

  • If you plan to use Fluent Bit to collect and process logs, the -k option is required to specify the path to a file that contains your SkySQL API Key. Alternatively, the REMOTE_AGENT_API_KEY environment variable can be used. Setting the API key is only required the first time that the services are started on the Monitored Host, because MariaDB Agent Manager saves the API key to a file. If the option or environment variable are not set, MariaDB Agent Manager prompts the user to enter the API key.

After the service has been successfully started, MariaDB Agent Manager prints the status of the components running on the host:

STATUS of the SERVICES:
Service: MariaDB Exporter                         active
Service: Node Exporter                            active

Next Steps

If you still need to start and configure MariaDB Agent Manager on additional node types:

• Start and Configure MariaDB Agent Manager

If you have already started and configured MariaDB Agent Manager on all nodes:

• Check SkySQL Monitoring