Get out-of-the-box visibility into your ARM platform (Early Adopter)

Dynatrace is pleased to announce the Early Adopter release of OneAgent full-stack monitoring for Linux on the ARM 64-bit AArch64 architecture with OneAgent version 1.191.

The Linux ARM platform—the Linux kernel ported to ARM processor–based machines—is becoming a tempting, cost-effective solution for building microservice-oriented data centers. We’ve started observing a shift towards the ARM platform among our customers already. This shift has been inspired in part by big market SaaS and IaaS players like Amazon (see their original announcement here) and Microsoft (read about their announcement here). The investment continues—we’re anticipating an upcoming release of the AWS Graviton2 processor, which has already been announced to be significantly more powerful than its predecessor.

From the software perspective, Linux players like RedHat, Ubuntu, and SUSE have already entered this market with fully supported enterprise versions of Linux for ARM. Other distributions like Debian and Fedora are available as well, in addition to other software like VMware, NGINX, Docker, and, of course, Java.

Our goal at Dynatrace is to be where our customers need us. We anticipate massive growth in the popularity of this architecture in the coming quarters, driven additionally by companies’ push for cost reductions. This is especially the case with microservices and applications created around multiple tiers, where cheaper hardware alternatives play a significant role in the infrastructure footprint. We understand the dependencies between the mainframe, data center, and cloud, including all application components and even end-user experience. Our mission is to provide automatic answers, including root cause analysis, for performance degradation across all these systems and environments, regardless of the underlying hardware architecture.

We’re therefore happy to announce the Early Adopter release of OneAgent full-stack monitoring for Linux on the ARM 64-bit AArch64 architecture with OneAgent version 1.191. This version of full-stack OneAgent is delivered as another member of the continuously growing OneAgent family, which already includes support for Windows, Linux x86/x64, AIX, PPCLE, and Linux on Z.

Continuous auto-everything enables automation and optimizes time to value

OneAgent for the ARM platform is built on the same principles as the rest of Dynatrace: shortest possible time to value and automation of all steps. OneAgent for the ARM platform provides all these capabilities out of the box: Initial single-command-line deployment, non-assisted baselining, detection of all key services and their respective resource utilization and interdependencies, fully automatic injection of deep monitoring modules, and transparent auto-updates.

What’s included

Full-stack OneAgent for the ARM platform is derived from the implementation of OneAgent for Linux on x86 and x64 platforms and, therefore, is a fully qualified member of the OneAgent family. The initial release of OneAgent for the ARM platform with OneAgent version 1.191 is certified and tested to work on SUSE Enterprise Linux 15.x, CentOS 7.x and 8.x, Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and 20.04 LTS, and EulerOS 2.8. The support is limited to 64-bit versions (i.e., AArch64).

Here are details of the capabilities included in this release of OneAgent for Linux on the ARM platform:

Deep-code monitoring

OneAgent for the ARM platform comes with several deep-code monitoring modules: Java, NGINX, and Node.js. As in the case of OneAgent for other Linux platforms, each of these modules is instrumented in the respective technology stack automatically, so there’s no need for any additional configuration.

Host performance measures

Host performance is tracked via high-level health metrics with details for each host (these appear on your home dashboard by default). For details on available metrics, see host performance monitoring.

Network measurements with per-interface and per-process resolution

OneAgent for the ARM platform collects a number of network metrics: input and output traffic measured in bytes and packets, retransmissions, and connectivity. In addition to collecting network metrics for the host, OneAgent also identifies all contributing interfaces and provides a detailed breakdown of the measurements. Network metrics are also collected for detected processes. For details on available reports and metrics, see our network monitoring guidelines.

Disk measurements with per-disk resolution

OneAgent collects the following disk metrics for hosts: Throughput, Disk space usage, and Inodes available. Disk metrics are collected for each discovered disk. Disk metrics are reported as filesystem mount points for easier identification.

Full-stack and infrastructure monitoring modes

OneAgent for the ARM platform works in both full-stack and infrastructure monitoring modes, which provide AI-powered monitoring with or without code-level insights. Monitoring modes are defined during OneAgent installation. You can, however, change the monitoring mode later via Host settings > Monitoring mode. For more details, see Get started with infrastructure monitoring.

Automatic updates of all monitoring modules

Full-stack OneAgent for ARM comes equipped with an automatic update feature. Following initial deployment, all subsequent updates are performed automatically, with no human assistance. Similarly, as with OneAgent for Windows, AIX, and Linux on x86/x64/PPCLE/Z, you can specify that a specific version of OneAgent be deployed to your hosts, either via a global setting or per-host configuration. For details, see OneAgent automatic updates.

Differences from OneAgent for Linux x86 and x64

These are the main differences between OneAgent for the ARM platform and OneAgent for Linux on x86 and x64:

• OneAgent for ARM comes equipped with deep monitoring modules for Java, NGINX, and Node.js. We’re actively working on additional modules and will release them as they become ready. Stay tuned for more announcements on this topic.
• As of this release, the log module is not yet available for the ARM platform. Stay tuned for more details.
• The plugin module is not available at this time.

Summary

OneAgent for the ARM platform is available in an Early Adopter release starting with OneAgent version 1.191. It’s supported for SUSE Enterprise Linux 15.x, CentOS 7.x and 8.x, Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and 20.04 LTS, and EulerOS 2.8, with other Linux distributions planned for support shortly. Early Adopter releases introduce new features on an opt-in basis. They are fully supported and production ready.

To see the current details of everything Dynatrace supports, see our supported technologies matrix.

Feedback or comments? Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us via your Account Manager, Dynatrace Community, or Dynatrace ONE.