Efficiently monitoring your systems is crucial for maintaining health and performance. The Sensu agent plays a vital role in this, allowing you to collect data, run checks, and report events from your servers. Installing the Sensu agent on systems like Ubuntu and Debian involves adding the official Sensu repository and using the standard package manager. This guide walks you through the process step-by-step.
Before You Begin
Ensure you have administrative privileges on the target server, typically through sudo. An active internet connection is required to download packages.
Step 1: Add the Sensu Go Repository
The Sensu Go agent is available through official APT repositories. You’ll need to add the appropriate repository and import the GPG key used to sign the packages.
First, download and add the GPG key:
Use wget or curl to get the key and pipe it to apt-key add. For example:
wget -q https://packagecloud.io/sensu/stable/gpgkey -O /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/sensu-stable.gpg
Note: The exact command might vary slightly based on the Sensu version or recommended method, but the goal is to add the key.
Next, add the repository configuration file to your sources list. This file tells APT where to find the Sensu packages. Create a file like /etc/apt/sources.list.d/sensu.list.
For Ubuntu:
echo 'deb https://packagecloud.io/sensu/stable/ubuntu/ RELEASE main' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/sensu.list
Replace RELEASE with your Ubuntu release name (e.g., focal, jammy).
For Debian:
echo 'deb https://packagecloud.io/sensu/stable/debian/ RELEASE main' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/sensu.list
Replace RELEASE with your Debian release name (e.g., buster, bullseye).
Step 2: Update Your APT Cache
After adding the new repository, you must update your package list so APT knows about the available Sensu packages.
sudo apt-get update
This command fetches the package information from the newly added repository along with others.
Step 3: Install the Sensu Go Agent
Now that the repository is configured and your cache is updated, you can install the Sensu agent package using apt-get.
sudo apt-get install sensu-go-agent
Confirm the installation when prompted. APT will download and install the agent and its dependencies.
Step 4: Configure the Sensu Agent
The agent needs to know how to connect to your Sensu backend. The primary configuration file is located at /etc/sensu/agent.yml. You must at least specify the backend URL(s).
Edit the configuration file:
sudo nano /etc/sensu/agent.yml
Add or modify the following lines to point to your Sensu backend:
##
## Agent Configuration
##
backend-url:
- "ws://<your-sensu-backend-host>:8081"
#- "ws://<another-sensu-backend-host>:8081" # Add more for high availability
# Optional: Define the agent's name (defaults to hostname)
# name: "my-server-01"
# Optional: Add subscriptions for checks
# subscriptions:
# - "linux"
# - "webserver"
Replace <your-sensu-backend-host> with the hostname or IP address of your Sensu backend server. You can add multiple backend-url entries for redundancy.
Save and close the file.
Step 5: Start and Enable the Sensu Agent Service
With the configuration in place, you can now start the Sensu agent service. Sensu uses systemd on modern Ubuntu and Debian systems.
Start the service:
sudo systemctl start sensu-go-agent
Enable the service to start automatically on boot:
sudo systemctl enable sensu-go-agent
Step 6: Verify the Agent Status
Check the status of the Sensu agent service to ensure it is running correctly.
sudo systemctl status sensu-go-agent
You should see output indicating the service is active (running).
You can also check the agent logs for any errors or connection issues:
sudo journalctl -u sensu-go-agent -f
Look for messages indicating a successful connection to the backend.
By following these steps, you will have successfully installed and configured the Sensu agent on your Ubuntu or Debian server, bringing it under the monitoring umbrella of your Sensu Go cluster. Remember to adjust configuration based on your specific monitoring requirements and backend setup.
Source: https://kifarunix.com/install-sensu-agent-on-ubuntu-debian/
