FAQ: Monitoring and Alerts
On this page
- Host Configuration
- How do I add a new host or server?
- Can I monitor Kerberos-enabled instances?
- Data Presentation
- What are all those vertical bars in my charts?
- Data Retention
- What is the data retention policy for Cloud Manager?
- Alerts
- What do the alert conditions mean?
- What alerts are configured by default?
- OAuth 2.0 authentication for programmatic access to Cloud Manager is available as a Preview feature.
- The feature and the corresponding documentation might change at any time during the Preview period. To use OAuth 2.0 authentication, create a service account to use in your requests to the Cloud Manager Public API.
This addresses common questions about Cloud Manager and how it monitors MongoDB instances and alerts you of issues with those deployments.
Host Configuration
How do I add a new host or server?
Can I monitor Kerberos-enabled instances?
Yes. Cloud Manager does support monitoring for Kerberos-enabled MongoDB instances. To learn how this works, see Configure the MongoDB Agent for Kerberos.
Monitoring
Do I need an agent for every MongoDB instance?
No. In your Cloud Manager project, a single agent connects to all MongoDB databases. Configure firewalls to allow the agent to connect across data centers and servers.
Beginning with agent version 5.0.0, you can activate Monitoring with multiple agents to distribute monitoring assignments and provide failover. Cloud Manager distributes monitoring assignments among up to 100 running agents. If you run more than 100 agents, the additional agents behave as "standby" agents. For details, see Manage Monitoring Function.
Cloud Manager Premium uses 10-second granularity for monitoring metrics.
Where should I run the agent?
The amount of resources the agent requires varies depending
on infrastructure size, the number of servers and the databases it is
monitoring. Run the agent on an existing machine with additional
capacity that does not run a mongod instance. You may
also run the agent on a smaller dedicated instance.
The agent load scales with the number of monitored mongod
plus mongos processes and the number of databases in your MongoDB
environment.
For production environments, it is recommended to install the
agent on a dedicated server, and not on the
the same host as a data bearing mongod instance. This
allows you to perform maintenance on the mongod and its
host without affecting the monitoring for your deployment.
Additionally, an agent may contend for resources with the
mongod.
You can install the agent on the same system as an
arbiter, a mongos, or an application server depending on the
requirements of these services and available resources.
Can I run the agent on an AWS micro server?
If you monitor five or fewer mongod instances, you can use an AWS
micro server.
Why can't the agent connect to my host?
The most common problem is that the agent is unable to resolve the
hostname of the host. Check DNS and the /etc/hosts file.
The second most common problem is that there are firewall rules in place that prohibit access to the host from the agent.
To test the connection, login to the host running the agent and try
to connect using mongosh:
mongosh <hostname>:<port>/test
Note
Cloud Manager does not support port forwarding.
Why does the agent connect with hostnames instead of IP addresses?
By default, the agent resolves hostnames to connect. If the agent cannot connect by resolving a hostname, you can force the agent to prefer an IP address over its corresponding hostname for a specific IP address. Preferred hostnames also allow you to specify the hostname to use for servers with multiple aliases. This prevents servers from appearing multiple times under different names in the Cloud Manager interface.
To create a preferred hostname, go to Project Settings and add a Preferred Hostnames entry. For details, see Edit Project Settings
How do I setup and configure the agent?
See the README file included in the agent download.
How do I disable Monitoring in Cloud Manager?
Data Presentation
What are all those vertical bars in my charts?
A red bar indicates a server restart.
A orange bar indicates the server is now a primary.
A brown bar indicates the server is now a secondary.
Data Retention
What is the data retention policy for Cloud Manager?
Cloud Manager retains two distinct types of data: metrics, which describe usage; and snapshots, which back up your data.
Data-retention policies, as defined in the Terms of Service, are always subject to change.
Cloud Manager preserves:
Cloud Manager preserves metric data at the granularities specified for your Cloud Manager plan See Monitoring Metrics Per Cloud Manager Plan. Data-retention policies, as defined in the Terms of Service, are always subject to change.
Snapshots according to their retention policy.
Alerts
What do the alert conditions mean?
For a reference on the alert conditions, see Review Alert Conditions.
What alerts are configured by default?
See Configure Alert Settings for the default alert configurations as well as steps to add new alerts or modify existing alerts, including modifying the alert frequency.