Early Access: Support for musl-libc based Alpine Linux containers

With OneAgent version 105, we’ve ported the OneAgent modules for Java and Nginx so that they now work with musl-libc, and thereby Alpine Linux-based containers. This gives you full code-level insight into musl-libc based Java processes. For Nginx, OneAgent can now inject the JavaScript tag required for real user monitoring. We’re also working on support for Node.js, Apache HTTPD, and PHP, which will be available within the next few months.

Note: OneAgent must still be installed on a glibc-based Linux distribution, but it can now monitor containers that host musl-libc based Java or Nginx processes.

Alpine Linux is promoted by Docker as the standard distribution for container images. It addresses the need for smaller image sizes and faster startup times in microservices environments. Unlike most other Linux distributions, Alpine doesn’t use the GNU C library glibc. Instead, it relies on the lightweight alternative, musl-libc. This means that most applications need to be specially compiled and—in many instances—adapted for Alpine Linux, or otherwise provide their own glibc version.

Join the musl-libc early access program

If you’re using or plan to use Docker containers with musl-libc based Java or Nginx, drop us an email with you environment details. We’ll enable musl-libc support for you so that you can be among the first users to monitor musl-libc based systems with Dynatrace.