Configuration properties and parameters of ActiveGate
Before you begin
Understand the basic ActiveGate configuration concepts related to the property files.
Host-based ActiveGates—that is ActiveGates deployed in a conventional manner, using an installer—and containerized ActiveGates use the same configuration properties, stored in the same configuration files. However, the actual values of these properties may differ and the properties are set or modified using different mechanisms: Host-based ActiveGates are configured directly on the host where ActiveGate is running, whereas containerized ActiveGates are configured using the configuration mechanism for your cloud platform.
Basic rules for working with ActiveGate configuration
ActiveGate configuration files
Many ActiveGate configuration settings (for example, connectivity and proxy settings, ciphers, or memory dump settings), are stored in the config.properties
and custom.properties
properties files, which are located in the ActiveGate configuration directory.
The properties listed in the property files are applicable for both Environment ActiveGates and Cluster ActiveGates.
The config.properties
and custom.properties
files are divided into sections. Each section name is enclosed in square brackets, for example:
[collector]
MSGrouter = true
restInterface = true
DumpSupported = false
config.properties
The config.properties
configuration file contains ActiveGate's default installation settings and is not customizable.
This configuration file is overwritten during each update of ActiveGate.
custom.properties
Settings stored in custom.properties
override the corresponding settings in config.properties
, and the file is copied to the new version of ActiveGate during the update.
The configuration files are split into [sections]
, which are indicated in square brackets.
To specify customized settings in custom.properties
, enter section names and include the appropriate properties within these sections.
You can use the config.txt
file as a reference when you add your custom settings to the custom.properties
file. The config.txt
file, which is also located in the ActiveGate configuration directory, is not used by ActiveGate, however it contains a reference list of possible configuration properties.
Alternatively, you can first locate the relevant section in the config.properties
file and then copy the section title along with the names of the desired properties into custom.properties
.
After that, you can modify the entries in the section, as appropriate.
launcheruserconfig.conf
ActiveGate launcher is a watchdog process that starts a Java virtual machine for your ActiveGate.
The launcher configuration is stored in the launcheruserconfig.conf
file, in the ActiveGate configuration directory. It contains launcher properties and parameters that are passed to the Java virtual machine.
The launcheruserconfig.conf
file is preserved during ActiveGate updates.
Restart ActiveGate
If you modify your ActiveGate configuration, you must restart the ActiveGate main service to put your changes into effect.
ActiveGate memory limits
Memory usage limits for ActiveGate can be specified in the launcher configuration file launcheruserconfig.conf
.
- Memory limit settings can be a combination of:
-java.xmx.relative_part
—percentage of available RAM, and-java.xmx.absolute_part
—absolute value of memory size, in MB
For example:
# Xmx settings 83% of available RAM + 0 MB
-java.xmx.absolute_part=0
-java.xmx.relative_part=83
-healthcheck.heartbeat.portrange=60100:60200
-arguments_section.jvm
-Dsomecustomproperty=value
ActiveGate heartbeat port range
The ActiveGate launcher monitors the ActiveGate process on a local heartbeat port. This port is chosen by the launcher, from a pre-defined range of ports, as specified in the launcher configuration. The launcher finds a free port, in the given range, and then passes the port number to the ActiveGate process.
By default, the launcher will utilize ports above 50000 for heartbeat monitoring. Certain deployments may require you to configure different ports for this purpose. To specify the port range that the ActiveGate launcher should use, add or modify the property -healthcheck.heartbeat.portrange
, in the launcher configuration file launcheruserconfig.conf
, as in the example below.
# Xmx settings 80% of available RAM + 0 MB
-java.xmx.absolute_part=0
-java.xmx.relative_part=83
-healthcheck.heartbeat.portrange=60100:60200
-arguments_section.jvm
-Dsomecustomproperty=value
Custom parameters for the ActiveGate Java process
To pass custom parameters to the ActiveGate Java process, specify the parameters in the launcher configuration file launcheruserconfig.conf
:
- All lines after
-arguments_section.jvm
are passed as arguments to the JVM. This way, by supplying-D
options, you can specify arguments for the ActiveGate.
For example:
# Xmx settings 80% of available RAM + 0 MB
-java.xmx.absolute_part=0
-java.xmx.relative_part=83
-healthcheck.heartbeat.portrange=60100:60200
-arguments_section.jvm
-Dsomecustomproperty=value
ActiveGate modules
Different functional features provided by ActiveGate are referred to as modules. When you are installing ActiveGate for a specific purpose, a different set of modules is installed or enabled.
A module is active if the corresponding configuration property is listed with value true
in the configuration section dedicated to the module. Note, however, that you can't enable all modules using custom.properties
simply by changing the value of a property: if you installed your ActiveGate to serve as a private Synthetic location or to monitor mainframe, and you need to change your ActiveGate purpose, you have to reinstall the ActiveGate.
Active modules are listed on the Deployment status page.
In addition to configuration sections dedicated to specific ActiveGate functionality, each ActiveGate module has its own section in the ActiveGate configuration files. Settings specified in this section apply specifically to that module. This applies, for example, to proxy settings. However, not all settings can be repeated in this way and specified for a module: Each module section has only a limited number of options that it accepts. Do NOT copy configuration settings between sections, unless specifically instructed to do so.
Module: AWS
AWS monitoring
Section: [aws_monitoring]
Property | Description |
---|---|
| Enables AWS monitoring module. Possible values: |
Module: Azure
Microsoft Azure monitoring
Section: [azure_monitoring]
Property | Description |
---|---|
| Enables Microsoft Azure module. Possible values: |
Module: Cloud Foundry
Cloud Foundry monitoring
Section: [cloudfoundry_monitoring]
Property | Description |
---|---|
| Enables Cloud Foundry module. Possible values: |
This section can contain proxy settings for communication with Cloud Foundry. If this section contains proxy-off = true
, then there is no proxy for communication with Cloud Foundry. If it contains the proxy-host
property, then this is the proxy to be used for Cloud Foundry monitoring, rather than the proxy specified in [http.client.external]
.
ActiveGate version 1.247 and earlier If you have a [cloudfoundry_monitoring]
section in your custom.properties
file, you also need to have an [http.client.external]
section, where you should specify all the remaining communication parameters that are to be used for Cloud Foundry communication.
Set up proxy only for Cloud Foundry monitoring
Module: Kubernetes
Kubernetes monitoring
Section: [kubernetes_monitoring]
Property | Description |
---|---|
| Enables Kubernetes monitoring module. Possible values: |
This section can contain proxy settings for communication with Kubernetes, along with other settings related to fine-tuning communication settings for Kubernetes monitoring.
If this section contains proxy-off = true
, then there is no proxy for communication with Kubernetes. If it contains the proxy-host
property, then this is the proxy to be used for Kubernetes monitoring, rather than the proxy specified in [http.client.external]
.
ActiveGate version 1.247 and earlier If you have a [kubernetes_monitoring]
section in your custom.properties
file, then you also need to have an [http.client.external]
section, where you should specify all of the remaining communication parameters to be used for Kubernetes communication.
Set up proxy only for Kubernetes monitoring
Module: Log Monitoring
Section: [log_analytics_collector]
Property | Description |
---|---|
| Enables Log Monitoring module. Possible values: |
Section: [generic_ingest]
Specifically for Log Monitoring, when configuring Generic Log Ingest, you can customize the log data queue properties. You can specify the temporary folder where the queued log data will be stored (default is the temporary folder currently configured on your system) and, change the maximum size of the queue that will be used in that folder (default size is 300 MB).
Property | Default value | Description |
---|---|---|
| Current system-wide temporary folder | Specifies the path to the temporary folder where the queued log data will be stored. |
| 300 MB | Specifies the maximum size of queued log data that can be stored in the temporary folder. |
Module: VMware
VMware monitoring
Section: [vmware_monitoring]
Property | Description |
---|---|
| Enables VMware monitoring module. Possible values: |
Module: Database insights
Oracle database insights
Section: [dbAgent]
Property | Description |
---|---|
| Enables Oracle database insights module. Possible values: |
Module: Extensions 1.0
Section: [rpm]
Property | Description |
---|---|
| Enables the Remote plugin module, which is used to run ActiveGate extensions. Possible values: |
Module: Extensions 2.0
Section: [extension_controller]
Property | Description |
---|---|
| Enables the Extensions 2.0 module. Possible values: |
Module: zRemote
Install the zRemote module for z/OS monitoring
Section: [zremote]
Property | Description |
---|---|
| Enables the zRemote module. Possible values: |
Module: Synthetic
Synthetic monitors from private Synthetic locations
Section: [synthetic]
Proxy settings for Synthetic Monitoring. If this section contains proxy-off = true
, then there is no proxy for Synthetic Monitoring. If it contains the proxy-host
property, then this is the proxy to be used for Synthetic Monitoring, rather than the proxy specified in [http.client.external]
(or in [http.client]
, if [http.client.external]
is not defined).
If you have a [synthetic]
section in your custom.properties
file, you can have an [http.client.external]
section, where you should specify all of the remaining communication parameters to be used for Synthetic Monitoring. Alternatively, you can specify the remaining communication settings in the [http.client]
section.
ActiveGate version 1.247 and earlier However, if you do create the [http.client.external]
section, you have to specify all of the communication parameters there. Otherwise, the communication parameters for monitored environments (Cloud Foundry, Kubernetes, or Synthetic Monitoring) will revert to their factory defaults.
To learn more about the proxy-related properties for a Synthetic-enabled ActiveGate, see Set up a proxy for private synthetic monitoring.
Note that changing the synthetic_enabled
property only works if you installed the ActiveGate to run Synthetic monitors from a private location. If you installed the ActiveGate to route traffic, monitor cloud environments, or monitor remote technologies with extensions or monitor mainframe, you have to reinstall the ActiveGate to use it for Synthetic Monitoring. For more information, see Create a private Synthetic location.
If a comma (,
) is part of a value, you need to add an escape backslash (\
) before the comma.
Example: proxy-password = foo\,bar
Property | Default value | Description |
---|---|---|
synthetic_enabled | false in the Default deployment mode true in the Synthetic monitoring deployment mode | Enables the ActiveGate to execute monitors from private Synthetic locations. |
synthetic_autoinstall | true to automatically update the Synthetic engine | Automatically set to true at installation time for Synthetic-enabled ActiveGates. |
proxy-server | unset | Proxy server address |
proxy-port | unset | Proxy port (numeric) |
proxy-user | unset | Proxy user name (optional) |
proxy-password | unset | Proxy password (optional) The password provided in the proxy-password property is obfuscated following ActiveGate restart and the obfuscated password is stored in the proxy-password-encr property. Note: A comma character, when intended to be a part of a value, should be escaped with a single backslash. For example, proxy-password = foo\,bar . |
proxy-off | unset | Disable proxy communication between ActiveGate and tested resource. |
proxy-non-proxy-hosts | unset | Do not use proxy when communicating with these hosts. |
chromium_repo | unset Specify the custom Chromium repository on the HTTP server. Example: https://172.18.0.100/chromium-repo Only works if both synthetic_autoinstall and synthetic_autoupgrade_chromium are true . | Enables autoupdate of Chromium from the custom repository. |
We recommend that you not edit the value of the synthetic_autoupgrade_chromium
property in custom.properties
because your changes might be overwritten.
synthetic_autoupgrade_chromium
for autoupdating Chromium can be defined at the location level (for locations with Environment ActiveGates) either via the web UI or by using the PUT a location API call of the Synthetic locations API v2. For Cluster ActiveGates, you can configure this property via the PUT a location (Dynatrace Managed) API call of the Cluster API v2. This property is not defined for ActiveGates that haven't been assigned to a location. For Activates assigned to a location, the default value is true
.
Module: Beacon forwarder
Using ActiveGate for Real User Monitoring
Section: [beacon_forwarder]
Property | Description |
---|---|
| Enables the Beacon forwarder module. Possible values: |
Module: HTTP Metric API
Metric ingestion: a simple way to push any custom metrics to Dynatrace
Section: [metrics_ingest]
Property | Description |
---|---|
| Enables HTTP Metric API module which facilitates metric ingestion. Possible values: |
Module: Memory dumps
Triggering and downloading of memory dumps
Section: [collector]
Property | Description |
---|---|
| Enables the memory dumps module. Possible values: |
When your application experiences memory leaks or high object churn, it’s important that you get memory dumps so you can analyze these issues. In production environments, this is often a challenge when you can’t log into the environment and you have no other means of triggering memory dumps. Dynatrace enables you to both trigger and securely download memory dumps to the analysis tool of your choice.
See Configure ActiveGate for memory dump storage.
Module: OneAgent routing
ActiveGate knows about the runtime structure of your Dynatrace environment and routes messages from OneAgents to the correct server endpoints. It handles message routing, buffering, compression, authentication and accessing of sealed networks.
Section: [collector]
Property | Description |
---|---|
| Enables the OneAgent routing module, which routes of OneAgent and other ActiveGate traffic through Dynatrace. Possible values: |
Module: OTLP Ingest
This module creates endpoints on the ActiveGate that can receive OpenTelemetry trace data (traces and spans) and metrics in OTLP format. Section: [otlp_ingest]
OpenTelemetry logs are handled by the Log Monitoring module.
Property | Description |
---|---|
| Enables the OTLP ingest module, which facilitates OpenTelemetry traces and metrics ingest. Possible values: |
Module: REST API
Section: [collector]
You can use an ActiveGate to access the Dynatrace API. ActiveGate supports calls to all the Dynatrace API configuration and environment endpoints in both, v1 and v2 versions. To access the Dynatrace API using ActiveGate, use a URL in the following format: https://{your-ActiveGate-domain}/e/{your-environment-id}/api/...
Property | Description |
---|---|
| Enables the REST API module, which facilitates access to Dynatrace API using REST. Possible values: |
Network zone
Section: [connectivity]
Property | Default value | Description |
---|---|---|
networkZone | unset | Defines the network zone to which the ActiveGate belongs. An ActiveGate can belong to only one network zone. The name of a network zone is a string of alphanumeric characters, hyphens ( |
bindToNetworkInterface | unset | By default, ActiveGate listens on all available interfaces. If you want ActiveGate to listen only to a selected interface, you need to configure this property with the IP address assigned to the network interface. |
Alternatively, to modify network zone assignment centrally from the Dynatrace Cluster, you can use Remote configuration management (select the modify network zone action).
Group
Section: [collector]
Property | Default value | Description |
---|---|---|
group | unset | ActiveGate group |
Alternatively, to modify ActiveGate group assignment centrally from the Dynatrace Cluster, you can use Remote configuration management (select the modify ActiveGate group action).
ActiveGate file cache
ActiveGate version 1.241+
The ActiveGate file cache reduces traffic between the ActiveGate and the Dynatrace Cluster by allowing OneAgents to download automatic updates from the ActiveGate rather than the Cluster.
The file cache is activated automatically when ActiveGate is installed or updated. However, activation occurs only when the minimum space requirement of 512 MB is met. If the minimum space requirement is not met, caching is automatically deactivated.
The file cache can be fine-tuned or deactivated in ActiveGate configuration, in the custom.properties
file:
Section: [generic_filecache]
Property | Default value | Description |
---|---|---|
|
| Enables or disables ActiveGate file cache. Possible values: |
|
| Path of the ActiveGate file cache directory. The directory will be created if it does not exist (if the file permissions allow it). |
|
| The size of the ActiveGate file cache in bytes. |
|
| The maximum file age for files stored in the ActiveGate file cache, in milliseconds. File age is counted from the time that a file was last used (not from upload/creation time). |
If the value contains a comma character, it must be escaped with a single backslash. For example, proxy-password = foo\,bar
.
Section: [com.compuware.apm.webserver]
Property | Default value | Description |
---|---|---|
port-ssl | 9999 | The port on which the ActiveGate listens for traffic from OneAgent—used for the HTTPS connection. If you need to change the port value, see ActiveGate plugin module custom configuration and Extension Execution Controller custom configuration. |
port | unset | The port on which the ActiveGate listens for traffic from OneAgent—used for the HTTP connection. It is disabled by default. On Linux, a value > 1024 is recommended to ensure no root privileges are required. |
ssl-protocols | TLSv1.2 , Dynatrace version 1.247+ TLSv1.3 | Supported SSL protocols. Can be one or a comma-separated list of values. Note that specifying a particular version does not automatically imply support for all the previous/lower versions—so you need to specify each version explicitly. The allowed values are TLSv1.2 and TLSv1.3 |
excluded-ciphers | unset | A list of excluded ciphers. Ciphers are defined by a substring matching at least a part of the cipher name, for example: excluded-ciphers = TLS_RSA_WITH,SHA$,TLS_ECDH |
certificate-file | unset | Path of the PKCS#12 file containing certificates to be used by the ActiveGate web server. Also see Configuration of custom SSL certificate on ActiveGate. |
certificate-password | unset | Password for the certificate file. |
certificate-alias | unset | Friendly name of the certificate in the PKCS#12 file. |
Operating over HTTPS vs HTTP
By default, ActiveGate operates in a secure way, by servicing incoming requests using HTTPS. This is specified by the port-ssl
configuration property, which can be customized in the custom.properties
file. However, if you want ActiveGate to use HTTP, you must specify the port
property in the custom.properties
.
Note that the secure way is the default and recommended one. However, you might want to choose the HTTP option for performance reasons. For example, if you have a load balancer installed in front of a Cluster ActiveGate and if the load balancer terminates incoming external SSL connections (see the third deployment scenario).
Section: [http.client]
Communication settings used for AWS/VMware/Azure monitoring and for communicating with the Dynatrace Cluster (unless overridden in [http.client.internal]
).
In particular, this section contains configuration properties related to proxy settings and connection timeouts.
Specify common proxy settings for Dynatrace Cluster communication and AWS/VMware/Azure monitoring.
Section: [http.client.internal]
Settings specific to communication with the Dynatrace Cluster only.
In particular, this section can contain configuration properties related to proxy settings and connection timeouts.
If this section contains proxy-off = true, then there is no proxy for communication with the Dynatrace Cluster. If it contains the proxy-host property, then this is the proxy to be used for communication with the Dynatrace Cluster.
If this section does not exist, communication with the Dynatrace Cluster is defined by the settings in the [http.client]
section.
ActiveGate version 1.247 and earlier If the [http.client.internal]
section does exist in which a particular communication setting is not listed, then, for the purpose of communicating with the Dynatrace Cluster, the value of that setting is assumed to be its factory default (it is not inherited from [http.client]
).
Set up proxy only for Dynatrace Cluster communication
Section: [http.client.external]
Communication settings for specific modules: Cloud Foundry, Kubernetes, and also for Synthetic Monitoring.
In particular, this section can contain configuration properties related to proxy settings and connection timeouts.
If this section contains proxy-off = true
, then there is no proxy for the modules. If it contains the proxy-host
property, then this is the proxy to be used for the modules.
ActiveGate version 1.247 and earlier
Communication settings specified in [http.client]
are not always used as defaults for the modules: If a particular communication setting is not specified in [http.client.external]
, then that setting—for Cloud Foundry, Kubernetes or Synthetic Monitoring—will revert to its factory default value, rather than to the value specified in [http.client]
.
Similarly, the entire [http.client.external]
section does not exist, then all of the communication settings for Kubernetes and Cloud Foundry will revert to their factory default values; however, settings for Synthetic Monitoring will assume values as specified in the [http.client]
section.
Specify common proxy settings for Cloud Foundry, Kubernetes, and Synthetic Monitoring
Section: [connectivity]
Property | Default value | Description |
---|---|---|
reverseDnsLookupEnabled | true | ActiveGate version 1.255+ Enabled or disables Fully Qualified Domain Name resolution using reverse DNS lookup. When enabled and standard FQDN resolution produces no result, the attempt to resolve the name using reverse DNS lookup is made. ActiveGates that were previously depicted by the IP address may now be presented by the hostname. Possible values: true or false . |