Host and Operate a Public Monitoring Agent

    What you are going to learn:

  • The requirements and steps for hosting and operating a Public Monitoring Agent

This article will go through the requirements and steps for hosting and operating a Public Monitoring Agent. This type of agent is available to all Obkio users to allow them to monitor and troubleshoot network performance up to that agent.

These agents are usually installed by service providers such as ISPs, VoIP, SaaS or Cloud providers. Want to learn about how a Service Provider can use a public monitoring agent to support its users? Read this blog post: BeeVox Network Monitoring Case Study for Service Providers.

The company that hosts and operates a public monitoring agent is named the Operator in this article. If you are interested by hosting and operating a public monitoring agent, contact your Account Manager.

Business Requirements
Business Requirements

Before going into the technical requirements, there are some business requirements for hosting and operating a public monitoring agent. These requirements are in place to make sure all parties (Operator, User and Obkio) will benefit from this public monitoring agent.

  • The Operator must be an active customer of Obkio's Solution. The Operator IT support team must know enough about Obkio's solution to help its users use the public monitoring agent for monitoring and troubleshooting.
  • The Operator must commit to leaving the agent running and active for several years. Running the agent for only a few months doesn't create any value to Obkio Users that will use that agent.
  • The Operator must fix any issues that can affect the agent's performance quickly.
  • The Operator must support users who reach out to them with performance issues.
  • The Operator must announce the public monitoring agents to its customers (ex: blog post, newsletter, social media, website).

Once the agent is verified by the Obkio technical team (later on that below), Obkio will:

  • Add the agent to the Public Monitoring Agents Directory.
  • Add the agent to the App Public Monitoring Agents list.
  • Publish a blog post announcing the new public monitoring agent.
  • Announce the new public monitoring agent on Obkio's social media accounts.

Technical Requirements
Technical Requirements

The public monitoring agent must be running on Linux with the minimum specifications detailled in the Linux Software Agent Installation Guide. Here are some details about the agent configuration:

  • Agent mode set to Private Internet Server
  • Incoming TCP/UDP port must be the default value (23999)
  • Speed Tests Limits and APM HTTP Rate Limit can be configured
  • Contact Details must be a valid email address to receive user support requests
  • Location field must be filled with a meaningful description for the Operator (ex: city, cloud region, datacenter name)

Go Live Process
Go Live Process

Once the agent is configured, the Obkio support team will verify the configuration and performance of the agent. When everything is running correctly, the agent will be ready to be set public. This go-live process is coordinated by the Obkio Account Manager.