Configuring and running the Agent for usage reporting in Internet-connected environments

Configure the agent (deployed as beacon-agent) to allow it to connect to and fetch basic usage data from the source database and send it to EDB.

Preparation

1. Change to the OS user you previously created to perform the agent configuration.

2. Set the DSN environment variable to the Data Source Name (DSN) of one database in the server that you want to report usage about.

   For example, to connect as user postgres authenticated with password password to a database postgres on port 5432 you would specify:

   → WrapCopy

   export DSN="postgresql://postgres:password@localhost:5432/postgres"

   This environment variable is accessible for the current terminal session only. When running the agent as a service, ensure it is permanently available.

Create a configuration file and run the agent

1. Create a configuration directory for the agent in your home directory:

   → WrapCopy

   mkdir ${HOME}/.beacon

   Note

   If the location specified above is not convenient, you also use either:

   • /etc/beacon
   • The directory from which you execute any beacon-agent command.

   The agent looks for its configuration file starting with /etc/beacon, then ${HOME}/.beacon. As a final fallback, it searches the directory from which it's executed.

2. Inside this directory, create a new file beacon_agent.yaml

   → WrapCopy

   touch .beacon/beacon_agent.yaml

3. Copy and paste the following template into the new file. This template is designed to enable usage reporting.

   → WrapCopy

   ---
   agent:
   general:
     metrics:
       usage:
         company_code: <company-code>
         output:
           file:
             enabled: true
             path: beacon_usage.json
           http:
             enabled: true
   provider:
     onprem:
       runner:
         enabled: true
       databases:
         - resource_id: <resource_id>
           dsn: $DSN
   ---

   The placeholders denoted by <> should be replaced with appropriate values. Refer to Parameter reference for explanations of each parameter and how to obtain the appropriate value.

4. The agent is now configured, proceed to running the agent.

5. Review the beacon_usage.json to ensure that the information is accurate and does not contain any data you are not happy to share with EDB.

6. Enable reporting to EDB by setting general.metrics.usage.output.http.enabled to true and rerunning the agent.

Next step

Configure the agent to run as a service ► Reports are generated every 12 hours while the Agent is running.