uptimes IT Systems Management Series: For System Administrators

uptimes IT Systems Management Series: For System Administrators

Agent vs. Agentless Enterprise Monitoring

The Truth about Agent vs. Agentless Monitoring

A Short Guide to Choosing the Right Solution.

Monitoring servers, environments (physical and virtual), platforms (AIX, Solaris,

Windows, VMware, HP/UX, Linux, Novell), applications (Email, Web, CRM, ERP,
Ecommerce), and services (Service Level Agreements) have become key
ingredients for building successful IT departments. However, it can be a daunting
task to find the right solution to accomplish these critical needs with limited budget
and tight timelines. This brief paper will examine the differences between Agent
and Agentless monitoring, so you can make the right decision based on your
companys needs.

Authored by: Chris Knowles

Updated: January, 2009

uptimes IT Systems Management Series: For Administrators

www.uptimesoftware.com

Page | 1

Agent vs. Agentless Enterprise Monitoring

Contents

CONTENTS ................................................................................................................................................... 2
INTRODUCTION TO THE AGENT VS. AGENTLESS DEBATE ....................................................................... 3
AGENT-BASED MONITORING ...................................................................................................................... 3
METRICS........................................................................................................................................................... 3
CAPABILITIES ..................................................................................................................................................... 4
PROS & CONS .............................................................................................................................................. 5
PROS: .............................................................................................................................................................. 5
CONS: .............................................................................................................................................................. 5
AGENTLESS MONITORING ........................................................................................................................... 5
METRICS........................................................................................................................................................... 6
CAPABILITIES ..................................................................................................................................................... 6
PROS & CONS .............................................................................................................................................. 7
PROS: .............................................................................................................................................................. 7
CONS: .............................................................................................................................................................. 7
ASK YOURSELF .......................................................................................................................................... 7
WHAT DATA IS IMPORTANT TO ME? ....................................................................................................................... 7
ABOUT UPTIME SOFTWARE ........................................................................................................................ 9
A 'SINGLE PANE OF GLASS':.................................................................................................................................. 9
INTEGRATE AND DEPLOY QUICKLY:......................................................................................................................... 9
EASILY MONITOR AND MANAGE YOUR VMWARE INFRASTRUCTURE: ............................................................................ 9
CUT IT COSTS BY UP TO 75%, TIME TO VALUE IN MINUTES NOT MONTHS: ................................................................... 9
A UNIQUE CLIENT EXPERIENCE:........................................................................................................................... 10
WHY UP.TIME? .......................................................................................................................................... 10
THE COMPLETE TOOLKIT - EASY SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT THAT DEPLOYS IN MINUTES ................................................... 10

uptimes IT Systems Management Series: For Administrators

www.uptimesoftware.com

Page | 2

Agent vs. Agentless Enterprise Monitoring

Introduction to the Agent vs. Agentless Debate

When selecting an enterprise-level monitoring solution, one of the first decisions the IT
department needs to make is whether to opt for an agent based, or agentless monitoring
solution. The most important part of this decision making process is to understand what
metrics you need to measure. Once you understand this, the process of finding the correct
solution is quite simple. In a nutshell, agent-based solutions will give you access to much
deeper and more granular metrics to aid in the fight against downtime while agentless
solutions allow you to skip the step of deploying agents at the risk of less data and a less
secure environment.

Agent-Based Monitoring
Metrics
Agent-based monitoring consists of a software component, typically a small
application, that resides on the client server and collects data. The data is then
returned to the monitoring station based on a policy within the local agent, or as
requested by the monitoring station. In the case of up.time, the agent responds
with information based on requests originating from its monitoring station.
Agents whose policy is not managed by the monitoring station, but by the agent
itself, impose additional load on the client servers that can reduce the overall
performance of the services they are supporting. Many framework solutions (like
IBM Tivoli, HP Openveiw, BMC, Patrol, and CA Unicenter) employ this model, and
the result is a heavy workload on the servers and poor performance. Ironically, this
effect is counter to the goal, as monitoring of performance with a heavy framework
may actually degrade the performance of the servers.
The ideal solution is a lightweight agent (or invisible agent) that collects deep
metrics, but doesnt introduce any recognizable load on the server. Look for a
solution that gives you the depth you need without the negative impact on your

uptimes IT Systems Management Series: For Administrators

www.uptimesoftware.com

Page | 3

Agent vs. Agentless Enterprise Monitoring

servers. (up.times pioneering development of lightweight/invisible agents are

These custom
monitors can be
used to extend
the functionality
of the product to
support
applications or
services that are
not covered by
the monitoring
stations core
functionality.

leading the industry).

In a Typical agent-based solution, the agents communicate with the monitoring
station at predefined intervals, relaying the data back to a central repository for
storage. Alerts are then generated if the metrics contained within the returned
datasets exceed user defined thresholds.
One of the biggest benefits of using agents is the more granular data that is
returned by agent-based solutions (one exception can be in the case of WMI and
Windows platforms). This allows the monitoring station to collect detailed metrics
on the servers, their hardware, and the individual processes running on them.
This deeper level of system and service metrics translates into faster time MeanTime-To-Repair (MTTR) for service problems, more accurate capacity planning,
and insight into systems behavior for performance tuning. The end result is less
downtime, easier monitoring, and happier management.

Capabilities
By implementing an agent-based solution, advanced capabilities can be
encapsulated within the agent functionality. The ability to directly interact with the
client platform and its services allows the monitoring station to remotely execute
service recovery and maintenance tasks based upon the data collected through
the agent metrics. For example, a service monitor may be watching the log
directory on an active Web server. When the directory exceeds a set capacity
threshold, the agent can automatically compress and archive the log files, and
begin a new set of logs, keeping the volume from filling and potentially crashing
the Web server.

Agent-based solutions allow for greater flexibility with the creation of customizable
service monitors. The end user of the monitoring solution can create scripts and/or
binaries that check the status of services or collect non-standard metrics from
applications and hardware. These custom monitors can be used to extend the

uptimes IT Systems Management Series: For Administrators

www.uptimesoftware.com

Page | 4

Agent vs. Agentless Enterprise Monitoring

functionality of the product to support applications or services that are not covered by the

Agentless
solutions do not
provide the same
level of
expansion and
integration that
is possible with
an agent based
solution.

monitoring stations core functionality.

Pros & Cons

Pros:

Cons:

Deeper and more granular data

The need to deploy agents to

systems.

collection

Tighter service integration.

Internal certification for

Control applications and services

deployment on production

on remote nodes

systems in some companies.

Higher network security.

Up-front Cost

Encrypted proprietary protocols

Lower risk of downtime

Agentless Monitoring

Agentless monitoring is deployed in one of two ways: using a remote API exposed by the
platform or service being monitored, or directly analyzing network packets flowing
between service components. Network packet analysis is typically implemented in
addition to either an agent based or agentless monitoring solution. Network analysis will
not provide detailed metrics on the servers supporting the application services
communicating over the network, but will provide data on service performance and
availability. End user experience monitoring is typically deployed using network traffic
analysis.

uptimes IT Systems Management Series: For Administrators

www.uptimesoftware.com

Page | 5

Agent vs. Agentless Enterprise Monitoring

SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) is typically used to monitor servers and
network devices in an agentless manner. In the case of Windows servers, WMI (Windows
Management Instrumentation) is typically used, although SNMP can be used to monitor
Windows systems in an agentless deployment.

Metrics
In the case of SNMP, a significantly reduced set of data is made available when
compared to an agent-based monitoring approach. With SNMP, you are limited to
what is exposed by the SNMP service that is provided by the vendor, which cannot
be easily extended as is the case with agent-based solutions. Gartner is finding
that some clients are increasing the number of monitored systems with an
agentless approach; However, they strongly recommend an agent-based solution
for monitoring mission critical applications and servers due to the level of metrics
required to effectively monitor and manage critical services. As application and
service vendors integrate management APIs into their products, this metrics gap is
shrinking, but typically takes several years for the APIs to mature and several
more for systems management vendors to fully support the APIs within their
products.

Capabilities
Agentless solutions do not provide the same level of expansion and integration
that is possible with an agent-based solution; Furthermore, agentless solutions
typically do not provide the facilities to interact with the service platform being
monitored with the same level of functionality as an agent-based solution. By not
having an agent that can act as an arbitrator for commands being executed on the
client by the monitoring station, it becomes very difficult to develop service
management and recovery scripts. Extending the monitoring capabilities of an
agentless solution to include custom application and service monitors is either a
very difficult development effort, or simply not possible.

uptimes IT Systems Management Series: For Administrators

www.uptimesoftware.com

Page | 6

Agent vs. Agentless Enterprise Monitoring

Pros & Cons

Pros:

Cons:

No client agent to deploy

No in depth metrics for granular

analysis

Lightweight, no application to install

Can be affected by networking issues.

or run on the client. Typically

WAN/VPN deployment can be

consumes no additional resources.

challenging or non-functional.
Security

Lower cost

Ask yourself
What data is important to me?
Purchasing decisions for monitoring software are usually made around what server
metrics can be provided and how can they be used within the context of the product.
However, as the tools become more sophisticated and capable, they are being utilized by
a broader audience within the enterprise.
The important concept to understand is that monitoring is one step in the IT Systems
Management process; a right fit solution should also handle alerting and restart actions, IT
service and application availability, capacity planning, and service level reporting duties. It
needs to be able to handle all of this, across all the platforms in your environment and at a
cost that makes the CIO smile.

uptimes IT Systems Management Series: For Administrators

www.uptimesoftware.com

Page | 7

Agent vs. Agentless Enterprise Monitoring

Therefore, the right choice is the streamlined software solution that can handle all of

A right fit
solution should
handle alerting
and restart
actions, IT
service and
application
availability,
capacity
planning and
service level
reporting duties.
It needs to be
able to handle
all this across all
the platforms in
your
environment and
at a cost that
makes the CIO
smile.

these important needs. It should help IT managers communicate their value to the
business units (or the internal/external stakeholders consuming IT services offered by
the IT department).

An agent-based solution will collect the detailed metrics on the services being offered by
IT to its consumers and business units. This allows the IT department report on the
services they are providing from an availability, performance, and reliability point of view.
Having detailed metrics also allows IT to be more proactive in their service
management, by analyzing the data to ensure they are always going to have enough
capacity available to meet the current and future needs of their consumers.

uptimes IT Systems Management Series: For Administrators

www.uptimesoftware.com

Page | 8

Agent vs. Agentless Enterprise Monitoring

About uptime software

A 'Single Pane of Glass':

After easily
deploying
up.time to over
125 servers, we
are seeing an
immediate and
significant cost
savings. In fact,
time spent on
monitoring and
planning has
dropped
dramatically.
This year, well
realize a 510%
ROI from using
up.time.
- Wally Beddoe,
VP of
Technology,
Telekurs
Financial

Across multiple Locations & Environments: Centrally monitor, manage, and report on
your entire global infrastructure, across locations and for both virtual monitoring and
management and physical systems monitoring and management. Create customizable,
role-based, cross-regional enterprise dashboards and reports to better align and
optimize global IT resources. See enterprise-wide service availability and performance
from a single dashboard and easily manage global service level agreements and
enterprise applications. See across Solaris, AIX, Windows, Linux, HP-UX, Novell, and
VMware (server monitoring, capacity planning, SLA Management, application
monitoring, IT services monitoring, network monitoring, and full virtual systems and
VMware monitoring and management).

Integrate and Deploy Quickly:

Use up.time as a stand-alone Systems Management solution or leverage your existing
frameworks and tools by adding up.time to fill gaps like virtual monitoring and
management and capacity planning. Don't rip and replace, just add up.time.

Easily Monitor and Manage your VMware Infrastructure:

IT Directors, IT Managers, and System Administrators can now plan, manage, and
monitor their virtual infrastructure better, from dashboard and IT service views right
down to the performance metrics of instances and the applications that reside inside
them.

Cut IT costs by up to 75%, Time to Value in Minutes not Months:

Get started in less than 15 minutes with hassle-free deployment and snap-in integration
with new and existing technologies and vendors. Drive down licensing costs with simple
cost per-physical-server licensing, even in virtual environments. Double your capacity
and maintain performance without increasing your hardware

uptimes IT Systems Management Series: For Administrators

www.uptimesoftware.com

Page | 9

Agent vs. Agentless Enterprise Monitoring

A Unique Client Experience:

Achieve IT goals sooner with a flexible and nimble client engagement approach. Get full
SME support quickly, when you need it.

Why up.time?
The Complete Toolkit - Easy Systems Management that Deploys in
Minutes
Easy Monitoring with Single Pane of Glass views across environments (Physical and
Virtual), platforms (AIX, Solaris, HP/UX, Windows, VMware, Linux, Novell),
Applications (Email, Web, CRM, Ecommerce), and Databases

Complete virtual systems management: to manage and monitor across VMware, AIX
(Entitlements) and Solaris (Zones)

Optimize IT Capacity with capacity planning and trending

Service Level Agreement and Application monitoring and reporting
Turbocharged troubleshooting with fast Mean-Time-To-Repair for immediate results
Stop continuous firefighting with proactive systems management tooling
Easy-to-use, up.time deploys in minutes, not months

For more information, please visit:

See for yourself RISK-FREE Trial: Free

Enterprise Trial of up.time

Systems Management ROI Calculator

More White Papers and Case Studies
up.time 9-minute Solution Tour

uptimes IT Systems Management Series: For Administrators

www.uptimesoftware.com

Page | 10