Basic Agent Usage for Debian

Overview

This page outlines the basic features of the Datadog Agent for Debian. If you haven’t installed the Agent yet, instructions can be found in the Datadog Agent Integration documentation.

Packages are available for 64-bit x86 and Arm v8 architectures. For other architectures, use the source install.

Notes:

  • On the 64-bit x86 architecture, Debian 7 (wheezy) and above are supported in Agent < 6.36.0/7.36.0. Debian 8 (jessie) and above are supported in Agent >= 6.36.0/7.36.0. SysVinit is supported in Agent v6.6.0+.
  • On the 64-bit Arm v8 architecture, Debian 9 (stretch) and above are supported.

Commands

In Agent v6 and v7, the service manager provided by the operating system is responsible for the Agent lifecycle, while other commands must be run through the Agent binary directly. In Agent v5, almost everything is done through the service manager.

DescriptionCommand
Start Agent as a servicesudo service datadog-agent start
Stop Agent running as a servicesudo service datadog-agent stop
Restart Agent running as a servicesudo service datadog-agent restart
Status of Agent servicesudo service datadog-agent status
Status page of running Agentsudo datadog-agent status
Send flaresudo datadog-agent flare
Display command usagesudo datadog-agent --help
Run a checksudo -u dd-agent -- datadog-agent check <CHECK_NAME>

Note: If the service wrapper is not available on your system, use:

  • On upstart-based systems: sudo start/stop/restart/status datadog-agent
  • On systemd-based systems: sudo systemctl start/stop/restart/status datadog-agent

Configuration

The configuration files and folders for the Agent are located in:

  • /etc/datadog-agent/datadog.yaml

Configuration files for Integrations:

  • /etc/datadog-agent/conf.d/

Uninstall the Agent

To uninstall the Agent, run the following command:

sudo apt-get remove datadog-agent -y

This command removes the Agent, but does not remove:

  • The datadog.yaml configuration file
  • User-created files in the /etc/datadog-agent configuration folder
  • User-created files in the /opt/datadog-agent folder
  • The dd-agent user
  • Datadog log files

If you also want to remove these elements, run this command after removing the Agent:

sudo apt-get remove --purge datadog-agent -y

Uninstall Single Step APM Instrumentation

If you installed the Agent with Single Step APM Instrumentation, and you want to uninstall the Agent, you need to run additional commands to uninstall APM Instrumentation.

Troubleshooting

See the Agent Troubleshooting documentation.

Working with the embedded Agent

The Agent contains an embedded Python environment at /opt/datadog-agent/embedded/. Common binaries such as python and pip are contained within /opt/datadog-agent/embedded/bin/.

See the instructions on how to add packages to the embedded Agent for more information.

Further Reading