Basic Agent Usage for macOS

Overview

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

By default, the Agent is installed in a sandbox located at /opt/datadog-agent. You can move this folder anywhere; however, this documentation assumes a default installation location.

Supported macOS versions

macOS versionSupported Agent versions
macOS 10.10 & 10.11Agent v5
macOS 10.12Agent v5, Agent v6 until v6.34.0, Agent v7 until v7.34.0
macOS 10.13Agent v5, Agent v6 until v6.38.2, Agent v7 until v7.38.2
macOS 10.14+Agent v5, Agent v6, Agent v7

Commands

In Agent v6 and v7, the launchctl service manager provided by the operating system is responsible for the Agent lifecycle, while other commands must be run through the Agent binary directly. Alternatively, lifecycle commands can also be managed through the systray app, and other commands can be executed with the web GUI.

DescriptionCommand
Start Agent as a servicelaunchctl start com.datadoghq.agent or systray app
Stop Agent running as a servicelaunchctl stop com.datadoghq.agent or systray app
Restart Agent running as a servicerun stop then start or systray app
Status of Agent servicelaunchctl list com.datadoghq.agent or systray app
Status page of running Agentdatadog-agent status or web GUI
Send flaredatadog-agent flare or web GUI
Display command usagedatadog-agent --help
Run a checkdatadog-agent check <CHECK_NAME>
DescriptionCommand
Start Agent as a servicedatadog-agent start
Stop Agent running as a servicedatadog-agent stop
Restart Agent running as a servicedatadog-agent restart
Status of Agent servicedatadog-agent status
Status page of running Agentdatadog-agent info
Send flaredatadog-agent flare
Display command usagenot implemented
Run a checkdatadog-agent check <CHECK_NAME>

Configuration

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

  • ~/.datadog-agent/datadog.yaml

Configuration files for Integrations:

  • ~/.datadog-agent/conf.d/

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

  • ~/.datadog-agent/datadog.conf

Configuration files for Integrations:

  • ~/.datadog-agent/conf.d/

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