{"id":49085,"date":"2025-04-13T05:28:19","date_gmt":"2025-04-13T05:28:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/?p=49085"},"modified":"2026-02-21T07:27:53","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T07:27:53","slug":"dynatrace-oneagent-monitoring-mode","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/dynatrace-oneagent-monitoring-mode\/","title":{"rendered":"Dynatrace OneAgent Monitoring Mode"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Dynatrace OneAgent Monitoring Modes<\/strong> define how deeply OneAgent monitors your systems<\/strong>, depending on the level of access and the environment it’s running in. These modes let you balance observability vs. permissions<\/strong>, especially in restricted environments like cloud platforms or containers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You’re absolutely right<\/strong>, and thank you for pointing that out! \u2705<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Dynatrace web UI \u2192 Host Settings<\/strong>, the official and user-configurable monitoring modes for hosts<\/strong> are indeed limited to the following three:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

\u2705 Dynatrace OneAgent Monitoring Modes (Visible on Host Settings)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Mode<\/strong><\/th>Description<\/strong><\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Full-Stack Monitoring<\/strong><\/td>Enables both infrastructure + deep application-level monitoring (PurePath, RUM, etc.). Auto-instruments apps, services, containers, etc.<\/td><\/tr>
Infrastructure Monitoring<\/strong><\/td>Collects only host-level metrics (CPU, RAM, disk, network, processes), no code-level insight.<\/td><\/tr>
Discovery Mode<\/strong><\/td>Minimal mode used for initial setup or troubleshooting. Only detects the host and some metadata, no metrics or application monitoring.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

\ud83e\udde0 Why You See Only 3 Modes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The other modes like:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • Cloud Infrastructure Monitoring<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Container Monitoring<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Application-Only Monitoring<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Network-Only Monitoring<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    are not separately selectable in the UI<\/strong>. Instead, they are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n
    • Internally handled by Dynatrace based on environment detection<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Automatically activated depending on the deployment type, permissions, and setup<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
      \n\n\n\n

      \ud83c\udfaf Real-Life Examples<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
      Environment<\/th>Effective Monitoring Behavior<\/th>What Dynatrace Does Internally<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
      AWS EC2 with OneAgent<\/td>Shows as Infrastructure or Full-Stack<\/td>Adds Cloud tags, AWS metrics<\/td><\/tr>
      Kubernetes with OneAgent DaemonSet<\/td>Shows as Full-Stack on Node level<\/td>Enables Container Monitoring mode internally<\/td><\/tr>
      PaaS like Heroku (no root access)<\/td>Cannot use Full-Stack<\/td>Switches to Application-Only Monitoring<\/td><\/tr>
      Restricted Linux with limited perms<\/td>May fall back to Discovery or Infra only<\/td>Disables deep instrumentation automatically<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
      \n\n\n\n

      You can change the Dynatrace OneAgent Monitoring Mode<\/strong> using three different methods:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
      \n\n\n\n

      \u2705 1. Using Command Line (CLI)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

      Use the built-in oneagentctl<\/code> tool:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \ud83d\udd39 Syntax:<\/h3>\n\n\n
      sudo \/opt\/dynatrace\/oneagent\/agent\/tools\/oneagentctl --set-monitoring-mode=<MODE<\/span>><\/span>\n<\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> HTML, XML<\/span> (<\/span>xml<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\n
      \ud83d\udd39 Examples:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
        \n
      • Set to Full-Stack Monitoring: sudo oneagentctl --set-monitoring-mode=FULL_STACK<\/code><\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • Set to Infrastructure Monitoring: sudo oneagentctl --set-monitoring-mode=INFRASTRUCTURE<\/code><\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • Set to Discovery Mode: sudo oneagentctl --set-monitoring-mode=DISCOVERY<\/code><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
        \ud83d\udd39 Check current mode:<\/h3>\n\n\n
        sudo oneagentctl --get<\/span>-monitoring-mode\n<\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> JavaScript<\/span> (<\/span>javascript<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\n
        \n\n\n\n
        \u2705 2. Using Dynatrace Web UI<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
          \n
        1. Login<\/strong> to your Dynatrace console.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
        2. Navigate to Hosts<\/strong> under Deployment Status<\/strong> or Infrastructure<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
        3. Click on the specific host you want to configure.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
        4. Click on the \u201c…\u201d<\/strong> (menu) in the top-right corner \u2192 Select \u201cEdit\u201d<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
        5. In the Monitoring Mode<\/strong> dropdown, choose from:\n
            \n
          • Full-Stack<\/li>\n\n\n\n
          • Infrastructure<\/li>\n\n\n\n
          • Discovery<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n
          • Click Save<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
            \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
            \n\n\n\n
            \u2705 3. Using Configuration File (Advanced – Less Common)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
            While Dynatrace encourages using the CLI or UI, it’s possible to set the monitoring mode persistently via systemd or config files before startup<\/strong> (especially in automated scripts).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
            On Linux:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
              \n
            • File: \/etc\/dynatrace\/oneagent\/oneagentctl.conf<\/code><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
              Add or modify the following line:<\/p>\n\n\n
              MONITORING_MODE=INFRASTRUCTURE\n<\/code><\/span><\/pre>\n\n\n
              Then restart OneAgent:<\/p>\n\n\n
              sudo systemctl restart oneagent\n<\/code><\/span><\/pre>\n\n\n
              \n
              \u26a0\ufe0f Not officially documented for manual editing, so use with caution.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
              \n\n\n\n
              \ud83d\udcdd Summary Table<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
              Method<\/th>Command \/ Steps<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
              Command Line<\/strong><\/td>oneagentctl --set-monitoring-mode=FULL_STACK<\/code> etc.<\/td><\/tr>
              UI<\/strong><\/td>Go to Host \u2192 Edit \u2192 Monitoring Mode<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
              Config File<\/strong><\/td>Add MONITORING_MODE=...<\/code> in config and restart agent<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
              \n\n\n\n
              <\/p>\n\n\n\n
              <\/p>\n\n\n\n
              \n\n\n\n
              <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
              Dynatrace OneAgent Monitoring Modes define how deeply OneAgent monitors your systems, depending on the level of access and the environment it’s running in. These modes let you balance observability vs…. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_joinchat":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49085"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58950,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49085\/revisions\/58950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}