Set up a server to work with Rackspace Intelligence

You can use Rackspace Intelligence to help you observe your server status if you configure it up to be visible by Rackspace Intelligence. This can be done through the Cloud Control Panel by following these steps:

1. Log in to the Cloud Control Panel.

   Note: You can open the control panel by clicking the Rackspace Intelligence menu at the top of the interface and selecting Rackspace Cloud.

2. From the top navigation bar, click Select a Product > Rackspace Cloud.

3. Create a server, or select an existing server.

   Note: For instructions on creating a server, see Create a Cloud Server.

4. List the server’s details by selecting Servers > Cloud Servers and then clicking the server’s name.

5. Scroll down to the Monitoring Data section and click the View Server’s Metrics in Rackspace Intelligence link.

6. Install the monitoring agent on the server by clicking Get Started.

7. Choose the platform installed on your server and choose the kind of instructions that you prefer.

   Note: You can automatically install the Monitoring Agent when creating a new cloud server. After choosing your server image and flavor, select Monitor recommended server metrics under Recommended Installs.

   The following example shows the step-by-step instructions for a Linux® platform. Follow the instructions to install, configure, and start the agent.

   

   The instructions require you to send commands to the server. The commands vary depending on the server’s operating system. Similarly, detailed procedures for sending commands to a server vary depending on what kind of workstation you use when you communicate with the server. For example, Connecting to Linux from Mac OS X by using Terminal shows how to install and use the Terminal utility on a macOS® X workstation communicating with a Linux server. If you are working in a different configuration, adapt these instructions to match your environment.

   Note: No matter what kind of server you want to monitor, you must know the server’s IP address and password before you can log in and begin installing the monitoring agent there. The Cloud Control Panel shows server’s IP address when you use it to list the server’s details. If you do not know the server’s password but can log in to the Cloud Control Panel for your account, you can change the server’s password as described at How to change your server root/admin password from your account.

   In the terminal session, you can confirm the installation succeeded if you see the Your Agent configuration is now complete message. When the agent is running, you can look again at the Monitoring Agent Installation page and see that the agent connection status is Connected.

8. Click Setup Checks to configure at least one check. In the following example, two CPU-related checks are configured, monitoring CPU usage and average CPU load.

   

9. Click Apply Checks to activate the checks that you defined. When the checks are activated, the Entities details page displays their status for the server in the Monitoring Checks section.

10. To make the checks useful, define alarms that identify boundaries between OK, Warning, and Critical statuses. For instructions, see Working with alarms.