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Fully automatic code level monitoring and extended version support for AIX

In April of this year, we released a long-awaited GA version of the full-stack OneAgent for the IBM AIX operating system. This release enriched our family of full-stack OneAgents with an important contribution. AIX is considered to be one of the core operating systems used by our largest customers. Its presence may not be impressive from a statistical point of view, compared to Linux and Windows, but the number of services running on AIX and their scale is breathtaking.

In our continuous effort to enhance Dynatrace on all fronts, here are a couple of important improvements to AIX monitoring that we’re introducing with OneAgent version 1.175.

Fully automatic deep code monitoring module injection (Preview)

One of the unique strengths of Dynatrace OneAgent is the fully automated injection of the deep code monitoring module on Windows and Linux. Unlike the competition, our solution doesn’t require manual or semi-automatic instrumentation of Java, IBM HTTP Server / Apache, Websphere, etc., which involves additional effort from users and impacts time-to-value.

Our team is proud to announce the preview of the same easy deployment for AIX now as well. Fully automated deep code monitoring module injection is available starting with OneAgent version 1.175.

The solution is provided as an AIX kernel module which is deployed during the OneAgent installation process. To enable this kernel module, once you sign up for the preview, navigate to **Host settings > monitoring mode** and enable **Allow AIX kernel extension** switch.

The upgrade from earlier versions of OneAgent for AIX is completely automatic. If you have instrumented deep monitoring prior to the update to OneAgent 1.175, you don’t have to change anything in your existing configuration and startup scripts. If OneAgent 1.175 is being deployed as a fresh install, please folow instructions above.

Fully automatic deep code monitoring is available for all supported AIX versions, except AIX 6.1 TL9 SP9 (see details below). Deployment of OneAgent on AIX 6.1 TL9 SP9 still requires semi-automatic instrumentation of Java, IBM HTTP Server / Apache, Websphere, etc.

For the installation details, please refer to our updated documentation for deployment of OneAgent on AIX.

OneAgent support for AIX 6.1 TL9 SP9

Despite the fact that AIX 6.1 is considered a version with rapidly declining presence, some of our customers report it as having a significant footprint in their data centers. We understand that migrating from an older OS version to a new one comes with a lot of effort, detailed planning, risks, and potentially shutting down part of the infrastructure. For that reason, it’s not something large companies like doing very often. This is why AIX 6.1 is still present in many of the environments monitored by Dynatrace.

Because of this demand, we’re making an exception to our general rule and backporting OneAgent to AIX 6.1 TL9 SP9. The OneAgent provided for this version is almost identical in its functionality (please read on for more details) as compared to OneAgent for earlier versions of AIX OS. We hope that by providing this back support we are effectively lowering the stress associated with the migration to newer AIX versions, while allowing for full-stack monitoring of the associated LPARs and hosted services.

For the full list of operating systems and environments supported by OneAgent, please refer to the Supported technologies and versions page.

Feedback or comments?

The changes discussed in this article are effective with OneAgent version 1.175. As always, we welcome your comments and feedback. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us via your Dynatrace account manager, Dynatrace Community, or Dynatrace ONE.