Circonus: One Step Install, or C:OSI, is a new feature that enables a single prescriptive way to automate the process of bringing systems online and get metrics flowing from a new host into Circonus. This enhancement allows users to run a single command on a new node and it will automatically "self-instrument" important graphs, metrics, and worksheets.

A C:OSI command looks like this:

curl -sSL https://onestep.circonus.com/install | bash \
    -s -- \
    --key ... \
    --app ...

Just plug in the key and app values and run that command on a host. One step; that's it!

There's also a quick way in the Circonus GUI to copy the command you need with those key and app values plugged in. Just click the "Add Host +" button on either the host page or the default dashboard, and you can copy-and-past the C:OSI command from the dialog, with values for a new Host already plugged in:

Figure 1: Circonus GUI with C:OSI instructions exposed.

Or, you can get the key and app values from an existing API token:

  1. Log into Circonus API tokens. If you don't have any tokens, you'll need to add one by clicking the "New API Token +" button.

  2. Next to each token there is an information icon (i). Click this icon to expose the C:OSI command for that token.

                   token page
                                                      Figure 2: API Tokens page with C:OSI instructions exposed

  3. Select and copy the C:OSI command from the dialog.

  4. Run the installer command on a host. You're done!
You can see just how easy this process is in this short demo video:

                    

So what does C:OSI do? Without inhibiting customization and orchestration, a single cut-n-paste command does all of this in one step:

  1. It selects an agent.
  2. It installs the agent.
  3. It configures the agent to expose metrics.
  4. It starts the agent.
  5. It creates a check to retrieve and accept the metrics from the agent.
  6. It enables basic system metrics.
  7. It creates graphs for each of the basic metric groups. (E.g. cpu, memory, disk, network, file system, etc.)
  8. Optionally, it can also create a worksheet containing the basic graphs so there is a unified view of the specific host.

The source code for the C:OSI installer and other utilities are available on the Circonus Labs public Github repo, where you can view additional information about C:OSI, how it works, and customization options such as:

  • Command line options - to change the default configurations installed by C:OSI.
  • Installer Options - to set environment-wide options that change C:OSI's default behavior.
  • Configuration templates - to change the way C:OSI sets up default metrics, graphs, and worksheets.
  • Registration options - to override defaults and provide custom data to be used in configuration templates.
  • Installation hooks - to perform custom actions before or after NAD installation.
By modifying the C:OSI command, these options allow discerning users to benefit from the flexibility Circonus offers while still enjoying the simplicity of automating their onboarding process with C:OSI.