Transition to the Generally Available version of the Ops Agent

The Ops Agent is now Generally Available. The GA version incorporates fixes and improvements based on the feedback from Preview users. This guide provides migration steps for the following users:

• Ops Agent Preview users to migrate to the GA version of the agent.

• Users of the legacy Logging and Monitoring agents to migrate to the Ops Agent.

Migrating from Ops Agent Preview to the GA version

To install the latest version of the Ops Agent, complete the Upgrading the agent procedures.

If you edited the agent's default configuration to remove the default_pipeline, add the following snippet to the agent configuration to keep that pipeline disabled:

logging:
  service:
    pipelines:
      default_pipeline:
        receivers: []
        exporters: []
metrics:
  service:
    pipelines:
      default_pipeline:
        receivers: []
        exporters: []

Changes in commands for managing the Ops Agent

The following table lists the commands for managing the agent that changed for the GA release:

Procedure	GA version	Preview version
Starting the agent	sudo service google-cloud-ops-agent start	N/A
Stopping the agent	sudo service google-cloud-ops-agent stop	N/A
Restarting the agent	sudo service google-cloud-ops-agent restart	sudo systemctl restart google-cloud-ops-agent.target
Checking agent status	sudo service google-cloud-ops-agent status	sudo systemctl status google-cloud-ops-agent.target

Migrating from the legacy agents to the Ops Agent

To migrate from the legacy Logging and Monitoring agents, complete the following steps.

1. Uninstall the Logging and the Monitoring agents.

   After you uninstall the agent, the Google Cloud console might take up to one hour to report this change.

2. Install the latest version of the Ops Agent on a single virtual machine.

   You also have the option of installing and managing the Ops Agent on multiple VMs.

3. Configure the Ops Agent as needed.

Differences in how metrics are collected

The following table describes differences in the data ingested by the Ops Agent and the Monitoring agent.

Metric type, omitting agent.googleapis.com	Ops Agent (GA)^†	Ops Agent (Preview)^†	Monitoring agent
cpu_state	The possible values for Windows are idle, interrupt, system and user.	The possible values for Windows are idle, interrupt, system and user.	The possible values for Windows are idle and used.
disk/bytes_used and disk/percent_used	Ingested with the full path in the device label; for example, /dev/sda15. Not ingested for virtual devices like tmpfs and udev.	Ingested without /dev in the path in the device label; for example, sda15. Ingested for virtual devices like tmpfs and udev.	Ingested without /dev in the path in the device label; for example, sda15. Ingested for virtual devices like tmpfs and udev.

^† The GA column refers to Ops Agent versions 2.0.0 and higher. The Preview column refers to Ops Agent versions less than 2.0.0.