Binding an Agent to a Server¶

The PEM agent runs as a service (on Windows) or as a daemon (on Linux), and is responsible for implementing scheduled tasks on the PEM server on behalf of the server. The PEM server installer automatically installs and configures an agent that is responsible for monitoring the PEM server. The PEM agent installer will setup and configure the agent to start automatically at boot time, however the agent can also be manually started if required.

To create a binding for a registered server, right click on the name of the server in the tree control, and select Properties from the context menu. Open the PEM Agent tab:

Use the fields on the PEM Agent tab to associate the server (defined on the Connection tab) with a PEM agent:

Use fields on the PEM Agent tab to specify connection details for the PEM agent:

Specify Yes in the Remote monitoring? field to indicate that the PEM agent does not reside on the same host as the monitored server. When remote monitoring is enabled, agent level statistics for the monitored server will not be available for custom charts and dashboards, and the remote server will not be accessible by some PEM utilities (such as Audit Manager, Capacity Manager, Log Manager, Postgres Expert and Tuning Wizard).
Select an Enterprise Manager agent using the drop-down listbox to the right of the Bound agent label. One agent can monitor multiple Postgres servers.
Enter the IP address or socket path that the agent should use when connecting to the database server in the Host field. By default, the agent will use the host address shown on the General tab. On a Unix server, you may wish to specify a socket path, e.g. /tmp.
Enter the Port number that the agent will use when connecting to the server. By default, the agent will use the port defined on the Properties tab.
Use the drop-down listbox in the SSL field to specify an SSL operational mode; specify require, prefer, allow, disable, verify-ca or verify-full.
Use the SSL field to specify an SSL operational mode.

Mode	Specify:
require	To require SSL encryption for transactions between the server and the agent.
prefer	To use SSL encryption between the server and the agent if SSL encryption is available.
allow	To allow the connection to use SSL if required by the server.
disable	To disable SSL encryption between the agent and the server.
verify-ca	To require SSL encryption, and to require the server to authenticate using a certificate registered by a certificate authority.
verify-full	To require SSL encryption, and to require the server to authenticate using a certificate registered by a `trusted` certificate authority.

For information about using SSL encryption, see Section 31.17 of the Postgres documentation.

Use the Database field to specify the name of the Postgres Plus database to which the agent will initially connect.
Specify the name of the user that agent should use when connecting to the server in the User name field. Note that if the specified user is not a database superuser, then some of the features will not work as expected. If you are using Postgres version 10 or above, you can use the pg_monitor role to grant the required privileges to a non-superuser. For information about pg_monitor role, see Default Roles.
Specify the password that the agent should use when connecting to the server in the Password field, and verify it by typing it again in the Confirm password field. If you do not specify a password, you will need to configure the authentication for the agent manually; you can use a .pgpass file for example.
Specify Yes in the Allow takeover? field to specify that the server may be “taken over” by another agent. This feature allows an agent to take responsibility for the monitoring of the database server if, for example, the server has been moved to another host as part of a high availability failover process.