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Agents & collectors

Vesana has three monitoring modes for gathering data:

Component Where What
Agent On the monitored machine Local checks: CPU, RAM, disk, service status, logs, custom scripts
Collector Linux VM in customer network Remote checks: SNMP, ping, SSH, HTTP, discovery
Active collector On the Vesana machine itself The server checks by itself — for checks that don't need a dedicated customer VM

All three are push-based — no inbound ports on monitored devices, no inbound from server to customer network.

When agent

  • Linux/Windows servers where you can install software
  • Workstations
  • Container hosts (Docker, Podman)
  • Anywhere local data is needed (service status, event log, per-mount disk)

When collector

  • Switches, routers, firewalls, UPSes, storage — anything reachable only via SNMP/ping
  • „We can't install anything there"
  • Discovery scans
  • When monitoring an isolated network (collector is the only outbound talker)

When active collector

The active collector is the third mode: instead of a VM in the customer network, the Vesana server itself runs the checks. Useful for:

  • Checks against externally reachable targets where a dedicated customer VM isn't worth it
  • A quick start without rolling out a collector at the customer first
  • Environments where no collector exists (yet)

There's a maximum of one active collector per Vesana instance, and it works across all tenants. Details: Active collector.

When both

Combined is fine and common:

  • Linux server: agent for local stuff, collector for ping (sees if routing works)
  • Storage: collector for SNMP, agent (on a server nearby) for pings

Architecture comparison

flowchart TB
    subgraph "Customer network"
        S1[Server with agent]
        S2[Server with agent]
        SW[Switch via SNMP]
        UPS[UPS via SNMP]
        C[Collector VM]
        SW -.SNMP.-> C
        UPS -.SNMP.-> C
    end
    subgraph "Vesana server"
        R[Receiver]
        AC[Active collector]
    end
    S1 -->|HTTPS POST| R
    S2 -->|HTTPS POST| R
    C -->|HTTPS POST| R
    AC -->|checks directly| R

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