How Does eG Enterprise Monitor the Alibaba Cloud?

eG Enterprise supports agentless monitoring of the Alibaba cloud.

A single remote agent, deployed on a Windows host, makes REST API requests to the Alibaba cloud to pull a wealth of information related to the composition and performance of a configured cloud account.

To pull these useful metrics, the eG agent needs to be configured with an AccessKey pair. An AccessKey pair is typically used to call an operation of an Alibaba Cloud service. It is also used to initiate an API request or use a cloud service SDK to manager cloud resources. An AccessKey pair is characterized by an AccessKey ID and an AccessKey Secret. The AccessKey ID is used to identify a user/cloud account. The AccessKey Secret is used to verify a user/cloud account.

The first step to configuring the eG agent with an AccessKey pair is to create an AccessKey pair for the target cloud account. To achieve this, follow the steps below:

  1. Log on to the RAM console by using an Alibaba Cloud account.
  2. In the left-side navigation pane, click Users under Identities.
  3. On the Users page, click the username of the RAM user for which you want to create an AccessKey pair in the User Logon Name/Display Name column.

  4. On the page that appears, click Create AccessKey in the User AccessKeys section.

    Note:

    You must enter a verification code if you create an AccessKey pair for the first time.

  5. Click Close.

    Note:

    • The AccessKey secret is displayed only when you create an AccessKey pair.

    • If the AccessKey pair is leaked or lost, you must create a new one. You can create a maximum of two AccessKey pairs.

  6. Make note of the AccessKey ID and AccessKey secret, once they are displayed.

If you failed to make note of the AccessKey ID and AccessKey Secret at the time of creating the AccessKey pair, then you can obtain the same at a later point in time. Similarly, if an AccessKey pair pre-exists for the target cloud account, then you do not have to create another one.Instead, you can obtain the AccessKey ID and AccessKey Secret of the existing AccessKey pair and configure the eG agent with the same. For this, follow the steps below:

  1. Use an Alibaba Cloud account to log on to the Alibaba Cloud Management console.
  2. Move the pointer over the profile picture in the upper-right corner, and click AccessKey.
  3. In the Security Tips message that appears, click Continue to manage AccessKey. AccessKey ID and AccessKey Secret are displayed. 
  4. Make note of the displayed ID and secret.

Once you have the AccessKey pair of the target cloud account with you, make sure you configure the tests that the eG agent runs for that account with the AccessKey pair.