AppDynamics: Silent Install of Controller on Ubuntu and license directory

appdynamics_logo_gray_rgb-170924For full instructions on installing the AppDynamics Controller on Linux, see the official documentation.  However, when you get to the step for installing in silent mode, it can be confusing because although it shows you how to specify the path to a response file and the keys available, it does not give you a sample file.

./controller_64bit_linux.sh -q -c -varfile /home/user/response.varfile

One way to generate a sample file that matches the responses you want in production is to manually install the controller in a development environment first. If you run the installer:

./controller_64bit_linux.sh

It will create a partial response file at ‘/opt/AppDynamics/Controller/.install4j/response.varfile’ that you can use as a template for your other environments.

Note that this file is missing the password values as well as a couple of other keys that you may want to set (full key list here).

# mute EULA
disableEULA=true
# whether to send stats back to AppDynamics
enableUDC=false

# mysql
mysqlRootUserPassword=mysqlP4ss123
# root
rootUserPassword=myrootP4ss123
rootUserRePassword=myrootP4ss123
# admin user
userName password=adminP4ss123
rePassword=adminP4ss123

If you append the keys above to the response.varfile generated by a manual installation, you can then install the Controller silently in your production environment.

Deploying License file

For on-premise deployments you will need to drop your ‘license.lic’ file into the ‘/opt/AppDynamics/Controller’ directory.

The documentation is not clear on this point, and you cannot administer the Controller using the GUI until this condition is met.

 

REFERENCES

https://docs.appdynamics.com/display/PRO42/Install+the+Controller

https://deepakdevanand.wordpress.com/2015/11/27/installing-appdynamics-controller-on-windows/

https://docs.appdynamics.com/display/PRO42/Administrative+Users

https://community.appdynamics.com/appdynamics/attachments/appdynamics/appdynamics-discussions/2395/1/PRO39-InstallanOn-PremiseControllerSilently-091214-1435-22.pdf