OMS Log Analytics Agent multi-homing support

Summary: Learn how to get the latest OMS Log Analytics Agent.

Hello, this is Satya Vel, from the OMS team, and today I want to talk about OMS Log Analytics Agent.

The OMS Log Analytics Agent, which is also known as Microsoft Monitoring Agent for Windows, now enables you to send data from one server to multiple workspaces. Various teams in an organization can collect data from the same managed device. We support a maximum of four workspaces per agent, and there is support for both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the agent. Illustration that shows three workspaces and a logging agent.

Note: OMS Linux agent multi-homing support is coming

This new agent will be a part of the System Center Operations Manager 2016 release, but customers can upgrade their existing agents to this latest version, which is backwards compatible with System Center Operations Manager 2012 SP1 and R2. To upgrade your existing agent, you can use System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), PowerShell, or the GUI to do an in-place upgrade.

MMASetup-AMD64.exe /Q:A /R:N /C:"setup.exe /qn AcceptEndUserLicenseAgreement=1"

To support this new capability, we have had to make some changes to the API, which would require you to update your deployment scripts. To add a workspace, use the Log Analytics scripting API with the following PowerShell example.

$mma = New-Object -ComObject 'AgentConfigManager.MgmtSvcCfg' $mma.AddCloudWorkspace($workspaceId, $workspaceKey) $mma.ReloadConfiguration()

Note: If you've used the command line or script previously to install or configure the agent, EnableAzureOperationalInsights was replaced by AddCloudWorkspace.

Optionally, you can add workspace via the user interface on the local agent.

Screenshot that shows the user interface to add a workspace.

FAQ

  • In the majority of cases, you will be prompted for a reboot of the server.
  • The new agent will be available via Microsoft Update in June for those of you who have already installed the older Microsoft Monitoring Agent (MMA) version from our portal.
  • The Azure virtual machine (VM) extensions will be updated with this new capability in June.
  • The new version of the MMA agent is 8.0.10879.0.  The last version of the MMA agent was 7.2.10375.0.
  • Additional charges may occur for data being sent to additional workspaces. For example, if you collect the same event log from one server and send it to two different workspaces, you will be charged per the volume of data collected in each workspace.
  • OMS Linux agent multi-homing support is coming.

For more information, see the detailed documentation about how to configure this agent.

Get a free Microsoft Operations Management Suite (#MSOMS) subscription so that you can test the new alerting features. You can also get a free subscription for Microsoft Azure as well.

Satya Vel
Principal Program Manager
Operations Management Suite Team