Install and Manage Wavefront Proxies

Learn how to install and manage Wavefront proxies.

Tanzu Observability by Wavefront offers several deployment options. During development, a single proxy is often sufficient for all data sources. In production, place a team of proxies behind a load balancer.

In most cases, a Wavefront proxy must be running in your installation before metrics begin streaming to the Wavefront service from a host or application.

Proxy Host Requirements

Internet access - Run timeout 3s curl -fIsS <wavefront_api_url> from the host and make sure you get a response and not a timeout.
Networking:
- By default, the proxy uses port 2878. Make sure this port is reachable from other machines on your network. You can change this default separately for different types of data (metrics, histograms, traces, etc.) in the proxy configuration file. For example, use traceListenerPorts to specify where to listen to trace data.
- For egress, ensure that port 443 is available.
Memory - The proxy does not use a lot of CPU, memory, or storage. However, we recommend running the proxy on a host with at least 4GB of free memory.
CPU - A standalone proxy can easily handle up to 40K PPS (points per second). If you’re sending more, use multiple proxies behind a load balancer.
Operating system and JRE - Wavefront proxy is a Java application and can run on operating systems supported by Java. Java 8, 9, 10 or 11 is required. See the requirements in the Wavefront Proxy README file.
Other - Maven

Note: The proxy uses disk space only for queue and buffering of metrics. The size of the buffer depends on the metrics size and the number of data points received and sent by the proxy. The Wavefront Service and Proxy Data dashboard in the Wavefront Usage integration has several charts that allow you to examine proxy backlog size and related metrics. See Monitoring Proxies.

Install a Proxy

Many users install a proxy when they set up an integration. You can also install a proxy from the UI or perform a scripted installation.

Note: In development, many customers use only one proxy that receives data from many applications and sends those data to the Wavefront service. In production, consider using two proxies behind a load balancer. See Proxy Deployment Options.

Install a Proxy from the UI

To install and run a proxy:

Log in to your Wavefront instance and select Browse > Proxies.
Select Add > New Proxy.
On the right, click the tab for your operating system and follow the steps on screen.

The screenshot on the right shows the steps for installing a Windows proxy.

The proxy starts listening on port 2878. You can customize listener ports with the proxy configuration file.

Scripted Proxy Installation

You can use steps in an integration or perform a package install.

Integration. Select Browse > Integrations and find the host integration (Mac, Windows, or Linux). The Setup tab give the installation script. For Mac and Linux, you can install the proxy with or without the Telegraf agent.
Package Install To perform a package install, see Installing a Proxy manually.

Manage Proxy Services

After installing a proxy, you can start and stop the proxy service, check service status, and view the logs that are generated by the service. See Logging for customizing your proxy, including its log configuration options.

Start and Stop a Proxy

Run the following commands on the proxy host:

OS	Instructions
Linux	`service wavefront-proxy [start \| stop \| restart]`
Windows	`cd C:\Program Files (x86)\Wavefront\bin .\nssm.exe [start \| stop] WavefrontProxy`
Mac OS	`brew services [start \| stop \| restart] wfproxy`
Docker	`docker [start \| stop ] <proxy_container_id>`

Check Proxy Service Status

To check if the proxy is running, run the following commands on the proxy host:

OS	Instructions
Linux	`service wavefront-proxy status` Proxy log at `/var/log/wavefront/wavefront.log`.
Windows	`cd C:\Program Files (x86)\Wavefront\bin .\nssm.exe status WavefrontProxy` Proxy log at `Program Files (x86)\Wavefront\wavefront.log`.
Mac OS	`brew services list` Proxy log at `/usr/local/var/log/wavefront/wavefront.log`

Test a Proxy

You can test that a proxy is receiving and sending data as follows:

Send data by running the following command:
```
echo -e "test.metric 1 source=test_host\n" | nc <wavefront_proxy_address> 2878
```
where <wavefront_proxy_address> is the address of your Wavefront proxy.
Log in to Wavefront instance and select Browse > Metrics.
In the Metrics field, type test.metric.
Click test.metric to display a chart of the metric.

Upgrade a Proxy

New proxy versions with new features are released frequently. See the Wavefront proxy github page for details.

Note: Upgrading a proxy with a large proxy queue is not a good idea. The proxy will queue your data until the upgrade is complete, but the short-term result can be an even bigger proxy queue.

Upgrade from the UI

To upgrade from the UI, select Browse > Proxies > Add New Proxy. If an older version of the proxy exists, this process replaces it.

Note: On Windows systems, you might have to uninstall the existing proxy first.

Upgrade from the Command Line

For Linux and Mac OS, can also upgrade a proxy from the command line as follows:

OS	Instructions
Linux	`sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install wavefront-proxy`
Linux (RPM)	`yum update wavefront-proxy`
Mac OS	`brew update && brew upgrade wfproxy`

Upgrade a Proxy on Docker

On Docker, you don’t explicitly update the proxy version, but stop the proxy and then start the new version.

If you use a volume for the proxy buffer (queue) and you update from a version before 7.2 to 7.2 or later, permissions change:

For earlier versions of the proxy, the proxy ran as root:root.
Starting with version 7.2, the proxy runs as wavefront:wavefront.

Warning: Ensure that either the proxy buffer (queue) is empty, or that the files on the buffer directory (volume) are owned by a user with id 1000 and group 2000 (which will translate to user wavefront on the docker image).

If you performed the update and data are left in the proxy buffer, follow the steps in Proxy Troubleshooting.

Uninstall a Proxy

When you upgrade a proxy, we uninstall the older version for you. You can also uninstall a proxy explicitly:

OS	Instructions
Windows	The precise process depends on the version of Windows you're using. You follow the process for uninstalling programs. Click Start, and then click Control Panel. Under Programs, click Uninstall a program. Select Telegraf and click Uninstall at the top. Select Wavefront Proxy and click Uninstall at the top.
Linux	`sudo apt-get remove wavefront-proxy sudo apt-get remove telegraf`
Linux (RPM)	`sudo yum remove wavefront-proxy sudo yum remove telegraf`
Mac OS	`bash -c "$(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wavefrontHQ/homebrew-wavefront/master/sh/uninstall.sh)"`