ObserveIQ Docs

Quickstart#

This gets one Linux host and one application sending data, so you can see the platform working before committing to a wider rollout. It takes about ten minutes.

1. Create an API key#

  1. Open Settings → API keys.
  2. Click Create key, give it a name such as quickstart, and set an expiry.
  3. Copy the key. It is shown once and cannot be retrieved later.

The key looks like obs_ followed by a long random string. Everything below uses it as OBSERVEIQ_API_KEY.

2. Add a host#

On any Linux server, run the agent installer:

export OBSERVEIQ_API_KEY="obs_your_key_here"
export OBSERVEIQ_ENDPOINT="https://app.observeiq.io"

curl -fsSL "$OBSERVEIQ_ENDPOINT/api/v1/docs/vm-agent.sh" | sudo -E bash

The script installs the collector, writes a configuration file, registers it as a service and starts it. Within about a minute the host appears under Infrastructure → Hosts.

Tip

Run the command on one host first and confirm it appears before rolling it out with your configuration management tool.

3. Instrument an application#

For a Node.js service, add the OpenTelemetry SDK and point it at ObserveIQ:

npm install --save @opentelemetry/api @opentelemetry/auto-instrumentations-node
export OTEL_SERVICE_NAME="checkout-api"
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT="https://app.observeiq.io/v1"
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS="Authorization=Bearer $OBSERVEIQ_API_KEY"
export OTEL_NODE_RESOURCE_DETECTORS="env,host,os"

node --require @opentelemetry/auto-instrumentations-node/register app.js

Send a few requests through the service, then open APM. The service appears with its request rate, error rate and response time. Other languages are covered in APM setup.

4. Add an uptime check#

  1. Open Monitors → Create monitor.
  2. Choose HTTP, enter the URL of the service you just instrumented.
  3. Set the interval to 60 seconds and save.

The check starts immediately and begins building the availability history that service level objectives and status pages are calculated from.

5. Get alerted#

  1. Open Alerts → Contact points and add an email address or a Slack webhook.
  2. Open Alerts → Notification policies and confirm there is a policy routing critical alerts to that contact point.
  3. Open the monitor you created and choose Create alert to alert when it fails.

Full detail is in Alerts setup.

What next#