Agent Installation

Sysdig agents are delivered as either a container or a service and can be deployed with or without an orchestrator such as Kubernetes or Mesos.

A quick install involves just a few lines of code from the Getting Started Wizard copied into a shell. The complete install instructions address checking for and installing kernel headers if needed, any prerequisite permissions settings for particular environments, and tips about updating the configuration files after initial installation.

Plan the Installation

Topic	Description
Host Requirements	Review the platforms, runtimes, Linux distributions, orchestration, browsers, etc. that are supported.
Kernel Header Troubleshooting	Additional tips if your kernel module or header are not automatically compiled by the agent
Access key	An agent access key is provided with a Sysidg trial
Installation flavours	Choose one of the installations: Slim Agent : A lighter version of the Sysdig agent created by splitting the regular agent image into two components responsible for different functionalities. You install and run these modules as containers. Regular Agent: The Sysdig agent that you can run as a container or a service.

Install Options

Wizard-Based

With the Getting Started Wizard, you can copy/paste a simple line of code to deploy agents in a variety of environments.

Node Image Analyzer by default is installed with Sysdig Agent for Sysdig Secure. See Installing the Image Analyzer for more information.

Behind the scenes, the Wizard auto-detects and completes configuration items such as the required access key and port information. The Wizard is launched from the Start a Free Trial button at sysdig.com.

After the first install, Sysdig Secure and Monitor users can access the Wizard at any time from the Rocket icon in the navbar.

Manual Options

There are a variety of ways to install agents without using the Wizard.

	Flavor	Helm	Manual	Slim Agent	Notes
Kubernetes	Open Source	Readme	Kubernetes vanilla	Install Slim Agent	Used for most environments, e.g. Amazon EKS or EC2 on AWS Cloud or AWS Outpost, EC2, Azure AKS, etc.
	OpenShift	Readme	OpenShift	Used for any environment with OpenShift.
	GKE	Readme	GKE	Slim agent is not supported on GKE clusters running on Container-Optimized OS (COS).	Used for Google Kubernetes Service environment
Non-Orchestrated	Agent as container or agent as service	n/a	Container Service	Install Slim Agent	Used when there is no orchestrator such as Kubernetes.
IKS		n/a	IBM Cloud with Sysdig)	Install Slim Agent	IBM manages and documents Sysdig installs as part of IKS.

Certain environments may need a different option:

Mesos | Marathon| DCOS: Agent Install: Mesos | Marathon | DCOS
Linux: (Rare, used with custom kernel headers, unique use cases) Agent Install: Manual Linux Installation

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Last modified July 17, 2021