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Tuning the agent configuration

According to the Lightrun actions you specify, the agent dynamically inserts logs, metrics, and snapshots into the target environment. The agent's behavior when performing these tasks is governed by a set of user-configurable properties.

Agent properties

You can modify the agent's behavior by configuring its properties. Configuring the agent properties can be done either from the command line flags or from the agent.config file. The agent properties are defined per agent.

Setting agent properties from the command line

You can flexibly set many of the available agent properties as part of the command when running your application.

Some are passed as “agent flags”, with additions to the agentpath parameter. 

-agentpath:<path-to-agent>/lightrun_agent.so=--<parameter>=<value>,--<parameter>=<value>... <AppName>

Others are passed as JVM flags using the -D syntax.

-agentpath:<path-to-agent>/lightrun_agent.so -D<flag>=<value> <AppName>

Example

The example below shows both kinds of flags:

java -agentpath:/agent/lightrun_agent.so=--lightrun_extra_class_path=<PATH_TO_JAR> -Dcom.lightrun.secret=<YOUR-SECRET>  <AppName>

See the tables below for details.

Setting agent properties from the agent.config file

To manually set agent properties in the agent.config file:

  1. On the server where the application is running, navigate to <install_dir>/agent/agent.config.
  2. In the agent.config file, edit the values for the relevant properties.

Important

You must save the changes and restart the application to apply the new configuration.

Agent properties list

The following tables describe the agent properties that you can customize for an agent.

JVM flags

Info

Use -D to pass these through the command line

Parameter name Explanation Default value Type
com.lightrun.server URI of the Lightrun server . The correct path is automatically inserted. Must not be modified. None string
com.lightrun.secret Lightrun agent API key None char(64)
com.lightrun.DynamicLog.handlers File and error log handlers where to send logs java.util.logging.FileHandler
java.util.logging.ConsoleHandler		 string
com.lightrun.DynamicLog.ConsoleHandler.formatter Specifies the name of a Formatter class to use None string
com.lightrun.DynamicLog.ConsoleHandler.pattern Specifies the error log file name pattern None string
com.lightrun.DynamicLog.FileHandler.formatter specifies the name of a Formatter class to use None string
com.lightrun.DynamicLog.FileHandler.pattern Specifies a pattern for generating the output log file name. "%u" is a unique number automatically assigned at runtime /tmp/lightrun_file_handler_logs%u.log string

Agent flags

Info

Use -- to pass these through the command line

Parameter name Explanation Default value Type
max_dynamic_log_rate Maximum allowed ratio of logs printed (the higher ratio, the more logs are allowed to be printed) 60 int32
max_condition_cost Maximum allowed additional CPU load when inserting actions during condition evaluation (value between 0.1 and 1.0) 1.0 float
max_log_cpu_cost Maximum allowed additional CPU load when logging (value between 0.1 and 1.0) 1.0 float
max_snapshot_buffer_size Maximum allowed total bytes for snapshots 655360 int32
log_stats_time_micros How often (in microseconds) to log debugger performance statistics. Set to zero to never log stats 3000000 int32
breakpoint_expiration_sec Time-to-live for actions 3600 int32
dynamic_log_quota_recovery_ms Time in milliseconds to pause a dynamic log after quota is reset 500 int32
ignore_quota Disable performance safety measures - USE WITH CAUTION 0 bool
pinned_certs 64 character sha256 certificate public key hash for pinning 515a630cfd1fb908
e30087bcc20b7413
ad146b9bf2b23d3a
aa72c28e45b24fb2		 char(64)
enable_pii_redaction Enable personally identifiable information (PII) redaction at the agent's side (may affect the application's performance) 0 bool
exit_after_report_all Agent empties queues before the application exits. 0 bool
longpolling_timeout_milli 30000 int32
max_dynamic_log_bytes_rate Maximum allowed output rate for logs (bytes per second) 204800 int32
max_snapshot_frame_count Maximum allowed snapshot frame count 5 int32
transmission_bulk_max_size The maximum number of action updates allowed to be transmitted in a single batch 10 int32
invokedynamic_enabled Enables invokedynamic instruction support 0 bool
boxing_unboxing_enabled Enables or disables Java expressions and conditions autoboxing and unboxing support. Value can either be 0 (disabled), or 1 (enabled). 1 (enabled) bool

Additional command line flags

The following flags can be set only from the command line:

Parameter Explanation Type
lightrun_extra_class_path Additional directories and files containing resolvable binaries string
lightrun_extra_class_path_delimiter Set the delimiter character in the lightrun_extra_class_path. By default, the delimiter is set using a colon (:) character. bool
lightrun_exclude_class_path Prevent JAR, WAR and EAR file types from being loaded and indexed when the Java agent launches, even though they are included in paths that are listed in the CLASSPATH environment settings. This option is intended to reduce the CPU and memory required for launching our agent by excluding these irrelevant classes. string
lightrun_exclude_class_path_delimiter Set the delimiter character in the lightrun_exclude_class_path. By default, the delimiter is set using the colon (:) character. bool
index_compressed_archives Allows loading compressed archives, In addition to native Java archive types such as JAR, WAR and EAR. The compressed archives are decompressed and any JAR, WAR or EAR file included in them is loaded and indexed. By default, this parameter is set as false.

Note: Introduced in version 1.15 with support for Zip Archive types.		 bool
lightrun_wait_for_init Block the application until the first time breakpoints are fetched from the server. This option is intended for short-running applications like serverless functions, and it ensures that the Lightrun agent has time to communicate with the Lightrun server before the short-running application disconnects.

Note - using lightrun_wait_for_init in a cloud environment will likely incur additional costs from the cloud provider due to a longer application runtime.		 bool
lightrun_init_wait_time_ms Timeout in milliseconds for wait if lightrun_wait_for_init is set. int32

Note

To add multiple values to the lightrun_extra_class_path flag, chain the values together just as you would in a regular JVM CLASSPATH environment value. Use the appropriate separator for your operating system.

Invokedynamic

The Lightrun JVM agent does not work with Java expressions and conditions whose bytecode contains Invokedynamic instructions by default. This includes expressions and conditions containing Lambda expressions and String concatenations using the ‘+’ character.

To debug these methods with Lightrun, you must enable Invokedynamic support in your JVM agent configuration.

To enable Invokedynamic instructions support
  1. Configure the invokedynamic_enabled parameter in your agent.config file: 
    invokedynamic_enabled = 1
  2. Specify a dump folder to allow the JVM agent to read your generated Lambda classes.

Note

To create a dump folder.

  1. Create a new folder, e.g., ‘/myapp/dump’.
  2. Add the new folder in your JVM options. 
    -Djdk.internal.lambda.dumpProxyClasses=/myapp/dump
  3. Add the new folder to your CLASSPATH. 
    -classpath  [other_classpath_items]:/myapp/dump
Last update: September 27, 2023