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Configuration Sources

inspectIT Ocelot tries to implement the zero-configuration approach but lets you externalize the configuration and influence every bit of its configuration if this is required. Internally it uses the Spring-based PropertySource order to allow overriding of configuration values. Configuration properties are considered in inspectIT Ocelot in the following order:

1. Java Agent Arguments
2. Java System Properties
3. OS environment Variables
4. External Configuration Sources:
   • File-based Configuration
5. inspectIT Ocelot Defaults

When an invalid configuration is given to inspectIT on startup, the agent will use a fallback configuration. In this fallback configuration, the agent is inactive with the exception of listening for configuration updates.

When giving an invalid configuration through a runtime update to the agent, the agent will simply retain the previous configuration.

Available Configuration Sources

Java Agent Arguments

You can pass a JSON object as string to the agent via its command line arguments. For example, to override the service name used to identify your application reporting the performance data, you can change the inspectit.service-name property as follows:

$ java -javaagent:/path/to/inspectit-ocelot-agent-1.6.jar="{ \"inspectit\": { \"service-name\": \"My Custom Service\" }}" -jar my-java-program.jar

Note that you have to escape the quotes within your JSON string. On linux you can just use the more readable single quotes notation:

$ java -javaagent:/path/to/inspectit-ocelot-agent-1.6.jar='{ "inspectit": { "service-name": "My Custom Service" }}' -jar my-java-program.jar

Java System Properties

You can pass any configuration property as the Java System property to the Java command that you use to start your Java application. Using this approach you can change the inspectit.service-name property as follows:

$ java -Dinspectit.service-name="My Custom Service" -javaagent:/path/to/inspectit-ocelot-agent-1.6.jar -jar my-java-program.jar

OS Environment Variables

Similar to the Java System properties, inspectIT Ocelot will also consider all the available operating system environment variables. Due to the relaxed bindings, you can use upper case format, which is recommended when using system environment variables.

$ INSPECTIT_SERVICE_NAME="My Custom Service" java -javaagent:/path/to/inspectit-ocelot-agent-1.6.jar -jar my-java-program.jar

Relaxed Bindings

Note that due to the Spring-powered configuration approach, the inspectIT Ocelot agent uses Spring support for relaxed bindings. This means that a property can be specified in different formats depending on the property source. As suggested by Spring, the allowed formats are:

Property	Note
inspectit.service-name	Kebab-case, which is recommended for use in .properties and .yml files.
inspectit.serviceName	Standard camelCase syntax.
inspectit.service_name	Underscore notation (snake_case), which is an alternative format for use in .properties and .yml files.
INSPECTIT_SERVICE_NAME	UPPER_CASE format, which is recommended when using system environment variables.

The formats should be used in the following way, based on the type of property source:

Property Source	Format
System properties	Camel case, kebab case, or underscore notation.
Environment Variables	Upper case format with the underscore as the delimiter.
Property files (.properties)	Camel case, kebab case, or underscore notation.
YAML files (.yaml, .yml)	Camel case, kebab case, or underscore notation.

Environment Information

Each agent stores the following information about its runtime environment:

Property	Note
inspectit.env.agent-dir	Resolves to the path where the agent-jar is stored.
inspectit.env.hostname	The hostname where the agent is running.
inspectit.env.pid	The process id of the JVM process.

They are used to define the default behavior when writing the configuration persistence file and will be sent as attributes to the configuration server when fetching the configuration.

You can reference these properties within the configuration using e.g. ${inspectit.env.agent-dir} as shown in the default configuration for HTTP-based configuration. Referencing every other property follows the same schema.