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Part-20: 🚀 Google Cloud Compute Engine – Install & Verify Ops Agent for Logging and Monitoring in Google Cloud Platform (GCP)


This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Latchu@DevOps

The Ops Agent is Google Cloud’s recommended agent for monitoring and logging on Compute Engine VMs.
It replaces the legacy Monitoring and Logging agents with a single, unified agent that provides:

  • ✅ Better performance
  • ✅ Easy installation and management
  • ✅ Support for both Linux and Windows
  • ✅ Built-in support for logs, metrics, and third-party applications

In this tutorial, we’ll go step by step to:

  1. Install Ops Agent
  2. Verify monitoring and logging integration
  3. Explore the metrics and logs in Cloud Monitoring and Logging

Step 01: Introduction

We’ll try two installation methods:

  • Method 1: Install Ops Agent during VM creation (Console)
  • Method 2: Install Ops Agent manually on an existing VM (CLI + SSH)

Step 02: Install Ops Agent

🔹 Step 02-01: Install Ops Agent using Google Cloud Console

  1. Go to Compute Engine → VM Instances → CREATE INSTANCE
  2. Name: demo1-opsagent
  3. Under Observability → Ops Agent → Check ✅ Install Ops Agent for Monitoring and Logging
  4. Click CREATE

That’s it! The Ops Agent is automatically installed on the VM.

ops-1

VM > Observability

ops-2

🔹 Step 02-02: Install Ops Agent Manually

Create a VM instance from CLI:

# Create VM Instance
gcloud compute instances create demo2-opsagent \
  --zone=us-central1-a \
  --machine-type=e2-micro \
  --network-interface=subnet=default \
  --tags=http-server \
  --metadata-from-file=startup-script=webserver-install.sh

ops-3

🔍 Verify VM Metrics:

  1. Go to Compute Engine → VM Instances → demo2-opsagent → OBSERVABILITY Tab
  2. Click on CPU, PROCESS, MEMORY
  3. You’ll see a message “Requires Ops Agent” if the agent is not yet installed.

ops-4

SSH into VM and install Ops Agent:

# Connect to VM
gcloud compute ssh --zone "us-central1-a" "demo2-opsagent" --project "gcpdemos"

# Download Ops Agent
curl -sSO https://dl.google.com/cloudagents/add-google-cloud-ops-agent-repo.sh

# Install Ops Agent
sudo bash add-google-cloud-ops-agent-repo.sh --also-install

# Verify Installation
sudo apt list --installed | grep google-cloud-ops-agent

# Check Status
sudo systemctl status google-cloud-ops-agent"*" 

# Restart Agent (Optional)
sudo service google-cloud-ops-agent restart

Step 03: Review VM Monitoring Metrics

  1. Go to Compute Engine → VM Instances → demo2-opsagent
  2. Click on the Observability tab
  3. Check metrics like:
  • CPU
  • Processes
  • Memory
  • Disk capacity

ops-5n

Step 05: Verify Cloud Monitoring Tool

  1. Go to Monitoring → Overview
  2. Click VIEW GCE DASHBOARD → VMs Dashboard
  3. Verify Agent Status → Ops Agent

Step 06: Review Metrics & Logs Tabs

  1. Go to Monitoring → Overview → GCE Dashboard → VMs Dashboard
  2. Explore:
  • Metrics Tab → CPU, Memory, Disk, Processes
  • Logs Tab → System logs collected via Ops Agent

ops-6

Step 07: Verify Logs in Logs Explorer

  1. Go to Logging → Logs Explorer
  2. Select Resource Name: demo2-opsagent
  3. Verify the system and application logs

ops-7

Step 08: Cleanup

Delete the VMs created for this demo:

gcloud compute instances delete demo1-opsagent demo2-opsagent --zone=us-central1-a

✅ That’s it! You’ve successfully installed, verified, and explored the Google Cloud Ops Agent for Compute Engine VMs.


This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Latchu@DevOps