Dynatrace OneAgent Monitoring Modes define how deeply OneAgent monitors your systems, depending on the level of access and the environment it’s running in. These modes let you balance observability vs. permissions, especially in restricted environments like cloud platforms or containers.

You’re absolutely right, and thank you for pointing that out!

In the Dynatrace web UI → Host Settings, the official and user-configurable monitoring modes for hosts are indeed limited to the following three:

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Dynatrace OneAgent Monitoring Modes (Visible on Host Settings)

Mode	Description
Full-Stack Monitoring	Enables both infrastructure + deep application-level monitoring (PurePath, RUM, etc.). Auto-instruments apps, services, containers, etc.
Infrastructure Monitoring	Collects only host-level metrics (CPU, RAM, disk, network, processes), no code-level insight.
Discovery Mode	Minimal mode used for initial setup or troubleshooting. Only detects the host and some metadata, no metrics or application monitoring.

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Why You See Only 3 Modes

The other modes like:

• Cloud Infrastructure Monitoring
• Container Monitoring
• Application-Only Monitoring
• Network-Only Monitoring

are not separately selectable in the UI. Instead, they are:

• Internally handled by Dynatrace based on environment detection
• Automatically activated depending on the deployment type, permissions, and setup

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Real-Life Examples

Environment	Effective Monitoring Behavior	What Dynatrace Does Internally
AWS EC2 with OneAgent	Shows as Infrastructure or Full-Stack	Adds Cloud tags, AWS metrics
Kubernetes with OneAgent DaemonSet	Shows as Full-Stack on Node level	Enables Container Monitoring mode internally
PaaS like Heroku (no root access)	Cannot use Full-Stack	Switches to Application-Only Monitoring
Restricted Linux with limited perms	May fall back to Discovery or Infra only	Disables deep instrumentation automatically

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You can change the Dynatrace OneAgent Monitoring Mode using three different methods:

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1. Using Command Line (CLI)

Use the built-in oneagentctl tool:

Syntax:

sudo /opt/dynatrace/oneagent/agent/tools/oneagentctl --set-monitoring-mode=<MODE>

Examples:

• Set to Full-Stack Monitoring: sudo oneagentctl --set-monitoring-mode=FULL_STACK
• Set to Infrastructure Monitoring: sudo oneagentctl --set-monitoring-mode=INFRASTRUCTURE
• Set to Discovery Mode: sudo oneagentctl --set-monitoring-mode=DISCOVERY

Check current mode:

sudo oneagentctl --get-monitoring-mode

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2. Using Dynatrace Web UI

1. Login to your Dynatrace console.
2. Navigate to Hosts under Deployment Status or Infrastructure.
3. Click on the specific host you want to configure.
4. Click on the “…” (menu) in the top-right corner → Select “Edit”.
5. In the Monitoring Mode dropdown, choose from:
   • Full-Stack
   • Infrastructure
   • Discovery
6. Click Save.

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3. Using Configuration File (Advanced – Less Common)

While Dynatrace encourages using the CLI or UI, it’s possible to set the monitoring mode persistently via systemd or config files before startup (especially in automated scripts).

On Linux:

• File: /etc/dynatrace/oneagent/oneagentctl.conf

Add or modify the following line:

MONITORING_MODE=INFRASTRUCTURE

Then restart OneAgent:

sudo systemctl restart oneagent

Not officially documented for manual editing, so use with caution.

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Summary Table

Method	Command / Steps
Command Line	oneagentctl --set-monitoring-mode=FULL_STACK etc.
UI	Go to Host → Edit → Monitoring Mode
Config File	Add MONITORING_MODE=... in config and restart agent

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