ARMS uses environments to centrally manage agents and data storage. Each environment type maps to a specific infrastructure model and determines how ARMS discovers resources, deploys agents, and collects monitoring data.
| Environment type | Infrastructure | Data collection | Agent management | Typical use case |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACK environment | ACK clusters, ACK Serverless clusters, ACS clusters | Automatic collection | Automatically managed by ARMS | Kubernetes workloads with high data volume |
| VPC environment | ECS instances in a VPC | VPC-based collection; agents deployed when needed | Automatic discovery and deployment | ECS-based applications across a VPC |
| Alibaba Cloud service environment | Alibaba Cloud services (one environment per region) | Service-level integration | N/A | Monitoring a specific Alibaba Cloud service in a region |
ACK environment
An ACK environment monitors Kubernetes workloads running on ACK clusters, ACK Serverless clusters, or ACS clusters. This environment type is designed for clusters with large volumes of monitoring data.
ARMS automatically manages ACK environments. It handles agent deployment and data processing without manual intervention.
If your container cluster runs in a data center or on an ECS instance, we recommend that you use ACK One to manage the cluster in ACK.
VPC environment
A VPC environment collects monitoring data from ECS instances through a VPC. ARMS prioritizes VPC-based collection to minimize the number of agents installed on individual instances.
When agents are required on ECS instances, ARMS provides automatic agent management:
Discovers ECS instances that match your requirements
Checks agent status on each instance
Deploys or removes agents as needed
Alibaba Cloud service environment
An Alibaba Cloud service environment integrates monitoring data from a specific Alibaba Cloud service within a single region. One Alibaba Cloud service environment can be created in a region to integrate the monitoring data of an Alibaba Cloud service.