Instana deployment options

Instana can be deployed either as a SaaS solution with the option of retaining data in the cloud, or as a self-hosted (on-premises) solution. With Instana, you have control of where your data resides, on the cloud or on-premises. Thus, Instana combines the simplicity of SaaS with the control of an on-premises deployment.

Instana SaaS deployment

Instana SaaS deployment is supported on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). For the supported regions, see Endpoints for the host and cloud service agents.

If you want to deploy Instana SaaS, you need to install only Instana agents.

Note: Before you install Instana agents, you need to review the system requirements and outbound network access requirements, and prepare endpoints and keys.

Install Instana agents as described in the Instana agent deployment section.
Optional: The following features in Instana are disabled by default. To enable these features, open a case with IBM Support. For more information about a feature, use the link that is provided in the list.
- VMware Tanzu (PCF) feature: Monitoring Cloud Foundry and VMware Tanzu (formerly know as Pivotal Cloud Foundry)
- VMware® vSphere feature: Monitoring vSphere
- IBM Z HMC feature: Monitoring IBM Z HMC
- IBM Power HMC feature: Monitoring IBM Power HMC
- IBM J9 VM memory leak detection feature: The JVM section of the Built-in Events Reference page
Administer your Instana Tenant, such as onboarding users, managing API, agent keys, and role-based access control (RBAC), configuring user interface settings, and viewing audit logs. For more information, see Administer Instana.

Instana self-hosted deployment

If you want to deploy Instana in your on-premises environment, you need to install both the Instana backend (Instana server) and Instana agents.

Note: Before you install Instana, you need to review the system requirements and outbound network access requirements, and prepare endpoints and keys.

Install the Instana backend (Instana server):
- For Standard Edition, see Installing Self-Hosted Standard Edition.
- For Custom Edition, see Installing Self-Hosted Custom Edition (Kubernetes or Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform).
- For Classic Edition, see Installing Self-Hosted Classic Edition (Docker).
Install Instana agents as described in the Instana agent deployment section.
Administer your Instana Tenant, such as onboarding users, managing API, agent keys, and role-based access control (RBAC), configuring user interface settings, and viewing audit logs. For more information, see Administer Instana.