Advanced

Manual server agent install (no sudo)

Prefer not to run the one-line install command? Follow these steps to download, inspect, and run the Go agent without elevated privileges.

1) Generate a registration token

  1. Open Dashboard → Server agents and click Install agent.
  2. Copy the generated install command (you will not run it).
  3. Extract the install URL and token from the command. Example:
https://xuptimemonitor.com/api/server/agents/install-go?token=TOKEN_VALUE

The registration token expires; generate a fresh one if the install takes too long.

2) Download and inspect the installer script

Download the installer to a file so you can review it. It contains the prebuilt Go binaries plus the configuration template. 

curl -fsSL "INSTALL_URL" -o install-server-agent-go.sh
chmod +x install-server-agent-go.sh
less install-server-agent-go.sh

Replace INSTALL_URL with the URL you extracted in step 1.

3) Install without systemd

Run the installer in a local directory and skip systemd setup. This keeps the files in your home directory and avoids sudo. 

INSTALL_DIR="$HOME/uptime-agent" SKIP_SYSTEMD=1 ./install-server-agent-go.sh

The agent configuration is written to data/agent-config.json under the install directory.

4) Run the agent

Start the agent from the install directory:

cd "$HOME/uptime-agent"
./server-agent-go

To disable auto-updates, set UPTIME_AGENT_AUTO_UPDATE=false in your environment or in a wrapper script.

5) (Optional) Run as a user service

If you want the agent to survive reboots without sudo, set up a systemd user service: 

mkdir -p ~/.config/systemd/user
cat > ~/.config/systemd/user/uptime-server-agent-go.service <<'EOF'
[Unit]
Description=Uptime Server Agent (Go)
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
WorkingDirectory=%h/uptime-agent
ExecStart=%h/uptime-agent/server-agent-go
Restart=always
RestartSec=5
Environment=NODE_ENV=production

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target
EOF

systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user enable --now uptime-server-agent-go.service

If your system doesn’t allow user services, run the agent in a screen/tmux session instead.

6) Verify in the dashboard

  • Return to Server agents and confirm the agent is online.
  • Check last heartbeat and CPU/memory metrics.
  • If it’s still offline, confirm outbound HTTPS access to the base URL in your config.