If you are running Agent 6.19+/7.19+, you can dynamically change some settings at runtime without having to restart the Agent to account for the configuration change.

Note: Changes made dynamically do not persist. They are lost as soon as the Agent is restarted.

Use the command config list-runtime to list configuration parameters that can be changed at runtime. See the table below for the complete command on different platforms.

One parameter that can be changed at runtime is the log level. It is convenient for debug purposes in a containerized environment, where the Agent configuration cannot be changed without having to destroy then recreate the container running the Agent. To dynamically set the log level to debug on a Kubernetes deployment, invoke the following command:

kubectl exec <POD_NAME> agent config set log_level debug

It is possible to get the current value of runtime-editable settings by using config get <SETTING>. For example, to get the current log level on a Linux system, use:

sudo datadog-agent config get log_level

The complete runtime configuration can also be show by using the config command.

Further Reading

Additional helpful documentation, links, and articles:

Agent Debug ModeDOCUMENTATION