Ability to turn off Instana Agents via an emergency shutdown switch (API‑Triggered)

Hi,

In certain high‑risk or sensitive operational scenarios, our organisation needs the ability to immediately and remotely turn off all or selected Instana agents. Currently, there is no API-based mechanism to trigger an emergency stop of the agents - setting the agent mode to "OFF" is sufficient.

This creates risks in situations such as:

• Security incidents where monitoring must be halted instantly

• Critical system instability caused by unexpected agent behavior

• Environments with strict regulatory controls requiring instant disablement

• Large-scale automation scenarios where manual host-by-host shutdown is not feasible

Without a centralized, API-driven "kill switch", response times increase and operational risk remains high.

Proposed Solution

Introduce an Emergency Shutdown API that allows authorized users or automated systems to remotely disable or shut down Instana agents.

Core capabilities proposed:

• REST API endpoint (e.g., /hostagent/{id}/mode=0)

• Optional scope: single agent, agent group, or global

· Role-based access control to prevent misuse

• Graceful turn-off with confirmation response

• Optional forced shutdown mode if graceful stop fails

• Optional audit logging for compliance tracking

Value / Impact

Implementing this API would:

• Improve incident-response speed and reduce risk

• Support compliance and security demands in regulated industries

• Enable automated emergency response workflows

• Provide safer operational control in complex, large-scale environments

• Reduce dependency on host-level manual processes

Additional Notes

This functionality is meant strictly for emergency use cases, not for routine agent management. It should integrate with existing Instana security models to prevent misuse.

Many thanks and regards,

Rainer