# Features configuration

Type of document: How-to guide
Product: NGINX Agent

---


## Overview

This guide describes the F5 NGINX Agent features, and how to enable and disable features using the NGINX Agent configuration file.

## Before you begin

Before you start, make sure that you have:

- [NGINX Agent installed](/agent/installation-upgrade/) in your system.
- Access to the NGINX Agent configuration file.

## Features

The following table lists the NGINX Agent features:

| Feature Name       | Description                                                                            | Default/Non-default |
| ------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------- |
| registration       | Registering the NGINX Agent with the management plane.                                 | Default             |
| nginx-config-async | Enable the publishing and uploading of NGINX configurations from the management plane. | Default             |
| metrics            | Enable collection, batching and reporting of metrics.                                  | Default             |
| metrics-collection | Enable collection of metrics.                                                          | Non-default         |
| metrics-throttle   | Batch metrics before sending.                                                          | Non-default         |
| metrics-sender     | Reports metrics over the gRPC connection.                                              | Non-default         |
| dataplane-status   | Report the health of the NGINX Instance.                                               | Default             |
| process-watcher    | Observe changes to the NGINX process.                                                  | Default             |
| file-watcher       | Observe changes to the NGINX configuration or any changes to files on disk.            | Default             |
| activity-events    | Send NGINX or NGINX Agent related events to the management plane.                      | Default             |
| agent-api          | Enable the NGINX Agent REST API.                                                       | Default             |

**Note:** 
The **metrics** feature is the equivalent of having the 3 sub-features **metrics-collection**, **metrics-throttle**, **metrics-sender** being configured.

## Use cases

### Enable metrics only

1. Access the NGINX instance: Connect using SSH to the VM or server where NGINX Agent is running.

   `ssh user@your-nginx-instance`

1. Open the NGINX Agent configuration file in a text editor.

   `sudo vim /etc/nginx-agent/nginx-agent.conf`

1. Add the features section: Add the following to the end of the configuration file if it doesn't already exist.

   ```nginx
   features:
      - registration
      - metrics
      - dataplane-status
      - process-watcher 
   ```

1. Restart the NGINX Agent service to apply the changes.

   `sudo systemctl restart nginx-agent`

Once the steps have been completed, users will be able to view metrics data being sent but will not have the capability to push NGINX configuration changes.

### Enable the publishing of NGINX configurations and disable the collection of metrics

1. Access the NGINX instance: Connect using SSH to the VM or server where NGINX Agent is running.

   `ssh user@your-nginx-instance`

1. Open the NGINX Agent configuration file in a text editor.

   `sudo vim /etc/nginx-agent/nginx-agent.conf`

1. Add the fetures section: Add the following to the end of the configuration file if it doesn't already exist.

   ```nginx
   features:
      - nginx-config-async
      - dataplane-status
      - file-watcher
      - process-watcher 

1. Restart the NGINX Agent service to apply the changes.

   `sudo systemctl restart nginx-agent`

Once the steps have been completed, users will be able to publish NGINX configurations but metrics data will not be collected by the NGINX Agent.