One or more lower-tier system monitoring components are installed and operated prior to installing a higher-tier system monitoring component. A lower-tier system may be an individual server, network device, or local area network. A higher-tier system may include an enterprise or organization wide network or service that includes at least a part of the lower-tier system. Once the higher-tier system monitoring component is installed, the higher-tier and lower-tier system monitoring components use an interface to operate with one another to form a single larger instance of an organization wide monitoring system. The combination of the higher-tier system monitoring component and the one or more lower-tier system operating components performs monitoring aspects of the overall information technology environment based at least in part on machine data produced and made searchable to provide monitoring results.