Moving agent configuration file to different location
Hi all,
we try to surveil a .NET process of an application on a Windows Terminal Server. Unfortunately every release change of this application will cause a change of installation directory. Due to this fact, we have to change the .NET-Agent configuration everytime, which isn't this easy because our unit doesn't have access to the server.
Is it possible to have the agent configuration file somewhere else then the default? Also is it possible to shut down and start again the agent remotely (e.g. by dT-Client)?
You could change the Path setting of the .NET Agent to "<any>", which will then pick up all processes with a given name regardless of their working directory.
Unfortunately, remotely restarting agents is not possible.
Hi Wolfgang,
that's great news! So if we have a new release, the process will be recognized automatically without restart of the agent?
Thanks!
Hi Denis,
the agent lives inside the application process. You cannot restart the agent itself. Instead, if you restart your application, the agent also gets restarted.
Thus, if you deploy a new release of your application and start it, the agent automatically gets injected if the process is configured properly (when path is set to "<any>" in your case).
I just spoke with development and setting the path to <any> is not desired. On this server several versions of this application are running and it's supposed to monitor only one at a time. Any other suggestions like moving the config to another location on the server where we have write rights?
The settings are stored in the Windows registry, when a new release installed would a small .reg file to be executed work?
The way I worked around this at another customer, which had a similar issue, is to add one more step to their deployment runbook - adjusting the .reg file to the right path and the putting it into the registry.
Best, Roman
hi Denis,
i'm just wondering: if there are multiple versions of the same application running at the same time with the same binary name, how do you know, which one you want to monitor?
besides Roman's suggestion there's 2 things that come to my mind:
- if you can modify the applications environment: you could set the env var DT_AGENTACTIVE=true for this process.
- if you can modify the applications command line: you could add a dummy command line parameter that you specify in the agent configuration tool, too. of course, path would have to be set to 'any' then.
those configuration options are also (slightly) mentioned in the doc: https://apmcommunity.compuware.com/community/display/DOCDT50/.NET+Agent+Configuration
hope this helps,
Christian
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