Unload plugin extension without restart of OneAgent service on Windows platform

[kapilv]

Hello,

I have new version of custom extension plugin and i would like to update its binaries on host system. but what I have noticed that to replace plugin binaries first I have to stop dynatrace agent service (in windows service manager) and then update new binaries under 'plugin_deployment' directory and then start service .

wondering if its possible to achieve this without need of service stop step. i looked into its extension life cycle document and as per its definition when extension is deactivate or disable in web portal then it shall get cleaned or closed. but some this is not working in my case. my plugin has few native dll dependencies (e.g. pymyssql.dll) and these are not closed by extension engine and causing issue in upgrade. Or forcing service shutdown prior replace.

Thanks! Kapil

[Mike_L · Accepted solution]

As soon as the plugin agent process detects a new version (by a change in the version attribute in the plugin.json) it restarts the plugin agent process, not the whole OneAgent, to load in the new version.

If, for some reason, you need to reload the extension without changing the version but you don't want to restart the OneAgent service, you can go to task manager and kill the plugin agent process. The watchdog will start it up again and load in the current versions of the extensions.