Renaming Nodes

[nisha.makwana]

HI ALL,

I am renaming Nodes in the Tiers & Nodes but my changes were not reflecting and it seems like i have to modify some config file. i only made changes in the UI for remaning Nodes.

Could anyone let me know how i need to modify app agent configuration file for reflecting my node name.This is the line from appDynamic doc ....

"To rename a node, you must change the name in the AppDynamics UI and then in the app agent configuration file. The new name is picked up after the next restart."

[steve.hetland]

Hi Nisha, 

Renaming your node in the UI should work fine until the next time the agent/monitored app restarts. At that point, the node will pick up whatever name has been specified in the agent configuration, which would be the old name unless you have made the config change mentioned in the doc.

The way you change the name in the configuration depends on the agent type. For Java Agents, it would commonly be set in the controller-info.xml file. See https://docs.appdynamics.com/display/PRO44/Install+the+Java+Agent#InstalltheJavaAgent-ConfiguretheJa... for details. 

If renaming is not working in the UI at all, make sure you are logged in with a user who has sufficient permissions. If you are not, you would get an error when attempt to save the Node Properties with the new name (although I see that the error may not be entirely clear). 

[nisha.makwana]

Thanks Steve for your valuable answer , just to inform you that i am using .NET agent and i can successfully rename Node name thru UI, only issue that I am facing was its not staying permanently and this is might be because of agent configuration file has different name and while refreshing/restart its taking name from agent config file. where Agent config file resides ? and at which place should I make the changes to reflect name ? is that safe to alter agent file ?

[eastman.dustin · Accepted solution]

For your .NET Agent your config file resides in {Agent Install Directory}\ProgramData\config\

Doc on Where standard files are: (https://docs.appdynamics.com/display/PRO43/Administer+the+.NET+Agent)

The file is the config.xml file.   That determines the agent configuration and how it is reported into the controller.    

This is also controlled by how you are having the IIS Nodes Identified.  If you are doing it automatically, then see this documentation for how that node name is assigned.  
https://docs.appdynamics.com/display/PRO43/Name+.NET+Nodes

I would recommend handling this in 1 of 2 ways:

1.    Disabled the auto-configuration controlled by the centralized configuration management, by setting

the following property in your config.xml to false:

configuration_mode_deployer="false"

However, do be aware this means that then you would need to have your own centralized way of ensuring all of your configurations get updated when changes are made, but this would ALLOW you to change the node names, and then they would not get updated on their own.    

2.   Is it correct to say that you have your IIS Nodes set to be discovered automatically similar to this setting:
<IIS>
<automatic />
<applications />
</IIS>

Modify this to specify these settings, rather than try to go into all possible options in this post I recommend reviewing the sepcifics of this here:
https://docs.appdynamics.com/display/PRO43/Name+.NET+Nodes

It indicates that this naming of nodes is controlled automatically to follow this convention:

<machine NetBIOS name>-<tier>-<IIS site>/<app>

It does not appear to indicate that you may change this.  However, it has been my experience that with proper editing to any of the configuration xml files anything can be modified, but just fair warning, may not be officially supported.   Perhaps try manually defining your IIS applications and setting the node names.      

Does this answer your inqury?

********Disclaimer*********

Be sure to make a backup of any configuration or changes to files you make prior to modifying for simplified rollback.   Also, test any changes in test environment where possible before deploying to a PROD environment.

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