How do I get started with upgrading .NET Agents?

[Nina.Wolinsky]

Release Upgrade Checklist for .NET Agents

To make sure you complete all the tasks necessary for upgrading .NET Agents after a release, we recommend following the upgrade checklist instructions below. 

NOTE: The information in this article is not release-specific. You can reference it for any release

Table of Contents

• Prepare to upgrade your .NET Agents
• Plan your .NET Agent upgrade
• Troubleshooting
• Additional Resources

Prepare to upgrade your .NET Agents

• Review the Product Announcements and Alerts page for details on any intermediate versions between the current version of your instance and the version you are targeting.
  
  
• Review either of the following to confirm the compatibility of the various components of the AppDynamics environment:
• Knowledge Base article: How do I get started with upgrading my AppDynamics components for any release?, especially the component compatibility matrix
• Technical documentation: Agent and Controller Compatibility

Plan your .NET Agent upgrade

• Please note that the .NET agent can reference either the .NET Agent or the .NET Microservices Agent—each a distinct agent with its own use and installation process. 
  

  .NET Agent	Use: Monitors IIS applications Windows services Prerequisites: See Supported Controller Versions/.NET Agent compatibility matrix below  Installation: See the install document for installation procedure
  Microservices Agent	Use: For applications created with .NET core Prerequisites: See .NET Microservices Agent documentation Installation: Download the NuGET package

• Review the Agent/Controller compatibility matrix for compatibility mappings between agents and Controller versions.
  

  Supported Controller Versions	v4.3	v4.4	v4.5	v20.3 - future releases
  .NET Agents	4.x - 4.3	4.4.1 - 20.x (1)	4.5 - 20.x (1)	4.4 - 20.x (1)(2)

  ⁽¹⁾ Controller version supports through the most recent released Agent version

  ⁽²⁾ Controller version does not support Agent version 4.1

  Starting in release 4.5, .NET agents are automatically backward-compatible with any 4.4.1+ Controller, so you can upgrade your agent while retaining your 4.4.1+ Controller.
  

NOTE: If your Controller is older than 4.4.1, you must upgrade it before upgrading your .NET agent.

• To ensure a successful correlation, upgrade agents on downstream tiers first, followed by the upstream tiers.
  
  
• If you’re upgrading multiple agents in your monitored environment, upgrade the agents for the tiers on which business transactions are originated last.
  
  
• See the following as appropriate for step-by-step upgrade instructions:
• Upgrade the .NET Agent for Linux
• Upgrade the .NET Agent for Windows
  
  
• See Upgrade AppDynamics.Windows Azure NuGet Package if you are using the AppDynamics.WindowsAzure NuGet package to monitor your Azure solutions.
  
  
• See Install the AppDynamics Azure Site Extension for .NET for instructions for both minor and major releases. 

Troubleshooting

If the agent installation fails, it may be due to configurations in your environment. Follow the Troubleshoot for .NET Agent Issues to address installation issues. 

If necessary, uninstall the new version and reinstall the older version.

Additional Resources

Instructions for upgrading other AppDynamics components are available in our general How do I get started with upgrading AppDynamics components for any release? article.

[Jagadeesh.Kalepalli]

Thanks 

[Claudia.Landivar]

Sure thing,  @Jagadeesh.Kalepalli— so glad it's helpful. 
Be sure and let us know how it works out for you!

Claudia Landivar

Community Manager & Editor