How do I get started with upgrading Database Agents

[Nina.Wolinsky]

Release Upgrade Checklist for Database Agents

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

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

Table of Contents

• Prepare to upgrade your Database Agents
• Plan your Database Agent upgrade
• Next Steps
• Troubleshooting
• Additional Resources

Prepare to upgrade your Database 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 Database Agent upgrade

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

  Supported Controller versions	v.4.3	v4.4	v4.5	v20.3 - future releases
  DB Agent versions	4.1 - 4.3 (1)	4.1 - 4.4 (1)	4.1 - 4.5 (1)	4.1 - 20.x (1)(2)

                 ^{(1) Controller version supports through the most recent release of the Database Agent  
                 (2) DB Agent is only compatible up to its corresponding Controller version}  
  
  
• Before upgrading, we recommend completing two backups:
• Backup your previous installation of the Controller.
  
• Backup the <db_agent_home> directory so you can revert to the previous installation if required. To maintain the same configuration information, you will also need the <db_agent_home>\conf\controller-info.xml file.
  
  
• If you are upgrading both the Controller and agents, upgrade the Controller before upgrading the agents.
  
  
• See Upgrade the Database Agent for important upgrade notes and step-by-step instructions. 

Next Steps

For each database, you will need to configure the Database Collectors according to the database in your environment. See Add Database Collectors in the documentation.

Troubleshooting

• If your database isn’t reporting, check Database Visibility System Requirements in the documentation
  
  
• If you are having problems with your Collector, see Add Database Collectors. 
  
  
• If your agents don’t seem to be reporting, see the Troubleshooting Collector Problems section under Add Database Collectors.

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?