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Solarwinds Agent update which may require reboot?

Hi All,

Does applying hotfix or upgrading Solarwinds Orion Platform can trigger Solarwinds Agent (windows & Linux) update? which can potentially cause the node to restart?

I'm trying to be cautious here when upgrading the Solarwinds platform from v2019 and also applying the most recent HotFix 2 because I wanted to ensure the agent can still report to the newer Solarwinds Orion platform eventhough the version is older, because updating agent that requires a restart must be done manually during specific time window.

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Accepted answers

sreenathmp

When Solarwinds platform is upgraded the agents in that will also get upgraded automatically if Allow automatic agent updates setting is enabled. Please refer below.

Task 7: Upgrade Orion Agents

If the Allow automatic agent updates setting is enabled (default option), the Orion Agents are automatically upgraded in the background. Agents are tied to their release version. You can skip manually upgrading agents if the option is enabled.

To enable the option to allow automatic agent updates:

Click Settings > All Settings.
Under Product Specific Settings, click Agent & Remote Collector.
On Orion Platform 2020.2 and earlier, click Agent Settings.
Click Define Global Agent Settings, and select Allow automatic agent updates.

The upgrades take some time to complete but do not require any actions. Agents are upgraded at a throttled number of 10 at a time to limit the impact on the polling engine. As soon as one agent upgrade is complete, another agent takes its place so there are always 10 active threads until all agents are upgraded.

On operating systems that support .NET Framework 4.8, all Windows Agent Plugins are migrated to .NET 4.8. For more information, see ".NET Framework support" in the agent requirements.

If automatic upgrades are disabled, upgrade the Orion Agents:

Open the Manage Agents page. Orion Agents requiring upgrades display the message Update Required.
Select all agents needing updates and click More Actions > Update. The agents are upgraded in the background.

https://documentation.solarwinds.com/en/Success_Center/orionplatform/Content/Install-OrionProducts.htm

bogdan.stan

If you are upgrading from 2019.4 to 2020.2.1 HF1 and you also upgrade the agent your problem is that until .NET4.8 is installed on the monitored servers the agent will not function properly.

The agent update pushes .NET 4.8 installation with no reboot but it can happen in rare occasion that the server get rebooted anyway, so do not push this update to critical servers.

If you chose to postpone the agent update make sure you don't reboot the monitored servers before you upgrade the agent as it most of the cases the agent will not reconnect back to the pooling engine or even worse, show that is connected but no new data is gathered.

All comments

sreenathmp

When Solarwinds platform is upgraded the agents in that will also get upgraded automatically if Allow automatic agent updates setting is enabled. Please refer below.

Task 7: Upgrade Orion Agents

To enable the option to allow automatic agent updates:

Click Settings > All Settings.
Under Product Specific Settings, click Agent & Remote Collector.
On Orion Platform 2020.2 and earlier, click Agent Settings.
Click Define Global Agent Settings, and select Allow automatic agent updates.

On operating systems that support .NET Framework 4.8, all Windows Agent Plugins are migrated to .NET 4.8. For more information, see ".NET Framework support" in the agent requirements.

If automatic upgrades are disabled, upgrade the Orion Agents:

Open the Manage Agents page. Orion Agents requiring upgrades display the message Update Required.
Select all agents needing updates and click More Actions > Update. The agents are upgraded in the background.

https://documentation.solarwinds.com/en/Success_Center/orionplatform/Content/Install-OrionProducts.htm

itengineer

@sreedso I assume the Agent Update both Linux and Windows does not cause any system reboot?

sreenathmp

I am not 100% sure of that, but I don't think it will ask for reboot from my upgrade experience.

bogdan.stan

If you are upgrading from 2019.4 to 2020.2.1 HF1 and you also upgrade the agent your problem is that until .NET4.8 is installed on the monitored servers the agent will not function properly.

The agent update pushes .NET 4.8 installation with no reboot but it can happen in rare occasion that the server get rebooted anyway, so do not push this update to critical servers.

itengineer

That's great, thank you all.