Upgrading Agents to MOM SP1

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MOM SP1 agents can communicate with both MOM SP1 DCAMs and pre-MOM SP1 DCAMs by using different workflows for each. Therefore, there is some flexibility that can be applied to the timing you choose for upgrading agents to MOM SP1. The following guidelines are recommended:

  • Limit agent upgrades to one configuration group at a time.

  • Do not deploy MOM SP1 rules to agents until all DCAMs and agents within a configuration group have been upgraded to MOM SP1. Because scripts that run on agents can be larger in MOM SP1 (up to 128 KB), deploying MOM SP1 rules before upgrading all DCAMs and agents causes scripts larger than 16 KB to be truncated.

  • Disable the "Default Event Collection for Microsoft Windows NT and 2000" processing rule group before upgrading agents. This processing rule group is not included in MOM SP1 because it generates a lot of events. If you do not disable this processing rule group before upgrading agents to MOM SP1, then agents will continue to collect this data.

Upgrading Automatically Installed Agents

You can upgrade automatically installed agents after the DCAM has been upgraded to MOM SP1. Using the MOM Administrator console, scan computers in your system and approve pending agent installations.

Upgrading the Agent on the MOM Database Server

Unless you removed the agent on the database before upgrading the database component, the agent will be partially upgraded and not functional. Therefore, ensure that the database is included in the Managed Computer rules for upgrade. After upgrading agents, verify that the agent on the database computer is reporting status.

Upgrading Manually Installed Agents

Any agent that was installed manually can also be upgraded by using the manual agent setup program. However, if the level of Agent Manager control was set to Full, then you also have the choice of upgrading these agents automatically from the MOM Administrator console.

If the level of Agent Manager control was set to either Scan or None, then you must use the manual agent setup program to upgrade these agents. This includes agents that are on the other side of a firewall.

When you run the MOM SP1 manual agent setup program on a pre-MOM SP1 agent, you are given the choice of either adding the agent to a new configuration group or updating an existing configuration. Choose to update the existing configuration and then select the configuration group.

Upgrading Multihomed Agents

Coordinate the upgrade of multihomed agents across configuration groups. The agent is upgraded by the first configuration group to roll out agent upgrades. The Agent Manager detects which version of the agent is installed on a server and will not overwrite the agent with a previous version. You can determine which configuration groups an agent reports to by reviewing the entries in the following registry key on the agent computer:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE_SOFTWARE\Mission Critical Software\ OnePoint\Configurations

Because MOM SP1 agents can communicate with both MOM SP1 and pre-MOM SP1 DCAMs using separate workflows, there should be no conflict with an upgraded MOM SP1 agent reporting to a configuration group that has not yet upgraded to MOM SP1.

Either upgrade the agent automatically from the MOM Administrator console or use the manual agent setup program, if appropriate. If you use the manual agent setup program, you must run setup once for each configuration group to correctly upgrade all of the registry entries.

Determining Agent Version

To determine which version of the agent is installed, review the following registry key entry on the agent computer:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE_SOFTWARE\Mission Critical Software\ OnePoint\ServiceVersion

MOM SP1 agents record a version number of 4.0.1300.0.