Duplicate users or IP addresses in the xMatters Agent Report

Question

Why does the list of xMatters Agents in the web user interface (Workflows > Agents) sometimes display a user name more than once in the list of registered users? It also occasionally shows an agent's IP address twice, and authorized users can't always edit the information properly. 

Environment

• All versions of xMatters
• xMatters Agent

Answer

This problem can affect hosts that have more than one agent installed, where there is a conflict or duplication between the UUIDs assigned to the agents. While the multiple instances of user IDs or IP addresses aren't harmful in anyway, users may encounter an exception when attempting to modify the agents or their list of registered users. This can be a problem if you are setting up an integration that needs to be owned by a specific user, or needs to use a specific set of credentials for webhooks.

Solution

To fix this issue, you will need to purge the agent information from the preferences file (on Linux) or from the registry (on Windows).

To purge agent information on Linux:

1. Log in as root user and stop the xMatters Agent.
2. Navigate to /root/.java/.userPrefs/com/xmatters/xagent/services and delete the prefs.xml file.
3. Restart the agent.

To purge information on Windows:

1. Log in as an administrator and stop the xMatters Agent.
2. Using the Registry Editor locate the following key and delete the id value:
   HKEY_USERS/.DEFAULT/Software/JavaSoft/Pres/com/xmatters/xagent/services
3. Restart the agent.

In both cases, the agent will be assigned a new UUID when it connects to the xMatters instance, and the key will be stored in a new prefs file or registry entry.