Question

Now that CentOS 7 is being deprecated, how can I best transition my xMatters Agent to CentOS 8 or CentOS 9 without compromising my existing integrations and Flow Designer steps?

Environment

All versions of xMatters

xMatters Agent running on CentOS

Answer

The secret to seamlessly migrating your xMatters Agent from CentOS 7 to CentOS 8 or 9 is making sure you preserve the agent's ID. If you make sure that the agent running on the newer version of CentOS has the same agent ID, any Flow Designer steps assigned to it will automatically use the new agent, without interrupting your flows or integrations.

To migrate an xMatters Agent from CentOS 7:

1. Before decommissioning your CentOS 7 server and without stopping the existing agent, install the latest version of the xMatters Agent on the new CentOS server. (Complete instructions available in the xMatters Agent online documentation.)
2. When you have finished installing the new agent, it should start running automatically. Be sure to stop it using the sudo service xmatters-xa stop command.
3. Run the following command to make a backup copy of the new agent's configuration file (just in case):

sudo cp /home/xmatters/.java/.userPrefs/com/xmatters/xagent/services/prefs.xml /home/xmatters/.java/.userPrefs/com/xmatters/xagent/services/prefs.xml.bak

4. Copy the prefs.xml file from the old agent on the CentOS 7 server to the new agent on the CentOS 8 or 9 server. (Best way to do this is to copy the entire contents of the file and then paste it into the file on the new server.) Save the file.
5. Stop the agent on the old server using sudo service xmatters-xa stop
6. Start the agent on the new server using sudo service xmatters-xa start
7. Log into xMatters and navigate to Workflows > Agents, and then click the Installed tab. You should see the old agent's ID listed as active. Click Details and check that the agent is using the newer OS.
8. Send a test request to a workflow that uses the xMatters Agent and check the Activity Panel in Flow Designer to verify that the flow has been processed.
9. On the old CentOS server, disable the agent using sudo systemctl disable xmatters-xa

Your new agent should now be running successfully on the new server, using the same agent ID.