This page covers how to move and rename nodes. In the Controller UI, you can move and rename nodes between business applications or tiers to reflect changes in your environment model.
Move a Node
When you move a node to another tier or application in the Controller UI:
- All historical data is removed for that node, with no possibility for data recovery. Moving nodes in the UI is primarily intended for refining the AppDynamics application model of your environment, or other non-production scenarios. If retaining historical data for the node is important to you, you can change the tier, application or node name in the agent's
controller-info.xml file without data loss. - The tier or application association in the agent's configuration file no longer reflects the actual tier or application association. The UI association is maintained unless the
force-agent-registration flag is set to true in the agent's controller-info.xml.
You can move a node to a new application or tier with two methods:
- Controller UI: In the node dashboard, click Actions > Move Node. You do not need to restart the JVM using this method.
controller-info.xml: Update the tier or application setting in the agent's controller-info.xml configuration file and restart the JVM.
Force Node Registration
If you moved a node in the UI and you want to move it again elsewhere using controller-info.xml, set the force-agent-registration property in the configuration file to true and restart the JVM. See Force Agent Registration Property.
Data Retention
When you move a node to another tier or application, all node-level historical data (metrics, events, and snapshots) is lost. The historical data is not recoverable. If retaining historical data for the node is important to you, you can change the tier, application or node name in the agent's controller-info.xml file.
Any tier-level data that was generated by the moved node is retained in the former tier. Similarly, when moving nodes between tiers in the same application, the tier-level data generated by the node is retained in the former tier.
Moving a Java Node and Machine Agent
If your JVM machine has both a Java Agent and a Machine Agent, you cannot change the associations in the Machine Agent controller-info.xml file. You can only change these associations either through the UI or by modifying the Java Agent controller-info.xml file, as described in Java Agent Configuration Properties.
Rename a Node
To rename a node, change the name in Controller UI and then in the app agent configuration file. Changing the node name in the configuration file ensures that the new name is retained through the next agent restart.
If you rename a node from the app agent configuration file only, the effect is that a new node is created with the restarted agent reporting data as that node. AppDynamics retains the historical data previously collected for the node, but the data is associated with the old node name. For most purposes, therefore, renaming the node involves changing it in the UI first, and then in the configuration file.
To change the name in the UI, follow the instructions above for moving the node, but choose Edit Properties from the Actions menu, and enter the new name in the Node Properties dialog.
For information on changing the node name in the configuration files, see the agent installation or configuration documentation for your agent under Install App Server Agents.
