How do I get started with upgrading Machine Agents?

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Release Upgrade Checklist for Machine Agents

Note: The information in this article is not release-specific. You can reference it for any release.

To make sure you complete all the tasks necessary for upgrading Machine Agents after a release, we recommend following the upgrade checklist instructions below.

Table of Contents

• Prepare to upgrade your Machine Agents
• Plan your Machine Agent upgrade
• Troubleshooting
• Additional Resources

Prepare to upgrade your Machine Agents

1. Review the Product Announcements and Alerts page for details on any intermediate versions between the current version of your instance and the version you are targeting.
   
   

2. Review either of the following to confirm the compatibility of the various components of the AppDynamics environment:
   
   • Knowledge Base article: How do I get started with upgrading my AppDynamics components for any release? — especially the component compatibility matrix
   • Technical Documentation: Agent and Controller Compatibility

Plan your Machine Agent upgrade 

1. Review the Machine Agent and Controller version compatibility information below:
   

   Supported Controller Versions	v4.3	v4.4 - 4.4.3	v4.5+	v20.3 - future release
   Machine Agent Versions	4.x - 4.3	4.4.1 - 20.x (1)	4.5 - 20.x (1)	4.4 - 20.x (1)(2)

   ⁽¹⁾ Controller version supports through the most recent released Agent version

   ⁽²⁾ Controller does not support Agent version 4.1
   
   

2. Review the list of Machine Agent supported environments and versions to ensure compatibility between your Machine Agents and JDK.
   
   For example, 4.0.x is the latest version that can run on JDK 1.5 and higher, and any version from 4.1.x and higher needs JDK 1.7 or higher.
   
   
3. See Upgrading the Machine Agent for step-by-step instructions.
   
   

Note: It’s a good practice to back up the <machine_agent_home> directory to a <machine_agent_home_BACKUP> in case you need to revert to the previous installation.

Troubleshooting

In the event of an error condition, uninstall the new version and reinstall the previous version of the Machine Agent.

Additional Resources

Instructions for upgrading other AppDynamics components are available in our general How do I get started with upgrading AppDynamics components for any release?