Migrate WPM Players to new systems

As detailed in How WPM works, you can deploy WPM Players to remote systems that are geographically located near large groups of end users to gauge performance of web applications from their viewpoint. Each WPM Player is a Windows service that simulates end user experiences by constantly replaying recorded transactions to track performance and transaction behavior over time, and then report statistics back to the SolarWinds Platform server for analysis.

Within the SolarWinds Platform Web Console, remote systems that host WPM Players are referred to as transaction locations or playback locations. History about each location is stored in the SolarWinds Platform database. If you need to replace a system that hosts a WPM Player, follow the instructions in this topic to preserve history about transactions played back on that system.

You can also use these instructions to back up WPM Player data before reformatting a remote system.

Here is an overview of the steps involved in migrating WPM Players while preserving transaction history:

1. (Recommended) Unmanage transactions assigned to the WPM Player.
2. Back up existing configuration data.
3. Replace (or reformat) the existing machine.
4. Deploy a WPM Player to the new system.
5. Update the related transaction location in the SolarWinds Platform Web Console.
6. Verify that the WPM Player works.

If you encounter issues after migrating a WPM Player, see the Troubleshooting section.

Unmanage transactions assigned to the WPM Player

Before migration, SolarWinds recommends unmanaging transactions assigned to the WPM Player location. After deploying a new WPM Player and restoring the configuration, you can "remanage" transactions.

1. In the SolarWinds Platform Web Console, click Settings > All Settings > WPM Settings.
2. On the Web Performance Monitor Settings page, click Manage Player Locations.
3. Switch to the Transaction Monitors tab.
4. Select each transaction assigned to the remote system and click Unmanage.

Back up existing configuration data

Create a backup of the existing configuration for a WPM Player by either copying a single .config file, or using the SolarWinds Diagnostics utility to capture data in a ZIP file.

To back up the existing WPM Player configuration:

1. Log into the system that hosts the WPM Player.
2. Navigate to this default folder: C:\Program Files\SolarWinds\Orion\SEUM\Player
3. Create a copy of the following file: SolarWinds.SEUM.Agent.Service.exe.config
4. Store the backup file in a different location.

Alternatively, navigate to C:\Program Files\SolarWinds\Orion\, run SolarwindsDiagnostics.exe to collect data, and then copy the ZIP file to a different location.

To back up the existing WPM Agent Settings file:

1. Log into the system that hosts the WPM Player.
2. Navigate to this default folder: C:\ProgramData\SolarWinds\SEUM\Data\AgentSettings.dat file
3. Create a copy of the dat file.
4. Store the backup file in a different location.

Replace the existing system and apply the WPM Player configuration

1. Replace the system with a new machine that meets WPM Player requirements.

2. Log in to the remote system.

3. Go to: C:\Program Files\SolarWinds\Orion\SEUM\Player.

4. Copy from the backup file any custom configuration values that are not encrypted to the AgentSettings.dat file that was newly created by the WPM Player service on that new remote location.

5. Run the PlayerSettings.exe tool to configure the WPM Playback Player service connection with the SolarWinds Platform.

6. Run C: \Program Files\SolarWinds\Orion\SEUM\Player\SolarWinds.SEUM.Agent.DomainConfigurationTool.exe tool to configure domain accounts and WPM Player service accounts.

7. (Optionally) Restart WPM Playback Player service to apply changes.

It is possible that your encrypted passwords might not work on your new system. This is because they are encrypted with a machine key, so if you move to a new server or reinstall your operating system, the system has a new machine key. In this case, you cannot reuse AgentSettings.dat content, and you must allow the WPM Player service to create a fresh version of it. The user must then run the WPM settings tool and the Domain Configuration Tool to reconfigure WPM Player again.

Deploy a WPM Player to the new system

To set up a WPM Player on the new system:

1. Navigate to the Manage Transaction Locations page and click the Transaction Locations tab.

2. Click Add Location > Download Player.

3. Click the downloaded file in the Windows Task Bar.

4. In the Setup Wizard, follow onscreen instructions to install the player.

   For additional deployment options, see Deploy WPM Players to remote systems.

5. Use the WPM Player Settings tool to configure the WPM Player service, as described in Configure the WPM Player service on remote systems.

6. After 2 minutes, check the status of the transaction location in the SolarWinds Platform Web Console. A green Up icon indicates that the WPM Playback Player service is ready to receive commands from the SolarWinds Platform.

Update the related transaction location in the SolarWinds Platform Web Console

After adding a WPM Player to the new system, update the related transaction location in the SolarWinds Platform Web Console. To preserve transaction history, the new IP Address or hostname of the transaction location needs to be updated in the SolarWinds Platform database.

1. Click Settings > All Settings > WPM Settings.
2. On the Web Performance Monitor Settings page, click Manage Player Locations.
3. On the Manage Transaction Locations page, switch to the Transaction Locations tab.
   1. Select the transaction location assigned to the WPM Player location, and then click Edit.
   2. Update values, as necessary. See WPM online help for field-level details.
   3. (Recommended) Click Test to verify settings.
   4. Click Submit.

Before saving changes to the SolarWinds Platform database, WPM tests the connection to the WPM Player service on the remote system. If successful, WPM closes the Edit Transaction Location page. Otherwise, an error message displays troubleshooting tips. See also Manually debug the connection between a WPM Player location and the assigned polling engine.

Verify that the WPM Player works

1. On the Manage Transaction Locations page, switch to the Transaction Monitors tab.

   1. If you “unmanaged” transactions earlier, “remanage” them now.

   2. Select a transaction assigned to the updated WPM Player location.

   3. Click Play Now to force transaction playback.

   4. Review results to confirm that the new configuration works properly.

   5. (Recommended) Verify that additional transactions assigned to the location also work.

2. Verify that historical playback data for transactions assigned to the location is still available.

   1. Click My Dashboards > Web > Transactions Summary.

   2. On the Transactions Summary view, click a transaction assign to the player location.

   3. Examine history on the Transaction Details view.

Troubleshoot WPM Player migration

If you encounter issues when migrating a WPM Player, follow these steps before contacting SolarWinds Support.

1. Verify that the new system meets WPM Player requirements.
2. Check that service settings were updated during WPM Player deployment:
   • Net.Tcp Port Sharing Service: The Startup Type is set to Manual on the SolarWinds Platform server and any Additional Polling Engines. On remote systems, Startup Type is set to Automatic.
   • SolarWinds WPM Playback Player service: A dependency with the Net.Tcp Port Sharing Service is added.
3. Verify that TLS/SSL configurations on the SolarWinds Platform server and the system hosting the WPM Player match.

Additional troubleshooting tips include:

• If transaction duration times are longer than they used to be, see WPMtransaction is slow or fails during playback in SolarWinds Platform Web Console but works in WPM Recorder.
• To learn how to use GPOs to disable automatic detection for domain accounts in proxies, see How to use GPP Registry to uncheck automatically detect settings (© 2021 Microsoft Corp., available at blogs.msdn.microsoft.com, obtained on February 3, 2021).
• If the WPM Playback Player service won’t start in SAM, see WPM transactions are Unknown and System.UnauthorizedAccessException appears in Agent Service Log.
• Transactions not playing after upgrade
• WPM Player is unable to play transaction

Manually debug the connection between a WPM Player location and the assigned polling engine

This section describes how to troubleshoot the connection between a WPM Player location and the polling engine to which it is assigned -- either the Main Polling Engine or an Additional Polling Engine (APE). Typically, the SolarWinds Platform server acts as the Main Polling Engine in an environment.

If you update a WPM Player and experience connection issues with an APE, switch the polling engine to the SolarWinds Platform server to confirm that connection works first. Then switch back to the APE.

1. Establish an RDP connection to the SolarWinds Platform server or APE.
2. Open a browser and navigate to the following URL:
   https://WPM_PLAYER_IP_OR_HOSTNAME:17781/api/version
   

   By default, most browsers block navigation to URLs with untrusted, self-signed certificates. If a “Connection is not private” message appears, click Advanced and then click the “Proceed to ###.##.###.## (unsafe)” link.

3. Enter "anyone" in the username field and click Sign in to open in the Authentication dialog box.

The browser should either display the content of that request or trigger a file download. Either way, the content of that file should look similar to this:

SolarWinds.SEUM.Agent:2020.2.2.####

If an error occurs, open the browser's development tools tab to debug issues related to processing the HTTP request. For example, press F12 in Chrome to open the Developer Tools (DevTools) pane.