Moving a MFT Communications Agent to a new machine

This article details the necessary steps to move a Communications Agent install to a new machine.

There are times when it might be necessary to move a Communications Agent installation to a new machine with a different NetBIOS name. For instance, if the machine running the Communications Agent has a hardware failure or is replaced by a new piece of hardware. This is different from moving a full SureSync MFT installation. Most of the configuration changes are made on in the SureSync MFT Desktop on the main machine.

To move the Communications Agent to a different machine, you would do the following:

1. Install the Communications Agent on the new machine.
2. On the main SureSync MFT machine, launch the MFT Desktop and disable any Jobs that contain references to the old Communications Agent machine.
3. In the MFT Desktop on the main MFT machine, expand Computers and Servers, click on Servers and finally click on the Computer icon in the Ribbon Bar to launch the Computer Configuration Wizard. Configure the new Communications Agent following the steps in the wizard.
4. Go through all of your Jobs in the MFT Desktop that reference the old machine and modify those paths to reference the new machine. This can be done by expanding the Job, expanding Root Paths, clicking on the old machine's path and modifying the agent defined in the "Agent" drop-down on the General tab. Note: If all paths on the old machine should be updated to the new machine, you can click on Home | Additional Actions and select "Replace Machine References." From that dialog, select the old Communications Agent name in the first drop-down and the new one in the second drop-down. Click "Replace References: to switch the agent definition in all Jobs in the database.
5. Once all references have been updated, click the "Licenses" button in the Ribbon Bar and click on the "Activations" button. Check "Deactivate" next to the name of the old Communications Agent machine and click the "Activate or Refresh via Internet" button. This will deactivate the license on the old machine.
6. In the MFT Desktop, expand Computers and Storage. Expand either Servers or Workstations, find the old machine, right click on it and select "Delete" to fully remove the old machine from the database.
7. Go back to Licenses by clicking on the "Licenses" button in the Ribbon Bar. Click the "Activations" button. Check "Activate next to the new Communications Agent machine and click the "Activate or Refresh via Internet" button to activate the new license.
8. Please be aware you might get licensing warnings as you work through this process. This happens because you're technically exceeding your license until the old Communications Agent is removed completely. Just continue through the steps and the licensing issues will clear themselves by the time you're done with the process.
9. You can now enable the changed Jobs.