Planned updates to the agent

The Instana agent is compatible with multiple versions of sensors. However, in an automated environment, the Agent Bootstrap component does not update itself. In such cases, you might need to manually update the Agent Bootstrap. Without manual intervention, this limitation of the agent might cause issues in your deployments. You can use the following information to learn more about the planned breaking changes to the Agent Bootstrap and plan your manual updates to avoid risks.

Agent Assembly switch to Java 11

Current versions of Instana agents support Java 8 and Java 11. However, in the upcoming releases, new Instana agents might stop the support for Java 8 and use only Java 11 to support a Karaf runtime update. This change is applied on the Agent Bootstrap level. Existing agents are not impacted by this change because the sensor code of these agents is compatible with Java 8. However, you are recommended to switch to Java 11 to avoid potential issues.

The transition to Java 11 might involve the following stages:

HotSpot-based agent transition to Java 11

In the first stage, Agent Assemblies that are released with a pre-packaged HotSpot JVM support Java 11 only. You must use Java 11 for these Agent Assemblies.

Monitoring issue for new agents with Java 8

In the second stage, when you start new Agent Assemblies with a JVM that is based on Java 8, a monitoring issue appears. This monitoring issue alerts you about the upcoming requirement to switch to Java 11. You can find this monitoring issue in the agent dashboard and the Monitoring issues tab in the Events menu.

Update to Karaf runtime

In the third stage, the Karaf runtime is updated. The Agent Assemblies that are released after this stage do not support Java 8. After this stage, you must use Java 11 only.