Java APM Agent Changelog

  • Article

I just realized that there is not a great means of tracking the changes to the Java APM agent for Visual Studio Online.  And so without further ado, a blog post to rectify the situation.  This post will discuss how to determine the version of the Java APM Agent as well as a changelog of features and fixes.

How Can I Know What Version I Have

Due to some technical requirements, the name of the zip file needs to remain constant between versions.  Hence, when you download the zip file the file does not contain the version string in the file name.  The good news is that in the ZIP file there is a XML file version.xml that contains.... (what for it)... the version!  This human-readable file is intended for information use:

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- /////////////////////////////////////////////////// -->
<!--         Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation         -->
<!-- /////////////////////////////////////////////////// -->
<!-- Human-readable file with version/build information. -->
<!-- This is an auto-generated file (i.e. modifying this -->
<!-- file will not change the version information        -->
<!-- displayed in the running program.                   -->
<VersionInformation>
  <Version>1.13.100.1</Version>
  <LabelName>NotFromLabel</LabelName>
  <BuildDate>20140325</BuildDate>
</VersionInformation>

Additionally, each jar file contains an XML file with the version number in it.  To access it, rename the jar file to a zip file (you may need to update your Windows Explorer settings to show know file extensions).  And if you are curious, no you may not unzip the file, update the version number, and re-zip the jar file. If you do, chaos will ensue! :)

If there is no version file, that means you are using a very old agent, in which case download a newer one in order to take advantage of the features listed below.

The Changelog

Here is a non-exhaustive list of changes to the Java Agent as far back as I was willing to look in version control.  Moving forward, I will (try to) update this blog post as new Agents roll-out.

1.12.100.4 (March 2014)

  • Finalized support for gathering Custom Performance Counters from JMX
  • Improved Configuration Plan format
  • Added feature to send counters without waiting for entrypoints to enable support for elasticSearch, Kafka, etc…
  • Bug fixes

1.12.100.1 (January 2014)

  • Preliminary support for gathering Custom Performance Counters from JMX
  • Bug Fixes

1.11.100.1 (November 2013)

  • Run-time Dependency Discovery (RDD) support for HTTP methods
  • Performance and bug fixes 

1.10.100.15 (November 2013)

  • Version released for SCOM 2012 R2 on-premise solution
  • Send events directly to the VSO Endpoint
  • Java Policy Support
  • Event parameter regular expression filtering
  • Security Fixes