When adding an old Data Aggregator to a new NetOps Portal, it fails saying it is already registered

Products

• Network Observability
• CA Performance Management

Issue/Introduction

Our NetOps Portal system crashed and was unrecoverable so we had to start fresh but when we try to add the old Data Aggregator, it says it is already registered to another Portal system.

Environment

All supported releases of DX NetOps Performance Management

Cause

The old Data Aggregator / Data Repository has a reference to an existing NpcID

Resolution

BEFORE ATTEMPTING THE BELOW ALTERATIONS, ENSURE YOU HAVE A PROPER AND VALID BACKUP TAKEN BY vbr.py!  

1. Login to vsql as the user created when installing the Data Aggregator.  The default is dauser.
   • vsql -U dauser
2. Find the Data Aggregator item_id
   • select item_id, item_name from dauser.item where item_name like 'DataAggregator%';
3. Copy the existing NpcID string_value in case it is needed:
   • select item_id, string_value from dauser.attribute_instance where item_id=<item_id value from step 2> and attribute_id=(select attribute_id from v_attribute where attr_qname like '%DataAggregatorInfo.NpcID' limit 1);
4. Clear out the value of the existing NpcID string_value with this call:
   • update attribute_instance set string_value='' where item_id=<item_id value from step 2> and attribute_id=(select attribute_id from v_attribute where attr_qname like '%DataAggregatorInfo.NpcID' limit 1);
5. Commit the changes:
   • commit;
6. Restart the Data Aggregator dadaemon process:
   • systemctl restart dadaemon
7. Once the Data Aggregator is fully back online, retry to add it to the NetOps Portal

Additional Information

In an environment where data matters, if the NetOps Portal is completely lost, it is likely better to export the list of IP Addresses from the Data Aggregator and reinstall the DA/DR and discover fresh.