How can I switch from listening tentacles to polling tentacles in Octopus Deploy? - octopus-deploy

Question

Setting up a cloud hybrid seems to be the way a lot of companies are going. A common configuration is Octopus Deploy is running on an on-premise VM. Octopus Deploy deploys to on-premise VMs as well as VMs running in Azure. The Octopus Deploy instance will be migrated to a VM running in Azure. This is part of our overall strategy of moving more of our on-premise VMs up to Azure.
Here is the kicker, the corporate firewall has been configured to only allow connections out to Azure. The on-premise VMs have no problem connecting to Azure. But Azure VMs cannot connect to the on-premise VMs. All of the on-premise VMs are using listening tentacles. Is it possible to switch over to polling tentacles. Can that be automated?

Answer 1

Once a tentacle instance is created the communication mode (listening or polling) cannot be changed. What you will need to do is create a new instance. This is one use case where the new Runbooks feature comes in handy.
Please note: This assumes you moved your Octopus Deploy instance to Azure already.
You will have two runbooks. The first runbook will:
Use the run a script step on the existing tentacle to create a new polling tentacle instance.
The second runbook will:
Use the run a script step on the new polling tentacle to disable the registration for the older listening tentacles.
Pause for manual intervention while you test some deployments to the new tentacle instances.
Use the run a script step on the new polling tentacle to delete the older listening tentacle instances.
First, let's use the script console to create polling tentacles. A couple of notes:
- When you register the new tentacles with Octopus Deploy, you will need to supply a name. I suggest you use something easy to remember. If your current listening tentacles are registered as [MachineName], then use [MachineName]-Polling.
- In addition to providing your deployment roles, also add "PollingTentacle" as a role that will make it easy for future runs with the script console.
$OldMachineName = $OctopusParameters["Octopus.Machine.Name"]
$Environment = $OctopusParameters["Octopus.Environment.Name"]
$Roles = $OctopusParameters["Octopus.Machine.Roles"]
$APIKey = #Your API Key
$Server = #Your Server
$NewMachineName = "$OldMachineName-Polling"
Set-Location "C:\Program Files\Octopus Deploy\Tentacle"
$baseArgs = #("register-with","--instance=Polling","--Name=$NewMachineName","--server=$Server","--apiKey=$octopusApiKey","--comms-style=TentacleActive","--server-comms-port=10943","--environment=$Environment")
$roleList = $roles -split ","
foreach ($role in $roleList) {
$baseArgs += "--role=$role"
}
$baseArgs += "--console"
& .\Tentacle.exe create-instance --instance "Polling" --config "C:\Octopus\Tentacle.config" --console
& .\Tentacle.exe new-certificate --instance "Polling" --if-blank --console
& .\Tentacle.exe configure --instance "Polling" --reset-trust --console
& .\Tentacle.exe configure --instance "Polling" --home "C:\Octopus\Polling" --app "C:\Octopus\Applications\Polling" --noListen "True" --console
& .\Tentacle.exe $baseArgs
& .\Tentacle.exe service --instance "Polling" --install --start --console
Next, using the API, disable the older machines. This is where having the role "PollingTentacles" and the machine registration set to [MachineName]-Polling makes it easy. This script will disable the older target.
###CONFIG###
$OctopusURL = #Octopus Server root URL
$APIKey = #Octopus API Key
$NewMachineName = $OctopusParameters["Octopus.Machine.Name"]
$machineName = $NewMachineName -replace "-Polling", ""
###PROCESS###
$header = #{ "X-Octopus-ApiKey" = $APIKey }
#Getting all machines
$allmachines = Invoke-RestMethod $OctopusURL/api/machines/all -Headers $header
#Filtering machine by name
$machine = $allmachines | ?{$_.name -eq $machineName}
#Setting the "IsDisabled" property
$machine.IsDisabled = $true #Set to $false to disable the machine
#Converting $machine into a JSON blob to PUT is back to the server
$body = $machine | ConvertTo-Json -Depth 4
#Pushing the modified machine to the userver
Invoke-RestMethod ($OctopusURL + $machine.Links.Self) -Method Put -Body $body -Headers $header
Now that the polling tentacles are running and the older tentacles as disabled, run some test deployments. Everything should continue to work as-is.
Finally, you will need to leverage the script console to deregister and delete the old tentacle.
cd "C:\Program Files\Octopus Deploy\Tentacle"
Tentacle.exe deregister-from --instance "Tentacle" --server "http://YOUR_OCTOPUS" --apiKey "API-YOUR_API_KEY" --multiple
Tentacle.exe delete-instance --instance "Tentacle"
For more information about the command line, please refer to our documentation.
If this puts you over your license limits, please reach out to support#octopus.com, explain what you are trying to do, and we will provide you with a temporary license.