How does Contrast distinguish a new server?

Question

How does Contrast distinguish a new Server entry and can this be configured or customized?

Answer

Each Server entry represents a running Contrast agent. A new unique Server entry is created in the Contrast UI if one of 3 things differs:

• Server name - we'll use the hostname by default

• Container type - the type of container hosting your application

• Server path - the path which the agent process is running from

Each of these pieces of info can be manually set to a String of your choice by passing additional properties to the Contrast agent. This can be exceptionally useful if one or more of them are dynamic and change each time the application is started with the agent - for example, if running on PCF, the hostname will change on each deploy.

The relevant properties to configure each piece of data can be found in the following OpenDocs articles: 

• Java Agent Configuration
• .NET Agent Configuration
• Node Agent Configuration
• Ruby Agent Configuration