Add a data center

• How-to guide
• 12-min read
• Updated on Sep 18, 2026

To extend your Managed Cluster into a second data center for a Premium High Availability (PHA) deployment, follow the steps below.

A PHA deployment is globally distributed. You add a redundant set of nodes that mirrors your original Managed Cluster, and the two node sets typically sit in different data centers.

This procedure uses these terms:

The procedure migrates and replicates each Dynatrace Managed component individually to prepare for cross-data center data replication. See Overview of Dynatrace Managed components.

Before you begin

To check whether a node in DC-1 is reachable from DC-2, run this health-check REST call from a host in DC-2:

curl -k https://<DC-1-node-IP>/rest/health

Replace <DC-1-node-IP> with the IP address of any node in DC-1. The response contains "RUNNING" when the connection succeeds.

Prepare for the migration

Ensure that your system meets the specified hardware and operating system requirements.

Gather information

The REST API calls in this procedure use variables. Collect this information before you start:

sudo <dynatrace-directory>/utils/cassandra-nodetool.sh status

Datacenter: datacenter1
=======================
Status=Up/Down
|/ State=Normal/Leaving/Joining/Moving
--  Address        Load       Tokens       Owns (effective)  Host ID                               Rack
UN  10.176.42.20   65.54 GB   256          100.0%            f053dd8d-ecf3-7834-b099-68542439817b  rack1
UN  10.176.42.244  65.47 GB   256          100.0%            2aa7e790-a423-9273-88f9-45bcd158dd6e  rack1
UN  10.176.42.168  65.47 GB   256          100.0%            48543bca-41f5-26d3-b2fd-6cfdf5c0f3b2  rack1

Set variables

To streamline the numerous REST API calls during the deployment, set environment variables on every node in DC-1 and DC-2.

SEED_IP=<seed-node-ip>
DT_DIR=<dynatrace-directory>
NODES_IPS=$(echo '[<nodes-ips>]')
API_TOKEN=<api-token>
DC1_NAME=<datacenter-1>
DC2_NAME=<datacenter-2>

For example:

SEED_IP=10.176.37.201
DT_DIR=/opt/dynatrace-managed
NODES_IPS=$(echo '["10.176.37.218", "10.176.37.227", "10.176.37.120"]')
API_TOKEN=R_SZOpV4RTOmjr9fFmK4x
DC1_NAME=datacenter1
DC2_NAME=dc-us-east-2

Review network zone setup

Before you migrate to PHA, review your network zone setup for OneAgents and Environment ActiveGates that use the default network zone.

When you migrate and restart a Cluster node, Dynatrace changes the Embedded ActiveGate network zone from default to the node's data center name. The network zone reassignment can reroute OneAgent and Environment ActiveGate traffic that currently uses the default network zone.

Although PHA optimizes traffic between the data centers, ActiveGates should send data to both data centers for redundancy. Configure OneAgents and ActiveGates to prefer specific network zones without losing their ability to fail over to another part of the Managed Cluster during a data center outage. You can also use load balancers for this purpose.

For active-passive application deployments, keep ActiveGates active in the passive portions of the deployment so the Dynatrace infrastructure fails over without reconfiguration or rediscovery.

Install the second data center

Complete these steps in order.

Update Elasticsearch license

Distribute the installer

Create the data center topology

Open firewall rules

Install second data center nodes

Replicate Cassandra

Replicate Elasticsearch

Migrate the server

Migrate the Nodekeeper

Enable the new data center

Update Elasticsearch license

Fetch the PHA license. Run the following command on each existing DC-1 node successively:

sudo nohup $DT_DIR/installer/reconfigure.sh --only els --premium-ha on &

Distribute the installer

In this step, you copy the node installer to every node in DC-2.

Create the data center topology

In this step, you create a configuration that defines which node belongs to which data center.

Run the following Cluster API call only on the seed node:

curl -ikS -X POST -d "{\"newDatacenterName\" : \"$DC2_NAME\", \"nodesIp\" :$NODES_IPS}" https://$SEED_IP/api/v1.0/onpremise/multiDc/migration/datacenterTopology?Api-Token=$API_TOKEN -H "accept: application/json" -H "Content-Type: application/json"

If the status code isn't 200 and the response doesn't suggest next steps, contact a Dynatrace product expert via live chat.

Open firewall rules

In this step, you add firewall rules that open ports for traffic to the new DC-2 nodes.

Open ports

To open ports to traffic from the new DC-2 nodes, run the following Cluster API call only on the seed node:

curl --noproxy '*' -ikS -X POST -d "$NODES_IPS" https://$SEED_IP/api/v1.0/onpremise/multiDc/migration/clusterNodes/currentDc?Api-Token=$API_TOKEN -H "accept: application/json" -H "Content-Type: application/json"

If successful, the status code is 200 and the response body contains a request ID you need to check the firewall rules status.

If the status code isn't 200 and the response doesn't suggest next steps, contact a Dynatrace product expert via live chat.

Verify firewall rules

Set the request ID environment variable on seed node only. The request ID is from the response in the previous API call.

REQ_ID=<topology-configuration-request-id>

To check the firewall rules status, run the following Cluster API call only on the seed node:

curl -ikS https://$SEED_IP/api/v1.0/onpremise/multiDc/migration/clusterNodes/currentDc/$REQ_ID?Api-Token=$API_TOKEN -H "accept: application/json" -H "Content-Type: application/json"

If the status code from this call isn't 200, try again after a few minutes.

Install second data center nodes

In this step, you install Cluster nodes on all hosts within DC-2 and, once completed, you check for the presence of a Nodekeeper service. A running Nodekeeper service indicates that all nodes were successfully installed in DC-2.

Install nodes in DC-2

Run this command on every node in DC-2, then follow the installer prompts. The installation follows the standard Cluster node procedure.

sudo /bin/sh ./managed-installer.sh --install-new-dc --premium-ha on --datacenter $DC2_NAME --seed-auth $API_TOKEN

The installation takes three to five minutes. The expected result is similar to the following:

Installation in new data center completed successfully after 2 minutes 51 seconds.

Check Nodekeeper in DC-2

Run the following Cluster API call only on the seed node when all nodes in DC-2 finish installing:

curl -ikS https://$SEED_IP/api/v1.0/onpremise/multiDc/migration/nodekeeper/healthCheck?Api-Token=$API_TOKEN -H "accept: application/json" -H "Content-Type: application/json"

If the status code isn't 200, try again after a few minutes.

Replicate Cassandra

In this step, you reconfigure Cassandra in DC-1 and DC-2 for cross-data center replication, trigger data synchronization, rebuild Cassandra data, and verify the Cassandra state.

Cassandra replication can take minutes to hours, depending on your metric storage size.

Replicate Elasticsearch

In this step, you replicate Elasticsearch to the DC-2 data center and verify the configuration and data replication. Elasticsearch replication can take minutes or hours, depending on your storage size.

Replicate Elasticsearch to DC-2

To start replication of Elasticsearch to the DC-2 data center, run the following Cluster API call only on the seed node:

curl -ikS -X POST https://$SEED_IP/api/v1.0/onpremise/multiDc/migration/elasticsearch?Api-Token=$API_TOKEN -H "accept: application/json" -H "Content-Type: application/json"

If successful, the status code is 200 and the response body contains a request ID that you need to check replication status. Set the request ID environment variable only on the seed node. The request ID is from the response in the previous API call.

REQ_ID=<replication-elasticsearch-request-id>

If the status code isn't 200 and the response doesn't suggest next steps, contact a Dynatrace product expert via live chat.

Verify progress and status

To check the replication status of Elasticsearch, run the following Cluster API call only on the seed node:

curl -ikS -X GET https://$SEED_IP/api/v1.0/onpremise/multiDc/migration/elasticsearch/$REQ_ID?Api-Token=$API_TOKEN -H "accept: application/json" -H "Content-Type: application/json"

If the status code isn't 200, try again after a few minutes.

Verify data replication

To verify Elasticsearch data replication, run the following Cluster API call only on the seed node:

curl -ikS -X GET https://$SEED_IP/api/v1.0/onpremise/multiDc/migration/elasticsearch/indexMigrationStatus?Api-Token=$API_TOKEN -H "accept: application/json" -H "Content-Type: application/json"

If the status code isn't 200, try again after a few minutes.

Migrate the server

In this step, you migrate the server, refresh authorization tokens that enable OneAgent connectivity, and start NGINX in the DC-2 data center. Also, you refresh installers in DC-1 that are used to add nodes.

Migrate server

Start the Managed Cluster in DC-2. Run this Cluster API call only on the seed node:

curl -ikS -X POST https://$SEED_IP/api/v1.0/onpremise/multiDc/migration/server?Api-Token=$API_TOKEN -H "accept: application/json" -H "Content-Type: application/json"

If successful, the status code is 200 and the response body contains a request ID that you need to check cluster readiness. Set the request ID environment variable only on the seed node. The request ID is from the response in the previous API call.

REQ_ID=<replication-server-request-id>

If the status code isn't 200 and the response doesn't suggest next steps, contact a Dynatrace product expert via live chat.

Check Managed Cluster readiness

To check if the Managed Cluster is ready, run the following Cluster API call only on the seed node:

curl -ikS -X GET https://$SEED_IP/api/v1.0/onpremise/multiDc/migration/server/$REQ_ID?Api-Token=$API_TOKEN -H "accept: application/json" -H "Content-Type: application/json"

If the status code isn't 200, try again after a few minutes.

Migrate the Nodekeeper

In this step, you migrate the Nodekeeper service in DC-1.

Start migration

/opt/dynatrace-managed/installer/reconfigure.sh --only ndk

To start the Nodekeeper migration in DC-1, run the following Cluster API call only on the seed node:

curl -ikS -X POST https://$SEED_IP/api/v1.0/onpremise/multiDc/migration/nodekeeper/currentDc?Api-Token=$API_TOKEN -H "accept: application/json" -H "Content-Type: application/json"

Check migration status

To check if the Managed Cluster is migrated, run the following Cluster API call only on the seed node:

curl -ikS -X GET https://$SEED_IP/api/v1.0/onpremise/multiDc/migration/nodekeeper/currentDc/status?Api-Token=$API_TOKEN -H "accept: application/json" -H "Content-Type: application/json"

If successful, the status code is 200, and the response contains the Migration completed successfully message.

Enable the new data center

Go to the Deployment status page in the Cluster Management Console and confirm that it lists both data centers with all nodes healthy.