Adding and Configuring Agents

As an administrator user, you create agents using one the options available and configure them to fit your system environment.

This page includes the following:

Overview

There are different possibilities for installing/adding agents:

  • During the installation of the Automation Engine, either as on-premises or containerized agents.

  • Later on via the Automic Web Interface in the Process Assembly perspective of Client 0

  • Later on via the Automic Web Interface in the Administration perspective of any client.

  • For SQL, REST, Windows, and UNIX agents, later on using scripts.

After installing/adding an agent, you maintain and work with them in the Administration perspective. Agents are configured using their respective INI file. However, you can change some of their properties using the Automic Web Interface.

Important!

  • Rapid Automation Agents are an exception. They are not created automatically upon installation, you must create them manually after you have loaded the Rapid Automation solution in the database using the AE.DB Load utility or using the AE REST API. For more information, see Rapid Automation and Installing the Agent for Rapid Automation.

  • Some agents, such as RA, or GC Composer also have an additional configuration page that is specific to that agent.

Tip: You may need to work with many objects, lists and monitors simultaneously. To make your work easier, you can open them in different browser windows and arrange them side by side on your screen. For more information about this and other useful functions, see Opening and Arranging Multiple Views.

Once the Agents are installed, you must authenticate them in Client 0 before you can start working with them. There are three Authentication Methods: NO, LOCAL and LOCAL_REMOTE. The steps to authenticate the Agents are slightly different depending on which method you choose to apply.

You also have to assign the Agent to the relevant clients, make sure the Agent has the necessary rights to access those clients, and define user and user group authorizations so that they have the required rights on the Agent.

More information:

Installing Agents - Automation Engine Installation

During the installation of the Automation Engine, there are two different Agent installation types available:

  • Manual agent installation, which refers to the manual installation of on-premises Agents, see Installing the Agents Manually.

  • Containerized agent installation, which refers to building and running a Docker image hosting either a Windows, UNIX, or Java Agent in a container, see Installing Containerized Agents.

Regardless of the agent installation type you decide to implement, you can use your Agents in on-premises Automic Automation systems as well as in an Automic Automation Kubernetes Edition system.

For more information, see Installing the Agents.

Adding and Downloading Agents in AWI

You can create a new Agent and download a pre-configured Agent in Client 0 in the Process Assembly perspective.

You can also do the same in directly from the Administration perspective in any Client in the system. However, the Agent object is always also available in Client 0. When you download a pre-configured Agent, you don not have to make any additional definitions. However, you can change them as needed in Client 0.

This applies to UNIX, Windows, all Java based Agents (also in containers) and the TLS Gateway.

Make sure that the certificate the Agent or ingress needs is available. You can store the certificate in the Automation Engine by uploading it to the UC_TRUSTEDCERTS storage object. For more information, see UC_TRUSTEDCERTS Storage Object.

Important! You have to upload the relevant certificate with the name JCP_CERT, otherwise, the system does not recognize which certificate to use for the downloaded Agent.

Once the certificate is uploaded it is available on the trustedCertFolder, which is the one defined in the INI file of the Agent.

Watch the Video: Adding and Downloading UNIX Agents in AWI

Prerequisite! The Packs required for a Centralized Agent Upgrade (CAU) must be installed before you can download an Agent from the Administration perspective. You can download the CAU packs from https://marketplace.automic.com/. Once you have downloaded them, you have to install them in Client 0. You can do so from the Packs page in the Administration perspective. For more information, see Centralized Agent Upgrade (CAU).

Adding Agents - Process Assembly

You can create Agents manually in Client 0 in the Process Assembly perspective. To do so, do the following:

  1. You have two options:

    • Right-click anywhere on the list and select Add > Add Object.

    • Click the Add Object button on the toolbar.

  2. On the Add Object dialog, you have two options:

    • Expand the Agent (AGENT) list to display all Agents and select the relevant Agent.

    • Start typing the type of object you want to create in the Search field.

  3. Click the Add button. The Object Name dialog is displayed.

  4. Enter a descriptive Name, see Name, Title, and Alias

  5. Optionally, enter a short and descriptive Title that helps you recognize the purpose of the object.

  6. Click OK.

A new page opens where you can start with the object definitions in AWI. For more information, see Configuring the Agent Properties.

You can also download a pre-configured Agent from the Process Assembly perspective, see Downloading Agents.

Adding Agents - Administration Perspective

You create a new Agent and download a pre-configured Agent directly from the Administration perspective. You can do so in any Client in the system. However, the Agent object is always also available in Client 0. When you download a pre-configured Agent, you don not have to make any additional definitions. However, you can change them as needed in Client 0.

To add an Agent do the following:

  1. Open the Administration perspective and select Agents & Groups > Agents from the navigation pane on the left.

  2. You have two options:

    • Right-click anywhere on the list and select Add > Add Agent

    • Click the Add Agent button on the toolbar

  3. Select the relevant Agent from the list and click the Add button. The Object Name dialog is displayed.

  4. Enter a descriptive Name.

  5. Optionally, enter a short and descriptive Title that helps you recognize the Agent.

  6. Click OK.

The new Agent is available in the Agents list and can now be downloaded, see Downloading Agents.

For more information on how to edit the Agent definition in AWI, see Configuring the Agent Properties.

Downloading Agents

Prerequisite! The Packs required for a Centralized Agent Upgrade (CAU) must be installed before you can download an Agent from the Administration perspective. You can download the CAU packs from https://marketplace.automic.com/. Once you have downloaded them, you have to install them in Client 0. You can do so from the Packs page in the Administration perspective. For more information, see Centralized Agent Upgrade (CAU).

You can download an Agent either in the Process Assembly or in the Administration perspective. To do so, you have to locate the relevant Agent:

  • In the Administration perspective, go to the Agents list, see Agents List

  • In the Process Assembly, go to the relevant folder or use the search function ,see Global Search

  1. Once you have located the relevant Agent you have to options:

    • Select the Agent and click the Download Agent button on the toolbar

    • Right-click the relevant Agent object and select Download Agent

    The Download Agent dialog is displayed. The Name field is populated automatically.

  2. Define the corresponding Operating System and Architecture.

  3. Optionally, select the ServiceManager checkbox.

    Note: When the Service Manager checkbox is not selected, the Operating System and Architecture fields are disabled for Java based Agents. Also, when you select a Windows Agent, the Operating System is Windows by default and the field is disabled.

  4. Once you have defined all parameters, click Download. Your browser notification shows the Agent .zip file is being downloaded.

  5. Unpack the .zip file on the same machine on which the Agent runs.

  6. Once the file is unpacked, you must do the following for UNIX and Windows agents:

    UNIX (Linux) Agents

    1. Register to the host with your user ID, for example, AE.

    2. Ensure that all files have the correct owner and group entry. The owner must be the same user you used to register (AE) and the group must correspond to the code of the user (AE). Only a privileged user, such as root, can make these modifications.

      Example

      • chown AE * changes the owners of all files to AE

      • chgrp Group_name * changes the user groups of all files.

    3. For actual operation, the ucxj??? file can be given the permissions of a privileged user such as root.

      • Change the owner to root: chown root ucxj???

      • Set S-Bit (Set-Userid): chmod 4755 ucxj???

      Note: You need at least the permissions 755 for executable objects such as agents.

    4. Set the SSL_CERT_DIR and SSL_CERT_FILE environment variables with the User which will start the Agent.

      These variables allow you to load the certificates from the TLS/SSL store. The certificates can be stored either in one file per certificate or all certificates in one .pem file :

      • SSL_CERT_DIR location of the trusted CA certificates with each certificate in a separate file, for example,/etc/ssl/certs/

      • SSL_CERT_FILE location of the .pem file with all the trusted CA certificates, for example, /etc/pki/tls/certs/ca-bundle.crt

    5. Run the ucxjlx6 binary file to start the Agent.

    Windows Agents

    Do one of the following:

    • Update the trustedCertFolder= parameter in the [AUTHORIZATION] section of the INI file of the Windows Agent, see Agent Windows 64-bit

    • Import the JCP cert into the Windows OS store

    The downloaded Agent is ready to work.

Using Scripts

You can use scripts to easily create, download and extract agent packs, as well as start agents running on a Windows or UNIX system.

We have gathered a number of deployment script examples for SQL, REST, Windows, and UNIX agents. They allow you to deploy and start the agents without having to create your own script. You can also merge separate scripts used in the examples into one large script.

More information:

For more information on how to edit the Agent definition in AWI, see Configuring the Agent Properties.

Configuring the Agent Properties

During installation, Agents are configured using their respective INI file. For more information, see Agents INI files.

You can also edit some of the Agent properties in Client 0 using the Automic Web Interface. An Agent object definition is made up of the following pages:

  • Standard pages that are always available, no matter what type of object you are defining:

    • General Page

      Note: In the Agent object, only the Authorizations page is displayed as it is the only relevant for the Agent object.

    • Documentation Page

  • The Agent page, which is an object-specific page and available for all Agents. The settings available on this page are described here.

Agent Page

Open the relevant Agent to edit the following properties:

  • Authorizations Section

    Specify the rights that the Agents should have on each Client:

    • File Transfer - Read

      The Agent can send files for transfer.

    • File Transfer - Write

      The Agent can receive files.

    • Execute Jobs

      The Agent can start Jobs.

  • Attributes Section - Trusted IPs

    Trusted IPs must be separated by semicolons. Communication to components such as the Event Monitors (BS2000, z/OS) or the Output Collector (NSK) takes place without encryption.

    By default, the Agent accepts non-authenticated messages from the local host (127.0.0.1 on IPv4 and ::1 on IPv6) and its own IP address. If Event Monitors on z/OS are used in LPARs on different computers, you must specify the relevant IP addresses here.

    Releasing individual IP addresses is only reasonable if login attempts of former Agent versions should be rejected.

  • Service Manager Section

    These properties are necessary for the connection between the Agent and the Service Manager, an external monitoring tool that allows you to start and stop the Automation Engine.

    The Service Manager comes with a proprietary user interface. If you want to use the AWI instead, you can do so provided you enter the necessary information. This way, Agents can start directly via the User Interface or via the script element MODIFY_SYSTEM.

    All values will automatically be replaced if the connection to the corresponding Service Manager service was successful.

    To refresh the connection, right-click the Agent and select Update Service Manager Link from the context menu. The default port number 8871 is used, unless a different specification is provided in the SMGR_PORT_RANGE key in the UC_SYSTEM_SETTINGS variable.

    • Phrase is the name of the Service Manager environment.
    • Name refers to the service in the Service Manager.
    • Port is the port number of the Service Manager.
    • Activate Link Agent to Service Manager, otherwise you can no longer start the Agent either through the Administration perspective or using the MODIFY_SYSTEM script element. This specification is automatically set if the Service Manager scan for the Agent was successful.

    More information:

Additional Agent Configuration Page

Some Agents, such as RA or GC Composer also have an additional configuration page that is specific to that agent.

For more information on the agent-specific pages for Rapid Automation agents, please refer to the relevant RA solution documentation at https://docs.automic.com/documentation.

See also: