Defining Agent Groups

The steps for defining an Agent Group (HOSTG) are the same as any other object. This section describes the settings that are specific to only Agent Group objects. For more information, see Agent Groups (HOSTG).

An Agent group 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
• Version Management Page
• Documentation Page
• Authorizations Page

• The object-specific page described here.

  In the Agent Group page you define the group settings and assign it the individual Agents.

Notes:

• Agent groups of client 0 can also be used in other clients provided the administrator has set the relevant rights for the Agent group. The client's Agent group is used if the client 0 contains an Agent group of the same name.

• An Agent group of client 0 does not necessarily supply the same Agent in each client. Agents obtain client authorizations after installation which can differ from each other.

In the Platform and Mode section you define the environment and the Agents in the group in which the tasks should be executed.

1. Select the Platform.

   You can only assign individual Agents to a group if they all have the same platform.

   This list is disabled as soon as you start assigning Agents to the group. You can only change the platform definition if you first remove all the Agents assigned to the group.

   Notes:

   • Platform and OS are not the same. For example, an Agent group in which the WINDOWS platform has been defined can only contain Windows Agents. However, an SAP Agent that runs on Windows cannot be assigned to this group, since in this case SAP is the platform.

   • For Rapid Automation Agent Groups, please select CIT as platform. Once you have selected the platform, from the Software drop-down menu, select the RA Agent type, such as FTPAGENT, WEBSERVICEREST, and so on.

2. In Mode you specify the method that the Agent group will use to evaluate which Agent should be used to process each task:

   • Any

     Any Agent with enough resources is assigned for processing the task.

   • First

     On the first available Agent, depending on the order defined in the Assigned Agents table.

   • Next listed

     On the next active Agent according to the order specified in the Assigned Agents table.

     In case of multiple tasks using the same Agent group, a round robin system is applied. Thus, task A would start running on the first Agent and task B, which is started later, would run on the second Agent, and so on.

   • Load dependent

     On the Agent with the lowest workload in the group according to the data delivered by the resources allocation.

     The following is taken into consideration:

     • Preference is given to Agents without resource limits

     • The Agent with the lowest workload is used if there are resource limits for all Agents in the group

     In both cases, if the Agents have the same resource limits, the Agent with the fewest active tasks is used. The criterion to select an Agent to execute a task is the start time defined for the task. You specify this on the setting Generate Task at on the Attributes page of the executable object. For more information, see Attributes Page.

     You have two possibilities:

     • Late Agent assignment: Generate Task at: Runtime

       If you select this option, the Agent group evaluates the available resources and assigns an Agent to the task only if it has enough resources. If this is the case, the resources are reserved immediately; if not, the Agent group evaluation waits and the status of the task switches to Waiting for the host of an AgentGroup (1688).

     • Generate at activation time

       The start time of the task is used for Agent selection. The status of the task switches to Waiting for resource in case no sufficient resources are available on the Agent at that moment. It waits until processing is possible again. It does NOT change the Agent even if a different one had enough resources.

   • All active

     On all active Agents.

   • All active and inactive

     On all Agents .

   • Parallel tasks

     If tasks in this group are to be executed in All active or in All active and inactive Agents, you can also specify whether

     • tasks can run in parallel and, if so, how many
     • you want to prevent this group from processing tasks. Activate the Suspend task processing option for this purpose.

In this section you pick the individual Agents from the Available Agents list and insert them in the Assigned Agents one, where you can then rearrange them to meet the order of the Agents in the group. The order is important if you have previously selected Next listed as mode.

The list provides the following information:

• Name

• Version

  Version of the Agent, including its hot fix level.

• Hardware

  Hardware information such as system type, number of processors, processor type.

• Software

• Software Version

• Archive key 1 and 2

  Archive keys are keywords you assign to the object. Later on you can perform searches or you can filter objects using them:

  • Archive Key 1 is limited to max. 60 characters

  • Archive Key 2 is limited to max. 20 characters

• Role

  Role of the Agent. The system administrator can determine roles for each Agent, which are stored in the UC_EX_HOST_ROLE Agent variable.

To Assign Agents

1. Optionally, select the Mode, that is, the Agent in the group on which the task will be executed.

   For more information, see the description on the first table above.
   

2. Refresh the list of Available Agents to make sure that it is up-to-date.

   The list displays all Agents that are available for the current client.

3. If necessary, you can restrict the number of Agents displayed in the list to only those that are relevant for this group.

   For this purpose, enter the name of the Agent in the search box.

   The content of the Agent list diminishes dynamically as you type.
   

4. You can select Agents individually or in bulk. Do one of the following:
• Activate the check box next to the Agents you want to assign
• Activate the check box on the list header row to select all the Agents in the list
5. Click Assign selected. The Agent is inserted at the bottom of the Assigned Agents list.

Notes:

• Do not forget to define the proper order of the Agents in the group if you have selected First or Next listed above.

• You can also use the following script functions to assign Agents:

  • :PUT_ATT to assign a different Agent, but you cannot assign a different Agent group.

  • PREP_PROCESS_AGENTGROUP to read the Agents of an Agent group.

The order in which the Agents are arranged in the group is relevant for Agent allocation. For more information, see Which Agent in the Group is Used?.

To change the list order, drag and drop an Agent to its new place or use the Move up / Move down buttons.

For information on how to arrange the Agents, see Working with Tables.