Working with Agent Groups

Right-clicking an Agent Group opens a context-menu with all its available functions, which depend on whether it is active or not. This topic describes those functions or provides links to the corresponding descriptions.

• Editing Objects

  Opens the corresponding Agent object. This command is only available in system client 0000.

• Search for Use

  Opens the list of objects in which the selected agent is being used.

• Disconnecting Agent Connections
• Initiating Log Rotation

• Stopping All Agents

  Stops all Agents in the group. Processes that are currently running, continue until they have finished. No new processes are started afterward.

• Advanced Options

• Delete

  Deleted Agent Groups are moved to the Recycle Bin and can still be restored, see Recycle Bin.

• Renaming Objects and Folders
• Duplicating Objects
• Moving Objects or Folders within a Client
• Replacing References to an Agent Group

• Exporting the Agent Group data

  Click the export button on the top right corner of your environment to export the currently visible data to a CSV file.

  Note: Depending on the browser you are using, you will either be prompt to define the location of the file or you will find it at the bottom of your browser.

Disconnecting Agent Connections

When you start a new Communication Process and the Agents rearrange themselves to improve their workload balance, you may want to temporarily cut the connection between the Automation Engine and the Agents.

For this purpose, right-click an Agent Group and select Disconnect all Agent Connection. The Agents reconnect to the Automation Engine as soon as the next signal for Agent checking is sent.

Initiating Log Rotation

The Automation Engine logs large amounts of information. To be able to handle your log files easily, you can define system-wide settings that break the information to be logged in smaller chunks and thus produce also smaller log files.

For example, you can determine the maximum size of the log file; or you can specify the number of days that may elapse before a new file starts. You do so in the UC_SYSTEM_SETTINGS variable using the CHANGE_LOGGING_DAYS and CHANGE_LOGGING_MB keys. For more information, see CHANGE_LOGGING Parameters and UC_SYSTEM_SETTINGS - Systemwide Settings.

You can also change the log settings via the Automic Web Interface. For this purpose, right-click one or more records and select Initiate Log Rotation; this causes a new log file to be written. A dialog prompts you to confirm your action.

Advanced Options

The advanced Agent Group options allow you to distribute workload among Agents, to restrict the number of report blocks to be stored in the Automation Engine database and to specify the time interval for the periodic Automation Engine check. The setting you define here apply to all the Agents in the group.

For more information, see Advanced Options - Workload Balancing in Agents

Agent Settings

In this section you restrict the number of report blocks to be stored in the Automation Engine database. You can enter a value between 1 - 10000 in the Max. Report Blocks field. The default value is set by the system administrator in the UC_HOSTCHAR_* variable, key MAX_REPORT_SIZE.

On the other hand, you also specify the time interval for the periodic Automation Engine check. Again, the default value is set by the system administrator in the UC_HOSTCHAR_* variable, key JOB_CHECKINTERVAL. The allowed range is 1 - 32767.

For more information, see UC_HOSTCHAR_DEFAULT - Host Characteristics.

Replacing References to an Agent Group

You can replace an Agent Group only with another one of the same platform.

Note: Replacing Agent Groups does not work for Scripts. After carrying out an automatic replace via this function, you still have to replace the references to the Agent Group(s) in Scripts manually.

To Replace the References to an Agent Group in Objects

1. Right-click the Agent Group that must be replaced and select Replace.

2. The Replace Agent Group dialog is displayed.

3. The list in the lower part of the dialog displays all objects in which the selected Agent Group is being used.

   By default all are selected. If you do not want to replace it in all the objects, do one of the following:

   • Deactivate the checkbox in the table header; this deselects all checkboxes. Now activate the checkboxes next to the objects in which you want to replace the Agent Group.
   • Deactivate the checkboxes next to the objects in which you do not want to replace the Agent Group.
4. In Replacement select the Agent Group that should be used instead of the selected one.
5. Click the Replace button.