Working with Agents in the Automic Web Interface

You can create a new Agent or download a pre-configured Agent directly from the Administration perspective.

This example video walks you through the installation of a Linux Agent in Automic Automation:

This page includes the following:

Adding a New Agent

You can create a new Agent in the Administration perspective of the Automic Web Interface.

To Add a New Agent

  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.

Downloading a Pre-Configured Agent

When you download a pre-configured Agent, you do not have to make any additional definitions.

To Download a Pre-Configured Agent

  1. Add an Agent as described before.

  2. On the Agents list, right-click the Agent and select Download Agent. You can also select the Agent and click the Download Agent button on the toolbar.

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

  3. Define the corresponding Operating System and Architecture.

  4. 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.

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

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

  7. Once the file is unpacked, you must do the following:

    Windows and Java Agents

    Run the relevant Agent binary to start the Agent:

    • Windows: *.exe file
    • Java: *.jar file

    Java Agents

    Run the *.jar binary file to start the Agent.

    Windows Agents

    • Set up the system environment.

      The user who starts the agent must have the following rights if the logon= parameter in the INI file of the agent (included in the .zip file) is set to 1 (default):

      • Act as part of the operating system
      • Adjust memory quotas for a process
      • Allow log on locally
      • Back up files and directories **)
      • Logon as batch job *)
      • Logon as service
      • Replace a process level token
      • Restore files and directories

      *) This right is only required if you start jobs by using the start option Logon as batch user.

      For more information, see WINDOWS Jobs.

      **) This right is necessary for the execution of job objects.

      For the extended File Transfer object (as of v9) this right is usually optional. It is necessary, however, when the agent transfers encrypted files with a file transfer because the agent uses the WinAPI LoadUserProfile.

      On Windows, the Local Security Policy can be called via the Control Panel > Administrative Tools. Rights are defined in User Rights Assignment in the Local Security settings.

      All Windows users that should execute BATCH-type jobs required the right Read & Execute for the agent's bin and temp directories. Otherwise, an error message occurs when the job starts (Access denied). This is necessary when the logon= parameter in the INI file of the agent is set to 1 (default).

    • Run the *.exe binary file to start the Agent.

    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 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

      You can use different commands to search for the certificates in your system. Only a privileged user, such as root, can search in these folders.

      Examples - SSL_CERT_DIR

      sudo find /etc/ssl/ -name '*DigiCert*'

      sudo find /etc/ -name 'DigiCert_Global_Root_CA.pem'

      Examples - SSL_CERT_FILE

      sudo grep -R "DigiCert" /etc/ssl/

      sudo grep -R "DigiCert Global Root CA" /etc/

      The variables can be set via export, for example export SSL_CERT_DIR=/etc/ssl/certs. You can also add it to the bash profile of the user.

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

    The downloaded Agent is ready to work.

Renaming/Deleting an Agent

You can rename and/or delete Agents from the Agents list, given the following applies:

  • You have write (W) permissions on the Agent
  • No tasks are running on the Agent
  • The Agent is inactive

To rename and/or delete an Agent, right-click it and select Rename/Delete.

Defining Agent Properties

An object definition consists of several pages. The General page displays the basic object properties you apply custom values that you can later use for filtering and you specify certain reporting settings. For more information, see General Page.

The object-specific page allows you to define properties specific to the Agent as follows:

  1. Right-click the Agent and select Open or Open in New Window.

  2. Edit the properties on the Agent pages described below.

Authorizations Section

Grant or remove the rights of the Agent on Clients.

Attributes Section

Trusted IPs

If the communication with the Agent runs with encryption, you can specify the IP addresses from which the Agent accepts non-encrypted connections. They must be separated by semicolons.

By default, the Agent accepts non-encrypted messages from the local host (127.0.0.1 on IPv4 and ::1 on IPv6) and its own IP address.

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

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:

See also: