Agents (HOST)

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Agents are programs that run on the target system, which can be a cloud scheduling and workflow orchestration solution, an Operating System, an application such as SAP, PeopleSoft, etc. They establish the connection between the Automation Engine and those target systems, start the execution of tasks and make both their monitoring and the corresponding reporting possible. Agents create log files that record what occurs.

As an administrator, you install, configure and maintain the Agents. These are your responsibilities:

  1. Install the Agent, see Installing the Agents.

  2. Configure it, see Configuring the Agents.

  3. Authenticate it, see Agent Authentication.

  4. Assign the Agent to the Clients it should have access to and define the rights it should have, see Assigning Clients to Agents.

  5. Define User and User Group authorizations on the Agent. This grants Users and User Groups specific rights on the Agent. You do it in each client. For more information, see Authorizations Page.

Installing the Agents

The procedure to install an Agent depends on the type of Automic Automation environment where you want to install them. This section provides a list of all possible installation scenarios and links to the areas in the documentation where the installation procedure is explained in detail.

On-Premises Agents

These topics explain how to manually install on-premises Agents:

Containerized Agents

This topic explains how to build and run a Docker image hosting either a Windows, UNIX, or Java Agent in a container: Installing Containerized Agents.

Special Cases for Versions Earlier than v24

If you want to install Windows or Unix/Linux Agents with a version that is smaller than 24, you have the following options:

Preconfigured Agents

You can add an Agent object in Client 0 and download a pre-configured Agent from Broadcom’s Marketplace. With this method, you do not have to configure its INI file, authenticate it, etc. The Agent is ready to use. See Adding and Downloading Agents in AWI.

Cloud Automation Agents

Broadcom provides multiple Agents that integrate Automic Automation with numerous cloud environments. The following topic provides a list of Automic Automation cloud integration Agents and links to their respective documentation: Cloud Integrations.

RA Agents

Broadcom provides Rapid Automation (RA) Agents that integrate and automate third-party applications. This topic outlines the basics of RA Agents and provides a link to the location in Broadcom’s Marketplace where you can access their documentation: Rapid Automation.

Configuring the Agents

After installing an Agent, you configure it using its INI file. For detailed information about how to configure an Agent, click on the corresponding link at Agents INI Files. In addition, the UC_HOSTCHAR_DEFAULT - Host Characteristics variable lets you define default Agent settings.

You can also edit some of the Agent properties in Client 0 through the Automic Web Interface. For more information, see Configuring the Agent Properties.

See also:

You can also define additional important parameters in AWI. The following topics explain them:

Agent Login and Connection

Agent login, Agent connection

An Agent logs in only once and, once connected, it remains always connected. The following duplicate login validation takes place:

  • Upon installation, the Agent starts and tries to log in. If there is no Agent connection with the same name, the Automation Engine accepts the login attempt and stores the Agent name, port number, start time etc. It deletes this information when the particular Agent connection ends.

  • Agents connect via TCP/IP to the communication process (CP) or Java communication process (JCP). The communication between CP/JCP and Agent is encrypted. It is the Agents that are in charge of keeping the connection alive, as well. When it is lost, they try to reconnect; the interval of reconnect attempts is configurable.

    For more information, see TLS/SSL Communication and Encryption and Non-TLS/SSL Communication and Encryption.

Object Definition

  • Object class: System object
  • Object type/Short form: HOST

Agents List

Automic Automation or Automic SaaS systems can have thousands of Agents. As an administrator, you can limit the number of Agents to be displayed on the list in theAGENT_LIST_LIMIT key in the UC_SYSTEM_SETTINGS variable. The default is 5,000, the maximum is 20,000.

The number of Agents currently displayed is shown on the list toolbar. A plus next to the number indicates that there are more Agents available than those displayed. For example, if the AGENT_LIST_LIMIT has been set to "200" and more than 200 Agents have been assigned to the client, Agents (200+) is displayed on the toolbar.

The following columns are displayed by default:

  • Status

    • Inactive agents are grayed out

  • Name

    • Maximum length: 32 characters

    • Always in uppercase

    • Do not use special characters when adding an agent to avoid problems in the target system

  • Authenticated

    Authenticated agents are check marked

  • Version

  • TLS

    Agents that use TLS/SSL and establish a connection with the Java communication process (JCP) are check marked

    If an Agent is not check marked, it is a non-TLS/SSL Agent and establishes a connection with a communication process (CP) or connect through the CP port of the TLS Gateway, see TLS Gateway.

  • Platform

    • Platform type of the agent

    Note: This is not the operating system.

  • Hardware

    • Information about the computer on which the agent is running such as the system type, number of processors, or processor type

  • Software

    • Type of platform or operating system of the computer on which the agent is installed

  • Software Version

  • IP address

  • Port no.

  • Last logoff

  • Number of clients

    • Number of user-defined clients in which the Agent has authorizations

  • Linked

    • Whether the agent is linked to a ServiceManager or not

    This depends on the settings made in the Service Manager section.

  • Process ID

  • ZDU Version

    • Either base (B) or target (T) version of the agent in connection with a ZDU, see Zero Downtime Upgrade

The following columns are also available:

  • Last check

    The time at which the status and other agent-related information was last checked

    Note: This applies only to non-TLS/SSL Agents. The keep-alive interval for TLS/SSL Agents is defined using the WEBSOCKET_TIMEOUT parameter, see UC_HOSTCHAR_DEFAULT - Host Characteristics.

  • Communication Process

    Communication process connected with the agent

  • Time difference

    Time difference between the time of the agent and the time of the Automation Engine

    This is helpful for interpreting job reports when the Automation Engine and the agent run on different hosts with different system times.

  • MIB

    MIB information of the Agent that is used in connection with SNMP

    If available, the unique ID that identifies each monitored net element is displayed.

    For more information, see SNMP Support.

  • Services

    Whether the Agent performs a special service:

    • MAIL - Agent used for e-mail connection

    • SQL - Database Agent used for resolving variable objects of type SQL

  • Compression

    Compression method used as standard in File Transfers

  • Authorizations

    Privileges granted to this Agent in the current Client:

    • R = Read, send data by a File Transfer

    • W = Write, receive data from a File Transfer

    • X = Execute

  • Job res. max.

    Maximum Agent resources available for jobs

  • FT. res. max.

    Maximum agent resources available for File Transfers

  • Keep alive

    Interval in seconds in which the connection to the communication process is checked

    If the connection is lost, the agent tries to reconnect automatically to the first available communication process (CP), which could be a different agent to the previous one.

  • Roles

    Administrators can define a role (free text) for the agent in its INI file. If so, it is displayed here.

  • TLS Gateway

    Name of the TLS Gateway that is used when a non-TLS Agent is connected through the CP port of the TLS Gateway, see TLS Gateway.

  • Net Area

    By default, this is the name of the Automation Engine system. For more information, see Net Areas in the Automation Engine.

    Important! This field is populated only for TLS Gateway instances that are used as a communication process (CP) and are assigned to a net area. It does not apply to the Agents nor to TLS Gateway instances acting as an Agent as only communication processes can be grouped in net areas.

Displaying the Agent Variables

To see the variables that have been defined for a particular Agent, select it and click the Details button on the toolbar. The Details pane displays the variables and the values that have been defined for the Agent .

Filtering the Content of the Agent List

It is possible to use different filters to customize the content of the Agents list. Click the Filter button on the toolbar to open the Filter pane. Agent Name, Status and IP Address are always displayed but you can add additional criteria.

Tip: You can share filtered lists with other users. You can also bookmark the filtered list to be able to access it quickly next time. For more information, see Bookmarking and Sharing Links.

Monitoring and Reporting

monitoring capabilities of Agents, Agent monitoring function, reporting capabilities of Agents, Agent reporting function

As soon as a Job starts executing, the Agent starts monitoring and reporting its status to the Automation Engine. When the Job finishes, the Agent reports its final status too.

When developers and object designers define Jobs, they specify where to store the Job reports, whether in the Automation Engine database or in a file on the target system. When configured to store it in the database, the Automation Engine loads the report as individual blocks into the database. If the report exceeds a configurable limit, only data with the configured size is transferred to the database, where the last block transferred always contains the file's end. Thus, the beginning and end of a Job report are available in the database.

For more information, see Reports for Servers and Agents.

See also: