Getting Started with Automic SaaS for Administrators Transitioning from On-Premises

This topic explains what you must do to set up your Automic SaaS environments. First, we will verify that the connectivity works as expected in the Automic SaaS environment. When this is confirmed, we will outline how to create Clients and Users and how to move your data to your new environment.

This page includes the following:

The following page provides a summarized list of the steps you need to take to set up your system: Checklist to Set Up Automic SaaS- Existing Customers.

Prerequisites

Consider the following before setting up Automic SaaS:

  • Whitelisting your IP Addresses

    Broadcom is committed to provide maximum security at all times. As part of the Automic SaaS security architecture, "stateful" inspection firewalls deny by default all incoming traffic, analyze it and prevent standard internet attacks. Application servers are located in a different zone separated from the service database servers by a firewall. Only the necessary ports are opened between that zone and the internal trusted network. This means that Broadcom must allow your IP addresses to whitelist them. For this reason, after receiving the Welcome email, please submit a support ticket with Broadcom where you share with us your IP addresses. You will be able to access your environments as soon as Broadcom has whitelisted your IP addresses.

  • Keeping your documents at hand

    Your company has received various documents and emails regarding your Automic SaaS subscription. Among them, the Welcome toAutomic SaaS email is particularly important for you; it contains your account details, default system name, links to the endpoints that you need, your credentials and so forth. Pay special attention to the SaaS Listing document too, as it provides the details of what your subscription entails. Keep these emails in a safe place because they are sent only once.

    For more information, seeAutomic SaaS Service Description .

  • Changing the Default System Name

    change default Automic SaaS system name,request system name change in Automic SaaS,change default SaaS system name

    If you want to change the default system name assigned to your environments, do it BEFORE you start working with them.

    Automic SaaS system name, system name, Automation Engine system name

    When Broadcom provisions the SaaS environments, they are assigned default names. You may want to change the default system names so that you can keep the configuration of your Agents, of the JCP and so on. To change the system name, you must place a change request via the Broadcom Support Portal. Upon your request, Broadcom will provision two brand new environments for you. The original ones will be decommissioned and any configuration you may have already done will be lost. This is the reason why it is imperative that you request this change BEFORE configuring anything in your environments.

    Keep in mind that if you have more than one Automic Automation system (and, therefore, multiple system names) and you want to move them to Automic SaaS, you must decide whether you want to keep one of the existing system names or if you want a completely new one. In either case, communicate your desired system name before Broadcom provisions your new environments.

    For information about the default system name assigned to newly provisioned environments, see Two Environments: Non-Production and Production.

  • Preparing the Data

    prepare data to move to Automic SaaS,prerequisite to move data from on-premises to Automic SaaS

    Moving an existing Automic Automation to Automic SaaS does not entail migrating or converting the system in any way. It is as easy as exporting the data in your database and importing them into the Automic SaaS database.

    The Automic SaaS database is PostgreSQL and it supports Unicode/UTF-8. If the data in your Automic Automation database is not compliant with UTF-8 and if you are using objects such as Code Tables, you must ensure that your data are compliant with Unicode/UTF-8 before they can be imported into the Automic SaaS database. For more information, see Universal Language Support (Unicode).

Setting Up Automic SaaS for Existing Customers

Before moving the objects in your existing Automic Automation environments to Automic SaaS, do a test setup to ensure that everything works fine. Once you have confirmed that everything works as expected, you can create more Clients and Users and you can start moving your data from your on-premises environments to your new Automic SaaS ones.

To Set Up the System

steps to set up Automic SaaS for users of Automic Automation on-premises,instructions to set up Automic SaaS for users of Automic Automation on-premises

  1. Submit a support ticket with Broadcom communicating your IP addresses so that they can be whitelisted, see Whitelisting your IP Addresses.

  2. If you want to change the default system name assigned to your environments, do it now. Submit a change request via the Broadcom Support Portal. for this purpose., see Getting Started with Automic SaaS for Administrators Transitioning from On-Premises

  3. Log in to Client 0 using the link provided in the Welcome email. Use the credentials in the email for your first login. You will be prompted to change the password.

  4. Add and download a new Agent or use one of your existing Agents to test the connection between Automic SaaS and the Agent. In either case, you must configure the Agent to access the JCP endpoint provided in the Welcome email.

    Notes:

    • Automic SaaS uses TLS certificates that are signed by a public Certificate Authority (CA). This means that the root and intermediate certificates are already in Java and OS truststores and that there is no need to distribute certificates to enable Agents to connect to the JCP endpoint.

      Automic SaaS uses the default HTTPS (443) and SFTP (22) ports.

    • Installing, configuring and maintaining Agents is not included in the Automic SaaS subscription. These tasks fall into your responsibility. You install, add and work with them in the same way as you do with Agents for container-based systems. For more information, see Installing and Configuring Agents for Container-Based Systems.

    • You can use your existing Agents and connect them to the Automic SaaS environment. If you have Agents on versions that are older than Automic SaaS, upgrade your Agents using Broadcom's Centralized Agent Upgrade (CAU). For more information, see Centralized Agent Upgrade (CAU).

    • You can use password vaults to manage the passwords and login credentials of your Agents. Automic SaaS supports CyberArk with REST endpoints to retrieve the passwords. To be able to use CyberArk with Automic SaaS, you must have already installed a REST service. For more information, see Managing Password and Agent Login Externally.

  5. Authenticate the Agent. For Automic SaaS, only the LOCAL authentication method is available. For more information, see Authenticating Agents and Withdrawing the Authentication.

  6. Assign the Agent to Client 100 and configure its authorizations.

  7. To confirm that the Agent is connected, create a Job in Client 100.

    1. Log in to Client 100 using the link provided in the Welcome email. Use the credentials in the email for your first login. You will be prompted to change the password.

    2. Create a test Job that uses the Agent and execute it. You will need a Login object too.

    3. Verify that the execution has worked as expected.

  8. Copy the REST API URL provided in the Welcome to Automic SaaS email in your browser and verify that the endpoint is accessible. Alternatively, verify it by using an endpoint as specified in the swagger documentation. For more information, see REST API Reference.

  9. Verify that the FTP endpoint provided in the Welcome email is accessible. This is important because Broadcom archives your operational data and stores them on the FTP server mentioned in the Welcome to Automic SaaS email on a daily basis. Broadcom creates daily archives of your operations (execution data, reports, messages and comments), of all your processes and user activities. Broadcom keeps these data during a limited period of time that is stipulated in the SaaS Listing.

    One day after executing your test Job, the archive data pertaining to that job will be available on the FTP server. Check that the connectivity works and that you can download the file.

    Important! It is your responsibility to download the archive files regularly from the FTP server and store them where needed to be able to comply with your company's data retention policy.

    Note:Broadcom maintains the database and generates the archive files. Be aware that in Automic SaaS the database maintenance falls entirely within Broadcom's responsibility; you do not have access to the database.

    For more information, see:

  10. Now that you are sure that the connectivity works as expected in your Automic SaaS environments, do the following:

    1. Create the Clients you need. By default, an Automic SaaS environment has an administration Client (Client 0), a production Client (Client 100) and a default user. You can create as many Clients as you need. You have the following options:

      • Using the REST API.

      • Through the Automic Web Interface in exactly the same way as in Automic Automation on premises.

      For information about the Clients provided by default with your Automic SaaS subscription, see Clients and Users in Automic SaaS.

    2. Create Users. You have the following options:

      • Using the REST API. You can create Users both in Client 0 and directly in the production Clients. If you create them in Client 0, you can then also move them to a production Client using the REST API.

      • Through the Automic Web Interface in exactly the same way as in Automic Automation on premises.

      For information about the Users provided by default with your Automic SaaS subscription, see Clients and Users in Automic SaaS. This topic also explains what you need to do if you want to use single-sign on, SAML, secure email, LDAP and so on.

      For more information about the REST API, see REST API Reference.

    3. Reconfigure your existing Agents to connect to the Automic SaaS environment.

    4. In Client 0, assign the Agents to Clients.

  11. Move the data available in your on-premises environments to Automic SaaS.

    Important! You can move all your objects from the on-premises environment to Automic SaaS, including the objects that you store in Client 0 (Login, Connection, and so forth). However, in Client 0 it is not possible to move any other type of configuration, such as system or Client settings.

    You have two options to move your data:

    Moving a large quantity of data (potentially your entire database) at once:

    You can choose one of the options available to move large amounts of data:

    1. Export the content of your database using the Transport Case and the AE DB Unload Utility to extract the data from the original system and the Import function in the target system.

    2. Export the content of your database using the Transport Case and the Export function to extract the data from the original system and the Import function in the target system.

    Moving smaller sets of data on your own:

    You can move your object data on your own using either the export and import functions or the AE REST API.

    For more information about transitioning data, see Transitioning to Automic SaaS - Configuration Data.

  12. Configure your production Clients as you are used to in Automic Automation.

  13. Access the FTP server and download your execution data and reports regularly. As an experienced Automic Automation users, you will probably want to automate this process using the Automic Automation capabilities.

See also: