Clients

Client objects are the largest organizational units in an Automation Engine system. Clients define self-contained environments that you can configure to depict your business.

Object Definition

This page includes the following:

Overview

The Clients page in the Administration perspective of Client 0000 lists all clients of your Automation Engine system. Each client is uniquely identified by a four-digit number between 1 and 9999. When you log in, you must log into a specific client.

Note: Only an administrator of Client 0 (system client) can add or edit Client objects.

One common way to configure your clients is to create one per operational area, department, or other organizational unit. Multiple clients share the same Automation Engine instance on the same hardware, but do not access the same data.

Examples

The following scenarios are different approaches to setting up a client landscape:

Note: Users within a client may open and work with all the folders and objects in that client, unless you define and manage their authorizations and privileges. For an overview of authorizations, see User Management: Defining and Managing the Authorization System.

Tip: For a basic introduction to setting up a system with Client 0 and other clients, see Example: Creating a Basic Client/User Landscape. The example shows how to create user groups and users in Client 0, assign them the necessary rights, and move Users from Client 0 to another client on which they will work.

System Client

Client 0 (also called system client) is already available when you install the Automation Engine. Use Client 0 to manage system-wide settings, such as the following:

When you first log in to Client 0, use the following credentials:

Important! Change this password immediately after your first login.

Only administrators can change or extend system client settings. All other clients and users with admin rights for numbered clients are created in the system client.

Note: Some internal objects of the system client can be overwritten when you update your system to a newer version and are, therefore, no longer available afterward.

Numbered Non-system Clients

All clients other than the system client (Client 0) are referred to simply as clients. Non-system clients are numbered between 0001 and 9999. If you have the required authorizations, you can change some client settings locally (in the client itself). However, you can only change the number of numbered non-system client in the system client 0000.

Some of the objects that are supplied by the system client can be overridden by objects of the same name from a numbered non-system client. Therefore, you can define settings for each numbered non-system client which differ from the system client.

Clients List

The following columns are displayed in the Clients page in the Administration perspective by default:

The following columns are also available, but are not shown by default:

Use the Refresh button in the toolbar to refresh the content of the table. The Export button lets you export the content of the table as a CSV file. Both buttons are available by default.

Tip: When working with the Automation Engine system, you may need to work with many objects, lists and monitors simultaneously. To make your work easier, you can open them in different browser windows and arrange them side by side on your screen. For more information see Showing Windows Side by Side.

Defining Clients

A Client definition is made up of the following pages:

Clients can be added, edited, activated or deactivated in Client 0, both from the Administration perspective and from the Process Assembly perspective.

When you create a client, it is immediately moved to the corresponding environment. You can edit the client from either the Administration perspective in Client 0, or directly in the Process Assembly of the client you have just created (it is stored in <No Folder>).

To Define a Client Object

  1. In Client 0, open the Explorer in the Process Assembly.
  2. Click the Add Object button in the toolbar, or right-click anywhere in the list and select Add Object to open the list of available object types.
  3. Select Client (CLNT) and click the Add Object button.
    The Add Client dialog is displayed.
  4. Enter a number between 1 and 9999 in the Client field.
  5. (Optional) Enter a Title.
    Choose a short and descriptive to help you easily recognize the client.
  6. Click the Add client button.
    The client is created and moved immediately to the corresponding environment. The Client page is displayed.
  7. (Optional) Define the following settings:
    • Time Zone
      Select a Time Zone object that will apply to all tasks processed in the client.
      Notes:
      • Other Time Zone objects may be applied to individual tasks in the client.
      • If you do not enter a value here, the UTC of the of the Automation Engine applies. For more information, see Time Zone (TZ).
    • Monitoring
      Activate this checkbox if you want to initiate the SNMP monitoring of this client. For more information, see SNMP Support.
    • Additional Info
      Enter a note regarding MIB monitoring, if required.

The Client page contains the following bars:

Title bar

Toolbar

Working with Clients

As soon as you create the client, it is moved to its environment. You can edit, start, and stop the client, or open report or execution data for the client from the Administration perspective.

Right-click the client to open the context-menu and access the available functions. For some of the functions, there are buttons on the toolbar for quick access.

Tip: Select multiple clients and right-click to perform a bulk operation.

Enabling or Disabling Automatic Processing

When you create a client, it is initially deactivated. You can already define objects, design Workflows, and so on, but you cannot execute them.

To execute objects, activate the client: right-click the client and select GO - Enable Automatic Processing. The client status changes immediately, and tasks can now be processed. The Active column in the list of Clients in the Administration perspective displays a check mark to indicate that automatic processing is activated.

To deactivate a client, right-click it and select STOP - Disable Automatic Processing. You can select and deactivate multiple clients at once.

Deleting or Copying Clients

You cannot delete or copy clients in the Automic Web Interface. Use the AE DB Client Copy utility when you need to delete or copy Clients. For more information, see AE DB Client Copy.

Opening the Report

See Reports for Clients.

Accessing the Historical Data

See Execution Data.

See also:

User Management: Defining and Managing the Authorization System