Registering Agents Dynamically

Registering Agents Dynamically

Typically in Tidal Automation environments, an administrator deploys a known set of Tidal agents to perform work on behalf of the TA Master. The administrator defines connections for each agent in the TA Web Client so the TA Master can schedule jobs across the set of agents, as needed.

  1. An administrator uses the Tidal Automation Client Manager to register each regular agent that a TA Master will use to perform work.

  2. The Tidal Master connects to each of the defined agents and registers the fact that the TA Master wants to connect with them. The regular agents establish permanent connections with the TA Master. Whenever the TA Master restarts, it automatically establishes connections to these regular agents.

Tidal Automation supports these types of agents:

  • Permanent: Agents that are always available to a TA Master

  • Transient: Agents that can be taken in and out of service dynamically

How dynamic Agent Registration Works

An organization might want to provision extra agents that are not used during normal business operations, but which can be activated for high-volume situations. For example, an organization could comfortably handle the workload automation tasks for managing inventory with a fixed set of regular agents. During some seasonal event, such as a major shopping holiday, the organization might need more agents to handle the increased workload surrounding inventory procurement, pricing, distribution, and sales. In such situations, the organization could activate more agents, on a temporary basis, that could then be taken out of service when no longer needed.

  1. Pool of regular agents always available to a TA Master

  1. Pool of transient agents that are not currently registered or connected to a TA Master

    Dynamic agent registration allows administrators to configure transient agents that can automatically be integrated with the TA when the administrator activates them. Administrators do not need to create connections manually in the Tidal Client Manager or Web Client for these transient agents, nor do they need to delete the connections manually when the agents are no longer necessary.

This diagram illustrates the general flow for using transient agents.

  1. TA Master schedules jobs for regular agents as needed.

  1. A company’s IT administrator starts one or more transient agents to handle a higher-than-normal workload.

  1. When the transient agent becomes active, it reads its agent configuration file and registers itself with the TA Master.

  1. The TA Master begins send scheduled jobs to the agent.

    Note: When a transient agent is deactivated, TA automatically stops scheduling jobs for the agent.

    After transient agents are dynamically registered with a TA Master, they are treated like any other agent while they are active. Each registered transient agent is added automatically to agent lists so they can immediately start processing work. From the TA Web Client, users can display the connection details for the agent, schedule jobs for the agent, and track the progress of jobs running on the agent.

    Configuring transient agents to register dynamically with a TA Master includes these tasks:

    • Create agent registration files for each TA Master connection.

    • Add the agent registration file names to the tagent.ini file.

Creating Registration Files for Transient Agents

Each registered transient agent is added automatically to agent lists so the agent can immediately establish a connection, you must create an agent registration file on the agent system. This file identifies the TA Master connection information. The registration file includes these parameters.

Parameter

Required?

Description

AgtLst

N

Names of agent lists that should include the agent, as a semicolon-separated list in the form: “ParentListChildList;ParentListChildList”.

MasterIP

Y

IP address of the TA Master. This may be a comma separated list of 2 IPs, one for the Primary and one for the Backup Master.

MasterIPGW

N

Alternative IP address of the TA Master or the TA Master Gateway. Required if the agent is behind a firewall. This may be a comma separated list of 2 IPs, one for the Primary and one for the Backup Master.

MasterName

Y

Name of the TA Master machine or domain name.

MasterPort

Y

Port number through which the agent registers with the TA Master. Default: 5591.

UniqueID

N

User-defined identifier for the agent. If specified, an agent automatically adds environmental information to ensure the ID is unique so the TA Master can distinguish it from all other transient agents.

If omitted, a unique ID is automatically generated for the agent.

UniqueIDStatic

 

 

N

(Only valid when UniqueID=Y) Whether to use the UniqueID as is or to allow it to be customized with unique information from the environment, such as a machine or container name. Valid values include:

N (Default)

Y: When set to Y, the configuration file cannot be shared among multiple agent instances.

This example shows how to register an agent with a user-defined ID (UniqueID) that allows the agent to modify the ID with additional information (UniqueIDStatic=N) to ensure that it remains unique in the environment.

MasterName=pavelkvm01 
MasterIP=172.21.244.173 
MasterIPGW=172.21.244.173
MasterPort=5591
UniqueID=73fc550e-b822-44e0-8e40-c5d3a762cb14 
UniqueIDStatic=N 
AgtLst=Balanced\Unix;Random\Unix

This example shows an FT tolerance environment with two masters and also how to register an agent with a user-defined ID (UniqueID) that allows the agent to modify the ID with additional information (UniqueIDStatic=N) to ensure that it remains unique in the environment.

MasterName=pavelkvm01
MasterIP=172.21.244.173,172.21.244.174
MasterIPGW=172.21.244.173,172.21.244.174
MasterPort=5591
UniqueID=73fc550e-b822-44e0-8e40-c5d3a762cb14
UniqueIDStatic=N 
AgtLst=Balanced\Unix;Random\Unix

Creating Registration Files for Regular Agents

In addition to creating connections for transient agents within TA, you can also use agent registration files to register regular agents with a TA Master. Each registered transient agent is added automatically to agent lists so the agent can immediately establish a connection, you must create an agent registration file on the agent system to establish connections with the TA Master instances. This file identifies the TA Master connection information. The registration file includes these parameters.

Parameter

Required?

Description

AgentName

N

Descriptive name to identify the agent in the TA Master.

AgentNetName

Y

IP or DNS name that identifies the agent.

AgentPort

Y

Port number of the agent listener.

AgtLst

N

Names of agent lists that should include the agent, as a semicolon-separated list in the form: “ParentList\ChildList;ParentList\ChildList”.

DefaultUserName

N

Default runtime user name.

The DefaultUserName setting supports users with or without a domain:

  • If your user is assigned to a specific domain, use this format: DefaultUserName=dv\\user

  • If your user is without a domain, use this format: DefaultUserName=user

AgentDesc

N

Additional information about the agent.

JobLimit

N

Maximum number of jobs that can run concurrently on the agent.

MasterIP

Y

IP address of the TA Master. This may be a comma separated list of 2 IPs, one for the Primary and one for the Backup Master.

MasterIPGW

N

Alternative IP address of the TA Master or the TA Master Gateway. Required if the agent is behind a firewall. This may be a comma separated list of 2 IPs, one for the Primary and one for the Backup Master.

MasterName

Y

Name of the TA Master machine or domain name.

MasterPort

Y

Port number through which the agent registers with the TA Master. Default: 5591.

MaxJobOut

N

Maximum size, in KB, of a job’s output.

SchTimeZone

N

Time zone where the TA Master is located.

UniqueID

 

N

User-defined identifier for the agent. If specified, an agent automatically adds environmental information to ensure the ID is unique so the TA Master can distinguish it from all other transient agents.

If omitted, a unique ID is automatically generated for the agent.

This example shows how to register an agent with a user-defined ID (UniqueID) that allows the agent to modify the ID with additional information (UniqueIDStatic=N) to ensure that it remains unique in the environment.

MasterName=pavelkvm01 
MasterIP=172.21.244.173 
MasterIPGW=172.21.244.173
MasterPort=5591
UniqueID=73fc550e-b822-44e0-8e40-c5d3a762cb14 
AgtLst=BalancedUnix;RandomUnix 
AgentName=AgrName
AgentNetName=111.22.33.444 
AgentPort=5912
JobLimit=10 
DefaultUserName=tidal\\AgentUser 
MaxJobOut=100 # KiloBytes 
SchTimeZone=Standard Time 
AgentDesc=Agent Description

This example shows an FT tolerance environment with two masters 

MasterName=pavelkvm01
MasterIP=172.21.244.173,172.21.244.174
MasterIPGW=172.21.244.173,172.21.244.174
MasterPort=5591
...

Adding Registration Files to the Tagent.ini File

After creating registration files for the agents, you must add the information to the agent’s tagent.ini file. Add the full pathnames for the registration files in the MREG parameter, as shown:

# =============================================
# Agent Configuration Information
# =========================================== 
[TIDAL_AGENT_1]
MREG=/home/registrations/tm1.reg;/home/registrations/tm2.reg

Note: You can also add the parameter to the Global section to apply it to all agents.