Installing Agents

An agent is a separate installation component of Tidal Automation that runs jobs on behalf of the Master. Offloading jobs to agents frees the Master for intensive scheduling tasks such as production compiles. Agents exist for various platforms, including Windows, Unix, z/OS, and OpenVMS environments. Check with your sales representative for the current list of the types of agents available.

Note: It is recommended that no more than five agents be run on the minimum hardware platform. However, the number of agents that can be run on a given server depends upon the CPU and memory resources available. Add a single agent at a time and gauge the effect of each added agent on system performance before adding more. You have to experiment with the configuration to achieve optimal results.

See these standalone guides for installation, configuration, and usage for these Agents:

  • Tidal Automation HP OMU Agent Guide

  • Tidal Automation OpenVMS Agent Guide

  • Tidal Automation z/OS Agent and Gateway Adapter Guide

About Agents

Companies often need to provide centralized scheduling and administration of workloads that span multiple machines and locations. TA Master/agent architecture offers that capability.

In the basic TA network, the Master uses a centralized database containing all calendar and job scheduling information. One or more agent machines execute the production schedule. One or more client machines provide the TA user interface or console. The only prerequisite for the Master/agent relationship is that the machine acting as the Master must be on the same TCP/IP network as the machines serving as agents.

Platform Support for Agents

TA provides agents for Windows, Unix, z/OS, and OpenVMS environments. The platform support for agents is documented in the TA Compatibility Matrix.

Agent-specific documentation is provided for these agents:

  • OpenVMS

  • z/OS

Note: It is recommended that no more than five agents be run on the minimum hardware platform. However, the number of agents that can be run on a given server depends upon the CPU and memory resources available. Add a single agent at a time and gauge the effect of each added agent on system performance before adding more. You have to experiment with the configuration to achieve optimal results.

Rights for Installing and Running Agents

The rights needed to install and run agents are summarized in this table:

Installation Rights

Agent User Rights

Runtime User Rights

Local administrator

Able to access COM objects

Local system or if running under domain\user must have local administrator rights including:

  • Logon as a service

  • Logon as part of the operating system

  • Replace a process token

  • Able to access COM objects

On machines running Windows 2003 or later:

  • Bypass traverse checking

  • Adjust memory quotas for the process

Logon as a batch job