Agents rules – Completing the Schedule tab

Description

Specify a unique name for the agent. The same name is typically used for both the agent and the agent activity.

Map the agent to one or more node types from the list:

• Search – The agent runs on a search node for search jobs.

• WebUser – The agent runs on a web user node for web user jobs.

• BIX – The agent runs on a BIX node for BIX jobs.

• BackgroundProcessing – The agent runs on a background node.

• Custom1, Custom2, Custom3, Custom4, Custom5 – Additional five node types that can be used for other purposes. The agent runs on the selected custom node.

• RunOnAllNodes – The agent runs on all the nodes in the cluster that are started with any node type, regardless of the node classification.

The agent runs for all the nodes that are started with that node type configuration or for all nodes in the cluster that are started with any node type in the case of RunOnAllNodes type.

Note:  Node type associations are effective only when a node is started with a node type.

Specify the schedule type for the agent activity:

• Periodic — The agent runs the activity, and then sleeps for the number of seconds entered in the Interval column.
• Recurring — The agent runs the activity based on a specified calendar schedule (for example, every Monday at 5:00 P.M.).
• Startup — The agent runs the activity once at startup based on a specified parameter.

Note: The value that you enter in this section can be overridden in the generated agent schedule instances.

If the Pattern field is set to Periodic, enter the amount of time in seconds that the agent waits before starting (or restarting) this activity after the queue is empty. The default value is 30 seconds. Enter a value of 30 seconds or greater. To configure an interval less than 30 seconds and at least five seconds, create the agent/minimumwakeup environment variable in the prconfig.xml file. For example:

<env name="agent/minimumwakeup" value="5" />

If the Pattern field is set to Recurring, click Advanced to examine or modify the schedule in the Recurrence dialog box.

Note: You can override the values entered in the Recurrence dialog box in the generated agent schedule instances.

Specify whether the agent uses the agent queue capability to process items from the agent queue. This feature allows the agent to temporarily skip items that fail, for example, because a needed resource is locked, and try again later to process the item.

• Legacy — Indicates that this agent was created in a version prior to PRPC 5.4 and that it has not yet been updated. This option is not available for agents created in PRPC 5.4 or later.
• Standard — Indicates that this agent processes items from an agent queue and that it relies on the system to provide object locking and other transactional support.
• Advanced — Indicates that this agent uses custom queuing. This option is recommended when the Pattern field is set to Startup.

Note: As a preferred approach in new development, select Standard. To take advantage of agent queue capabilities, you can upgrade a Legacy agent activity to Standard.

Specify the category to which this agent belongs which is used for sorting on the System Operations Agent overview page.

Select this check box to run this agent whenever the system is running.

Clear this check box to disable the agent at system startup. Disabling agents at system startup is useful when debugging the agent or to implement optional features.

Note: You can override this check box value in the generated agent schedule instances.

Description

Specify the Applies To key part of the agent activity. In most cases, this is the class of the work items that the agent is processing.

Specify the name of the activity that provides the processing for this agent (the agent activity).

Click to provide values for input parameters for the activity in the Activity Parameters dialog box.

For agents of the Standard queue mode, specify the maximum number of items from the agent queue that are processed at one time by the agent before it goes back to sleep for its interval.

If this field is blank, the default value is 0, and the agent processes all entries in its queue before sleeping.

For agents of the Standard queue mode, specify whether the agent uses the agent queue functionality.

When this check box is selected, the system locks items that are retrieved from the queue by the agent until the agent is finished with the item (commit or rollback). If a transient condition means that the item cannot be processed (such as if the work item is locked), the system queues the item again and the agent can try processing it the next time it wakes up.

When this check box is cleared, the queue items for this agent do not persist. When an agent attempts to process an item, that item is removed from the queue and the agent gets one chance to process it. If it fails, the item is not put back in the queue for another attempt.

For Advanced mode agents, select this check box and specify the time interval within which you want the agent to run on only one node in the cluster.

For example, you can specify Block execution within this time window for two hours for a cleaner agent that starts running at 10:00 on Node 1. For the next two hours, this advanced agent will not run on any other node in the cluster.

Description

Specify whether the master agent generates agent schedule data instances (Data-Agent-Schedule class) for this rule when it checks for new agents rules.

Agent schedule instance is created the first time the master agent runs the agent. If you save it with this option enabled, then the agent schedule instance is created and even if you later disable the option it will still run the agent.

Note: You can override this value in the generated agent schedule instances.

Provides a default value for all agents listed in the rule that are set to have a pattern of Periodic but do not have a value specified in their Interval field. Enter the amount of time, in seconds, that an agent waits between running its activity.

The default value is 30 seconds. Enter a value of 30 seconds or greater. To configure an interval that is less than 30 seconds and at least five seconds, create the agent/minimumwakeup environment variable in the prconfig.xml file for example:

<env name="agent/minimumwakeup" value="5" />