Agents rules – Completing the Schedule tab

The order in which you specify agents on this tab does not create a sequence. Each agent activity runs individually on its own interval schedule as a separate requestor thread.

  • Scheduled agents settings:
    1. In the Agent Name field, specify a unique name for the agent.
      The same name is typically used for both the agent and the agent activity.
    2. In the Associated with Node type, map the agent to one or more node types from the list.
      You can choose from the following options:
      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.
      Result: 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.
    3. From the Pattern drop-down menu, select the schedule type for the agent activity.
      Note: The value that you enter in this section can be overridden in the generated agent schedule instances.
      You can choose from the following options:
      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.
    4. If the Pattern field is set to Periodic or Recurring, in the Interval (sec) field, perform one of the following actions:

      • 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.
    5. In the Mode drop-down menu, select 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.
      You can choose from the following options:
      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.
    6. From the Category drop-down menu, select the category to which this agent belongs which is used for sorting on the System Operations Agent overview page.
    7. To run this agent whenever the system is running, select the Enabled check box.
      When this check box is cleared, running the agent at system startup is disabled. Disabling agents at system startup is useful when debugging the agent or implementing optional features.
      Note: You can override this check box value in the generated agent schedule instances.
    8. Click the arrow next to an agent's name to expand the row and configure the agent activity.
    9. In the Class field, 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.
    10. In the Activity name field, specify the name of the activity that provides the processing for this agent (the agent activity).
    11. Click Params to provide values for input parameters for the activity in the Activity Parameters dialog box.
  • For agents of the Standard queue mode:
    1. In the Max records field, 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.
    2. Specify whether the agent uses the agent queue functionality by selecting or clearing the Auto queue management check box.
      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:
    1. Specify that the agent runs on only one node at a specified time by selecting the Run this agent on only one node at a time check box.
    2. Select the Delay the next run of the agent in the cluster for the specified time period 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.
  • Agent-wide settings:
    1. Specify whether the master agent generates agent schedule data instances ( Data-Agent-Schedule class) for this rule when it checks for new agents rules by selecting or clearing the Enable this agent check box.
      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.
    2. In the Interval (seconds) field, enter the amount of time, in seconds, that an agent waits between running its activity.
      This field 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.
      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" />