Configuring nodes to run selected agents
To manage your cluster efficiently, you can dedicate certain nodes to run only selected functions, which includes batch processing, search, and services. You can ensure that a node performs only the required functions by configuring it to run only the function-related agents.
Depending on the number of nodes, manually configuring nodes can be time consuming. Additionally, running agents in a multi-node environment involves the following challenges:
- Whenever you want to enable or disable an agent or update an access group, you must update the agent schedule that corresponds to every node.
- You must perform the above action every time the node ID changes.
The Pega 7 Platform helps you configure nodes to run only selected agents by using a single command while starting a node. By using this command, you can specify agents to include or exclude and override access groups.
Run selected agents (include)
Use the –DincludeAgents command to specify a list of agents that can be run on the node. Only the specified agents run on the node. Other agents, regardless of their state in the Data-Agent-Queue instance, are disabled.
Users can start or stop only the agents specified in the include list from the System Management Application landing page.
The syntax for this command is:
-DIncludeAgents=”RuleSet1:AgentName,RuleSet2:AgentName,…”
Disable selected agents (exclude)
Use the –DExcludeAgents command to specify a list of agents that must not run on the node under any circumstance. Agents that are not part of the exclude list continue to run based on the status set in the Data-Agent-Queue instance.
Users cannot start or stop the agents specified in the exclude list using the System Management Application landing page.
The syntax for this command is as follows:
-DExcludeAgents=”RuleSet1:AgentName,RuleSet2:AgentName,…”
Modify the access group of an agent
Use the –DAccessgroupsForAgents command to update the access group of a Rule-Agent-Queue instance. The updated access group is used for legacy and advanced agents defined in the Rule-Agent-Queue instance.
The syntax for this command is as follows:
-DAccessgroupsForAgents: “RuleSet1:AccessGroup1,RuleSet2:Accessgroup2,…”
Critical agents
Default critical agents and agents marked as Kernel in the Pega 7 Platform instance continue to run regardless of their inclusion in include or exclude lists.
Example
Consider a typical cluster management scenario, where you want to dedicate certain nodes for specific functions as shown below:
| Node | Dedicated node for search | Dedicated node for BIX | Dedicated node for NBAM (Next-Best-Action-Marketing) |
|---|---|---|---|
| node001 | X | ||
| node002 | X | ||
| node003 | X | ||
| node004 | X |
For node001 and node 004 to include search agents, provide the following -D parameters while starting the node:
-DIncludeAgents=”Pega-SearchEngine:FTSIncrementalIndexer”
Additionally, you can disable the same agents on other nodes by using this command:
-DExcludeAgents=”Pega-SearchEngine:FTSIncrementalIndexer”
For dedicating node002 to run only BIX-related agents, provide the following -D parameters while starting the node:
-DIncludeAgents=”Pega-BIX:BIXExtractionAgent"
For dedicating node003 to run only certain NBAM agents, provide the following -D parameters while starting the node:
-DIncludeAgents=”PegaNBAM-Artifacts:*,PegaMKT-Engine:*,PegaMKT-PushNotification:*,PegaMKT-FieldMarketing:*”
To override the access group for agents in Pega-RULES, use:
-DAccessgroupsForAgents=”Pega-Rules:PegaNBAM:Agents”