Introduction

The The JS7 - Agent Cluster brings horizontal scalability and fail-over capabilities for Agents. A single Agent can execute thousands of jobs in parallel tasks, however, for a number of use cases it is preferable to distribute server load. This applies particularly to applications that require horizontal scaling across a number of server nodes instead of vertical scaling on a more powerful single server node. Also when a server node in the scheduling environment fails then jobs are executed with the Agents on the remaining server nodes.

• A number of Subagents operated for different servers share the job execution load in an Agent Cluster (active-active clusteringcluster).
• Automated fail-over guarantees high - availability and restart capabilities of an Agent Cluster (active-passive cluster).

The JS7 offers a number of clustering options:

• An Agent Cluster can be operated with a Standalone JOC Cockpit and with a JS7 - JOC Cockpit Cluster.
• An Agent Cluster can be operated with a Standalone Controller and with a JS7 - Controller Cluster.

Operation of an Agent Cluster is subject to the JS7 - License and is available to commercial license holders.

In this article you find step-by-step instructions for setup of an Agent Cluster, for full explanations refer to the JS7 - Agent Management article.

Prerequisites

The following requirements have to be met before configuring the Agent cluster.setting up an Agent Cluster:

• The

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• JOC Cockpit should be

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• up & running and accessible from your browser, see JS7 - Initial Operation for JOC Cockpit Cluster.
• The Controller should be up & running, see JS7 - Initial Operation for Controller Cluster
• A JS7 License Key is required for JOC Cockpit and for the Controller independently from the fact that the components are operated standalone or in a cluster, see JS7 - How to apply a JS7 License Key.

Set up Agent Cluster

1. Login to the JOC Cockpit and move navigate to the Manage Controllers/Agents view from the Administration button.
   
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2. You can view the existing configuration for the Standalone Agent and Cluster AgentThe page displays existing Standalone Agents and Cluster Agents:
   
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3. To add the a new Agent cluster Cluster click on the Controller's action menu of Controller and from the drop-down menu click on the Add Agent button.Cluster menu item:
   
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4. A popup window will appear to create the add an Agent clusterCluster:
   
   
   • Fill out
   the
   • mandatory
   fields, Agent ID for the Agent Cluster
   • input fields: Agent ID and Agent Name of the Agent Cluster.
     • The Agent ID is a unique string that identifies the Agent Cluster and that cannot be changed later on.
     • The Agent Name is a unique string that identifies the Agent Cluster and that can be changed later on.
   • Add the Primary Director Agent with its Subagent ID and
   its
   • URL.
   • Select the checkbox "As own cluster".
   After adding all the details click on the submit button
   • • The Primary Director Agent works as an interface between Controller and Subagents in a cluster.
     • The Primary Director Agent manages the Agent Cluster and distributes orders to Subagents. Preferably it is not used for job execution.
     • The Subagent ID is a unique string that identifies the Primary Director Agent and that cannot be changed later on.
     • The URL specifies the protocol, host and port for which the Primary Director Agent is available.
   • The Secondary Director Agent is used as a fallback should the Primary Director Agent not be available.
     

     Display feature availability
     StartingFromRelease 2.5.0

     
     

     
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   • After submitting the Agent cluster add the subagentCluster add a number of Subagents. Click on the action menu of the recently created Agent Cluster and select click the Add Subagent from the drop-down menu. menu item:
     
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   • A popup window will appear. Add the subagent Subagent ID and the URL.
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     • The Subagent ID is a unique string that identifies the Subagent and that cannot be changed later on.
     • The URL specifies the protocol, host and port for which the Subagent is available.
       
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   • Repeat the above steps to add a number of more Subagents Follow the same process to add more subagents to the Agent Cluster.
   • I have added two subagents into In this example two Subagents are added to the Agent Cluster.
     
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   • Once you add all the subagents select the agent cluster and click on the Deploy buttonall Subagents are added then select the Agent Cluster action menu and click the Deploy menu item.