Distributed agents
About this task
A distributed agent is a computer running HCL Workload Automation on which you can schedule jobs from HCL Workload Automation for Z. Examples of distributed agents are the following: standard agents, extended agents, fault-tolerant agents, and domain managers.
The following
is a description of the types of distributed agents:
- Domain Manager
- The management hub in a domain. All communications to and from the agents in a domain are routed through the domain manager.
- Backup Domain Manager
- A fault-tolerant agent or domain manager capable of assuming the responsibilities of its domain manager for automatic workload recovery.
- Dynamic workload broker
- It is installed on the domain manager and performs the job management and resource management activities. It always presides over the dynamic scheduling.
- Fault-tolerant Agent (FTA)
- A workstation capable of resolving local dependencies and launching its jobs in the absence of a domain manager.
- Standard Agent
- A workstation that launches jobs only under the direction of its domain manager.
- Extended Agent
- A logical workstation definition that helps you launch and control jobs on other systems and applications, such as PeopleSoft, SAP, and z/OS® JES2 and JES3.
- z-centric Agent
- A workstation that runs jobs scheduled from HCL Workload Automation for Z. The controller directly handles the communication with this type of agent.
- Pool
- Pools are groups in which you add specific dynamic agent workstations according to the requirements of the job. Jobs are assigned dynamically to the best available dynamic agent applying a load balancing policy by choosing the agent with the lesser amount of jobs to run.
- Dynamic pool
- Dynamic pools are groups in which you specify the requirements and jobs are assigned dynamically to the best available dynamic agent meeting the requirements and applying an optimization policy to identify the best agent.
Distributed agents replace tracker agents in HCL Workload Automation for Z. The distributed agents help you schedule on non-z/OS systems with a more reliable and scalable agent.
In the HCL Workload Automation for Z plan, the logical representation of a distributed agent is called a fault-tolerant workstation or a z-centric workstation.