Questions
- What is the purpose of AgentWaitTime?
- How do I configure it?
- What is the default value?
- Is there a maximum value?
- Is there any formula to calculate optimum value?
- Is there any disadvantages of setting it to a high value?
- What impact does agentwaittime have on websserver stop
Answers
What is the purpose of AgentWaitTime?
It specifies the number of seconds that the Web Agent waits for the Low Level Agent Worker process (LLAWP) to become available. When the interval expires
the Web Agent tries to connect to the Policy Server. Setting this parameter may help resolve agent start-up errors related to slower network connectivity.
How do I configure it?
As this setting is related to Agent initialization which means it still have not contacted Policy server and loaded the ACO from the policy store, this parameter must be configured locally in the WebAgent.conf file.
What is the default value?
In FIPS Only mode, the default minimum value is 20 seconds
In all other FIPS mode, the default minimum value is 5 seconds
The default value is higher in FIPS Only mode, to account for slower ETPKI initialization time.
Is there a maximum value?
There is no maximum value.
Is there any formula to calculate optimum value?
Following formula could be used as a guidance for calculating the optimum value for AgentWaitTime
The_number_of_Policy_Servers x 30) + 10 = value of the AgentWaitTime parameter (in seconds).
For example, if you have five Policy Servers, then set value of the AgentWaitTime parameter to 160. [(5x30) + 10 = 160] (seconds).
Here, the policy servers used are the only bootstrap policy servers as specified in the SmHost.conf file. The idea is to allow at least 30 seconds interval for initialization of each boot strap policy server.
However, that said, this is just a guidance and you can choose any higher value that you feel is necessary.
Is there any disadvantages of setting it to a high value?
If your network is good and the LLAWP takes only few seconds to connect to Policy server and perform initialization, then even if you have specified higher value for AgentWaitTime that will not really matter.
For e.g. let’s say you have configured AgentWaitTime = 200 seconds.
But as your network is in good state and it took Web Agent only 5 seconds to initialize, then it will only spend 5 seconds in initialization, it won’t wait or the complete 200 seconds to expire.
In that sense there is NO disadvantage of setting AgentWaitTime to high value.
Moreover, the AgentWaitTime plays role only during initialization/startup, it does not have any impact whatsoever for the normal communication of the Agent to PS e.g IsProtected, IsAuthroized calls etc.
What impact does it have on Web Server stop
None