AWA v21.0 inter-process communication

[Michael A. Lowry]

Here is my collection of diagrams showing how inter-process communication works in AWA v21.0. 

This is a draft, and will be updated as I learn more about version 21. Please feel free to send updates and corrections if you notice a mistake or omission.

This is based on my earlier diagrams, AWA v12.3 inter-process communication.

Updates

2023.03.10 11:36 CET: Relabled agents based on whether they use TLS. Added TLS gateway. Updated connections table.

Attachment(s)

AWA v21.0 inter-process communication.pptx   717 KB 1 version

[Lester Chew]

Thanks.  Any plans to add Analytics and AAI?

[Michael A. Lowry]

IPC of the Analytics components is documented here. AAI-AWA integration is documented here.

Adding these components to this diagram would complicate the diagram a bit too much for my taste. Also, we don't currently use Analytics or AAI.

Would you like to could create slides for this? Feel free to use my diagram as an example/template.

[Lester Chew]

Thanks for the link. Just thought it would be nice to have one diagram for all.  I agree, it would be a lot of work.  Thank you.

[Tony Ferraro]

Nice!

[Toni Waechter]

Very impressive

[Keld Mollnitz]

Hi @Michael A. Lowry ,

very nice drawing. Let's add the Proxy and the TLS GW.

[Michael A. Lowry]

Thanks. I added the TLS gateway. What proxy are you talking about, and where would it fit in the diagram?

[Keld Mollnitz]

Hi @Michael A. Lowry ,

we use the Proxy Client/Server to connect agents in another network zone (DMZ) to the AE in the internal zone. The Proxy Server is placed in DMZ and the Proxy Client is placed in same zone as the AE.

https://docs.automic.com/documentation/webhelp/english/ALL/components/DOCU/21.0.5/Automic%20Automation%20Guides/Content/Proxy/about_proxy.htm

[Michael A. Lowry]

Ok, thanks. Since I'm not familiar with the Proxy component, I'll leave this to others who have more experience.

[Michael A. Lowry]

I have attached an updated presentation. Thanks to @Keld Mollnitz and @Michael Dolinek for their helpful suggestions.

[Michael A. Lowry]

I also reformatted the list of connections into a table with sources in rows and destinations in columns.

[Peter Daransky]

Hi Michael,

just one small remark to the table. All non-TLS connections cannot connect to JCP, but only to "old" CP or TLS-Gateway. And in case of TLS-Gateway, this will connect to JCP. 

BR p

[Michael A. Lowry]

Fixed. Thanks!

[Donato Faggella]

Thanks Michael for your post

------------------------------
Donato Faggella
DevOps Engineer III
Swisscom (Suisse) SA
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[Marilyn Singley]

Thanks Michael ! Very helpful. 

[Michael A. Lowry]

I recently learned that in v21, Communications Processes (and presumably JCPs) are responsible for writing reports from agents to the RT table in the database. I vaguely remember an earlier discussion about this topic, but could not find it here in the forum. My vague recollection is that the change was introduced recently (within the past few years) to reduce unnecessary messaging and take some of the load off of WPs.

It was my previous understanding that only Work Processes wrote to the database. I would be grateful if someone from Broadcom Support would answer these questions:

1. When was this change introduced (in what version)?
2. Why was this change introduced?
3. Aside from writing reports from agents to the RT table, what other changes do CPs and JCPs make to the DB (if any)?

Thanks in advance.

[Peter Daransky]

Hi Michael, 

this change was done already in V12.x early 2017, so latest in 12.9 it's there. The reason for this change was to reduce the temp. DB access.  As CP get the message, write it into MQ, notify the WP, WP read the MQ and then write it into RT ... 

As mentioned this was already implemented before JCP was born, so JCP just take over this functionality. With one restriction in CP it can be disabled with INI parameter, in JCP not (never seen the reason for that).

Beside the report handling (RT table) the CP/JCP uses similar optimization with OBLOB table (Storage Resources/CAU ...) where large amount of data have to be transferred to the Agent(s). The read of the data is done by JCP and not WP. 

Well the last question is harder to answer. Basically the (J)CP is not doing any "business logic" execution, like the WP do. Nevertheless the DB is for couple of things like Agent housekeeping, MQs, settings ... 

Hope I could answer your questions. 

BR Peter

 

[Michael A. Lowry]

Thanks for the detailed response, @Peter Daransky. That confirms my recollection.

Is the INI parameter you mentioned srvquery?

• If so, the documentation should probably be updated to reflect the broader impact of the parameter, beyond the agent "life sign message". (I suppose this Automic-speak for a heartbeat signal.)
• If not, what is the name of the INI parameter?

[Oana Botez]

Hi @Michael A. Lowry ,

Hopefully this answers your questions:
https://community.broadcom.com/enterprisesoftware/question/agent-last-checked-column-not-being-updated#85186402-034c-4139-8aa2-0187c16b8666

BR,
Oana

[Michael A. Lowry]

Hi @Oana Botez. Thanks for your reply. I do not believe this answers my questions.

As I understand @Peter Daransky's reply, there is an INI parameter that can be used to disable delegation to CPs of certain data-intensive DB transactions such as writing agent logs to the RT table. My unanswered questions are:

1. What is the name of this INI parameter?
2. How does it work? I.e., what change in behavior does it cause?

[Michael A. Lowry]

Any update on this, @Oana Botez or @Peter Daransky?

[Michael A. Lowry]

Ping @Oana Botez & @Peter Daransky.