10.4 Manually Registering a Resource in the Orchestration Console

If you want a higher level of security between the agent and the server, you can manually create a resource account in the Orchestration Console before the Orchestration Agent is installed. This section walks through both stages of the procedure.

10.4.1 Using the Orchestration Console to Create a Resource Account

Use the following steps to create a resource object in the Orchestration Console.

  1. Make sure that the Auto Register Agents check box on the grid object’s Authentication page is not selected (see Step 2).

  2. (Optional) Create a new resource from the Explorer panel in the Orchestration Console:

    1. In the Explorer panel in the Orchestration Console, right-click Resources, then click New Resource to display the Create a new Resource dialog box.

    2. Specify the name of the new resource you want to create in the New Resource Name field, then click OK.

  3. (Optional) Create a new resource from the Main Menu in the Orchestration Console.

    1. In the Orchestration Console, click Actions > click Create Resource to display the an expanded version of the Create a new Resource dialog box.

      This dialog box includes a method for designating the resource as a fixed physical type or a virtual machine type. It also includes a method for including the resource in various resource groups. In this walkthrough, we will install an Orchestration Agent on a fixed physical resource and include it in the physical resource group.

      The Virtual Machine resource type is not available if you installed the High Performance Computing license only for Orchestrate.

    2. Make sure Fixed Physical is selected in the Type drop-down box, specify the new resource name in the New Resource Name field, click Create, then click Close.

      The resource account is created, but is offline , as indicated by its object icon in the Explorer panel or in the Information view of each resource group to which it belongs. The resource is not online until an Orchestration Agent matching the resource is installed.

10.4.2 Installing an Orchestration Agent to Match the New Resource

This section demonstrates installing an Orchestration Agent to be used as a resource in your Orchestration grid. The information in this part of the walkthrough assumes that a resource account has already been created for the Orchestration Agent being installed.

  1. From the managed device desktop, launch a browser to access the Web page for Orchestrate, as described in Section 5.2.1, Obtaining the Agent Installer and Supporting Files from the Administrator Information Page.

  2. Scroll to the Installation section of the page:

  3. In the agent section of the Administrator Information page, find the installer link for the operating system of the device where you want to install the agent. For this walkthrough, we will install the Windows agent on a Windows operating system.

  4. Click the installer link to download the zosagent_windows_3_2_0_with_jre.exe version of the agent to the computing node where you plan to install it.

  5. From the machine where you will install the agent (in this walkthrough, a Windows 2008 64-bit machine), open the desktop and navigate to the location where you saved the Orchestration Agent file, then double-click the zosagent_windows_3_2_0_with_jre.exe icon to launch the Orchestration Agent Setup Wizard.

  6. Follow the prompts in the wizard until the Identify Orchestration Server page displays, then ensure that you correctly enter the Cloud_Manager_Orchestration_Server_name in the Orchestration Server field.

    IMPORTANT:Make sure that the name you give the agent during the installation matches the name of the resource account you created in Using the Orchestration Console to Create a Resource Account.

    You might find it easier to click Discover so that the installer searches for and finds the Orchestration Server on the network.

  7. Accept the remaining defaults on the wizard pages to complete the installation of the Agent.

  8. When the installation is complete, click Finish to exit the wizard.

  9. In the Orchestration Console, open the Resources Monitor to observe the resource object you created change from offline to online. When the object is no longer dimmed, the agent has logged in as a resource and is registered.

    When the resource is online, the Resources Monitor displays a labeled box representing the registered agent. This box includes information about the agent, including the number of available slots it has and a status color indicating its state of readiness for Orchestrate jobs.

    The status color window can be white (inactive), green (available for use), or blue (in use). If the color changes from green to blue, a job is running on this resource. To find out what kind of job is running, you can click on the Jobs monitor button on the toolbar.