3.2 Starting the Fan-Out Agent

You can start the Fan-Out agent by passing the startAgent command in the command prompt or by using the startup script, which enables the agent as a startup service.

Before starting the Fan-Out agent, ensure that your server meets the following requirements:

  • ActiveMQ is running.

    This allows the Fan-Out agent to initialize the required queues in ActiveMQ when the agent starts. If ActiveMQ is not running, the agent returns an error and does not start properly.

  • The Java and Curl tool are included in the system path of your operating system.

    You use Java and Curl tool to manage the Fan-Out agent. If Curl is not present in your environment, download the SSL version of the Curl binary from Curl Releases and Downloads.

  • Copy the appropriate third-party JDBC connector to the FanoutAgent Installation Location>/lib folder. For example, ojdbc6.jar. For more information, see the Supported Third Party JDBC Drivers in the NetIQ Identity Manager Driver for JDBC Implementation Guide.

To start the Fan-Out Agent in the command prompt:

  1. Open a command prompt.

  2. Run the startAgent command and pass the default configuration file name as a parameter in the command.

    startAgent –config FanoutAgent Installation Location>/config/fanoutagent-config.properties

  3. (Optional) To change the agent and the shim passwords, use the setPassword command.

    The default passwords are netiq. For more information, see Section 3.3, Managing the Fan-Out Agent.

  4. (Optional) To change the keystore password, use the setKSPassword command.

    The default password for the keystore is netiq123.

  5. (Optional) To change the encryption key, use the setEncryptionKey command.

    The default value for the key is netiq.

  6. (Optional) Establish a secure connection between the Fan-Out agent and ActiveMQ. For more information, see Section 5.0, Securing Fan-Out Driver Communication.

IMPORTANT:Ensure that you specify the same values for these parameters during Fan-Out driver configuration.

To enable the Fan-Out agent service to automatically start when the system starts, perform the following actions for your platform:

Linux:

  1. Set the JAVA_HOME environment variable.

  2. Copy the fanoutdxml file from <FanoutAgent Installation Location>/linux to /etc/init.d.

  3. Run the fanoutAgentAddSvc file from <FanoutAgent Installation Location>/linux by executing the following command:

    ./fanoutAgentAddSvc

  4. Start the Fan-Out agent service by executing the following command:

    /etc/init.d/fanoutdxml start

To stop the Fan-Out agent service, execute the following command:

/etc/init.d/fanoutdxml stop

Windows:

  1. Set the JAVA_HOME environment variable.

  2. Run vcredist_x64.exe file from the NIdM_Driver_4.5_JDBCFanout.zip file.

  3. Install the Fan-Out agent service by executing the following command:

    FanoutAgent Installation Location>\Windows\FanoutAgentSvc.exe –i

    The display name of the service is Fanout Agent Service.

    NOTE:If both ActiveMQ and Fan-Out agent services are running on the same server, ensure that ActiveMQ service starts before the Fan-Out agent service. To set the Fan-Out agent service to a delayed start, run the following command on Windows:

    sc config FanoutAgent start= delayed-auto
  4. Start the Fan-Out agent service.

To remove the Fan-Out agent service on Windows, execute the following command:

<FanoutAgent Installation Location>\Windows\FanoutAgentSvc.exe –u

IMPORTANT:You can run only one Fan-Out agent instance on a specific server as a service. However, if you run a Fan-Out agent as an application, Identity Manager allows you to run multiple instances of the Fan-Out agent on the same server by using separate configuration files.

The Fan-Out agent service loads the configuration properties only from <FanoutAgent Installation Location>/config/ path. Ensure that the configuration properties file name is fanoutagent-config.properties (this is the default file name).

A Fan-Out agent instance that is started as a service must be stopped as a service only. This means that you should not stop the agent using the stopAgent command or REST endpoint if it is started as a service.