Frends Agent
This document describes a typical Frends Agent installation, for the sake of simplifying things, the Frends UI is assumed to be in the cloud. This document is up to date for Frends 5.5.
The Agent is a service that executes Frends Processes, which it receives from the Frends UI. These executions are then reported back to the Frends Log Service. All the functionality/requirements described in this document are related to the base functionality of the Agent, any Processes deployed on the Agent may require additional requirements.
Outgoing connections
The Agent requires connectivity to the Azure or Cleura cloud where the Frends UI is hosted. It mainly uses the Azure Service Bus or RabbitMQ as a message bus for communication and Azure Storage or Ceph (Blob storage) for larger data amounts.
Message Bus
Connections to the Message Bus are SSL secured and the Agent uses a limited access connection string for authentication. The Agent uses the Message Bus for the following purposes:
Receiving Process deployments from the UI
Receiving other configuration data from the UI, such as Environment Variables, API Key configurations, OAuth settings, etc
Sending Process log data to the Log Service
Sending Heartbeats and system log data to the Log Service
Requesting Remote Sub Process executions on Agents in the same Environment
Receiving Remote Sub Process execution requests from Agents in the same Environment
Receiving Manual Process execution requests from the UI
See the installation guide for required open ports.
Blob Storage
The Agent's access to the Blob Storage is SSL secured and authenticated with limited access Shared Access Signatures (SAS) at a Blob Container or Blob level. The Agent uses the Blob storage for the following purposes:
Reading and writing to the Large Message Storage:
Used to store messages that do not fit inside of a single Azure Service Bus Message (>200KB)
Each Agent Group has its own Blob container for storing large messages
Service Bus messages contain a SAS signed URI to access the Blob containing the large messagesRetrieving compiled Processes as NuGet packages (NuGet repository) (Used by the Legacy Agent)
Retrieving compiled Processes as Process Host packages (Process host package store) (Used by the Cross-platform Agent)
Storing Process step log data (when Blob logging is enabled for the Agent Group)
Databases
The Agent has different databases to store configuration data, caching log data and storing shared state between Agents inside of an Agent Group.
When Agents inside of an Agent Group are configured to function as a High Availability (HA) group (this is by default when there is more than one Agent), they require a shared state store to orchestrate File Watch, Schedule and Conditional Triggers.
It is possible, although not recommended, to install more than one Agent without a shared state store. In this case only one predefined Primary Agent (not dynamic) executes File, Schedule and Conditional Triggers. This is not a recommended installation model and may not support all future features.
The Agent supports the following databases:
Microsoft SQL Server
Can be used for configuration and shared state storage
Secured either through an SQL Login or Integrated security
Agent user has the following access to the database: db_datareader, db_datawriter, execute
SQLite
Used for caching log data when there's no access to the Service Bus or Azure Storage
Can be used by the Cross-platform Agent for Configuration storage
Can be used by the Cross-platform Agent for shared state storage when in a non-HA configuration
Secured through file access on the local machine
For further information how to set up databases for Agent please see https://docs.frends.com/en/articles/6655152-agent-store
File system
The Agent requires access to the local file system for operation. It uses the local file system for storing Process deployment executables and SQLite databases.
A Legacy Agent (for Windows) uses the Agent user account profile for this. By default this is located in C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\HiQ Finland\Frends Agent(<EnvironmentName>_<AgentName>)\
A Cross-platform Agent uses the Agent user account's <home>/.local/share/HiQ Finland\Frends Agent(<EnvironmentName>_<AgentName>) folder by default, but this can be overridden.
For storage available to be used in Processes see https://docs.frends.com/en/articles/5279250-storages-available-to-agents
Installation
This section only applies to the Legacy Agent as it only has an installer. Some of the steps can be skipped by providing options. For a guide on installing an Agent: https://docs.frends.com/en/articles/2188617-installing-an-agent
The installer has the following steps that affect the system:
Stop existing Agent Service
Install certificates (if provided with the installer)
Uninstall the Agent service
Remove previous HTTP(s) port registrations with netsh
Remove automatically generated self-signed certificate (only on full uninstall)
Uninstall previous Agent application from Windows
Install Agent application to Windows
Deploy additional files to the installation (if provided with the installer)
Register HTTP(s) ports with netsh
Update Agent configuration file
Install the Agent service
Run database migrations with the user account that is executing the installer (for external database, e.g. when using an SQL Server)
Start the Agent service