Automic Workload Automation

  • 1.  Precondition FILE_EXISTS on Agent Groups

    Posted Feb 27, 2018 10:44 AM
    Good Morning,
    One of our teams here has some workflows with preconditions that check for the existence of a flag file before continuing.  Our challenge is that in our build (we just updated from 11.2.1 to 11.2.6HF1), we cannot use an agent group in the conditions as it only accepts agent names. 
    What we currently have in place (not developed by us), is that there is a job that runs instead to check for the existence of the file so that we don't have to worry about updating workflows when they are transported between dev and prod.  The challenge we have is that there is a business requirement that this needs to check for the file every minute on every day.  Though this is something that we do push back on periodically, at this time, we cannot change this requirement.
    Has anyone else encountered this and have any possible alternatives that have worked successfully?  We are going to be presenting why running them every minute is bad, but I'm also looking around for some technical alternatives.
    Thanks in advance for any input!!
    T



  • 2.  Precondition FILE_EXISTS on Agent Groups
    Best Answer

    Posted Feb 27, 2018 10:56 AM
    Checking every minute for a file is AE Performance overkill, indeed!

    Technical Alternative could be:
    * starting your workflow via CALL API from OS Level or Application level, not via Triggerfile

    https://docs.automic.com/documentation/webhelp/english/ALL/components/AE/11.2/All%20Guides/help.htm#ucacif.htm%3FTocPath%3DAnwendungsintegration%7CCallAPI%7C_____2


    cheers, Wolfgang



  • 3.  Precondition FILE_EXISTS on Agent Groups

    Posted Feb 27, 2018 11:10 AM
    short addition to my previous posting:

    I usually do a PREP_PROCESS  + OS command or a PREP_PROCESS_FILENAME to check for files...

    cheers, Wolfgang


  • 4.  Precondition FILE_EXISTS on Agent Groups

    Posted Feb 27, 2018 11:21 AM
    Thanks for the quick reply!!  So, the good news is that some of these workflows actually already have CallAPI so for us, we're going to work on those first to get the timing changed.

    I'll look in to the second one today.  I'm also looking at possibly using a File Event as well but proposing it runs every 10-15 minutes.  Essentially, if the file is there, it'll be deleted and then the workflow will run.


  • 5.  Precondition FILE_EXISTS on Agent Groups

    Posted Feb 27, 2018 11:25 AM
    You could also play around with the EVNT/FILE type of Automic object.  It is designed for file watching and does so rather efficiently.

    The best solution though was mentioned by Wolfgang; the process that creates the trigger file should instead be invoking your Automic process via CALLAPI.  This would eliminate the need to watch for something that may never arrive.