Managing Agents Remotely

While we characterize an agent as a process (singular), technically an agent consists of two processes: a worker process and a monitor process. Worker processes perform the actual work of deployment, such as handling plug-in steps. Monitor processes manage the worker process: handling restarts, upgrades, and tests for example. Once an agent is installed, you can manage (via the monitor process) many of its features from the Serena Release Automation web application. Agent properties can be changed directly by editing the agent'sconf/agent/installed.properties file and restarting the agent.

To manage an agent:

Display the Agents paneHome > Resources > Agents.

Click an action link for the desired agent. Actions are described in the following table.

Agent Management table

Action	Description
Edit	This option enables you to edit the agent's description.
Restart	This option will shutdown and restart the agent. While the agent is shutdown, its status will be`Offline`.
Upgrade	This option will shutdown the agent and apply the upgrade. While the agent is shutdown, its status will be`Offline`. After the upgrade is applied, the agent will be restarted. Before its status is`Online`, it might briefly be`Connected`.
Test	This option will perform an agent settings and connection test. Test results are displayed in the Connection Test dialog.
Inactivate	This option willl deactivate the agent. Agents that are deactivated cannot perform deployments. To reactivate the agent, check the`Show Inactive Agents` check box on the Agents pane, then click`Activate` for the agent.
Delete	Removes the agent.