Agent Information File

The Java-based graphical user interface (GUI), Cluster Manager, can display information about the attributes of a given resource type. For each custom agent, developers can create an XML file that contains the attribute information for use by the GUI. The XML file also contains information to be used by the GUI to allow or disallow certain operations.

Example Agent Information File

The agent's information file is an XML file, named agent_name.xml, located in the agent directory. The file contains information about the agent, such as its name and version, and the description of the arguments for the resource type attributes. For example, the following file contains information for the FileOnOff agent:

Agent Information

The information describing the agent is contained in the first section of the XML file. The following table describes this information, which is also contained in the previous file example:

Agent Information	Example
Agent name	name="FileOnOff"
Version	version="4.0"
Agent description	<agent_description>Creates, removes, and monitors files.</agent_description>
Platform. For example, Windows 2000 i386, or Solaris Sparc, or HP-UX 11.11.	<platform>HP-UX</platform>
Agent vendor	<vendor>VERITAS<\vendor>
info entry point implemented or not; Yes, or No; if not indicated, info entry point is assumed not implemented	<info_implemented>No</info_implemented>
Agent type, for example, Binary, Script or Mixed	<agenttype>Binary</agenttype>
VCS compatibility; the minimum version required to support the agent	<minvcsversion>4.0</minvcsversion>

Attribute Argument Details

The agent's attribute information is described by several arguments which are listed in the following table. Refer also to the previous XML file example for the FileOnOff agent and see how the PathName attribute information is included in the file.

Argument	Description
type	Possible values for attribute type, such as "str" for strings; see Attribute Data Types
dimension	Values for the attribute dimension, such as "Scalar;" see Attribute Dimensions for more information on dimensions
editable	Possible Values = "True" or "False" Indicates if the attribute is editable or not. In most cases, the resource attributes are editable.
important	Possible Values = "True" or "False" Indicates whether or not the attribute is important enough to display. In most cases, the value is True.
mustconfigure	Possible Values = "True" or "False" Indicates if the attribute must be configured to make the resource online. GUI displays such attributes with special indication. If the value of the mustconfigure attribute is not specified, the resource state should become "UNKNOWN" in the first monitor cycle. Example of such attributes are Address for the IP agent, Device for the NIC agent, and FsckOpt for the Mount agent).
unique	Possible Values = "True" or "False" Indicates if the attribute value must be unique in the VCS configuration, that is, whether or not two resources of same resource type may have the same value for this attribute. Example of such an attribute is Address for the IP agent. Not used in the GUI.
persistent	Possible Values = "True". This argument should always be set to "True"; it is reserved for future use.
range	Defines the acceptable range of the attribute value. GUI or any other client can use this value for attribute value validation. Value Format: The range is specified in the form {a,b} or [a,b]. Square brackets indicate that the adjacent value is included in the range. The curly brackets indicate that the adjacent value is not included in the range. For example, {a,b] indicates that the range is from a to b, contains b, and excludes a. In cases where the range is greater than "a" and does not have an upper limit, it can be represented as {a,] and, similarly, as {,b] when there is no minimum value.
default	It indicates the default value of attribute
displayname	It is used by GUI or clients to show the attribute in user friendly manner. For example, for FsckOpt its value could be "fsck option".