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Status No Plans to Implement
Workspace Domino
Categories Templates
Created by Guest
Created on Mar 1, 2019

Design Refresh handling of Agent (Scheduling) Properties option to only update program logic-leave server and schedule untouched.

We distribute our application and code changes to multiple customers with various topologies via standard  . NTF templates.

For scheduled agents in particular the behavior of Design Refresh creates a challenge since server names, enabled/disabled ,frequency and schedule properties vary per site.  Current behavior of Design Refresh is an "All or Nothing" proposition.  Under default settings each night, when designer runs, the agent is aligned completely with the Template definition which will reset schedules and other runtime settings (in addition to the code changes). 

The other option is to set the Design Property "Prohibit design refresh or replace to modify".  Since this option shuts off all updates, it become impossible to transmit code changes to a customer without manual intervention at each site.

While in practice, to minimize the impact of this situation, we attempt to keep the agent design as simple as possible , typically a single simple call into a script library ... it is inevitable a change will be needed at some point in time. Distribution of even a small code change to a schedule agent creates a lot of manual intervention at customer sites that should be unnecessary.

We either need designer task behavior to change when dealing with Agents or add a design property option to disable design refresh of Only the agent's runtime properties (server, schedule, enable/disabled). This would allow updates to the underlying program code as needed as part of the automated Designer task 

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  • Admin
    Thomas Hampel
    Reply
    |
    Jan 12, 2020

    What you can do is to create one scheduled agent (which is disabled for design refresh) that only runs another agent which contains all your code.

  • Guest
    Reply
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    Oct 22, 2019

    Our standard practice is to put the bulk of the code in a script library.  However as described above there are times, even the basic call in the top level agent needs to change.

    Local security / signing is an issue. Many agents need specific rights to perform required tasks.

  • Guest
    Reply
    |
    Mar 4, 2019

    Some further thoughts. The items that control the server name and schedule are signed items. This means if design refresh fails to update them, the signature on the agent design note is invalid, and the agent will not run.

    We could make them unsigned items, but in that case, I'm concerned about increased security exposure. Currently, it requires the access of a server administrator to enable an agent to run with full privileges on the server. With this change, anyone with Developer access to any application on the server, could do that. They would be limited in that they could only use agents which had been signed with an authorized ID, but they have their pick of ANY agent that is so signed, which they could copy from another application, and they could make that code run at a time, on a server, and in a context the developer didn't intend.

    We're discussing whether this is acceptable. In the meantime, as an alternate workaround, you can set the agents to run "never", and set up their schedule using Program documents in the server address book:

    Program name: nserver.exe

    Command line: -c "Tell Amgr Run 'whatever.nsf' 'agentname"

  • Guest
    Reply
    |
    Mar 4, 2019

    This does sound like a good idea. Meanwhile, I suggest putting the bulk of your agent code into a script library so that your agent code can consist of one function call that you never need to change. Those can be protected from refresh, while still letting you update the library.

  • Guest
    Reply
    |
    Mar 1, 2019

    You could use the Notes API to do a scheduled design replace (rather than relying on the design task to refresh a design) without disturbing scheduled agent settings, viz:

    Declare Function DesignReplace Lib "nnotes.dll" Alias "DesignReplace" ( ByVal ht As Long, ByVal hdb As Long, ByVal dw1 As Long, ByVal dw2 As Long, ByVal dw3 As Long, ByVal dw4 As Long ) As Integer

13 MERGED

Option when refresing databases to not overwrite, Agent Signer, Schedule and Enabled/Disabled state of Agents

Merged
One of the biggest hassles for me administrating Domino servers is that every time we have new design changes I have to open the template, set the correct agents to be enabled/disabled, set the correct schedule for when the agent runs and set the ...
over 4 years ago in Domino / Administration 4 No Plans to Implement