Running an advanced agent UI installation

5 minute read

The agent software must be installed on each machine you intend to use with CloudBees Flow. An agent is a CloudBees Flow component that runs on a machine resource. The agent executes CloudBees Flow job steps, monitors step progress, and records job completion information.

Certain CloudBees Flow installers allow you to perform installations as a non-root user or a user without sudo privileges. To determine whether a particular installer has an option to run in this mode, see Installing Without Root/sudo or Administrator Privileges .

Review Before You Install CloudBees Flow before performing this procedure.

You install CloudBees Flow agent software on Windows or Linux with this installation method. For Solaris, HP-UX, macOS, AIX, or other supported UNIX agent-only machines, see Non-Server Platform Agent Installation Method .
  1. Download the appropriate agent-only installer file.

    For details, see CloudBees Flow Installer Files .

  2. (Linux only) Enter the following command to make the installer file executable:

    chmod +x <agent_installer_file>

    For example, enter:

    chmod +x CloudBeesFlowAgent-x64-8.4.0.129860-new-with-64bit-perl

  3. Do one of the following to start the installation:

    • For Linux with root or sudo privileges or for Windows installations, double-click the installer file.

    • For non-root/non- sudo installations, enter:

      ./<agent_installer_file> --nonRoot

      For this installation type, a warning appears.

  4. For non-root/non- sudo installations, click Yes to dismiss the warning.

The Welcome to the CloudBees Flow Installer screen appears.

Different options might appear depending on the operating system.
  1. Select the Advanced Agent installation option, and then click Next to continue. The Directories screen appears.

  2. Complete the following information on the Directories screen:

    • Install directory —Use this field to enter a new installation directory path for program files and binaries.

    • Data directory —Use this field to enter a new installation directory path for configuration files and logs.

  3. Click Next to continue. The Ports screen appears.

  4. Complete the following information on the Ports screen:

    • Agent port —Use this field to specify a different port to eliminate any conflicts with your existing system configuration.

    • Agent local port —Use this field to specify a different port to be used by the agent for HTTP communication on the localhost network interface.

  5. Click Next to continue. The Remote CloudBees Flow Server screen appears.

  6. Complete the following information on the Remote CloudBees Flow Server screen:

    • Server Host Name —Use this field to enter the name of the CloudBees Flow server that will communicate with this agent. If the remote server is using a non-default HTTPS port, you must specify the Server Host Name as <host>:<port>. If you do not specify a port, HTTPS port 8443 is assumed (the same as the CloudBees Flow server default port).

    • CloudBees Flow User Name —Use this field to enter the name of a CloudBees Flow user on the CloudBees Flow server who has sufficient privileges to create a resource. This field defaults to the CloudBees Flow-supplied admin user.

    • Password —Use this field to enter the password for the CloudBees Flow user. The default password for the admin user is changeme.

    • Discover the plugins directory —Select this check box if you want the agent machine to have access to the plugins directory. You should allow access to the plugins directory so agents have access to collections of features, third-party integrations, or third-party tools.

      The plugins directory on the CloudBees Flow server must be “shared” before the agent machine can use “discover” to find the directory. For more information, see Universal Access to the Plugins Directory .
    • Create a resource —Select this check box if you want to create a resource on the remote CloudBees Flow server for the agent you are installing.

    • Trusted —Select this check box to restrict this agent to one CloudBees Flow server. The agent will not respond to incoming communication from any other CloudBees Flow server. This is useful when you want to create a secure production environment, but generally not needed for test or development systems.

    • Resource Name —Use this field to enter the name of the resource you would like to use for the agent. This field is available for use when the Create a resource check box is selected.

    • Create in default zone —Select this check box if you want to create the agent in the default zone.

    • Agent Gateway URL —Use this field to enter the URL of the gateway used to communicate with the CloudBees Flow server. This field is available for use when the Create in default zone check box is cleared.

    • Zone Name —Use this field to enter the name of the zone used during remote agent and or remote repository creation. This field is available for use when the Create in default zone check box is cleared.

  7. Click Next to continue. The Agent Service Account screen appears:

  8. Select the appropriate steps for your platform and complete the following information on the screen:

    • On Linux root or sudo installations:

    • User Name —Use this field to enter the name of the user who owns the CloudBees Flow agent process.

      The user/group that the agent runs as must have permission to write to the $INSTALL_DIRECTORY/log directory. If you specify root, click Yes when the confirmation dialog appears.

    • Group Name —Use this field to enter the name of the group who owns the CloudBees Flow agent process.

    • Windows systems:

    • User Name —Use this field to enter the name of the user who will run the CloudBees Flow agent service.

      The user that the agent runs as must have permission to write to the $INSTALL_DIRECTORY/log directory.

    • Password — Use this field to enter the password of the user who will run the CloudBees Flow agent service.

    • Domain —Use this field to enter the domain name information for the user. For example, electric-cloud.com. Leave this field blank if this is a local user.

    • Use the local system account —Select this check box if you want the CloudBees Flow agent service to run as the Windows local system account.

      NOTE:

      The Windows local system account cannot access network resources such as shared file systems used for plugins or workspaces. Therefore, do not use this option for a clustered server deployment, which requires a shared file system for plugins. This option is typically used only for installing agents on numerous machines, which would otherwise require that you create a new account on each of those machines.

  9. Select the appropriate steps for your platform and complete the information on the screen.

  10. Click Next to continue. The Ready to Install Screen appears.

  11. Verify your selections.

    Use the Back button to change settings if needed.

  12. Click Next to continue.

    CloudBees Flow installs the agent and tools components. This process can take a few minutes. The Installation Wizard Complete screen appears.

  13. Click Finish to complete the installation.

  14. For non-root/non- sudo Linux installations, configure autostart for the CloudBees Flow agent service.