Running the agent on System i

Review the information in this topic if you plan to run the agent on a System i platform.

Verifying that the agent port number is unique

Port 5555, which is the standard Build Forge agent port, might be preassigned to other agents on System i servers. In this case, change the Build Forge agent port to an unassigned port before starting the agent. To do this, edit the bfagent.conf file directly. For details, see Changing the agent port.

Starting the agent manually

If you completed step 7 in the installation instructions, Installing the agent on System i platforms, the agent starts as the BFAGENT user when System i starts.

Alternatively, you can start the agent on System i manually, by using the following command.
bfagent -s
Note: If the bfagent.conf file is not installed in /etc (the default location), use the -f option to specify the bfagent.conf location.

When you issue the bfagent command and start the agent manually, the agent starts as the user who starts the agent.

Verifying that the i5/OS PASE program is installed

The agent runs as an i5/OS Portable Application Solution Environment (PASE) program. PASE is included in i5/OS and enables AIX binaries and commands to be run. PASE is typically installed by default.

To determine whether the PASE program is installed, run DSPSFWRSC at a command line.

If the PASE program is not installed, load it from the installation CD.

Using the agent in PASE

Most tasks necessary for building applications on i5/OS are accessible from the PASE environment. It is important to keep this fact in mind when planning and defining automation of processes targeted for the iSeries platform.

Commands in a step are interpreted by the PASE shell. You can also run native commands using the following syntax:
system -biOE "<native commands>"
Important: Each system command in a step runs its own process. This has implications for commands that work only within their own process.
For example, if you want to set library lists for a set of steps:
  • You cannot use CHGSYSLIBL or ADDLIBLE as step commands because they are native commands (not recognized by PASE).
  • You cannot use the supported native command syntax (for example, system -biOE "ADDLIBLE FLGHT400") in a step, because it changes the library list only for the command's own process. Subsequent commands and steps are not affected by the change.

Although you cannot set library lists for just a step, a set of steps, or a project, you can set them in the startup command script for the BFAGENT user. See the example startup script in Installing the agent on System i platforms. Setting library lists in the startup command script sets library lists for all projects and steps that are run in the example as the BFAGENT user. The user who runs the projects and steps must have access to the required libraries.

To set library lists, add a job description for the agent that lists the required libraries. The following example job description includes libraries FLGHT400 and FLGHT400M.

10    UTLIB
20    QGPL 
30    QTEMP
40    FLGHT400
50    FLGHT400M 
The agent specifies this job description in its startup routine. For example, if the job description is BFAJOBD, the line in the system startup routine would be as follows:
ADDAJE SBSD(BFAGENT/BFAGENT) JOB(BFAGENT) JOBD(BFAGENT/BFAJOBD)
This solution affects all commands (from any step and project) that are run on the System i server associated with this agent.

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