ArchestrA Services

Consider a distributed environment where AVEVA Work Tasks is installed in one computer (say node 1) and both ArchestrA Service Bus (ASB) and System Platform IDE are installed in another computer (say, node 2). In this environment, use the ArchestrA Services tab to configure the ArchestrA Events setup so that node 1 can poll event details from node 2. Here node 1 acts as the ASB runtime node and node 2 acts as the ASB Service Repository node or Domain node.

The following image shows the ArchestrA Services tab in AVEVA Work Tasks Farm Configuration Wizard:

Note: The ArchestrA Services cannot be configured from the Farm Configuration Wizard. You can configure using the aaServiceConfiguration.exe.

Configure ArchestrA Services

To configure ArchestrA Services, follow the steps below:

Enable the Registration Endpoint on the ASB Service Repository Node

You can enable the registration endpoint using the aaServiceConfiguration.exe located at:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\ArchestrA\Services\

Notice the single menu in the menu bar: Configure. Pull this menu down, and select Enable Registration on SR.

The Enable Registration On SR dialog will pop up.

Enter the one-time registration passphrase and press Ok. When registration is successfully enabled (meaning a one-time endpoint is open and may be secured using only the one-time registration passphrase), a confirmation dialog will pop up.

Programmatic Registration

It is possible for any program running on the Solution Repository to use the programmatic tools to enable registration to the SR. This involves 'forking' or 'spawning' a process to run a command-line tool that is also installed in the ASB C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\ArchestrA\Services folder.

No special privileges are required to call this utility. Although shown being called from a command line above, any programming language has the capability of running the utility in a new process. Typically, when run, the secret will be protected by whatever security mechanism is appropriate for the product making the call,and will not necessarily be made visible. Note that no console output shows success or failure above, since this is hard for some languages to capture. Instead, the return of the process when it ends is an integer, where 0 is success and errors are indicated by nonzero values.

Registering an ASB Runtime Node with an ASB Service Repository Node

Once the registration endpoint is open on the Service Repository using either of the mechanisms shown above, utilities are provided on the ASB Runtime node to connect securely to the one-time endpoint using the one-time secret, and make a copy of the SR security configuration into the registry of the Runtime Node.

Note: Running the registration process on the Runtime Node requires elevated privileges.
Users must NOT restart the watchdog process following the registration process.

Launch the application at the location

C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\ArchestrA\Services\aaServiceConfiguration.exe as Administrator.

Use the Configure menu, but this time select the Register to SR command.

The Register to SR dialog will pop up. Enter the node name of the Service Repository and the same one-time passphrase that registration was enabled with in the previous step.

If the GUI tool was not started with elevated privileges, the registration process will fail with an error dialog:

Assuming the GUI tool was run with administrator privileges, a success dialog will pop up.

Programmatic Registration

It is possible for any program running on the ASB Runtime node to use the programmatic tools to register with the SR. This involves executing another program that is also installed in the ASB C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\ArchestrA\Services folder.

Provide the machine name of the Service Repository as well as the shared secret, as shown below.

As with the GUI registration tool, elevated privileges are required to call this utility. Although shown being called from a command line above, any programming language has the capability of running the utility in a new process. Typically, when run, the secret will be protected by whatever security mechanism is appropriate for the product making the call, and will not necessarily be made visible. Note that no console output shows success or failure above, since this is hard for some languages to capture. Instead, the return of the process when it ends is an integer, where 0 is success and errors are indicated by nonzero values.

Disabling the Registration Endpoint on the ASB Service Repository Node

Good security practice is to keep as few endpoints open as possible during runtime operation. One a Runtime Node has been registered, it is recommended to disable the registration endpoint on the Service Repository.

Note: By not disabling the registration endpoint at the end of the process, you unnecessarily leave an endpoint open to attack.

Launch the application at the location

C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\ArchestrA\Services\aaServiceConfiguration.exe.

Use the Configure menu, but this time select the Disable Registration on SR command.

This command will ensure the one-time registration endpoint is closed, whether it was previously open or not. When complete, a success dialog pops up.

After configuring ArchestrA Services using aaServiceConfiguration.exe, do the following on the ArchestrA Services tab in the Farm Configuration Wizard.

1. Click Start to start the AVEVA Agent Watchdog Service.

2. Click Test Connection to verify the connection.

   After upgrading to the required version of AVEVA Work Tasks, if Test Connection fails in a distributed environment then you must restart the computer.

   Note: Ensure that the Event Service is configured and subscribed in the Configurator for Batch and Recipe Management before performing the Test Connection.

3. If the connection is successful, click OK.

For information about associating a workflow with ArchestrA Event, see the ArchestrA Events topic in the User Guide.