Auto update of server properties

When a server is enrolled in the Application Server, the Application Server retrieves its properties, such as operating system, patch level, and so on. These property values can change over time due to activities such as applying a new patch. To ensure that the server properties are always up to date in the Application Server, system administrators schedule and run an Update Server Property (USP) job against the server. 

The Auto USP feature of a Smart Agent manages this task of keeping the server properties up to date and eliminates the manual overhead of scheduling and running USP jobs. The Smart Agent compares the previously saved server properties with the newly computed server properties. If a change is detected in the properties, the newly computed properties are sent to the Application Server. The Application Server updates the properties accordingly. Apart from server properties, the Auto USP feature also retrieves the custom configuration objects (CO) from target servers, and sends them to the Application Server. For more details about CO, see Custom-configuration-objects.

The Smart Agent computes the server properties and CO details during the following instances:

• Auto enrollment - You can define new server properties while installing the RSCD Agent. These server properties are added to the auto enrollment request that is generated by the Smart Agent. The Application Server updates these properties while enrolling new targets.
• Process startup - When the Smart Agent process is started or restarted, the server properties are computed and compared with the existing properties. If a change is detected, the properties are sent to the Application Server.
• Periodic intervals - The Smart Agent computes the server properties at a predefined interval and compares them with the existing properties. If a change is detected, the properties are sent to the Application Server.

The following properties and CO details that are updated by the USP job are also updated by the Auto USP feature:

• AGENT_BUILD_VERSION
• AGENT_MAJOR_VERSION
• AGENT_MINOR_VERSION
• AGENT_PATCH_VERSION
• AGENT_STATUS
• BUILD_ENVIRONMENT
• DATE_MODIFIED
• FQ_HOST
• HOST
• HOSTIP_BITS
• IP_ADDRESS
• IS_PENDING_REBOOT
• IS_REPEATER
• IS_VIRTUAL
• NETWORK_ADDRESS
• OS
• OS_PATCHLEVEL
• OS_PLATFORM
• OS_RELEASE
• OS_VENDOR
• OS_VERSION
• PATCHING_TOOL
• RSCD_DIR
• SERVER_CONTAINER_TYPE
• SUBNET_MASK
• SYSTEMROOT
• VIRTUALIZATION
• WINDIR

The following sequence of events occur while updating server properties:

1. The Smart Agent creates an Auto USP work request that contains the latest server properties. 

   Sample Auto USP request

   {
      "command": "auto_usp",
      "content": {
          "server_name": "test.bmc.com",
          "server_guid": "caa2151f-a59c-4c93-9022-c1868fa4bdfb",
          "properties":{
                  "AGENT_BUILD_VERSION":"140",
                  "AGENT_MAJOR_VERSION":"20",
                  "AGENT_MINOR_VERSION":"2",
                  "AGENT_PATCH_VERSION":"0",
                  "OS":"Linux",
                  "OS_VERSION":"SuSE 12",
                  "OS_RELEASE":"3.12.26-3-default"
               }
       }
   }
2. The Smart Agent sends this work request to the Smart Hub.
3. The Application Server receives this Auto USP work request when it polls the Smart Hub.
4. The Application Server updates the server properties according to the details specified in the request.

5. The Application Server shares one of the following status or error codes with the Smart Agent through the Smart Hub:

   SA-1200	Success	Auto_USP completed successfully.
   SA-1201	Failure	Auto_USP failed.
   SA-1202	Failure	Auto_USP request doesn't contain Server Properties details.
   SA-1203	Failure	Auto_USP not executed as server enrollment failed.
   SA-1204	Failure	Auto_USP not executed as server is already enrolled.

   The Application Server and Smart Agent logs are updated accordingly.

   Sample Auto USP response

   {
   "command": "auto_usp",
   "status": "success",
   "msg": "Server Properties updated successfully",
   "err_code": "SA-NNNN"
   }

The Auto USP feature is enabled by default. If you want to disable this feature or update the interval at which the server properties are computed by the Smart Agent, see Configuring-the-Auto-USP-feature.

If you run an Auto USP job against the targets where the Auto USP feature is enabled, the same server properties are updated. Therefore, we recommend that you do not schedule the Auto USP job against such targets. 

Related topics

Auto-enrollment-process

Creating-or-modifying-Update-Server-Properties-Jobs