TIBCO Cloud Integration-Hybrid Agent (tibagent) FAQ

Description

TIBCO Cloud Integration - Hybrid Agent (TIBAGENT) FAQ

Hybrid Agent Requirements

Operating System Requirement: macOS 10.12.x and above on x86-64, Microsoft Windows 10 on x86-64, or Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 7.x, 8.x on x86-64.
You may need to whitelist IP addresses to allow traffic from TIBCO® Cloud Integration. See Whitelisting Requirements for TIBCO Cloud™ Integration Apps for more information.
To use the log streaming feature, you must install the socat utility on the machine running the TIBCO Cloud Integration - Hybrid Agent.
The TIBCO Cloud Integration - Hybrid Agent client should be co-located in the same data center network as the on-premises resources you intend to connect to from TIBCO® Cloud Integration.

How to configure Hybrid Agent Proxy?

While considering Hybrid Agent (tibagent), users may have concerns such as the following:

A single tibagent per app, or
multiple apps per single tibagent, or
whether tibagent should be configured per resource (DB or Service, which can be accessed by multiple apps), and so on.

The decision lies with the user (i.e., the customer), but the choice should depend on the use case. That being said, it is worth noting that tibagent supports multiple specs and Auto-Discovery of apps configured with the same accessKey.

1) Create accessKey and copy accessSecret

2) configure agent

tibagent configure agent <agentName>

3) configure connect and store accessSecret created in step 1 with access key

tibagent configure connect --accessSecret <accessSecret> --accessKey <accessKey> <agentName>

4) Start tibagent using

tibagent start agent --spec 9998:localhost:9999 --spec 7222:localhost:7222 <agentName>

Can I configure multiple tibagents with the same accesKey/accessSecret and point to different Specs?

Yes, multiple instances of tibagent can be configured with the same accesKey/accessSecret pair.

I need to connect to EMS and Oracle On-Premise. Could EMS and Oracle use the same access key, or do the two require separate access keys, one per data source?

tibagent supports the following format:

tibagent start agent --spec 9998:localhost:9999 --spec 7222:localhost:7222 <agentName>

This means that a single instance of tibagent supports multiple specs and multiple TCI apps configured with the same accessKey. In other words, a single tibagent should suffice.

All TIBCO Cloud applications will refer to a Hybrid agent proxy and establish communication through relevant tunnels. Would the scenario cause a bottleneck for the proxy agent server?

The proxy agent server runs inside each container with a hybrid connection enabled; therefore, there should be no bottleneck. Hybrid connectivity traffic is viewed as regular endpoint traffic via TIBCO Cloud Router.

6. How resource-intensive would maintain tibagent for each TIBCO Cloud application be considered and should enhance the server hardware be considered to maintain high throughput?

The tibagent is not resource-intensive, and throughput depends mainly on the TIBCO Cloud Router load since traffic is shared with regular application endpoint traffic.

What type of transport mechanism and encryption mechanism is used by the TIBCO Cloud Integration Hybrid Agent Proxy?

The TIBCO Cloud Tunnel uses secure WebSocket protocol (i.e., WSS over TLS) as the transport layer between on-premise and TIBCO Cloud. The connection is initiated over HTTPS/WSS using TLS encryption. Once established, the tunnel will use a proprietary protocol with a secure WebSocket connection, ensuring the caller is authenticated. Refer to KB article 000040255 at https://support.tibco.com/s/article/What-transport-mechanism-and-encryption-is-used-by-the-Cloud-Hybrid-Agent.

Does tibagent support resource configuration behind a corporate proxy like HTTP Proxy?

An environment variable similar to the following must be set before starting the tibagent:

For Linux and macOS:

 export HTTP_PROXY=http://http_proxy:port/ or

 export HTTPS_PROXY=https://http_proxy:port/

For Windows:

 set HTTP_PROXY=http://http_proxy:port/ or

 set HTTPS_PROXY=https://http_proxy:port/

Refer to KB article 00039828 at https://support.tibco.com/s/article/Does-tibtunnel-support-resource-configured-behind-a-corporate-proxy-like-HTTP-Proxy.

What is the advantage of a Hybrid Agent proxy over a VPN?

Refer to KB article 000039708 at https://support.tibco.com/s/article/Hybrid-Connectivity-Proxy-Agent-Advantages-over-VPN.

How to generate an access key for Hybrid Agent Proxy (tibagentl)?

To run TIBCO Cloud Integration Hybrid Agent Proxy, you must first create an access key:

Login to TIBCO Cloud, then navigate to Settings -> Advanced Settings -> TIBCO Cloud - Proxy Agent access keys.
Click Create to create a new access key.
Enter the Access Key ID in the text box, then click Create. The Secret Access Key is generated and should be displayed.

Refer to KB article 000039335 at https://support.tibco.com/s/article/Procedure-to-generate-an-Access-key-for-Hybrid-connectivity.

Note: The secret access key is only displayed once at creation time. Copy the key to a secure store.
Note: Access keys could only be generated by a user with an Administrator role or Organization owner.

How can TIBCO Cloud Hybrid Agent (tibagent) be used with TCI for On-Premise Connectivity?

The procedure is documented in TCI Docs at https://integration.cloud.tibco.com/docs/index.html#tci/using/hybrid-agent/index.html. Customers could also be referred to KB Article:000040963. The article has all the steps required for Hybrid Connectivity.

How to configure/run tibagent in High-Availability/Fault-Tolerant mode?

High Availability (HA)

The TIBCO Cloud Integration - Hybrid Agent is designed to work in HA mode. Multiple tunnel connections can be established simultaneously by starting multiple TIBCO Cloud Integration - Hybrid Agent processes, ideally on different machines or physical locations, and connecting to the same endpoint. When a given on-premises resource is reachable by more than one tunnel, the first tunnel, in the order of connection, is used, and all others are in standby mode, ready to be used if the first tunnel fails.

Fault Tolerance (FT)

For example, when a tunnel connection fails due to temporary network errors, the TIBCO Cloud Integration - Hybrid Agent process attempts to reconnect every 10 seconds. If the TIBCO Cloud Integration - Hybrid Agent was started in HA mode (see above), the first available standby tunnel becomes the active tunnel. When the initial tunnel connection is re-established, the new connection becomes a new standby tunnel.

What would be the impact on tibagent if an application configured for Hybrid Connectivity is scaled up or down?

Application Scaling

If a TIBCO Cloud Integration app with active tunnel connections is scaled down, the deleted instances (app docker containers) tunnel connections are automatically terminated. Similarly, when an app is scaled up, the TIBCO Cloud Integration - Hybrid Agent process automatically discovers the new app instance, creating a new tunnel connection for the new container.

Environment

TIBCO Cloud TIBCO Cloud Integration (TCI)

Issue/Introduction

TIBCO Cloud Integration-Hybrid Agent (tibagent) FAQ

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