Sterling Connect:Direct Integrated File Agent Overview

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Sterling Connect:Direct® Integrated File Agent is a component of IBM Sterling Connect:Direct that provides unattended file management. It is an installation option of IBM Sterling Connect:Direct for UNIX, Windows and z/OS. Integrated File Agent can only be configured using IBM Sterling Connect:Direct Web Services.

IBM Sterling Connect:Direct File Agent provides monitoring and detection capabilities that enhance the automation you accomplish with IBM Sterling Connect:Direct Processes. It can pass a variety of Sterling Connect:Direct File Agent variables as arguments to a Process. IBM Sterling Connect:Direct File Agent does not delete, copy, or move files directly, but it helps you accomplish such tasks by submitting the Process you specify in the configuration to the IBM Sterling Connect:Direct server. Before you configure IBM Sterling Connect:Direct File Agent, you must create and test the IBM Sterling Connect:Direct File Agent Process that you intend to specify with a Rule in the IBM Sterling Connect:Direct File Agent configuration.

You can configure Sterling Connect:Direct Integrated File Agent to operate in either of the following ways:
  • Watch for any file to appear or being updated in any watched directory and submit the Process defined in the default Rule after detecting the file.
  • Create one or more Rules to take different actions based on the location or properties of the detected files. IBM Sterling Connect:Direct File Agent checks file location and properties to determine whether criteria specified by the rule are met. If criteria for a rule are met, IBM Sterling Connect:Direct File Agent submits the Process associated with that rule. The processes that Integrated File Agent submits are stored in a Process Library that is part of IBM Sterling Connect:Direct. The Process Library is managed with IBM Sterling Connect:Direct Web Services.
You can create Sterling Connect:Direct Integrated File Agent rules based on the following match criteria:
  • Watch directory where the file was detected
  • Full or partial name of the file detected in a watched directory
  • Size of the file detected in a watched directory

You can specify more than one rule in a IBM Sterling Connect:Direct File Agent configuration; each rule can have IBM Sterling Connect:Direct File Agent submit a different Process. Although, you can create multiple rules as part of a IBM Sterling Connect:Direct File Agent configuration, its rules' processing ends once match criteria for a rule is met. Therefore, you should specify rules so that those with more specific criteria (properties) are listed first in the configuration.

Sterling Connect:Direct Integrated File Agent can monitor multiple directories. When you use IBM Sterling Connect:Direct for UNIX or Microsoft Windows, the watched directory is a UNIX path name or a Microsoft Windows path to the directory. When you use IBM Sterling Connect:Direct for z/OS, the watched directory can be a fully specified HFS path name for a file or a directory, a fully specified MVS data set name, a partial MVS data set name, or the name of a partitioned data set (PDS) or partitioned data set extended (PDSE). In addition, on Linux, you can also watch Amazon S3 or S3-compatible objects stores. Add the selected buckets and objects path to the watched directory list.

Sterling Connect:Direct Integrated File Agent can monitor multiple directories, including local and network directories. It scans the watched directories you specify in the configuration for newly added files. By default, Sterling Connect:Direct Integrated File Agent scans a watched directory once every minute. For example, if you start IBM Sterling Connect:Direct File Agent at 1:00 P.M., a file added to that watched directory at 12:55 P.M. is not detected. If you start IBM Sterling Connect:Direct File Agent at 1:00 P.M., and a file is placed in the watched directory at 1:01 P.M., then IBM Sterling Connect:Direct File Agent detects this newly added file. IBM Sterling Connect:Direct File Agent detects a file only one time, unless the file is accessed and saved with a later timestamp. Using IBM Sterling Connect:Direct File Agent requires an understanding of IBM Sterling Connect:Direct Processes, operating systems, and scripting (for regular expression operator use with IBM Sterling Connect:Direct File Agent rules).