Post Install Setups

After successful installation of server-side components, few optional configurations can be done as per the need. You also need to start the server-side components for them to run.

 


Below section guides you to the advanced configuration of AssistEdge such as Key and Salt configuration and updating the runtime properties. It also walks you through the process to start the components.


Advanced Configuration for Key and Salt

For AssistEdge setup, there is a provision to customize the source for salt and key used for encryption of the application credentials. 


By default, Key-Salt combination for AssistEdge setup is retrieved from the database. This can be extended to a JSON file or Custom JS file API call. 


If you wish to change the default settings for Key and Salt, configure it immediately after installation of server-side components. The Key and Salt set up is used for application credential encryption for AssistEdge. Perform the configuration before you start the server-side components.

CAUTION: 

If you want to change the default values, you must make the required changes before starting the server side components. Once the server-side components are started the source for Key and Salt configuration i.e., Database, JSON file, custom JS file API call cannot be changed.

 

NOTE:          
  • Refer AE-RPA-Customization Guide/ AE-Engage-Customization Guide.pdf to know how to create the FILE/Custom JS API for Key-Salt combination.
  • If the chosen source is a JSON File or a Custom JS API, deleting or removing the JSON file/Custom JS file from the path post deployment may lead to system failure.

 

Update Runtime Properties

Following files must be updated to update the runtime properties of the components:

  • ae.properties
  • ae-profile-default.properties

 

Update ae.properties File

The run time properties of components are defined in the ae.properties file. The values contained in this file can we overwritten to change the default settings.


To update the ae.properties file:

  1. Access AssistEdgeAutomation > scripts folder.
  2. Locate the ae.properties file and edit the below mentioned properties.

 

 

  1. Update the below properties to change the default values:

 

Name of Property     Description
REQUEST_LB_HEADER Used for audit trail. It is the header for identifying the originating IP address of a client.
APM_DATA_CAPTURE_ENABLE Signifies if APM data capture is allowed. 
Default value is set to ‘true’. Enter false to disable it.
AE_KEK

Signifies the decryption key of the Key and Salt. You can change the value of the key though this is not a mandatory step.

A default value is provided that can be updated by following the below steps:

1.    Stop all the components of the AssistEdge using ae stopall command.
2.    Run the ae updatekek command from the scripts folder of the product package. Do you want to continue with KEK update? appears.
 

<Build Directory>\ ProductBuild \AssistEdgeAutomation\scripts>ae stopall

<Build Directory>\ ProductBuild \AssistEdgeAutomation\scripts>ae updatekek

EdgeVerve (R) KEK Update Utility
Copyright (C) Edgeverve Limited. All rights reserved.
***************************************************************
                                     AssistEdge KEK Update Utility
*****************************************************************Warning!!!
Please stop all components before you proceed
Please take backup of file \AssistEdgeAutomation\scripts\ae.properties.
Do you want to continue with KEK update? (Y/N):

 

3.    Enter y. Please provide input KEK value :  appears. Enter the value of the KEK that you want to update. The KEK value should not contain any spaces or special characters. It must be minimum 16 characters and maximum 32 characters long.

Do you want to continue with KEK update? (Y/N):y
Please provide input KEK value :

 

A message Update KEK successful is displayed on the successful update of the KEK value.
The vale you entered gets encrypted and saved in the ae.properties file. 
 
TXNSTORE_REPO_PATH Signifies the data backup/ restoration path of TxnStore.
MIGRATE_MODE Signifies that the current installation is in migration mode. For details refer AE-RPA Migration Guide.pdf file.
Default value is set to ‘false’.
REMOTE_REINDEX_URL Signifies the URL for old ElasticSearch deployment. For details refer AE-RPA Migration Guide.pdf file.

 

The installation of AssistEdge is completed.     
 

NOTE: 

The default authentication of AssistEdge is set to Windows > Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP). However, you can change the default authentication setting to either Custom or SAML/OIDC Authentication.

 

Update ae-profile-default.properties File

The default system settings that will be used during start-up of the AE components is mentioned in the ae-profile-default.properties file. You can update the values as per user workload.


To update the ae-profile-default.properties file:

  1. Access AssistEdgeAutomation > scripts folder
  2. Locate the ae-profile-default.properties file and edit the below mentioned properties.

 

 

Name of Property   Description
START_COMPONENTS Signifies the list of components that must be started when the ae sartall command is executed.
MAX_NODE_PROCESS

Signifies the maximum child Node JS processes for Proxy and ControlTower. Default value is number of CPU cores. If you are facing high CPU or RAM utilization then, based on your environment you can configure to a small number less than CPU Cores.

default value is set to ‘2’.
ES_MEMORY Signifies the memory space allocated to Open Distro in the RAM. The unit for RAM memory is in Giga Byte (GB).
default value is set to ‘2’.
LC_MEMORY Signifies the memory space allocated to LowCode in the RAM. The unit for RAM memory is in Giga Byte (GB).
default value is set to ‘1’.
LS_MEMORY Signifies the memory space allocated to Logstash in the RAM. The unit for RAM memory is in Giga Byte (GB).
default value is set to ‘1’.
LS_WORKER_COUNT The number of workers that will, in parallel, execute the filter and output stages Logstash. If you find that events are backing up, or that the CPU is not saturated, consider increasing this number to better utilize machine processing power.
default value is set to ‘0’.
LS_BATCH_SIZE The maximum number of events an individual worker thread will collect from inputs before attempting to execute its filters and outputs. Larger batch sizes are generally more efficient, but come at the cost of increased memory overhead.
default value is set to ‘250’.
LS_BATCH_DELAY When creating pipeline event batches, how long in milliseconds to wait for each event before dispatching an undersized batch to pipeline workers.
default value is set to ‘500’.
LOG_LEVEL Signifies the log level for Open Distro, RabbitMQ and Logstash. 
default value is set to INFO.
MAX_LOG_SIZE Signifies maximum size of the log file for log rotation. The unit for the log size is MB. 
default value is set to ‘100’.
MAX_LOG_FILE Signifies the maximum number of log files for log rotation. 
default value is set to ‘10’. 

 

NOTE: 

An additional profile called ae-profile-dev.properties is available at AssistEdgeAutomation > scripts folder. This profile can be used for development, POC or small-scale deployments.

 

Authentication Details 

The authentication details related to the user are defined in the auth.yml file. The values contained in this file can we overwritten to change the default settings.


To update the auth.yml file:

  1. Access AssistEdgeAutomation > scripts folder.
  2. Locate the auth.yml file and edit the below mentioned properties.


 

  1. Update the below properties to change the default values:

 

Name of Property     Description
Scheme The mode to authenticate the user. Available options are:
  •  AD
  • SAML
  • OIDC
  • Custom
roboScheme The mode to authenticate the robots. Available options are:
  •  AD
  • SAML
  • OIDC
  • Custom
allowedHostname The list of hostnames through which the AE instance can be accessed.
enableConcurrentSession Signifies if logging into multiple instances is permitted. By default, it is set to true.
ssoAutoRoleAssignment

This property is applicable only for SAML and OIDC.

If this is enabled, the created new user gets a role automatically assigned.
ssoRoleMap

This property is applicable only for SAML and OIDC.

If the ssoAutoRoleAssignment property is enabled, the sso (SAML/OIDC)  role gets mapped with the specified  AE role.
config Specify the configuration details of the scheme specified above.

 

Multi-Domain Setup

By default, AE is configured for authentication against single domain. If your organization has multi-domain, and you want to allow users from all the domain to login to AE then you must provide the domain name and domain controller value in the auth.yml file.

 


 
Once multiple domains are configured then during login, provide username in the format- domain name\user name. In case domain name is not provided then the user is authenticated against the domain provided during installation.


To access the client facing tools, update their respective config files and set the customauthentication as true.

SSL Certification Details

The SSL certification related details are defined in the ssl.yml file. The values contained in this file can we overwritten to change the default settings.


To update the ssl.yml file:

  1. Access AssistEdgeAutomation > scripts folder.
  2. Locate the ssl.yml file and edit the below mentioned properties.

 

 

Name of Property     Description
minSSLVersion Signifies the TLS protocol version supported by AE servers i.e. 8443. It is recommended to set the lowest version available that in turn ensures all the higher version are available.
Default value is set to ‘TLSv1’.
Possible values are:
  • TSLv1.2
  • TLSv1.1
  • TLSv1
sslOffloading

If you want to do ssl offloading at load balancer enable this by setting to true.

By default, it is set to false.

NOTE:          

 If the ssloffloading is set to true, you must place the certChain.crt and server.p12 file in the AssistEdgeAutomation > data > Certificate folder; else, the offloading mechanism fails.
ciphers The set of algorithms used to secure the connection.

 

Setting-Up Lowcode in Cluster Deployment

After the installation for the cluster setup is completed follow the below mentioned steps on all the machines where the installation is done:

  1. Mount network drives:
  • For Windows: Run ae networkdrive mount command. Enter below required inputs:
    • Enter Drive Letter: <Mount drive letter>. Make sure that the drive letter is same on all the machines.
    • Enter Network Location: <Shared network drive path>
    • Enter Username: <Shared network username>
    • Enter Password: <Shared network password>
  • For Linux: Mount a shared drive at a common location on all servers in the cluster. The assistEdge group created above must have access to this drive. Refer Mounting Shared Drive section to know how to mount the shared drive in Linux.
  • Make sure that the mounted network drive folder has read/write permissions.
  1. Update ae.properties file:
    1. Copy the \data\wflow folder to the shared file directory.
    2. If the mapped drive is Z: add the below setting in the ae.properties file located in AssistEdgeAutomation > scripts directory. For example, LOWCODE_SHARED_PATH=Z:\\wflow
  2. Access the server.xml file located at AssistEdgeAutomation > runtime > tomcat > apache-tomcat-<version> > conf folder.
  3. Uncomment the below mentioned tags and update as described below :
    1. <Engine name="Catalina" defaultHost="localhost" jvmRoute="jvm1">
    2. Replace the entry of the jvmRoute with the hostname of the respective machine.
    3. <Cluster className="org.apache.catalina.ha.tcp.SimpleTcpCluster"/>
    4. Refer http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-8.5-doc/cluster-howto.html for more details related to the tomcat cluster settings.
  4. Repeat step 1 through step 4 on all the machines where the installation is done for the cluster setup.

Start Server-Side Components

After installation, you also need to start all the components.


To Start the Components:

  1. Run the ae start <component name> command:
    • For Windows: Run the command with Administrator rights and start all the components in below order. 
    • For Linux: No special privilege is required.
  2. Alternatively, run ae startall  to start all the components at once.

    

NOTE: 
  • RPA and Engage have some common components. The table below lists the name of components along with their applicability to RPA and Engage.
  • Choose to start components as per your need to use RPA or Engage or both as mentioned in the table below.
  • Run ae stop <component name> to stop the component. Refer AE Commands to know about different commands.

    
    

Order to Start Components    Component Name     RPA    Engage 
1     Messaging     ✔     ✔
2     TxnStore    ✔   ✔
3     ControlTower     ✔     ✔
4     Vanguard     ✔     ✔
5     ETL     ✔     ✔
6     Reporting     ✔     ✔
7     Lowcode     ✔     ✔
8     ML     ✔     ✖

 

3.    Run ae statusall  to check the status of all the components.

 

PID: 3900
Started On: 2021-09-30T12:34:28.188Z

 

MESSAGING                      :STARTED   2021-09-30T12:36:49.372Z
CONTROLTOWER         :STARTED   2021-09-30T12:37:36.295Z
VANGUARD                       :STARTED   2021-09-30T12:37:42.644Z
TXNSTORE                         :STARTED   2021-09-30T12:35:14.940Z
ML                                            :STARTED   2021-09-30T12:37:41.728Z
LOWCODE                         :STARTED   2021-09-30T12:37:38.822Z

 

REPORTING                      :STARTING
ETL                                           :STARTING

 

NOTE: 

Sometimes a component takes longer time than usual to start. Before you start the next component, wait until the current component starts successfully.

 

The current status of each of the component is displayed. Below are the various statuses of the components:

  • STARTED- signifies that the component has started
  • STARTING- signifies that the component is still in the starting phase
  • STOPPED- signifies that the component has stopped
  • STOPPING- signifies that the component ha is still in the stopping phase
  • PreCheck: Pending- Signifies that the pre-check of the component is pending
  • Not installed on this System- signifies that the stated component is not install on your system
  • PreCheck: Failed – signifies that the pre-check of the component has failed 

Server-Side Component URLs

  • ControlTower – The Control Tower component is accessible using the URL,  https://<proxy_server_hostname>:8443/ui/Admin
  • Reporting –  The Reporting component is accessible using the URL,  https:// <proxy_server_hostname>:8443/reports
  •  LowCode – The LowCode component is accessible using the URL, https:// <proxy_server_hostname>:8443/jw
  • TxnStore -  The TxnStore component is accessible using the URL,  https:// <proxy_server_hostname>:8443/ts-api. If you are already logged in to AE, no further authentication is required. If you are trying to call the TxnStore API from a code/utility, then you can pass AE user credentials in the Basic Authentication format. 

    https://<proxy_server_hostname>:8443/ts endpoint does not accept AE user credentials. If you want to access this endpoint, you need to create a TxnStore local user. For TxnStore local user creation, refer https://opendistro.github.io/for-elasticsearch-docs/docs/security/configuration/yaml/#internal_usersyml.
  • Messaging - The Messaging component is accessible using the URL, https:// <proxy_server_hostname>:8443/messaging-sso. If you are already logged in to AE, no authentication is required. If you are not logged in to AE, you are re-directed to the AE login page.

    https:// <proxy_server_hostname>:8443/messaging endpoint does not accept AE user credentials. If you want to access this endpoint, you need to create a Messaging local user using command, ae rabbitmq.