Adding Agents Inside your Connectware Installation

Setting up Agents inside Connectware

Connectware protocol-mapper agents are additional components of the Connectware that can be deployed and started individually. You can use agents for the following:

• Inside your Connectware installation for specialization and load distribution
• Outside your Connectware installation as edge deployments close to your shopfloor

Related Links

• Agents (Connectware documentation)

Adding Agents inside Your Connectware Installation

You can add additional agents to your Connectware installation via the Connectware Helm chart. The section to add agents is commented out by default.

1. In the values.yaml file, search for #protocolMapperAgents within the global context and remove the #.
2. Add the agents. The minimum configuration requires you to add the agent name.
   Note: You cannot change the name of an agent after creating it.
3. Add configurations to each agent. For example, define the storage size or the CPU and memory resources of each agent. 

Example

In this example, two agents are added to the protocolMapperAgents section of the values.yaml file.

protocolMapperAgents:
  - name: welder-robots
  - name: bender-robots
Code-Sprache: YAML (yaml)

Specifying the Storage Size for Agents (Optional)

Agents require a persistent volume to store their data. The default storage size value is 40 Mi (40 Mebibytes).

• To specify the storage size for an agent, add the parameter storageSize and define the storage size. Specify the storage size as Kubernetes quantities.

Note: You cannot change the storage size of an agent after creating it.

Example

protocolMapperAgents:
  - name: bender-robots
    storageSize: 1Gi
Code-Sprache: YAML (yaml)

Related Links

• Persistent volumes (Kubernetes documentation)
• Quantities (Kubernetes documentation)

Specifying a StorageClass for Agents (Optional)

Agents require a persistent volume to store their data. By default, the agents use the default storage class of the Kubernetes cluster. You can specify any Kubernetes StorageClass that offers the ReadWriteOnce access mode and is available in your Kubernetes cluster.

• To specify a StorageClass for a persistent volume, add the parameter storageClassName and define a name. Note: You cannot change the name of the StorageClass after creating it.

Example

protocolMapperAgents:
  - name: bender-robots
    storageClassName: longhorn
Code-Sprache: YAML (yaml)

Related Links

• Persistent volumes (Kubernetes documentation)
• StorageClass (Kubernetes documentation)
• Access modes for persistent volumes (Kubernetes documentation)

Specifying CPU and Memory Resources for Agents

You can use the Kubernetes resource requests and limits to specify CPU and memory resources for agents.

Depending on their role and workload, agents can consume varying amounts of CPU and memory resources. We recommend that you use the Kubernetes metrics-server to identify the resource requirements of each agent and adjust the configuration if necessary.

Important: Adjusting CPU and memory resources can impact the performance and availability of Connectware. When you customize the settings for CPU and memory resources, make sure that you monitor the performance and make adjustments if necessary.

• In the values.yaml file, specify the CPU and memory limits and requests in the Helm value global.podResources.distributedProtocolMapper. Specify the limits and requests as Kubernetes quantities.

Example

protocolMapperAgents:
- name: bender-robots
  resources:
      requests:
        cpu: 1000m
        memory: 1000Mi
      limits:
        cpu: 2000m
        memory: 2000Mi
Code-Sprache: YAML (yaml)

Related Links

• Kubernetes resource management (Kubernetes documentation)
• Metrics server (Kubernetes documentation)
• Quantities (Kubernetes documentation)

Specifying Additional Environment Variables for Agents

You can specify a YAML array of objects to add additional environment variables for agents.

• In the values.yaml file, define a name and a value for the environment variable. Note: Kubernetes only accepts strings as environment variables.

Note: Do not specify the following environment variables as they are already used by the Helm chart of Connectware:

• CYBUS_AGENT_NAME
• CYBUS_AGENT_MODE
• CYBUS_MQTT_HOST
• CYBUS_MQTT_PORT
• CYBUS_MQTT_DATA_HOST
• CYBUS_MQTT_DATA_PORT
• CYBUS_MQTT_SCHEME
• USE_MUTUAL_TLS

Example

protocolMapperAgents:
  - name: bender-robots
    env:
      - name: CYBUS_HOSTNAME_INGRESS
        value: connectware
      - name: SOME_OTHER_VARIABLE
        value: bar
Code-Sprache: YAML (yaml)

Directly Targeting the MQTT Broker

Agents target the MQTT broker of Connectware through an Ingress proxy via the Kubernetes LoadBalancer Service. In your new Connectware installation, the LoadBalancer is named connectware. However, you can bypass the Ingress proxy. This allows you to reduce the number of services that move data, increase throughput or reduce load.

Note: Only target the MQTT broker directly if the necessity was identified.

1. To directly target the MQTT broker, do one of the following in the values.yaml file:
   1. If you are using a separate control-plane broker, set the Helm value mqttHost to control-plane-broker.
   2. Otherwise, set the Helm value mqttHost and mqttDataHost to broker.
2. Set the environment variable CYBUS_HOSTNAME_INGRESS to connectware.

Example

Directly target the MQTT broker:

protocolMapperAgents:
  - name: bender-robots
    mqttHost: broker
    mqttDataHost: broker
    env:
      - name: CYBUS_HOSTNAME_INGRESS
        value: connectware
Code-Sprache: YAML (yaml)

Directly target the MQTT broker while using a separate control-plane broker:

protocolMapperAgents:
  - name: bender-robots
    mqttHost: control-plane-broker
    mqttDataHost: broker
    env:
      - name: CYBUS_HOSTNAME_INGRESS
        value: connectware
Code-Sprache: YAML (yaml)

Defining Kubernetes Labels and Annotations for Agents

You can define sets of labels and annotations that are added to the pod and controller resources of your agents. The following Helm values are available:

Helm value	Applied to
labels	Controller (StatefulSet), Pod, Service, PersistentVolumeClaim
service.labels	Service
podLabels	Pod
annotations	Controller (StatefulSet)
podAnnotations	Pod
service.annotations	Service

Example

protocolMapperAgents:
  - name: bender-robots
    labels:
      tld.mycompany/robots: benders # label is common to all resources
    podLabels:
      pod: only # label is only on pods
    annotations:
      controller: only # annotation is only on StatefulSet controller
    podAnnotations:
      pod: only # annotation is only on pods
    service:
      labels:
        service: only # label is only on the service
      annotations:
        service: only # annotations is only on the service
Code-Sprache: YAML (yaml)

Related Links

• Labels (Kubernetes documentation)
• Annotations (Kubernetes documentation)