Getting Started with Automic SaaS for Administrators - New Customers

This topic explains what you must do to set up your Automic SaaS environments. First, we will verify that the connectivity works as expected in the Automic SaaS environment. When this is confirmed, we will outline how to create Clients and Users and how to move your data to your new environment.

This page includes the following:

The following page provides a summarized list of the steps you need to take to set up your system: Checklist to Set Up Automic SaaS- New Customers

Prerequisites

  • Whitelisting your IP Addresses

    Broadcom is committed to provide maximum security at all times. As part of the Automic SaaS security architecture, "stateful" inspection firewalls deny by default all incoming traffic, analyze it and prevent standard internet attacks. Application servers are located in a different zone separated from the service database servers by a firewall. Only the necessary ports are opened between that zone and the internal trusted network. This means that Broadcom must allow your IP addresses to whitelist them. For this reason, after receiving the Welcome email, please submit a support ticket with Broadcom where you share with us your IP addresses. You will be able to access your environments as soon as Broadcom has whitelisted your IP addresses.

  • Keeping your documents at hand

    Your company has received various documents and emails regarding your Automic SaaS subscription. Among them, the Welcome to Automic SaaS email is particularly important for you; it contains your account details, default system name, links to the endpoints that you need, your credentials and so forth. Pay special attention to the SaaS Listing document too, as it provides the details of what your subscription entails. Keep these emails in a safe place because they are sent only once.

    Important!

    For more information, see Automic SaaS Service Description .

  • Understanding important concepts

    Read Automic SaaS Basic Terms and Concepts, where we explain concepts that you must know before beginning to set up your systems.

Setting Up Automic SaaS for New Users

This list outlines what you must do to set up your environments.

To Set Up the System

  1. Click the Automic Web Interface (AWI) link provided in the Welcome email. This opens AWI, which is the user interface that gives you access to all the program areas and functions that you need.

  2. The first thing that you see is the Login dialog. Log in to Client 0:

    1. Select 0 from the Client dropdown list.

    2. Enter the user name and password provided in the Welcome email.

    3. You are prompted to change your password. Do it and log in with your new credentials.

    Important Considerations

    If you are not familiar with AWI yet, read the following:

    In addition, Broadcom provides a wide range of free online trainings on the Broadcom Software Academy. The following two courses introduce you to AWI:

  3. Install and configure your first Agent. This procedure consists of the following steps:

    1. Install the Agent. You have several options, all of them described in detail here: Installing and Configuring Agents for Container-Based Systems.

    2. Configure the Agent. You can find detailed information in Installing and Configuring Agents for Container-Based Systems too.

    3. To avoid unauthorized access to your system you must authenticate the Agent. For detailed information, see Authenticating with Authentication Method "LOCAL" (Server). This topic describes various authentication methods. For Automic SaaS only the LOCAL method is relevant, the others apply to Automic Automation on-premises only.

    Notes:

    • Automic SaaS uses TLS certificates that are signed by a public Certificate Authority (CA). This means that the root and intermediate certificates are already in Java and OS truststores and that there is no need to distribute certificates to enable Agents to connect to the JCP endpoint.

      Automic SaaS uses the default HTTPS (443) and SFTP (22) ports.

    • You can use password vaults to manage the passwords and login credentials of your Agents. Automic SaaS supports CyberArk with REST endpoints to retrieve the passwords. To be able to use CyberArk with Automic SaaS, you must have already installed a REST service. For more information, see Managing Password and Agent Login Externally.

    • Later on, if you want to upgrade your Agents to a newer version, you can use Broadcom's Centralized Agent Upgrade (CAU). For more information, see Centralized Agent Upgrade (CAU).

  4. Assign the Agent to Client 100 and configure its authorizations. For detailed information, see Assigning Clients to Agents.

    The Agent is now ready. The next steps will verify that this is the case.

  5. Log in to Client 100 using the link provided in the Welcome email. Use the credentials in the email for your first login. You will be prompted to change the password.

  6. Create a test Job that uses the Agent that you have just created. Let's assume that you have downloaded and configured a UNIX Agent. In this case, create a UNIX Job.

    You create objects in the Process Assembly perspective. For information about this perspective, see Walkthrough of the Process Assembly Perspective. This video will also help you: Video: Walkthrough of the Process Assembly Perspective.

    For detailed information about how to create the Job, see Unix Jobs. This video will also help you: UNIX Jobs: Watch the Video.

    Automic SaaS objects consist of several definition pages. In addition to the Unix-specific parameters, you must assign the following to the Job, otherwise it cannot execute:

    • The Agent that you have just created. You do this on the Job's Attributes page. For detailed information, see Defining the Attributes Page.

    • A Login object that contains the credentials that the Agent needs to log in to the Unix environment. For more information, see Login (LOGIN).

  7. Execute the Job. You have various options but for our purpose, we will execute the Job immediately. For detailed information, see Executing Immediately. For more information about the execution options, see Executing Objects.

  8. Verify that the Job has executed correctly. Automic SaaS provides various possibilities:

  9. Verify that the REST API endpoint provided in the Welcome email is accessible. For detailed information about the REST API, see REST API and its sub pages.

  10. Verify that the FTP endpoint provided in the Welcome email is accessible. This is important because Broadcom archives your operational data and stores them on the FTP server mentioned in the Welcome to Automic SaaS email on a daily basis. Broadcom creates daily archives of your operations (execution data, reports, messages and comments), of all your processes and user activities. Broadcom keeps these data during a limited period of time that is stipulated in the SaaS Listing.

    One day after executing your test Job, the archive data pertaining to that job will be available on the FTP server. Check that the connectivity works and that you can download the file.

    Important! It is your responsibility to download the archive files regularly from the FTP server and store them where needed to be able to comply with your company's data retention policy.

    Note: Broadcom maintains the database and generates the archive files. Be aware that in Automic SaaS the database maintenance falls entirely within Broadcom's responsibility; you do not have access to the database.

    For more information, see:

  11. Now that you are sure that the connectivity works as expected in your Automic SaaS environment, you can extend its configuration:

    1. Place a service request through the Support Portal for Broadcom to create the Clients that you need. Clients are self-contained spaces that you can configure to depict your business as best suits you. You assign objects and Users to Clients. Thus, you could for example create one Client for HR operations, another for Finance operations and so forth.

      Broadcom will create those Clients in Client 0. If you need a specific configuration in any of your Clients, provide Broadcom with this information when requesting the Clients.

      For information about the Clients provided by default with your Automic SaaS subscription, see Clients and Users in Automic SaaS.

      For information about Clients, see Clients and its subtopics. Although these topics describe Clients in on-premises environments, the concepts and the functions are the same for SaaS environments. The only difference is that Client 0 in Automic SaaS has very limited functionality as it is entirely under Broadcom's responsibility.

      Except for Client 0, you can configure your Clients as you wish. You do it in the UC_CLIENT_SETTINGS - Various Client Settings variable. Some of the most important Client settings are the following:

    2. Create Users. You have the following options:

      • Using the REST API. You can create Users both in Client 0 and directly in the production Clients.

      • Through the Automic Web Interface in exactly the same way as in Automic Automation on premises.

      No matter which option you use to create the Users, if you create them in Client 0, you must then move them to the production Clients in which they will work.

      For information about the Users provided by default with your Automic SaaS subscription, see Clients and Users in Automic SaaS. This topic also explains what you need to do if you want to use single-sign on, SAML, secure email, LDAP and so on.

    3. In Client 0, assign Agents to Clients. For more information, see Assigning Clients to Agents.

  12. Download and configure the Agents that you need and assign them to Clients as explained above.

  13. Create object templates.

    When developers and object designers create objects, they use object templates. Your system provides default object templates for all object types. These templates are not configured at all. As an administrator, you can create additional object templates and pre-configure them. When developers and object designers create an object based on one of these templates, the object already contains the configuration that you have predefined.

    For example, you may want certain UNIX Jobs in your environment to run on a specific UNIX Agent. You can create a UNIX Job template where that Agent is already predefined. You must give the template a name that your users can easily recognize. When users create a new UNIX Job using that template, the Agent will be already assigned to the Job and they cannot change it.

    You can create object templates both in Client 0 or in the production Clients. Client 0 object templates will be available in all Clients in your environment.

    For more information, see:

  14. As an administrator, you will be responsible for creating and maintaining certain object types that developers and object designers will use to configure the objects with which they design automation. You create these objects in Client 0; they will be available for selection in all Clients in your environment.

    Admin-relevant objects:

  15. Access the FTP server and download your execution data and reports regularly.

    Note: Broadcom maintains the database and generates the archive files using the Automic Automation Utilities. For more information, see Utilities.

    Once you are familiar with Automic SaaS and with how to automate processes, you can create a Workflow to automate this process. Then, schedule its execution, for example by inserting the Workflow in a Schedule object. For more information see:

See also: