Jitterbit agents

Overview

Jitterbit's Harmony agents process your integration projects' operations, and send and receive endpoint data. There are two kinds of agent, cloud and private:

• Cloud: Jitterbit manages cloud agents on their own cloud infrastructure. You don't need to set up or configure anything.

• Private: You must set up, configure, and manage private agents on your own cloud or physical infrastructure.

All agents are members of a group. Agent groups are groups of agents of the same kind. Agents within an agent group share the work of processing an Integration Studio or Design Studio project's operations. Which agent group and which type of agents a project uses depends on which environment the project is deployed to.

The following table compares the two kinds of agent:

Cloud agents

Cloud agents are cloud services managed by Jitterbit. They are configured to automatically adapt to match your project workloads. You do not need to install, configure, upgrade, start, or stop cloud agents.

Cloud agent groups

Cloud agent groups are groups of cloud agents running the same version. They are included in all Harmony subscriptions. Jitterbit provides two cloud agent groups for each region:

• Production Cloud Agent Group: A group of agents on the currently released version, fully tested and ready for production.

• Sandbox Cloud Agent Group: A group of agents on the currently proposed next version, suitable for evaluation and testing.

Cloud agent groups need no configuration or management. Unlike private agents, individual cloud agents are not visible in the Management Console.

Private agents

Unlike cloud agents, which are managed by Jitterbit, you must install and configure private agents (on Windows, Linux), or Docker hosts that satisfy the system requirements), and manage both agents and groups using the Management Console > Agents page.

Private agent groups

Before you can install and run a private agent, you need at least one private agent group. (Private agent groups are a licensable addition to your Harmony subscription.) No private agent groups are provided by default. You must create them and assign them to environments. A private agent group must have at least one private agent in it, and an agent can be in only one group at a time.

When there are two or more agents in a group, agents take turns processing entire operation chains, including children. This has the following consequences:

• There is no way to predict which agent an operation chain will run on. Projects with endpoints requiring local file access should run in an environment where all agents in the group have access to a common filesystem or shared drive.

• The average workload of individual agent hosts can vary significantly.

• If an agent crashes, operations can hang and data might be lost.

For supported connectors and a minimum number of active agents, you can enable the listening service for agents in a group. The listening service lets supported Integration Studio connectors listen for API events. It also nominates one of the agents as a leader. The leader agent distributes operation tasks to agents according to their status and load. If an agent crashes, data can be recovered.

Release schedule and release notes

The release schedule for agents varies depending on the agent type:

• Cloud agent groups are updated automatically on the Sandbox Cloud Agent Group upgrade and Production Cloud Agent Group upgrade schedules.

• Updated private agent installers become available from the Downloads page at the conclusion of the Production Cloud Agent Group release.

• The private agent Docker image becomes available at Docker Hub at the conclusion of the North America (NA) region Production Cloud Agent Group release.

In the Harmony release notes, each agent type is included as a separate line item in the release dates table at the top of each release notes page. Individual release notes are listed under the Agents heading, with any relevant applicability to certain agent types included within the release notes.

Compilations of release notes for Production Cloud Agent Groups, Sandbox Cloud Agent Groups, and private agents are also available.

Known issues

This section lists known issues that have been identified with recent versions of private agents. For known issues that have been identified with other Jitterbit Harmony applications, see Known issues.

Multiple versions of private agents

Linux private agents 11.31.1 and all earlier versions

• Scheduled operations fail to run after a Linux private agent restart

  • Summary: After restarting a Linux private agent, the agent's Scheduler service fails to start, causing scheduled operations not to run as expected. This issue does not occur with Windows private agents.

  • Additional Information: The Linux agent's Scheduler service uses a library that downloads the latest time zone data files. As of September 4, 2024, the provider of this library introduced a syntax error that causes the Scheduler service not to start.

  • Recommendation: This issue is resolved with version 11.31.2, which no longer automatically downloads the library causing the issue. We recommend upgrading Linux private agents to 11.31.2 or later to prevent this issue from occurring and, in cases where it is already occurring, to recover from it.

    Alternatively, if you are using an earlier agent version, you can apply the following workaround or recovery steps to non-Docker agents:

    • Workaround: If a Linux private agent has not yet been restarted, to prevent this problem from occurring, edit the version file at /opt/jitterbit/TimeZoneDB/version and change its value to 2024b. This will prevent the version of the date library with the issue from being downloaded by the agent.

    • Recovery: If a Linux private agent is already experiencing this issue, to fix it, edit the northamerica file at /opt/jitterbit/TimeZoneDB/northamerica to replace the value April with Apr in any occurrences. Then restart the agent.

All recent versions

These issues apply to all recent versions:

• Windows private agent installation shows a Microsoft Defender SmartScreen warning

  • Summary: When installing a private agent 10.69 or later (for 10.x agents) or 11.8 or later (for 11.x agents) on Windows 2019 or Windows 10, a warning message may appear.

  • Additional Information: The warning message reads "Windows protected your PC" with a note that Microsoft Defender SmartScreen prevented an unrecognized app from starting.

  • Workaround: Within the warning message dialog, click More info to show the option Run anyway. Then click Run anyway to proceed with the agent installation.

• Windows private agents: Unable to install 64-bit agent with Two-Factor Authentication (TFA)

  • Summary: Installing a 64-bit Windows private agent fails if TFA is active.

  • Additional Information: The installer displays an error dialog.

  • Workaround: Temporarily disable TFA and install the 64-bit Windows private agent. After installation, enable TFA.

• ODBC connections don't handle extended characters correctly

  • Summary: When connecting to a database using an ODBC driver, some extended characters, such as an en dash, aren't handled properly by operations that upsert data.

  • Additional Information: Upsert operations may fail, or succeed with unintended consequences by affecting the wrong data. Note that Insert and Update operations are unaffected by this issue.

  • Workaround: Use a JDBC driver for the Database connection (see instructions for Design Studio or Integration Studio).

• SFTP directories sometimes aren't auto-created

  • Summary: When writing to SFTP as a target using Design Studio or Integration Studio, the auto-creation of directories works inconsistently.

  • Additional Information: Depending on the particular FTP server involved, the directory may not be created.

  • Workaround: Confirm that the directory has been created before production use.

• SetSalesforceSession function doesn't work

  • Summary: The Jitterbit Script function SetSalesforceSession doesn't work correctly and shouldn't be used in Design Studio or Integration Studio.

  • Additional Information: If used, the script may or may not generate an error. Even if the script does not generate an error, the function will not work correctly. As the function doesn't work, the built-in session handling of the Salesforce connector will be used.

• Private agents have specific system requirements and known issues

  • Summary: The private agents have different and specific system requirements and known issues, depending on the operating system being used.

  • Workaround: See the System requirements for private agents for details.

• Agent installation fails due to PostgreSQL password including a plus sign (+)

  • Summary: Private agent installation fails if the PostgreSQL password contains a plus sign (+). There is no error message displayed.

  • Additional Information: This is an issue with the private agent installer, not with PostgreSQL.

  • Workaround: Use a password without a plus sign (+). When installation is complete, the password can be changed to any password acceptable for use with PostgreSQL.

11.26 private agents

• The VerifyJwtClaims function's claims parameter does not default to the correct value when left empty

  • Summary: When using agent version 11.26, leaving the optional claims parameter empty with the VerifyJwtClaims Jitterbit Script function will generate an error.

  • Workaround: Upgrade to agent version 11.27 or later or enter "{}" for claims. For example, VerifyJwtClaims("AxE9qm4aTZiXvA2G8sblAxjeL...", "RS256", "Secret", "{}");.

10.87 / 11.25 and earlier private agents

• Excessive log entries for the Microsoft Azure Service Bus connector

  • Summary: When using the Microsoft Azure Service Bus connector with agent version 10.87 / 11.25 or earlier, an excessive number of INFO logs are generated in a short time period, leading to disk space issues as a result of the size of the catalina.out file.

  • Workaround: An upgrade to agent version 11.26 or later is recommended. As an alternative, this issue can be resolved in agent version 10.87 / 11.25 or earlier by adding the following settings to the logback.xml file located in C:\Program Files\Jitterbit Agent\tomcat\shared\lib (Windows) or /opt/jitterbit/tomcat/shared/lib (Linux):

    <logger name="com.azure.core.amqp" level="ERROR"/>
    <logger name="com.azure.messaging.servicebus" level="ERROR"/>
    <logger name="com.azure.core.implementation" level="ERROR"/>
    

10.84 / 11.22 and earlier private agents

• Once-daily schedule skipped during daylight saving time switch

  • Summary: When using agent version 10.84 / 11.22 or earlier, and the agent is using a time zone that observes daylight saving, these known issues occur during a daylight saving time switch:

    • When a once-daily schedule is set between 1 - 2 AM, the scheduled operation will fail to run on the first Sunday of November due to daylight saving time.

    • When a once-daily schedule is set between 2 - 3 AM, the scheduled operation will fail to run on the second Sunday of March due to daylight saving time.

  • Workaround: Upgrade to agent version 10.85 / 11.23 or later or set the agent time zone to UTC by using the Override Schedule Agent Time Zone organization policy and selecting Etc/UTC.

10.45 and earlier private agents

• Apache Log4j2 JNDI vulnerabilities affect private agents

  • Summary: Apache Log4j2 vulnerabilities CVE-2021-44228 and CVE-2021-45046 affect private agents that use Integration Studio connectors built with the Integration Studio Connector SDK.

  • Mitigation: An emergency maintenance addressed the vulnerabilities. After the maintenance, private agents needed to be restarted and an operation run for each affected connector in order for the update to become effective. For detailed information and instructions, see Mitigate the Apache Log4j2 JNDI vulnerability.

10.38 Linux private agents

• The PostgreSQL database is reinitialized when upgrading from version 10.37 to 10.38

  • Background: When upgrading a Linux private agent from a pre-10.37 version to a version that is 10.37 or later, the PostgreSQL database will be reinitialized as it is upgraded to version 9.6. This upgrade will recreate the database on your private agent and your data will be recovered during this upgrade process. After the upgrade, any backups created using an earlier PostgreSQL version will not be compatible. The upgrade process can take more than 30 minutes depending on the number of projects and the size of the environments associated with your private agent group. Any pending jobs will be put in a pending queue to be run after the upgrade is complete. This upgrade does not involve the Windows private agent.

  • Known Issue: It is a known issue that when upgrading a Linux private agent from version 10.37 to 10.38, the PostgreSQL database is reinitialized.

  • Workaround: Upgrade to a Linux private agent that is version 10.39 or later.

10.0 private agents

• The Integration Studio Cherwell connector doesn't work

  • Summary: As of the 10.1 Harmony release, a change made to the Cherwell connector in Integration Studio means it is no longer compatible with 10.0 agents.

  • Workaround: If using the Cherwell connector, please upgrade to 10.1 agents or higher.

9.8 private agents

• Plugins aren't executing

  • Summary: An issue with plugins failing to run resulted in the 9.8 private agent download being pulled shortly after the release.

  • Workaround: If you still have a 9.8 private agent, please upgrade to a later version.