Agent Controller overview

The Agent Controller is a daemon process that enables client applications to launch host processes and interact with agents that coexist within host processes. A single configuration file is used to manage the extent of its behavior.

The Agent Controller originates from the data collection engine that is a feature available on the open source project Eclipse Hyades project.

The Agent Controller provides a means for extending application behavior so that information regarding the application's execution can be externalized and then collected either locally or remotely. The Agent Controller interacts with the following components:

Host process: The process that contains the application under test.
Agent: A reusable binary file that provides services to the host process, and more importantly, provides a portal by which application data can be forwarded to attached clients. A host process can have one or more agents currently running within it. Even if the host process does not contain an agent initially, some processing condition can result in the creation of an agent at some point during the life cycle of the process.
Client: A local or remote application that is the terminal destination of host process data that is externalized by an agent. A single client can be attached to many agents at once. However, a client does not always have to be attached to an agent.
Agent Controller: A daemon process that resides on each deployment host and provides the mechanism by which client applications can either launch new host processes, or attach to agents that coexist within existing host processes. The client can reside on the same host as the Agent Controller, or it can be remote. The Agent Controller can only interact with host processes on the same node.

Note: An agent can be loaded or created by a host process, but a client is not automatically attached to this agent. The client must send a request to the Agent Controller to attach to a specific agent.