Applicable to Entuity v23.0 GA.

Introduction

The Agent Terminal feature functions like a remote terminal utility, allowing commands or groovy scripts to be executed on servers hosting Entuity Agents. While an agent terminal session is open, a command-line processor (for example, cmd or bash) on the agent server will remain active. Once enabled, the Agent Terminal can be launched from the Context Menu associated with the selected Entuity Agents. Commands and groovy scripts can also be loaded from the file system of the Entuity server for selection to be executed within the terminal session.

Note, the Agent Terminal session does not support line editing features that command-line processors usually do, such as auto-completion or history. All requests must be fully entered at the time of execution.

Permissions

User permissions to launch an agent terminal are either Administrator or another user group that has Remote Terminal permissions. For information about granting and managing user permissions, see this article.

Enabling the Agent Terminal

By default, the Context Menu option to launch a terminal session is hidden. The Agent Terminal feature must be enabled for use.

To enable the Agent Terminal feature:

Add the following to the entuity.cfg file, located in entuity_home/etc.
```
[RemoteAgent]
EnableTerminal=1
```
Restart DsKernel.
Note, running configure is not required.
The Terminal menu option is now displayed in the Context Menu for Entuity Agents.

Using the Agent Terminal

To access the Agent Terminal screen:

Navigate to, and select, the desired Entuity Agents for which you want to open a remote terminal.
You can select an Entuity Agent from the Entuity Agent Summary dashboard page or by clicking search results against all Objects within a view.
Right-click the Entuity Agent to access the Context Menu for the agent, and click Terminal.

The Agent Console page is displayed, and starts to establish a session.

Agent Console page

The Agent Console page allows command or groovy script execution onto servers hosting Entuity Agents by using web sockets for communication between the browser and Entuity server(s). Agent to Entuity collection server connections use existing REST connections.

Note, the requests between the agent and the Entuity server are made at 5-minute intervals, so there might be up to a 5-minute delay when initially establishing a remote terminal session.

While trying to establish a session to the agent, a “Please wait for session establishment” pop-up message is displayed, and all buttons are disabled. The buttons become enabled when the session is established.

Command Input field

The top text area of the page, with the “Enter command here” text, is where you can enter commands or groovy scripts. To have the command interpreted as a groovy script, select the Send Groovy checkbox in the top right-hand corner of the page. To execute the entered command on the agent, click Send or use the Ctrl+Enter keys within the text area.

Command Output field

The larger text area on the bottom portion of the page displays the output of the command or groovy script that you execute on the agent.

Action buttons and checkboxes

The Agent Console page has these action buttons and checkboxes.

Button/Checkbox	Description
Send	Executes the command or groovy script that you entered in the Command Input field.
Clear input	Clears the Command Input field.
Clear output	Clears the Command Output field, returning it to an empty field, as seen when the session was initially established.
Terminate	Ends the session established between the Entuity Agent and server.
Load template	Loads any agent script templates that are loaded on the Entuity server and that are located in the entuity_home/`agentrepos` directory. Using this feature automatically selects the Send Groovy checkbox. Note, script templates can be found in entuity _home`/lib/tools/pkgRepo/scriptTemplates`. You must copy agent script templates to the `agentrepos` directory for use.
Send clears output	When selected, clears the contents of the output area before sending a command.
Send Groovy	When selected, indicates the command is to be interpreted as a groovy script instead of the standard command-line processor of the Entuity Agent, such as `cmd` or `bash`.