Disk Agents

This section describes the Disk collection and forwarding agents.  These agents are available in batch and real-time workflow configurations.

The Disk agents collect and forward batches of files on local file systems and are available in batch and real-time workflow configurations. 

The configuration of the Disk agents is different in real-time workflows compared to batch workflows since the former do not have built-in batch boundaries. Batch workflows also provide built-in support for transaction safety and enable additional features in the Disk agents that are not available in real-time workflows.

However, you can include the collection and forwarding agents that are based on batch agents in real-time workflows. This allows you to use various file-oriented protocols, and access your batch data directly from a real-time workflow.

The collection and forwarding agents that are available are:

• Disk
• FTP
• SCP
• SFTP

When you have selected to create a real-time workflow, you can select these agents from the lists of collection and forwarding agents in the agent pane.

A real-time workflow with a batch-based agent:

• Can process several UDRs simultaneously, but the order of UDR processing is not guaranteed.
• The Begin and End Batch are signaled to the workflow.
• Decoder, error management, and scheduling are defined as part of the collection agent configuration.
• If the agent encounters an error that would cause a batch workflow to abort, instead behavior depends on how the agent is configured in the Execution tab. 

For more information about the difference between batch and real-time workflows, see Workflow Types.

The section contains the following subsections: 

• Disk Agents in Batch Workflows