Universal Automation Center

Training

Module: Remote File Monitors

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Tasks Agenda

01 Introduction

02 Definition Form

03 Configuration

04 FTP Credentials

05 Additional FTP Commands

06 Remote File Monitor Built-in Variables

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Remote File Monitors: Introduction
• Monitor for a file on a remote machine where an FTP server is running.
• The Monitor connects to the FTP server rather than the machine's file
system to monitor for files.
• Can be used within a workflow; Cannot run a Remote File Monitor using a
trigger.
• Agent is required for monitoring.
• All UAC Agents have an FTP/SFTP/FTPS/FTPES client built-in.
• The Monitor can check to see if a file exists or is missing.
• By using the “Wait Until Satisfied” option, file creation can also be detected.

Remote File Monitor Tasks are described in the documentation:

Universal Controller 7.5 Remote File Monitor Tasks
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 UAC Communication Flows Same Server
Win/
Unix UC OMS Agent Command line

FTP UC OMS Agent UFTP FTP Server

Data
Mover UC OMS Agent UDM Manager UDM server1 UDM server2

TCP/IP
SAP UC OMS Agent USAP SAP

JDBC
Database UC Database
Web HTTP(S)
Service UC Web Service
IMAP/SMTP
Email UC Email 4Server
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 The type of file event being monitored:
Remote File Monitors exists / missing

Time between checks

Number of times to check

Waits for a file to be
created

The type of FTP server

/ SFTP / FTPS / FTPES

Host Name or IP address of

the remote server [:port] Login credentials
used by the Agent to
access the Remote
The path and file name on Server
the Remote Server.
Can use wildcards

Size below which the file

will not satisfy the monitor

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 Remote File Monitors: Configuration Tips
• To wait for a file to be created, choose “Exists” Monitor Type and check “Wait until
Satisfied”.
• Polling interval: the time between checks.
• Maximum Polls: the number of times to check.
• Optionally, enter a Stable time.
• Select the Type of FTP server and the transfer mode.
• Remote Server: Host name or IP. Credentials: required to connect to Remote
Server.
• Remote Filename (can use wildcards).
• Minimum File Size: size below which the file will not satisfy the monitor
• For z/OS, enter the job card information for the JCL statement. Example:
//File TransferJOB01 JOB(File Transfer,001),FANNY, MSGLEVEL=(1,1), NOTIFY=$SYSUID, CLASS=A
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 Remote File Monitors: FTP Credentials
Two places to enter credentials into the Remote File Monitor.
• Agent Credentials (optional) – Credentials under which an Agent (UFTP
client) runs this task; otherwise, will use the existing Agent credentials.
• FTP Credentials – The Credentials required to log into the remote FTP server.

Remote SFTP servers require the use of an SSH Private Key.

• Select New Credentials – create credentials.
• Credentials do not have a password.
• Key Location: location of the Runtime User's SSH private key in OpenSSH
format.
• Pass Phrase: passphrase for the Runtime User's SSH private key file.

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Remote File Monitors: Additional FTP Commands I
• The Agent depends on the file list being in Unix "long" format:
• i.e. what you would see if you entered "ls -l" from the command
shell.
• This format is required to correctly and reliably parse out file name
and size (when a Stable period is specified).

• If the FTP Server is configured to return a different format, the Server

may support commands that alter the format.

• Invalid statements or valid statements that do not control the file list
format, are ignored.

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 Remote File Monitors: Additional FTP Commands I
For example:
• The following statements may be used for a Remote File Monitor executing
against an IBM iSeries (AS/400) FTP Server to ensure a correctly formatted file
list:
• site listfmt 1
• site namefmt 1

• If the Remote File Monitor task is executing against a Microsoft FTP Server and
that Server is configured to return a file list in DOS format, the following
statement will toggle the format to a Unix-style listing.
• site dirstyle

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 Remote File Monitors: Additional FTP Commands II
• Not all FTP client/server implementations provide statements that can alter
the format of the ls command
• The ls commands is issued by the Remote File Monitor to generate the file listing.
• However, those implementations may support the dir command, which can
return the file list in the correct format.

• If the dir command is specified in the Additional FTP Commands field:

• The Remote File Monitor will use the results from that command to obtain the file
sizes.
• In such cases, the FTP script will contain the dir and ls commands, but since
statements in the Additional FTP Commands field are inserted into the script
prior the ls command, the results from the dir command are parsed first.

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Remote File Monitors: Additional FTP Commands II
• If the dir command is necessary to obtain the correct file list format:
• Specify that command, along with the same value specified in the Remote
Filename field.
• Example, if Remote Filename is /uagtests/data/somefile*.txt, enter the
following in this field: dir /uagtests/data/somefile*.txt

• This statement also can be used with other commands to get the correct
output.
• Example, if a Windows FTP Server is configured to return file lists in Windows
format, use site and dir commands together in this field:
• site dirstyle
• dir /uagtests/data/somefile*.txt

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Remote File Monitors
Remote File Monitor Built-in variables (Documentation link)
These variables are also assigned when the monitor succeeds in a workflow, since
the scope of these variables is “self”, to use the variable in a different task in the
same workflow, a Set Variable Action must be used to assign the value to another
variable with a greater scope. Alternatively, you can use:
${_varLookup('sibling_name','variable_name')}
${ops_trigger_file_name_simple} ${ops_trigger_file_fullpath_no_separator}
${ops_trigger_files} ${ops_trigger_file_name_extension}
${ops_trigger_file_name} ${ops_trigger_wildcard}
${ops_trigger_file_name_nopath} ${ops_trigger_wildcard_path}
${ops_trigger_file_path} ${ops_trigger_wildcard_path_no_separator}
${ops_trigger_file_fullpath}
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End of Module
Demonstration and Exercises to follow

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