Starting and stopping node agents

Node agents are administrative agents that represent a node to your system and manage the servers on that node. The node agent is a server process that must be started before you can communicate with the deployment manager or start servers on the node. If you need to stop or restart the node agent (for example, for system maintenance like changing the system clock), use the administrative console.

Before you begin

Before you can start and stop a node agent, you must federate the node into a cell.

If you used the BPMConfig command to create your profiles and deployment environment, and you did not specify the -federateLater option, the node has been federated automatically.

If you used the BPMConfig command to create your profiles and deployment environment, and you specified the -federateLater option, you need to first run the WebSphere addNode command before you can start and stop any node agents.

Before you can stop a node agent, you must stop all the servers managed by that node agent.

About this task

Use the following steps to start, stop, or restart a node agent.

Table 1. Starting and stopping a node agent
Action	Perform these steps
Start a node agent	From the administrative console of the deployment manager, verify that the node agent is not currently running. (Click System administration > Node agents to see its status.) Use the startNode command to start the node agent. Note: You must start the node agent from the command line of the host on which the node is configured, in the `install_root`/bin directory (where `install_root` is the installation location of IBM Business Process Manager). Verify that the server started successfully by checking the `profile_root/logs/server_name/startServer.log` log file for the message `Server nodeagent open for e-business; process id is nnnn`.
Stop a node agent	From the administrative console of the deployment manager, click System administration > Node agents. Select the node agent that you want to stop, and then click Stop.
Restart a node agent	From the administrative console of the deployment manager, click System administration > Node agents. Select the node agent that you want to restart, and then click Restart. The node agent is stopped and then restarted.

Example

To start the node agent in the default profile, type startNode
To list the options, type startNode -help
To start the node agent in the Custom03 profile, type startNode -profileName Custom03
To start the node agent in the Custom03 profile and write trace information to the log file called install_root/profiles/Custom03/logs/startServer.log, type startNode -logfile -profileName Custom03