Instructions are operations you want an agent to perform. Each package can have two sets of instructions: one main set that is executed once the dependencies are met and another set, Rollback Instructions, which are executed only if the Agent encounters an error while processing the package.
Important! For complete information about the features of packages supported by agents, refer to Package Features Supported by Axeda Agents.
You can use the following instructions for both the main set of instructions and Rollback instructions, as long as the agent running on the asset supports them:
File Upload
File Download
Execute Application
Set Data Item
Custom instruction (a SOAP call that you create)
Restart Agent
The Axeda Gateway, Connector, and Agent Embedded agents guarantee that the instructions are performed synchronously and in the order in which they are defined. For Upload instructions, these agents can compress multiple files into a single .tar.gz archive. If you have a single file that is already compressed, you can disable compression. If the file is larger than 8GB in size, you must disable compression (due to a limitation of the tar format) or results may be unpredictable. The C-based AWP agent also supports compression; the Java-based AWP agent supports only file upload and does not support compression.
When setting up Download instructions, you can also disable compression for the agents that support it. The same size rules apply to downloads.
Important! For downloads to assets running an agent that was created using the C-based AWP toolkit, make sure that the asset can un-zip the archive before enabling compression. The Axeda IDM Agents do NOT support compression for file transfers.
The Restart instruction must always occur last. While Software Management has been created to provide flexible and powerful file transfers, a package allows powerful capabilities that can be applied in a broader scenario, such as upgrading assets in the field with a single deployment.