Connection Profiles

A connection profile contains plug-in authorization credentials, such as a username, password, host, and URL, and enables you to connect Control-M to the plug-in application server via the connection profile alone. You must create a connection profile before you can create a plug-in job, as described inCreating a Centralized Connection Profile.

You can manage the following connection profile types:

  • Local Connection Profile: Stored and managed on each Agent that is connected to a self-hosted Control-M/Server. You can only edit and delete local connection profiles in Control-M Web. You can create local connection profiles in the CCM or create centralized connection profiles in Control-M Web.

  • Centralized Connection Profile: Stored in the Control-M/EM database and available to all Agents in your environment. These connection profiles facilitate authentication creation and management in the following ways:

    • If you install a new plug-in, you do not need to manually duplicate connection profiles on each Agent in your environment. Instead, create one centralized connection profile per plug-in, which all relevant Agents can access.

    • If you must update your plug-in username and password, you do not need to edit the local connection profile stored on each Agent. Instead, update your credentials in a centralized connection profile and the Control-M/Server updates the authentication credentials for all Agents.

    • If an Agent becomes unavailable, you do not need to recreate a connection profile on a new Agent. Instead, the Control-M/Server sends the connection profile details to the new Agent when the plug-in job executes.

Creating a Centralized Connection Profile

This procedure describes how to create a centralized connection profile, which is stored in the Control-M/EM database, and available to all Agents in your environment. Centralized connection profiles eliminate the need to duplicate connection profiles on each Agent.

Begin

  1. From the icon, select Configuration.

    The Configuration domain opens.

  2. From the drop-down list, select Centralized Connection Profiles.

    The Centralized Connection Profiles pane appears.

  3. From the Add Connection Profile drop-down list, select the required Plug-in.

    The Add Connection Profile pane appears.

    The drop-down list shows only plug-ins that you have installed.

  4. Do the following:

    1. In the Connection Profile Name field, create a name for the connection profile.

    2. In the Description field, describe the purpose of the connection profile.

    3. For each parameter field, type the required values. For more information, see Connection Profile Parameters.

  5. Review the connection profile details, click Test, select an Agent where the connection profile is tested, and then click Test.

    If the test completes successfully, the connection profile is validated and you can now define a plug-in job.

    If the test fails, review and address the error message, and test again.

  6. Click Add.

    The centralized connection profile is created successfully.

Connection Profile Parameters

The following table lists the available plug-in types and links to plug-in-specific topics that detail their connection profile parameters.

Plug-in Type

Plug-in Parameters

Application Workflows

Business Intelligence and Analytics

Backup and Recovery

CI/CD

Cloud Computing

Container Orchestration

Data Processing and Analytics
Data Integration

Database Management

Databases Connection Profile Parameters

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

File Transfer

MFT Connection Profile Parameters

Infrastructure as Code

Machine Learning

Mainframe Modernization

Messaging and Communication

Messaging and Queuing
Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Web Services, Java, and Messaging

Converting to a Centralized Connection Profile

This procedure describes how to convert multiple local connection profiles (LCP) in a single process to centralized connection profiles (CCP). This enables you to store all your connection profiles in a central database.

Before You Begin

  • Verify that you have installed Python 3.8.0 on the computer where you run the script.

  • Verify that you have the Requests Python package installed on your computer by running pip install requests.

  • It is recommended to save a backup of your local connection profiles.

  • The local connection profiles file is located on the Agent computer under the cm/<plugin>/data directory. The filename is accounts.xml for MFT or accounts.dat for all other plug-ins.

Begin

  1. From the Control-M/EM host, navigate to one of the following locations:

    • UNIX: <EM_HOME>/etc/emweb/automation-api/downloads

    • Windows: <EM_HOME>\emweb\automation-api\downloads

    You can run the script from a remote computer, which must have network access to a Control-M/EM Web Server.

  2. Run the following script and follow the on-screen instructions:

    convert_lcps_to_ccps.py

    You might be prompted to provide one of the following authentication methods:

    • Control-M/EM username and password.

    • Control-M/EM token.

  3. For each parameter type the required value, as described in lcps_to_ccps.py Parameters .

  4. Press Y to continue.

    You can view the connection profiles report results in the following path:

    <CTM_Server_name>-<CTM_Agent_name>-<ApplType>-<Time>-ConvertedCPsReport.json

lcps_to_ccps.py Parameters

The following table describes the lcps_to_ccps.py parameters:

Parameter

Description

-h

Defines the help message and text.

-c CTM

Defines Control-M/Server name.

-a AGENT

Defines the name of the alias or Agent host.

-t PLUGIN_TYPE

Defines one or more of the following plug-in types:

  • AWS

  • Azure

  • Database

  • FileTransfer

  • Hadoop

  • Informatica

  • SAP

  • ApplicationIntegrator: <AppType>.

-f file

(Optional) Defines the rules file in JSON format.

By default, all connection profiles are converted. A connection profile conversion skips if a centralized connection profile with the same name already exists.

You can use the conversion rules file to specify the connection profile names or patterns or to enforce overwriting. The pattern accepts regular expressions.

You can use the following attribute to overwrite an existing centralized connection profile:

ifExists: Overwrite

Copy 
{
   "conversionRules": [
   { 
      "pattern": ".*Prod", "ifExists": "Overwrite" 
   },
   {
      "pattern": "A_.*" 
   },
   { 
      "pattern": "Pre.*Post", "ifExists": "Overwrite" 
   }]
}

-d dryRun

Determines whether to simulate the flow without converting to a centralized connection profile.

-s silent

Determines whether to run the utility in silent mode. You are not prompted with a warning to back up the file.

 

If the -silent mode was set and you have not provided a credentials file, the following error message appears:

Missing credentials file.

-credfile

Defines the credentials file that contains the username and password or the Control-M/EM token in the following format:

  • User=<EM user>

  • Password=<EM password>

  • Token=<EM token>

    • Username=emuser

    • Password=empass

    • Token=jklasd876ASDKJAHSDJTASD=

  • The file is deleted after it is read by the utility.

  • If the -credfile is not provided, you must provide credentials.

-url

Defines the Control-M Automation API URL.

https://emSrverHost:8443/automation-api

If the certificate is not signed by a CA, a warning message appears. The script continues to run.