Configuring RAS Publishing Agents

To view RAS Publishing Agents installed in a site, navigate to Farm / <site> / Publishing Agents in the RAS Console. The installed Publishing Agents are listed on the Publishing Agents tab page in the right pane.

A site must have at least the master Publishing Agent installed, which is marked "Master" in the Priority column. You can also add backup agents to a site (described in the section that follows this one).

To modify the configuration of a RAS Publishing Agent, select a Publishing Agent, then click Tasks and choose Properties. The Edit RAS Publishing Agent dialog opens where you can modify the following properties:

• Enable Server in site: Enables or disables the Publishing Agent. The option is enabled for backup Publishing Agents only. It is disabled for the master Publishing Agent.
• Server: Specifies the FDQN or IP address of the server that hosts the RAS Publishing Agent.
• IP: Specifies the server IP address. Click the Resolve button to obtain the IP address automatically using the FQDN specified in the Server field. This IP address is used so that multiple Publishing Agents share information in real time.
• Alternate IPs: Specifies one or more alternate IP addresses separated by a semicolon. These addresses will be used if RAS Secure Client Gateways fail to connect to the RAS Publishing Agent using it's FQDN or the address specified in the IP field. This can happen, for example, if Gateways are connecting from a network which is not joined to Active Directory.
• Description: A user-defined description.
• Standby: If selected, puts a backup Publishing Agent into a standby mode. This means that no agents will connect to this Publishing Agent until another Publishing Agent goes offline. This option is enabled automatically for any new backup Publishing Agent in excess of three that already exist. It is not recommended to have more than three Publishing Agents because it may degrade system performance. This option allows you to have more than three agents, but have them in standby mode until they are needed to take place of the other ones. For more information, see Backup Publishing Agents.

When you are done making the changes, click OK to save them and then click Apply in the main RAS console window.

The Tasks drop-down menu on the Publishing Agents tab page has the following additional items:

• Add. Adds a backup RAS Publishing Agent to the site. See the section that follows this one for more information.
• Check Agent. Verifies that the RAS Publishing Agent installed on the server is functioning properly. It opens a dialog where you can see the verification results and optionally install (or uninstall) the Publishing Agent software on the server.
• Promote Backup to Master. Promotes a backup Publishing Agent to master. Use this option if you would like to make a different server to be the master Publishing Agent. The current master becomes a backup RAS Publishing Agent.
• Delete. Deletes a selected backup Publishing Agent from the site. To delete the master Publishing Agent, you first need to promote a backup Publishing Agent to master.
• Move Up and Move Down. Changes the priority of a backup Publishing Agent (moves it up or down in the priority list).
• Logging. Enables extended logging (normal logging is used by default). Also allows you to retrieve logs into a local file and clear all logs.

Viewing RAS Publishing Agent Overview

In addition to the Publishing Agent editor described above, you can also see the summary about the available RAS Publishing Agents. To do so:

1. In the RAS Console, navigate to the Farm / <site> .
2. The available RAS Publishing Agents are displayed in the Publishing Agents group on the Site Info tab page.
3. To go to the Publishing Agents editor, right-click a RAS Publishing Agent and choose Show in the editor.

For additional info, see Viewing Sites in the RAS Console.