# WLOC Administration Console Online Help

# Manage Agent states

From the perspective of the Controller, an Agent can be in one of the following states:

State | Value Displayed | Description
--- | --- | ---
Enabled | `CONNECTED (Enabled)` | The Controller can connect to an Agent and considers the Agent resource pool as a target for deploying services. Only enabled Agents are considered in the JVM pool when placing a new JVM.
Connected | `CONNECTED (Disabled)` | The Controller can connect to the Agent, but will not deploy any services to the Agent resource pool. Use this state when you want to modify the configuration of an Agent. Once modifications are complete, you can transition the Agent to the Enabled state.
Disconnected | `DISCONNECTED` | The Controller cannot connect to the Agent, but the Agent is still running. Use this state when you want to remove the Agent as a resource, but still want the Agent to be running and available in case its resources are required.
Unknown | `Unknown` | The Controller cannot communicate with a registered Agent for one of the following reasons: The Agent is no longer running (for example, you shut down the Agent, as described in Shut down Agents. A network communication problem prevents the Controller from communicating with a running Agent. This state may be displayed at runtime regardless of the configured state. For example, if you configured an Agent's state as `Enabled`, but the Controller has lost communication with that Agent, then the state is displayed as `Unknown`. If the Controller resumes communication with the Agent, the state will be updated to reflect the configured state.

Using the Agent pane to Manage the state of an Agent:

1. Access the Agents page in one of the following ways:
   - Click the Inventory tab in the WLOC navigation bar and click Agents.
   - Click the Agents tab in the WLOC navigation bar.
   - Click the Home tab in the WLOC navigation bar and click Agents under Manage Configuration.

   Review the current state for each Agent in the State column of the Agent Bindings table.

2. To filter the list of Agents, enter Column=Value in the text box and click Filter.

   Column specifies the table column name on which you want to filter, and defaults to Name. Value specifies a string value on which to filter the contents. To clear the filter, click Clear Filter.

3. Click the check box next to each Agent for which you want to manage state.

4. Click one of the following to configure the Agent state:
   - Connect - Transition the Agent to Connected state.
   - Disconnect - Transition the Agent to Disconnected state.
   - Enable - Transition the Agent to Enabled state.
   - Shutdown - Transition the Agent to Shutdown state.

   The Agent state is updated in the Agent Bindings table and the following confirmation message is displayed:

   Agent state changed successfully

Using the Inventory pane to manage the state of an Agent:

Note: The Inventory pane also enables you to group Agents to better organize your view of the inventory tree. See Grouping inventory components.

1. Click the Inventory tab in the WLOC navigation bar and click Agents.
2. Right-click an agent for which you want to manage state and select one of the following options on the context menu:
   - Connect - Transition the Agent to Connected state.
   - Disconnect - Transition the Agent to Disconnected state.
   - Enable - Transition the Agent to Enabled state.
   - Shutdown - Transition the Agent to Shutdown state.

   The Agent state is updated in the Agent Bindings table and the following confirmation message is displayed:

   Agent state changed successfully

3. You can also manage all of your agent's states simultaneously, but the All Agents option is only valid when the context menu is opened at the Agents level.