AutoSys Installation and Initial Setup Guide

AutoSys installation in a real enterprise is handled by your infrastructure team and typically follows Broadcom's official installation guide. But even if you're not the one doing the install, understanding what gets set up and why is essential for day-to-day administration.

This article walks through what a typical AutoSys installation involves: the components that get installed, the key environment variables you'll use every day, how to verify everything is working, and the first things to check when something goes wrong right after install.

Prerequisites before installation

Before AutoSys can be installed, you need:

On the AutoSys server: - A supported OS (RHEL/CentOS Linux, or Windows Server) - A supported database (historically Sybase ASE, now Oracle or other RDBMS) - Java runtime (AutoSys WCC runs on Tomcat) - Sufficient RAM — at least 8GB for a small installation, 16GB+ for production - A dedicated service account (commonly named autosys or appuser)

On each agent machine: - A supported OS (Linux, Windows, AIX, Solaris) - The AutoSys Agent package (lightweight, minimal footprint) - Network connectivity to the AutoSys server on the configured port

Port planning matters. The Event Processor communicates with agents over specific ports (default 7520). Make sure firewalls are open between the AutoSys server and every agent machine.

# Check Java version (required for WCC)
java -version

# Check available memory
free -h

# Check disk space on AutoSys installation paths
df -h /opt/CA /opt/autosys /u01

# Verify network connectivity to agent machines
autoping -m agent-machine-01

# Check AutoSys port is open between server and agent
nc -zv agent-machine-01 7520

Key environment variables you'll use every day

AutoSys uses several environment variables that control which instance you're talking to and where log files live. These are set in your shell profile (.bash_profile or .profile) for the AutoSys service account.

Knowing these by heart makes you much faster at debugging. When something goes wrong at 3 AM and you're SSH'd into the AutoSys server, these are the first things you check.

# The AutoSys instance name — critical, everything uses this
export AUTOSERV=ACE

# AutoSys installation directory
export AUTOSYS=/opt/CA/WorkloadAutomationAE

# AutoSys user/data directory (logs, config files, PID files)
export AUTOUSER=/opt/CA/WorkloadAutomationAE/autouser

# Path to AutoSys binaries (needed for jil, autorep, sendevent etc.)
export PATH=$AUTOSYS/bin:$PATH

# Add the above to your .bash_profile for the autosys service account:
# source this file or add these lines to ~/.bash_profile

# Verify the environment is set correctly:
echo "Instance: $AUTOSERV"
echo "Install dir: $AUTOSYS"
echo "User dir: $AUTOUSER"
autoflags -a

Verifying a fresh installation

After installation, run through this checklist before declaring the system ready:

1. Event Processor is running — chk_auto_up -A
2. Can connect to Event Server — autoflags -a
3. Can define a test job — create a simple JIL job
4. Agent machines are registered and active — autorep -M %
5. WCC web interface is reachable — open the browser URL
6. Test job runs successfully end-to-end

# 1. Check Event Processor
chk_auto_up -A

# 2. Check overall system
autoflags -a

# 3. List all registered machines
autorep -M %

# 4. Insert and immediately force-run a test job
jil << 'JIL'
insert_job: INSTALL_TEST
job_type: CMD
command: echo 'AutoSys installation verified successfully'
machine: autosys-server
owner: autosys
date_conditions: 0
JIL

# Force start it
sendevent -E FORCE_STARTJOB -J INSTALL_TEST

# Check its status (wait a few seconds first)
autorep -J INSTALL_TEST

Frequently Asked Questions