Using XL Release Remote Script tasks
Remote Script tasks allow XL Release to execute commands on remote hosts using the Overthere framework, a Java library for manipulating files and executing processes on remote hosts. The following Remote Script task types are available:
- Remote Script: Unix: Execute a shell script on a Unix host via SSH
- Remote Script: Windows: Execute a batch script on a Microsoft Windows host via WinRM
- Remote Script: Windows (SSH): Execute a shell script on a Microsoft Windows host via SFTP (available in XL Release 5.0.0 and later)
- Remote Script: z/OS: Execute a shell script on z/OS (available in XL Release 5.0.0 and later)
In the release flow editor, Remote Script tasks have a blue border.
Features
- Execute shell scripts on Unix, z/OS, or Microsoft Windows (via Cygwin or WinSSHD) hosts
- Execute batch scripts on Microsoft Windows hosts. Note: All scripts will be interpreted as batch files; PowerShell is currently not supported.
Common properties
The following properties are common to all Remote Script task types.
Remote script execution details
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Script | The shell script to execute on the remote host (required) |
| Remote Path | The path on the remote host where the script should be executed (required) |
| Temporary Directory Path | Where to store temporary files; this directory will be removed on connection close |
Remote host connection
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Jumpstation | The SSH jumpstation or HTTP proxy to use |
| Address and Port | Address and SSH port (or Telnet or WinRM port for Windows) of the remote host (required) |
| Connection type | The SSH connection type to use:
|
Command output
The following output properties are available:
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Output | The variable in which the standard output will be stored |
| Err | The variable in which the error output will be stored |
Note: The output of the remote script task is in markdown format. For more information, refer to Using Markdown in XL Release.
Unix remote script
The following properties are available in the Remote Script: Unix, Remote Script: Windows (SSH), and Remote Script: z/OS task types.
Credentials
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Username | The Unix host user log-in ID (required) |
| Password | The Unix host user password |
| Private key | The private key to use (verbatim) for authentication |
| Private key file and Passphrase | The file containing a private key, and an optional passphrase for the key it contains |
You can use a password, a private key, or a private key file and passphrase.
Privilege elevation
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| SUDO username | Access files and commands after sudo‘ing to this user |
| SU username and SU password | Access files and commands after su‘ing to this user |
| Sudo (UNIX only; deprecated) | Checking this box effectively means setting the SUDO username to root. This option is provided only for backward compatibility. It is deprecated since XL Release 5.0.0 and will be removed in future. |
Windows remote script
The following properties are available in the Remote Script: Windows task type.
Credentials
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Username and Password | The Windows host user log-in ID and password |
| Allow credential delegation | If checked, allow the user’s credentials to be used to access, for example, remote shares (only on WINRM_NATIVE connection type) |
Connectivity
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| CIFS Port | The port on which the CIFS (SMB) server runs |
| Windows path to Windows share mappings | Mapping from Windows paths to Windows share names; for example, C:\IBM\WebSphere → WebSphereShare |
| Timeout | The WinRM timeout in XML schema duration format; the default value is PT60.000S |
| Enable HTTPS for WinRM | Check this if the remote Windows host supports encrypted connections |
Using advanced Overthere functionality
XL Release uses the Overthere framework, which includes several connection options. While the most common options are available in the XL Release GUI, as of XL Release 5.0.0, you can use other options as described in the Overthere documentation.
You can change the default values of options that are not exposed in the GUI in the XL_RELEASE_SERVER_HOME/conf/deployit-defaults.properties file.
If you need to use a different setting for a particular option per task, you can create a type modification in the XL_RELEASE_SERVER_HOME/conf/synthetic.xml file for the task types. In the modification, you can add the desired Overthere connection option as a property on the task. These task properties will automatically be used as connection options for Overthere if the name matches.
For example, to make the connection timeout configurable on each task, add this to synthetic.xml:
<type-modification type="remoteScript.WindowsSsh">
<property name="connectionTimeoutMillis" category="input" kind="integer" default="120000"
description="Number of milliseconds Overthere waits for a connection to a remote host to be established"/>
</type-modification>