Oracle Clusterware manages applications registered as resources with Oracle Clusterware and must have access to application-specific primitives that have the ability to start, stop, and monitor a specific resource. Oracle Clusterware runs all resource-specific commands through an entity called an agent.
An agent is a program that contains the agent framework and user code to manage resources. The agent framework is a C library that enables you to plug in your application-specific code to manage customized applications. You program all of the actual application management functions in C or C++, such as starting, stopping, and checking the health of an application, into the agent. These functions are referred to as entry points. The agent framework is responsible for invoking these entry point functions on behalf of Oracle Clusterware. Agent developers can use these entry points to plug in the required functionality for a specific resource regarding how to start, stop, and monitor a resource. Agents are capable of managing multiple resources.
This appendix includes the following topics: