New release: OL Connect Automate 0.9.11

OL Connect Automate
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This release incorporates over 20 enhancements and introduces new nodes. The new Microsoft 365 package includes nodes for interfacing with Microsoft OneDrive and sending email rendered by OL Connect through the Microsoft Graph API. Furthermore, we’re introducing the Notifier node, allowing your flows to send notifications (for example on error) to messaging tools such as Teams and Slack.

OL Connect Automate packages for Node-RED

Here’s a summary of the OL Connect Automate packages and their corresponding package names on https://www.npmjs.com/

OL Connect
Node-RED nodes that call the various services of OL Connect.
@objectif-lune/node-red-contrib-connect

Files and Folders
Node-RED nodes designed for the management of files and folders on the file system.
@objectif-lune/node-red-contrib-files-and-folders

FTP/SFTP/FTPS
Node-RED nodes facilitating operations related to FTP, SFTP, and FTPS.
@objectif-lune/node-red-contrib-ftp

SendGrid
Node-RED node to send email content generated by OL Connect through the SendGrid service.
@objectif-lune/node-red-contrib-sendgrid

Mailjet
Node-RED node to send email content generated by OL Connect using the Mailjet service.
@objectif-lune/node-red-contrib-mailjet

Notifier
A simple node for posting notifications to external messaging services such as Teams and Slack.
@objectif-lune/node-red-contrib-notifier

Microsoft 365
Node-RED node enabling interaction with Microsoft OneDrive and sending email content generated by OL Connect through Microsoft’s Graph API.
@objectif-lune/node-red-contrib-m365

Updating and installing nodes

To update or install nodes, simply access the Palette Manager within the Node-RED editor. From there, you can check for updates and apply them accordingly. This interface also facilitates the installation of new nodes.

For newcomers to OL Connect Automate, utilize the Windows installer available on OL Resource Center (OL Resource Center). This installer streamlines the process by automatically installing necessary components and the latest collection of OL Connect Automate nodes.

A word of caution

The packages are part of the OL Connect Automate stack. It is intended for use by current users of OL Connect who want to experiment with automating server operations through Node-RED. The OL Connect Automate stack is a technology preview .

Support

At this early stage, the OL Connect Automate stack is not supported through the OL Care program. Feel free to visit this forum to post questions, comments and suggestions.

1 Like
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Hi,

Just looking at the install guide for this and it states that a internet connection must be available. We can’t just open full internet access on our servers for obvious reasons. Is there a list of URLs\IP’s that access is needed to?

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@jbeal84, let me collect this info and share here.

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@jbeal84

For the installer the following should be whitelisted:
https://registry.npmjs.org/

In order to update nodes at a later stage you’ll need:
https://catalogue.nodered.org
https://flows.nodered.org

5

Thanks Erik

Another question I have is with regards to install location. Does it need to be on the same server as the main connect server? We currently have to have workflow and connect on the same server as workflow doesn’t call connect with the below option:

Ensure applications that open TCP connections do so with the SO_KEEPALIVE option enabled.

Which means that if an step takes longer than 10 minutes workflow never see’s that it’s finished so just hangs

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OL Connect and OL Connect Automate can run on separate machines. I often run OLCA using the Node-RED Docker Container from Docker Hub, where the OLCA nodes are installed via Managed Palette (search for @objectif-lune).

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Hi Erik

What platform are you running on thought? On GCP the below happens:

Google Cloud VPC networks implement 10-minute connection tracking for IP protocols that have a concept of a connection (TCP for example). This means that inbound packets associated with an established connection are permitted as long as at least one packet is sent or received for the connection within the last 10 minutes. If no packets for the connection have been sent or received for 10 minutes or longer, the idle connection’s tracking entries are removed. After the connection’s tracking entries have been removed, Google Cloud does not permit additional inbound packets until at least one new outbound packet has been sent. This connection tracking applies to all sources and destinations – both internal and external IP addresses .

To prevent idle connections, do the following:

** Set operating system TCP keep-alive parameters to a time frame of less than 10 minutes. This ensures that at least one packet is sent within the time frame.*
** Ensure applications that open TCP connections do so with the SO_KEEPALIVE option enabled.*

The following examples demonstrate how to set operating system TCP keep-alive parameters with an interval value of one minute. Consult your application or software library’s documentation to determine how to configure it to use SO_KEEPALIVE .

We found this out in Jan this year and ticket SHARED-91836 was raised for a enhancement to workflow to allow this option

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The OLCA nodes are configured to periodically call OL Connect Server for status updates (default behavior, but optional). I assume this would solve the problem on GCP.

The tests we did were on Azure.