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Connect Your Environment

What is an Environment?​

An environment is the infrastructure you want your AI Assistant to manage — whether that's on-premise (physical servers, VMs, devices, or Kubernetes clusters) or cloud infrastructure (IBM Cloud VPC or Classic). You connect each environment to the platform through a Connector.

Why connect it to an AI Assistant?​

Without a connected environment, the AI Assistant has no access to your infrastructure. Once connected, it can answer questions, diagnose issues, suggest fixes, and run tasks — all based on your real data. This is what turns the AI Assistant from a general helper into an operator that understands your servers, networks, and workloads.

You can connect the following environments to your AI Assistant:

  • On-Premise Infrastructure & Devices
  • Cloud Infrastructure
    • IBM Cloud VPC
    • IBM Cloud Classic
    • Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
    • AWS (coming soon)

Connecting these enables:

  • Infrastructure visibility – See and query your servers, networks, and resources.
  • Intelligent troubleshooting & root cause analysis – Diagnose issues and identify potential problems across your environments.
  • Guided remediation steps – Recommended actions and workflows to resolve issues safely.
  • Backup, restore & migrate workflows – Orchestrate backup, restore, and migration for VMs and VPCs.
  • Reports & assessments – Generate operational, compliance, and infrastructure health reports, with export and sharing.
  • Autonomous tasks & automated remediation – Run scheduled and event‑driven tasks with built‑in guardrails.

Connecting an environment gives the AI Assistant the context it needs to deliver precise, actionable insights.

On-Premise Infrastructure & Devices onboarding​

On-Premise Infrastructure and Devices allows you to connect servers, VMs, and Kubernetes clusters in your private or public networks so the AI Assistant can access and work with them.

tip

Group devices into logical groups (e.g. by environment or team) so the AI Assistant can target them more effectively. Choose Via Proxy for resources that are not reachable from the internet and Direct Access only for devices with public IPs to keep access secure and predictable.

Choose connection method and add devices​

  1. Go to Settings → Connectors → Add Infrastructure and Devices.
  2. Click Add Device to start.
  3. Choose connection method
    • Via Proxy (private): For devices with private IPs, Wanclouds Proxy Agent is required within your network. You can select an existing agent or set up a new one, then add devices that the agent can access via SSH (for Linux) or WinRM (for Windows).
    • Direct Access (public): For devices with public IPs reachable from the internet. No agent required. You select a device group and add single device, bulk CSV, or Kubernetes cluster.
Connector's interface

Via Proxy (Wanclouds Proxy Agent)​

info

Prerequisite: Set up a VM for the Wanclouds Proxy Agent before proceeding.​

Minimum specifications required are 8 GB RAM, 4 CPU cores, and a 500 GB secondary storage volume.

Wanclouds Proxy Agent allows secure connectivity between your private environment and the AI Assistant. Install the Wanclouds Proxy Agent on a dedicated VM inside your private network that has outbound internet access and SSH connectivity to the devices you want to manage.

If no agent exists, select Add Wanclouds Proxy Agent

Wanclouds Proxy Agent Setup​

Select Linux as the OS type in the setup form, then follow the steps below.

1

Set up the Wanclouds Proxy Agent on your VM

Download file on your VM:

curl -L -o wanclouds-proxy-agent "https://agents.wanclouds.net/wanclouds-proxy-linux/wanclouds-proxy-agent"

Enable permissions:

chmod +x wanclouds-proxy-agent
2

Name your Wanclouds Proxy Agent

Enter a Wanclouds Proxy Agent name in the form (e.g. prod-proxy-1). This name is used to identify the agent in the app.

3

Generate a registration token

  1. Click Generate Registration Token. A one-time registration token is created and shown in the UI.

  2. Copy the generated command and execute it on your VM:

# Example
sudo ./wanclouds-proxy-agent --register --token "<your-token>"
  1. Click "I have installed – Add Device". The new agent appears in the Wanclouds Proxy Agent dropdown. Use the refresh icon next to the dropdown if it does not appear immediately.
Linux proxy agent
info

Unified Proxy Agent A single Wanclouds Proxy Agent instance can connect to and manage multiple environments simultaneously, eliminating the need to install a separate agent for each environment.

Add Devices – Via Proxy​

  1. Select Wanclouds Proxy Agent from the agents dropdown.

  2. Select Device OS (e.g. Linux or Windows).

Limited capabilities — OS mismatch

If the Wanclouds Proxy Agent OS does not match the Device OS, some capabilities are unavailable. For example, a Linux proxy agent with a Windows device (or a Windows proxy agent with a Linux device) can limit what the AI Assistant can do.

Limited capabilities — OS mismatch

CapabilityStatus
Intelligent TroubleshootingAvailable
Backup & RestoreUnavailable

Use a proxy agent whose OS matches the device OS to enable Backup & Restore. For example: Selected Proxy agent OS (linux) doesn't match with selected device OS (windows). Use a windows proxy agent to enable Backup & Restore.

  1. Add method: Single device only — bulk/CSV is not supported via proxy.

  2. Fill in device details:

    • Enter Device Name.
    • Select Authentication Type from the dropdown. The remaining fields change based on your selection:
    Add Device — SSH key-based authentication

  3. Click Add → the device is added to the group associated with the selected agent.

  4. Refresh the Connectors table to see updates.

Add devices – Direct Access​

  1. Choose a device group. Create one if needed.

  2. Select Add method:

    • Single Device

      • Enter Device Name.
      • Select Authentication Type from the dropdown. The remaining fields change based on your selection:
      • Enter the Custom Port (port used to connect via SSH, e.g. 22, or WinRM, e.g. 5985).
      • Enter the IP Address (public IP reachable from the platform).
      • Enter the Username.
      • Ensure the SSH key is installed on the VM.
      Add Device — SSH key-based authentication (Direct Access)

    • Bulk CSV

      • Click Upload CSV and select your file.
      • Use the CSV template (downloadable from the UI) to ensure correct columns and formatting.
      • Each row represents a device with fields like name, IP, port, and authentication details.

    • Kubernetes Cluster

      • Upload a kubeconfig file.
      • Enter Cluster Name and an optional Description.

  3. Click Add.

Devices or clusters appear under the selected group.

Adding SSH public key to the VM​

Adding your SSH public key to the VM (if using SSH key authentication)

1. Log into the VM

Use SSH to log into your VM:

ssh your-username@your-vm-ip

2. Create the .ssh Directory on the VM

Once logged into the VM, check if the .ssh directory exists in your home directory:

ls -al ~/

If the .ssh directory does not exist, create it:

mkdir -p ~/.ssh

Set the correct permissions for the .ssh folder:

chmod 700 ~/.ssh

3. Add the public key to authorized_keys

nano ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Paste your public key, then save and exit (Ctrl+X, then Y, then Enter).

4. Fix permissions

Set the proper permissions for the authorized_keys file:

chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

5. Ensure SSH Configuration Allows Key-Based Authentication

Check that the sshd_config file is properly configured to accept key-based authentication

sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Ensure the following settings are enabled in sshd_config:

PubkeyAuthentication yes
PasswordAuthentication no
ChallengeResponseAuthentication no
AuthorizedKeysFile .ssh/authorized_keys

6. Restart SSH Service

Restart the SSH service for changes to take effect:

sudo systemctl restart sshd

After this, the VM will accept the SSH key used by the Wanclouds Proxy Agent.

Verifying your on-premise connection​

  1. Go to Settings → Connectors → Add Infrastructure and Devices.
  2. The table lists Wanclouds Proxy Agents (via proxy) and Device Groups (direct access).
  3. Expand a Wanclouds Proxy Agent or device group to see:
    • Devices – Name, IP Address, username, and actions.
    • Kubernetes clusters (if any) – Last synced.
tip

If you don’t see your proxy agent or device group—or the devices within them—try refreshing the table. It may take a moment for new connections to appear.

Cloud Infrastructure onboarding​

Supported Cloud Providers​

Currently supported:

  • IBM Cloud VPC – Virtual Private Cloud infrastructure
  • IBM Cloud Classic – Classic infrastructure accounts
  • Google Cloud Platform – GCP
  • VMware Cloud – VMware-based virtualized infrastructure

Coming soon:

  • AWS – Amazon Web Services

Adding an IBM Cloud VPC Connector​

  1. Go to Settings → Connectors.
  2. Under Cloud Connectors, select IBM Cloud VPC from the dropdown.
  3. Click Add Connector.
  4. Fill in:
    • Account Name – A friendly name for this connector (e.g. “Production VPC”).
    • IBM Cloud API Key – Your IBM Cloud API key. You can create or manage API keys if needed.
  5. Click Add.
  6. Wait for the connection to complete. You’ll be redirected to the Connectors page.
IBM VPC

Adding an IBM Cloud Classic Connector​

  1. Go to Settings → Connectors.
  2. Under Cloud Connectors, select IBM Cloud Classic from the dropdown.
  3. Click Add Connector.
  4. Fill in:
    • Account Name – A friendly name for this connector.
    • Username – Your IBM Cloud (SoftLayer) username.
    • IBM Cloud API Key – Your classic API key. The form links to IBM docs for classic keys.
  5. Click Add.
  6. Wait for the connection to complete. You’ll be redirected to the Connectors page.
IBM Classic

Adding a Google Cloud Platform Connector​

  1. Go to Settings → Connectors.
  2. Under Cloud Connectors, select GCP Cloud from the dropdown.
  3. Click Add Cloud Connector.
  4. Fill in:
    • Account Name – Name of the GCP cloud account to be added. It can be any name.
  5. Click Add.
  6. Wait for the connection to complete. You’ll be redirected to the Connectors page.
GCP Cloud
tip

Connection usually finishes within a few minutes. Use the refresh control on the Connectors table to update the list.

Adding a VMware Cloud Platform Connector​

  1. Go to Settings → Connectors.
  2. Select VMware Cloud tab .
  3. Click Add VMWare Cloud Connector.
  4. Select the connection method i-e Via Proxy or Direct Access.
  5. Fill in the required form inputs accordingly.
  6. Click Add.
  7. Wait for the connection to complete. You’ll be redirected to the Connectors page.
  8. The connector will be in AUTHENTICATING state.
  9. After it is successfully authenticated, the status of the connector will change to Active
VMware Cloud
tip

Connection usually finishes within a few minutes. Use the refresh control on the Connectors table to update the list.

Verifying Your Connection​

  1. Go to Settings → Connectors.
  2. Stay on Cloud Connectors and select IBM Cloud VPC or IBM Cloud Classic or GCP Cloud as needed.
  3. Find your connector in the table.
  4. Status should show VALID (displayed as active) when the connection is healthy.
  5. You can then use this connector when creating or configuring an AI Assistant.

Managing Connectors​

  1. Open Settings from the sidebar.
  2. Click Connectors.
  3. Open the tab for your connector type:
    • Add Infrastructure & Devices – For on-premise infrastructure and devices.
    • Cloud Connectors – For cloud accounts (e.g. IBM Cloud VPC or Classic). Choose the provider from the dropdown.
    • VMware Cloud - For VMware cloud accounts
  4. Connectors will be listed in a table.

Editing a connector​

  1. In the Actions column, open the menu (⋮) for the connector.
  2. Click Edit option.
  3. Update the fields as applicable.
  4. Click Update and wait for the redirect back to the Connectors page.

Removing a connector​

  1. In the Actions column, open the menu (⋮) for the connector.
  2. Click Delete option.
  3. In the confirmation modal, review and click Delete to confirm.
warning

Deleting a connector can affect any AI Assistants that use it. Ensure no active AI Assistants depend on this connector, or reconfigure them afterward.

Troubleshooting​

Connection fails or stays invalid​

  • Credentials – Confirm credentials (e.g. API key, username, or SSH key) are correct and not expired for that connector type.
  • Permissions – Ensure the connector’s credentials have the required permissions for the resources you want to manage.

PAM authentication fails​

  • Confirm the PAM URL, Client ID, and Client Secret are correct, and that the secret has not expired or been recycled in BeyondTrust.
  • If Managed System or Managed Account lists are empty, verify the application user has permission to those resources in BeyondTrust.
  • Ensure the PAM URL is reachable (from the platform for Direct Access, or from the proxy agent for Via Proxy).

Connector not in the list​

  • Refresh – Use the refresh control on the Connectors table.
  • Wait – If you just added it, wait for the connection task to finish and check notifications.