Patch Manager Agents
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About Patch Manager Agents
Agents are a small piece of software that is installed on the target system. While agents have their benefits for certain situations, most users will not require them.
The agent technology is designed to work best in three scenarios.
- 1) Systems on a WAN. When you need to conserve bandwidth the agent will help. It will reduce the bandwidth used to remote sites, and will also increase performance.
- 2) DMZ. If you have systems in a DMZ the agent can be used to patch them. Instead of opening multiple ports in the firewall you can choose a single port and open that for communication between the agent and the Patch Manager system. For this you will also need to configure a http repository. There is another article with details on how to do that.
- 3) Systems that are not consistently connected to the network. The best example is laptops. An agent will broadcast it's presence when connected to the network, accepting any requests in queue. This can include both scan requests, and patch remediation.
While the agent adds benefits in the above three situations it is recommended that you do not use the agent if you do not meet the above criteria. On the local network the Agentless solution is much more efficient and should an error occur there are less steps in troubleshooting.
Agent Manager Installation
1. Click the Agents button.
2. If the Agent Manager has not been already installed, you will be prompted for confirming the installation.
3. Click OK.
4. In the Optional Agent window please check the all the necessary requirements are met.
5. Click Install.
6. The Agent Manager installation wizard will proceed.
7. Click Next.
8. Enter the desired values for the Agent Manager installation Options:
- Port - Port number that the Agent Manager will use, based on the IIS port the website is using.
- Polling Interval(minutes) - time interval with which the Agent Manager will be polled for current status information
- Bandwidth percent - percentage of allocated bandwidth
9. Click Next.
10. In the Website Selection specify the IIS server hosting the Agent Manager website.
11. Click Next.
12. Click Finish.
13. After the installation process has been completed, click OK.
Installing Agents on target systems
1. Click the Systems button.
2. Select the desired system or group of systems on which you wish to install the agent.
3. Click Deploy Agent.
4. Click Next.
5. Select the system or list of systems you wish the agent to be deployed to.
6. Click Next.
7. Wait for the installation process to be completed.
8. Once the installation process has been completed, click Finish.
Agent management
1. Click the Agents button.
2. Select the system you wish to manage.
3. Click Properties.
4. Enter the desired agent settings:
- Bandwidth Percent - percentage of allocated bandwidth
- Polling Interval - time interval with which the Agent will be polled for current status information
- Maximum number of logs - maximum number of logs the Agent will record
- Maximum log size(in KB) - maximum log file size
- Product_Identification Job interval(in hours) - time interval with which the Agent will poll for Products information
5. You can schedule scans (Schedule Analysis) or patch pushes (Push Tasks) by selecting the agent for the desired system and clicking the appropriate button.
