DEPLOYING AGENTS AS SERVICES

General Remarks

REMINDER: It is normally not necessary to distribute the Synexsys Agent as a Windows service. If you do not wish to install software on the audited machine, use the login script method to perform inventories.

The "Agent deployment" window can be used to define the machines where the Synexsys Agent will be installed as a Windows service. From this window, you may also set up the nature and frequency of audits.

You may access this window by selecting "Agent deployment" from the "Tools" menu or from the context menu of the "Network" sub-Section of the "Inventory" Section, once you have selected the targeted machine(s).

 

Left pane: Target machines

This grid lists all the PCs that have been selected in the "Network" sub-Section of the "Inventory" Section.

Meaning of the columns:

Hostname

PC network name or IP address

Agent type

Launching mode of the agent

Entered by

Method by which the machine has been entered. This value will be "Manual" if the entry has been made using the context menu options "Add an entry" or "Import entries...". The value of this field will be "Selection" if the PC has previously been chosen in the Network treeview.

Path

Agent installation folder (see remark below)

   
ATTENTION: if you deploy the agent on a specific share such as "DISK_C\SXSI" and not on a system share such as "C$\SXSI", the agent will be run through a UNC (i.e. \\PC_1234\\DISK_C\sxsi\agent\bin\sxsiagent.exe ...) and it will not use a local path (such as c:\sxsi\agent\bin\sxsiagent.exe). This could lead to unwanted network traffic or an abnormal startup time on slow networks.
   
Status

Indicates the deployment status of the inventory agent. In case of error messages, view the FAQs on deployment.

   

Buttons (lower part of the window)

 

Deploy agent

Deploys the agent on the selected machines. See details of the process in the FAQs on deployment.

Remove agent

Removes the agent from the selected machines.

   
REMARK: If you would like the installation folder and all agent files removed from the workstation during this process, you need to enter the path of the installation folder for each of the machines in the "Target machines" list. To do so, double-click on each of the PCs and enter the path in the dialog box.
   

Interrupt

This button interrupts the deployment process.

Update schedule

Updates the audit schedule for the selected machines.

 

Add entry manually or import a list of PCs to audit

On the Left pane, the context menu option "Add an entry" allows you to manually insert the names or IP addresses of the machines you wish to audit. This option is very useful if you cannot browse the network in the "Inventory" Section.

The "Import entries" option allows you to upload a list of PCs from a text file, without having to type their names. The text file must simply contain one machine name or IP address per line (each line is separated by a carriage return).

 

Right pane: Parameters tab

This area allows defining the agent's deployment parameters.

 

Set of parameters

Allows you to save the current parameters and assign them a unique identifier.

IP Address

IP Address of the FTP server where the audit data is to be uploaded (for evaluation tests, if you have installed the Synexsys Server on a DHCP machine, leave the server's HOSTNAME here).

   

 

ATTENTION: this IP address must not be changed. If the address is changed, no audit will be uploaded to the database. For your tests and under certain conditions you may also use a HOSTNAME in this field. However, this HOSTNAME must be "seen" by all the PCs you wish to audit.

   

 

IP Port

Port from which the Synexsys Server will "listen" for inventories upload.

   

 

ATTENTION: your company's firewall will maybe not allow the use of IP port without previous authorisation.

   

 

Path to "Master client"

The reference agent can initially be found in the ..\Program Files\Synexsys\clientref\ folder of the Synexsys Server. It will be copied to the client PC(s) where the agent is distributed as a Windows service.

   

 

ATTENTION: if you deploy the agent on a specific share such as "DISK_C\SXSI" and not on a system share such as "C$\SXSI", the agent will be run through a UNC (i.e. \\PC_1234\\DISK_C\sxsi\agent\bin\sxsiagent.exe ...) and it will not use a local path (such as c:\sxsi\agent\bin\sxsiagent.exe). This could lead to unwanted network traffic or an abnormal startup time on slow networks.

   

 

Account used by Agent running as a service

The account the SXSi agent will use when running as a service. The default "System Account (LocalSystem)" option can be normally left selected. If needed, you may select "This account" and enter an account with sufficient rights (must be recognized as Local Administrator by the audited PC).

Folder on remote machine

Target: Folder where the SXSi agent files will be installed on the remote machine. For instance: "C$\SXSI"

Process priority

Defines the priority level the Synexsys agent will have while running on the local machine. The default (and recommended) value is "Below" so the agent runs as a background process and does not use system resources unless they are available. To speed up the audit, you may increase the process priority.

   

 

   

Low (IDLE): The lowest priority. The process is only executed when the processor is not active (when the screensaver is running, for instance)
Below: Priority beneath the normal level (since Windows 2000)
Normal: Normal priority
Above: Priority above the normal level (since Windows 2000)
High: High priority
Real Time: The highest priority.

   

 

ATTENTION: it is strongly advised not to assign the Real Time priority level to the agent, as this will prevent any other process from running on the PC during the audit.

 

 

Right pane: Scheduling tab

 

 

Schedule name

Allows saving schedule parameters by assigning them a unique identifier.

 

 

 

The scheduling tab contains two kinds of information :

 

 

 

the "Tasks check" frequency. The "wake up" frequency of the agent to check whether there are tasks to perform.

 

the audit frequency to which a parameter defining the nature of the audits to be performed is associated.

 

By default, the Synexsys scheduler (cron.exe), which runs as a service on the local PC, checks every 5 minutes if there are tasks to perform. Since this process hardly uses system resources, there is no reason to increase the duration of check intervals.

This is how it can be setup differently:

 

 

Check tasks to be performed every...

Checks every nth minute of the hour (hour of the day, day of the week, etc.) if the agent has any tasks to perform.

For instance, if we want the agent to check for tasks to be performed every 15 minutes, enter "0, 15, 30, 45" in the "nth Minute" field. If you enter a '*' in one of the fields, the agent will perform a check every minute, every hour, everyday, etc.

On Day(s): allows defining the day(s) of the week on which the agent must perform a check. For instance: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday= 1,3,5. Sunday = 0.

 

 

Audits may be planned individually for each audit "nature":

 

 

Audits Nature and Frequency

Allows selecting the audit frequency for each inventory type.

 

 

  Day

Interval in days. If the value is 1, the audit will be performed everyday (combines with Week and Month).

  Week

Interval in weeks. If the value is 1, the audit will be performed every week (combines with Day and Month).

  Month

Interval in Months. If the value is 1, the audit will be performed every month (combines with Day and Week).

   

 

Force full audit

Makes a complete PC audit. If this option is not selected, the inventory will be incremental (will upload only the differences with the previous inventory).

In order to limit network traffic, this option should not be selected. In incremental audits, the transfer of a Hardware, Windows, and Files audit only represents a few KB of data (an average between 2 and 10KB). A complete audit including Files is normally equivalent to an average of 100 to 600 KB of data.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last Update: 02.02.2005