KACE Systems Management Appliance 14.0 Common Documents - KACE Service Desk Administrator Guide

The asset subcategory, if applicable. This information enables you to identify and manage subtypes of assets, such as Device assets that are computers, printers, routers, and Software assets that run on Windows, Mac, or Linux systems in the inventory. See About Asset Subtypes, custom fields, and device detail preferences.

NOTE: In a default installation, Device Assets include two Asset Subtypes for printer devices: Laser Printer: Color and Laser Printer: Monochrome. Each of these subtypes provides a common set of fields that apply to most printers. The appliance also comes with a set of printer templates for typical SNMP-enabled printer models, based on these Asset Subtypes. You can edit these templates or add new ones, as needed. When you apply a printer template to a device, the data defined in the template, such as toner levels or descriptions, is collected for the printer in the next inventory cycle. For more information, see About printer templates.

The connection method to use to connect to the device and obtain inventory information, in this case, SSH.

The port number the appliance uses to connect to the device. No input is required for the following the default port number (22).

The name of a service user account with permission to connect to devices. Using a service account and Sudo Password is useful when you want to avoid using root credentials to access devices. On some devices, however, higher privileges enable the appliance to retrieve more detailed inventory information.

Sudo Password

Operating System

The operating system of the device.

Shell

The shell to use during connections. See Shell support for SSH connections.

The level of information to display on the Device Detail page. To see only the most important messages, select Critical. To see all messages, select Debug.

The inventory collection option. If this option is selected, the appliance collects inventory information for the device according to the Agentless device inventory schedule. If this option is cleared, inventory information is not collected. In both cases, however, Agentless devices are counted.

The hostname of the DNS server to use when identifying the device hostname and other information. Providing the DNS server information enables the appliance to match the device to existing inventory information during updates. If the appliance cannot detect the device due to changes made to its hostname or IP address, inventory fails.

The name of the device that you want to use as a relay for agentless device inventory.

A relay device that is used during discovery as a relay is used for agentless inventory, when a new device is provisioned automatically from discovery results. You can select a relay device on the Discovery Schedule Detail page. For more information, see Add a Discovery Schedule to perform a quick "what and where" scan of your network.

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To set up SNMP connections with devices, provide the following information:

The asset subcategory, if applicable. This information enables you to identify and manage subtypes of assets, such as Device assets that are computers, printers, or routers, and Software assets that run on Windows, Mac, or Linux systems in the inventory. See About Asset Subtypes, custom fields, and device detail preferences.

The connection method to use to connect to the device and obtain inventory information, in this case, SNMP.

SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) is a protocol for monitoring managed devices on a network. To enable SNMP, port 161 must be open on the appliance and on the device.

SNMP scan results include all SNMP capable devices. Remote shell extensions enable the appliance to connect, run commands, and capture information that can be managed as inventory. For more information about SNMP options, see Add a Discovery Schedule for SNMP-enabled non-computer devices.

SNMP Version

The version of SNMP to use for connections. SNMPv1 and SNMPv2c do not use authentication or encryption.

SNMP v3 uses authentication and encryption algorithms to increase the security of SNMP communications. When you configure the SNMP v3 options, the appliance performs an SNMP v3 scan on selected devices. If that scan fails, the appliance attempts an SNMP v1 scan using the specified Public String

The details of the service account required to connect to the device and run commands using SNMP v3. Select existing credentials from the drop-down list, or click Add new credential to add credentials not already listed. Credentials are not required for SNMPv1 and SNMPv2c.

The method used to collect inventory information.

Inventory Configurations

One or more inventory configurations for the new SNMP agentless device, such as Brother Laser Printer: Color, and others.

Inventory Type

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Inventory: Collect a subset of device information, such as the IP Address, MAC Address, and device name.

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Inventory/Walk: Conduct a full SNMP walk to collect inventory information. The full walk results appear on the Device Detail page.

NOTE: SNMP inventory walk does not support non-English characters on Windows devices. If it encounters non-English characters, the SNMP inventory process reports an error and stops loading inventory information.

The level of information to display on the Device Detail page. To see only the most important messages, select Critical. To see all messages, select Debug.

The name of the device that you want to use as a relay for agentless device inventory.

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To set up WinRM connections with devices, provide the following information:

The connection method to use to connect to the Windows device and obtain inventory information, in this case, WinRM.

The port number the appliance uses to connect to the device. No input is required for the following default port number: 5985.

If selected, Kerberos is required for authentication. NTLM will not be used as an alternative when Kerberos is unavailable.

Require Kerberos

Using Kerberos requires DNS Lookup to be enabled in the same discovery configuration. The DNS Server is also required in the local appliance network settings.

The level of information to display on the Device Detail page. To see only the most important messages, select Critical. To see all messages, select Debug.

Inventory Hyper-V or Virtual Machine Manager

Select this option to allow the appliance to import a Microsoft Hyper-V or System Center Virtual Machine Manager infrastructure using agentless management. For more information about this feature, see Add a Discovery Schedule for a Microsoft Hyper-V or System Center Virtual Machine Manager.

The name of the device that you want to use as a relay for agentless device inventory.

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To set up a VMware® device, provide the following information:

The host name or IP address of the ESXi host or the vCenter Server.

The asset subcategory, if applicable. This information enables you to identify and manage subtypes of assets, such as VMware devices. For example, hypervisors (ESXi hosts). See About Asset Subtypes, custom fields, and device detail preferences.

The connection method to use to connect to the VMware device and obtain inventory information.

VMware Type

The VMware device type: ESXi or vCenter Server.

NOTE: vCenter Server devices do not count against the total number of device licenses. That is because these device instances are only used to establish relationships between the vCenter Servers, ESXi hosts, and the virtual machines running on them.

The details of the service account required to connect to the device and run commands. Select existing credentials from the drop-down list, or select Add new credential to add credentials not already listed. An account with read-only access can be used. See Add and edit User/Password credentials.

The level of information to display on the Device Detail page. To see only the most important messages, select Critical. To see all messages, select Debug.

The connection status appears.

Click Test Connection.

Click Save.

The Agentless device is added. If Enable Inventory is selected, inventory information is updated according to the Agentless device inventory schedule. See Schedule inventory data collection for managed devices.

Shell support for SSH connections

Operating systems vary in their support of shells used for SSH connections between the appliance and managed devices.

The following table shows the shells available for SSH connections for each operating system.

Table 22. Shell support for SSH connections by operating system
Operating system	Default shell	Supported shells
CentOS	bash	bash, sh
Debian Linux	bash	bash, sh
Fedora	bash	bash, sh
FreeBSD	csh	bash, csh, sh
Mac OS X	sh	bash, sh
openSUSE/SLES™	bash	bash, sh
Oracle Enterprise Linux	bash	bash, sh
Red Hat® Enterprise Linux®	bash	bash, sh
Ubuntu	bash	bash, sh

Edit Agentless device connection details or delete Agentless devices

You can edit the device connection details for Agentless devices and you can delete Agentless devices as needed.

Go to the Devices list:

On the left navigation bar, click Inventory, then click Devices.

Click the name of an Agentless device that was entered manually to display the Device Detail page.

In the Summary section, click Edit in the Device Entry Type row to display the Agentless Device Connection Details page.

Do one of the following:

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Modify the connection details as needed, then click Save. See Enable Agentless management by entering device information manually.

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To delete the device, click Delete.

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For Agentless devices enrolled in KACE Cloud Mobile Device Managed (MDM), to remove the device's association with KACE Cloud MDM and revert to Agent-only inventory records, click Remove Agentless Integration.

Enable Agentless management using Discovery information

Managing Agentless devices

Enable Agentless management using Discovery information

Enable Agentless management by entering device information manually

Shell support for SSH connections

Edit Agentless device connection details or delete Agentless devices

To manage devices without installing KACE Agent software, you can enable Agentless management using Discovery information or by entering device connection details manually.

Features available to Agentless devices differ from those features available to Agent-managed devices. See Features available for each device management method.

Enable Agentless management using Discovery information

You can enable Agentless management using Discovery information.

Go to the Discovery Results list:

On the left navigation bar, click Inventory, then click Discovery Results.

Select the check box next to one or more devices.

Select Choose Action > Provision > Agentless: Automatic.

Agentless management is enabled for the selected devices and one of the following icons appears next to the device names:

: Agentless management is enabled for the device.

: Agentless management is enabled for the device, but the device is not currently reachable.

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Managing inventory information

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Schedule inventory data collection for managed devices

Enable Agentless management by entering device information manually

You can enable Agentless management by entering device information manually.

You can choose from the following connection types: SSH, SNMP, WinRM, and VMware. WinRM is the connection type to use for Windows devices.

Go to the Devices list:

On the left navigation bar, click Inventory, then click Devices.

Select Choose Action > New > Agentless Device to display the Agentless Device Connection Details page.

Provide information according to the type of connection.

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To set up SSH connections with devices, provide the following information:

The connection method to use to connect to the device and obtain inventory information, in this case, SSH.

The port number the appliance uses to connect to the device. No input is required for the following the default port number (22).

The operating system of the device.

Sudo Password

Operating System

Shell

The shell to use during connections. See Shell support for SSH connections.

The level of information to display on the Device Detail page. To see only the most important messages, select Critical. To see all messages, select Debug.

The name of the device that you want to use as a relay for agentless device inventory.

◦

To set up SNMP connections with devices, provide the following information:

The connection method to use to connect to the device and obtain inventory information, in this case, SNMP.

SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) is a protocol for monitoring managed devices on a network. To enable SNMP, port 161 must be open on the appliance and on the device.

SNMP Version

The version of SNMP to use for connections. SNMPv1 and SNMPv2c do not use authentication or encryption.

The method used to collect inventory information.

Inventory Configurations

One or more inventory configurations for the new SNMP agentless device, such as Brother Laser Printer: Color, and others.

Inventory Type

•

Inventory: Collect a subset of device information, such as the IP Address, MAC Address, and device name.

•

Inventory/Walk: Conduct a full SNMP walk to collect inventory information. The full walk results appear on the Device Detail page.

The level of information to display on the Device Detail page. To see only the most important messages, select Critical. To see all messages, select Debug.

The name of the device that you want to use as a relay for agentless device inventory.

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To set up WinRM connections with devices, provide the following information:

The connection method to use to connect to the Windows device and obtain inventory information, in this case, WinRM.

The port number the appliance uses to connect to the device. No input is required for the following default port number: 5985.

If selected, Kerberos is required for authentication. NTLM will not be used as an alternative when Kerberos is unavailable.

Require Kerberos

Using Kerberos requires DNS Lookup to be enabled in the same discovery configuration. The DNS Server is also required in the local appliance network settings.

The level of information to display on the Device Detail page. To see only the most important messages, select Critical. To see all messages, select Debug.

Inventory Hyper-V or Virtual Machine Manager

The name of the device that you want to use as a relay for agentless device inventory.

◦

To set up a VMware® device, provide the following information:

The host name or IP address of the ESXi host or the vCenter Server.

The connection method to use to connect to the VMware device and obtain inventory information.

VMware Type

The VMware device type: ESXi or vCenter Server.

The level of information to display on the Device Detail page. To see only the most important messages, select Critical. To see all messages, select Debug.