KACE Systems Management Appliance 13.2 Common Documents - Administrator Guide

Communications between the appliance and Agents installed on managed devices include inventory reports, alerts, patches, scripts, and crash logs. You can configure and view communications that are queued, or pending.

Configure Agent communication and log settings

Agents installed on managed devices periodically check in to the appliance to report inventory, update scripts, and perform other tasks.

You can configure the Agent settings, including the interval at which the Agents check in, messages displayed to users, and log retention time, as described in this section. If you have multiple organizations, you configure Agent settings for each organization separately.

◦

If the Organization component is enabled on your appliance, log in to the appliance System Administration Console, https://appliance_hostname/system, or select System in the drop-down list in the top-right corner of the page next to the login information. Then click Organizations. To display the organization’s information, click the organization’s name.

On the Organization Detail page that appears, locate the Communication and Agent Settings section.

◦

If the Organization component is not enabled on your appliance, log in to the appliance Administrator Console, https://appliance_hostname/admin. Then select Settings > Provisioning., and click Communication Settings on the Provisioning panel.

The Communication Settings page appears.

NOTE: To reduce the load on the appliance, limit the number of Agent connections to 500 per hour. The number of connections that appears next to the inventory, scripting, and metering intervals, applies to the current organization only. If the Organization component is enabled on your appliance, the total number of Agent connections for all organizations should not exceed 500 per hour.

Option	Suggested Setting	Notes
Agent Logging	Enabled	Whether the appliance stores scripting results provided by Agents installed on managed devices. Agent logs can consume as much as 1GB of disk space in the database. If disk space is not an issue, enable Agent Logging to keep all log information for Agent-managed devices. These logs can be useful during troubleshooting. To save disk space, and enable faster Agent communication, disable Agent Logging.
Agent Debug Trace	Enabled	If selected, this option allows you to record the Agent's debug trace. This information allows administrators to monitor the Agent's performance, and to diagnose common problems.
Agent Inventory	12 hours	The frequency at which Agents on managed devices report inventory. This information is displayed in the Inventory section.
Agentless Inventory	1 Day	The frequency at which Agentless devices report inventory. This information is displayed in the Inventory section.
Catalog Inventory	24 hours	The frequency at which managed devices report inventory to the Software Catalog page.
Metering	4 hours	The frequency at which managed devices report metering information to the appliance. Requires metering to be enabled on devices and applications.
Scripting Update	4 hours	The frequency at which Agents on managed devices request updated copies of scripts that are enabled on managed devices. This interval does not affect how often scripts run.
Max Download Speed	As required	The maximum download speed, as required. Choose from the available options.
Process Timeout	1 hour	The maximum length of time the agent process run before being terminated. For more details, visit https://support.quest.com/kb/177093/how-to-allow-more-time-for-a-kace-script-to-run-before-it-times-out-.
Disable Wait for Bootup Tasks	Disabled	If selected, this option stops the agent from executing bootup tasks.
Disable Wait for Login Tasks	Disabled	If selected, this option stops the agent from executing login tasks.

In the Agent Status Icon Settings section, specify the following settings:

If selected, this option allows you to display the agent status on managed devices.

If selected, this option allows you to suspend the agent's activity on managed devices using the system tray (Windows) or menu bar (Mac OS).

NOTE: Some critical background tasks are still allowed to run, including inventory, replication tasks, and urgent alerts.

The maximum number of times you can snooze the agent each day on managed devices.

Use this section to display links in the KACE Agent menu on agent-managed devices. You can specify up to ten links. Standard Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) links are supported, such as https, ssh, and ftp URLs. To add a link:

In the Display Name column, type the text that you want to display in the menu. For example, My FTP link.

In the URL column, type the fully qualified URL address. For example, https://www.quest.com/. The URL supports the following replacement variables:

◦

◦

◦

◦

◦

◦

◦

◦

◦

◦

For complete information about these and other replacement variables, see Token replacement variables.

You can use the column headings to sort the list. In the KACE Agent menu, the links appear in the order they are listed on this page.

NOTE: Any changes that you make in this section take effect only after the KACE Agent on the managed device reconnects to the appliance, either by restarting each individual agent, or the appliance.

In the Notify section, specify the message to use for Agent communications:

Option	Suggested Setting	Notes
Agent Splash Page Message	Default text: KACE Systems Management Appliance is verifying your PC Configuration and managing software updates. Please Wait...	The message that appears to users when Agents are performing tasks, such as running scripts, on their devices.
Agent Splash Bitmap	As required	The path to an existing .bmp file that you want to use as the splash logo.
Disable Bootup Splash	Disabled	If selected, this option stops the agent from displaying the boot-up splash logo.
Disable Login Splash	Disabled	If selected, this option stops the agent from displaying the login splash logo.

In the Agentless Settings section, specify communications settings for Agentless devices:

Option	Description
SSH Timeout	The time, in seconds, after which the connection is closed if there is no activity.
SNMP Timeout	The time, in seconds, after which the connection is closed if there is no activity.
Retry Attempts	The number of times the connection is attempted.
WinRM Timeout	The time, in seconds, after which the connection is closed if there is no activity.
VMware Timeout	The amount of time in seconds to wait for a connection to the VMware vSphere API service running on a VMware host.

If the Organization component is not enabled on your appliance, specify Agent Tasks settings.

NOTE: If the Organization component is enabled on your appliance, these Agent Tasks settings are located on the appliance appliance System Administration Console General Settings page.

This value indicates the date and time when the appliance task throughput was last updated.

The value in this field depicts the load on an appliance at any given time. For the appliance to run normally, the value in this field must be between 0.0 and 10.0.

The value that controls how scheduled tasks, such as inventory collection, scripting, and patching updates, are balanced by the appliance.

NOTE: This value can be increased only if the value in the Current Load Average is not more than 10.0 and the Last Task Throughput Update time is more than 15 minutes.

In the Duplicate Machine Detection Settings (Advanced) section, configure the following options to prevent duplicate device records

When the appliance receives inventory from a device without an existing inventory record (which is determined by the use of a new/unknown KUID), it scans the device's properties that you select in this section to determine whether this is a new device or an existing one. If it determines that the device belongs to an existing inventory record, it merges the new device record with the existing one.

Select one or more of the following check boxes to indicate which device properties you want the appliance to use to identify potentially duplicated devices.

•

•

•

•

Specify the number of MAC addresses that are associated with the machine record that you to match with the existing device records.

Click Save.

The changes take effect when Agents check in to the appliance.

If you have multiple organizations, repeat the preceding steps for each organization.

View Agent task status

You can view the status of tasks that are currently running, or that are scheduled to run, on Agent-managed devices.

Go to the appliance Control Panel:

◦

If the Organization component is not enabled on the appliance, log in to the appliance Administrator Console, https://appliance_hostname/admin, then select Settings > Control Panel.

◦

If the Organization component is enabled on the appliance, log in to the appliance System Administration Console, https://appliance_hostname/system, or select System in the drop-down list in the top-right corner of the page, then select Settings > Control Panel.

On the left navigation bar, click Support to display the Support page.

In the Troubleshooting Tools section, click Display Agent task status to display the Agent Tasks page.

By default, In Progress tasks are listed. To view other tasks, select different filtering options in the View By drop-down list, which appears above the list on the right. Task information includes:

Column	Description
Device Name	The name of the device that is the target of the task.
Type	The type of task. Depending on appliance configuration, task types include alerts, inventory, kbot, krash upload, and scripting updates.
Started	The start time of the task.
Completed	The completion time of the task.
Next Run	The next scheduled run time for the task.
Run Time	How long it took to run the task.
Timeout	The time limit for completing the task.
Priority	The importance or rank of the task.

The options displayed depend on type of tasks available on your appliance. Typical options include:

◦

Ready to Run (connected): Tasks that are connected through the messaging protocol and about to run.

◦

Ready to Run: Tasks that are queued to run when an messaging protocol connection is established.

◦

Longer than 10 minutes: Tasks that have been waiting longer than 10 minutes for a protocol connection.

To view details about a device, click its name in the Device Name column.

The Device Detail page appears.

View the Agent Command Queue

The Agent Command Queue list shows messages, such as pop-ups and alerts, that have been queued for distribution from the appliance to Agent-managed devices.

Go to the appliance Control Panel:

◦

If the Organization component is not enabled on the appliance, log in to the appliance Administrator Console, https://appliance_hostname/admin, then select Settings > Control Panel.

◦

On the left navigation bar, click Support to display the Support page.

In the Troubleshooting Tools section, click View Agent command queue to display the Agent Command Queue page.

Pending messages appear in this queue only during continuous connection between the Agent and the appliance.

NOTE: Pending alerts appear on the Agent Command Queue page even if there is no connection between the Agent and the appliance.

The Agent Command Queue page contains the following fields:

Option	Description
Device Name	The name of the device. Click a name to view device details.
Type [Plug-in, Source]	The type of message, such as Run Process.
Command	The content and information contained in the message.
Expiration	The date and time when the message expires, also called Keep Alive time. Messages are deleted from the queue automatically when they expire.
Status	The status of the message, such as Completed or Received.

Delete messages from the Agent command queue

You can delete messages that are no longer needed from the Agent command queue.

Go to the appliance Control Panel:

◦

If the Organization component is not enabled on the appliance, log in to the appliance Administrator Console, https://appliance_hostname/admin, then select Settings > Control Panel.

◦

On the left navigation bar, click Support to display the Support page.

In the Troubleshooting Tools section, click View Agent command queue to display the Agent Command Queue page.

Select the check box next to one or more messages.

Select Choose Action > Delete, then click Yes to confirm.

View Agent task status

Managing Agent communications

View the Agent Command Queue

View Agent task status

Agents installed on managed devices periodically check in to the appliance to report inventory, update scripts, and perform other tasks.

Configure Agent communication and log settings

◦

On the Organization Detail page that appears, locate the Communication and Agent Settings section.

◦

The Communication Settings page appears.

Option	Suggested Setting	Notes
Agent Logging	Enabled	Whether the appliance stores scripting results provided by Agents installed on managed devices. Agent logs can consume as much as 1GB of disk space in the database. If disk space is not an issue, enable Agent Logging to keep all log information for Agent-managed devices. These logs can be useful during troubleshooting. To save disk space, and enable faster Agent communication, disable Agent Logging.
Agent Debug Trace	Enabled	If selected, this option allows you to record the Agent's debug trace. This information allows administrators to monitor the Agent's performance, and to diagnose common problems.
Agent Inventory	12 hours	The frequency at which Agents on managed devices report inventory. This information is displayed in the Inventory section.
Agentless Inventory	1 Day	The frequency at which Agentless devices report inventory. This information is displayed in the Inventory section.
Catalog Inventory	24 hours	The frequency at which managed devices report inventory to the Software Catalog page.
Metering	4 hours	The frequency at which managed devices report metering information to the appliance. Requires metering to be enabled on devices and applications.
Scripting Update	4 hours	The frequency at which Agents on managed devices request updated copies of scripts that are enabled on managed devices. This interval does not affect how often scripts run.
Max Download Speed	As required	The maximum download speed, as required. Choose from the available options.
Process Timeout	1 hour	The maximum length of time the agent process run before being terminated. For more details, visit https://support.quest.com/kb/177093/how-to-allow-more-time-for-a-kace-script-to-run-before-it-times-out-.
Disable Wait for Bootup Tasks	Disabled	If selected, this option stops the agent from executing bootup tasks.
Disable Wait for Login Tasks	Disabled	If selected, this option stops the agent from executing login tasks.

In the Agent Status Icon Settings section, specify the following settings:

If selected, this option allows you to display the agent status on managed devices.

If selected, this option allows you to suspend the agent's activity on managed devices using the system tray (Windows) or menu bar (Mac OS).

NOTE: Some critical background tasks are still allowed to run, including inventory, replication tasks, and urgent alerts.

The maximum number of times you can snooze the agent each day on managed devices.

In the Display Name column, type the text that you want to display in the menu. For example, My FTP link.

In the URL column, type the fully qualified URL address. For example, https://www.quest.com/. The URL supports the following replacement variables:

◦

◦

◦

◦

◦

◦

◦

◦

◦

◦

For complete information about these and other replacement variables, see Token replacement variables.

You can use the column headings to sort the list. In the KACE Agent menu, the links appear in the order they are listed on this page.

NOTE: Any changes that you make in this section take effect only after the KACE Agent on the managed device reconnects to the appliance, either by restarting each individual agent, or the appliance.

In the Notify section, specify the message to use for Agent communications:

Option	Suggested Setting	Notes
Agent Splash Page Message	Default text: KACE Systems Management Appliance is verifying your PC Configuration and managing software updates. Please Wait...	The message that appears to users when Agents are performing tasks, such as running scripts, on their devices.
Agent Splash Bitmap	As required	The path to an existing .bmp file that you want to use as the splash logo.
Disable Bootup Splash	Disabled	If selected, this option stops the agent from displaying the boot-up splash logo.
Disable Login Splash	Disabled	If selected, this option stops the agent from displaying the login splash logo.

In the Agentless Settings section, specify communications settings for Agentless devices:

Option	Description
SSH Timeout	The time, in seconds, after which the connection is closed if there is no activity.
SNMP Timeout	The time, in seconds, after which the connection is closed if there is no activity.
Retry Attempts	The number of times the connection is attempted.
WinRM Timeout	The time, in seconds, after which the connection is closed if there is no activity.
VMware Timeout	The amount of time in seconds to wait for a connection to the VMware vSphere API service running on a VMware host.

If the Organization component is not enabled on your appliance, specify Agent Tasks settings.

NOTE: If the Organization component is enabled on your appliance, these Agent Tasks settings are located on the appliance appliance System Administration Console General Settings page.

This value indicates the date and time when the appliance task throughput was last updated.

The value in this field depicts the load on an appliance at any given time. For the appliance to run normally, the value in this field must be between 0.0 and 10.0.

The value that controls how scheduled tasks, such as inventory collection, scripting, and patching updates, are balanced by the appliance.

NOTE: This value can be increased only if the value in the Current Load Average is not more than 10.0 and the Last Task Throughput Update time is more than 15 minutes.

In the Duplicate Machine Detection Settings (Advanced) section, configure the following options to prevent duplicate device records

Select one or more of the following check boxes to indicate which device properties you want the appliance to use to identify potentially duplicated devices.

•

•

•

•

Specify the number of MAC addresses that are associated with the machine record that you to match with the existing device records.

Click Save.

The changes take effect when Agents check in to the appliance.

If you have multiple organizations, repeat the preceding steps for each organization.

View Agent task status

You can view the status of tasks that are currently running, or that are scheduled to run, on Agent-managed devices.

Go to the appliance Control Panel:

◦

If the Organization component is not enabled on the appliance, log in to the appliance Administrator Console, https://appliance_hostname/admin, then select Settings > Control Panel.

◦

On the left navigation bar, click Support to display the Support page.

In the Troubleshooting Tools section, click Display Agent task status to display the Agent Tasks page.

By default, In Progress tasks are listed. To view other tasks, select different filtering options in the View By drop-down list, which appears above the list on the right. Task information includes:

Column	Description
Device Name	The name of the device that is the target of the task.
Type	The type of task. Depending on appliance configuration, task types include alerts, inventory, kbot, krash upload, and scripting updates.
Started	The start time of the task.
Completed	The completion time of the task.
Next Run	The next scheduled run time for the task.
Run Time	How long it took to run the task.
Timeout	The time limit for completing the task.
Priority	The importance or rank of the task.

The options displayed depend on type of tasks available on your appliance. Typical options include:

◦

Ready to Run (connected): Tasks that are connected through the messaging protocol and about to run.

◦

Ready to Run: Tasks that are queued to run when an messaging protocol connection is established.

◦

Longer than 10 minutes: Tasks that have been waiting longer than 10 minutes for a protocol connection.

To view details about a device, click its name in the Device Name column.

The Device Detail page appears.

View the Agent Command Queue

The Agent Command Queue list shows messages, such as pop-ups and alerts, that have been queued for distribution from the appliance to Agent-managed devices.

Go to the appliance Control Panel:

◦

If the Organization component is not enabled on the appliance, log in to the appliance Administrator Console, https://appliance_hostname/admin, then select Settings > Control Panel.

◦

On the left navigation bar, click Support to display the Support page.

In the Troubleshooting Tools section, click View Agent command queue to display the Agent Command Queue page.

Pending messages appear in this queue only during continuous connection between the Agent and the appliance.

NOTE: Pending alerts appear on the Agent Command Queue page even if there is no connection between the Agent and the appliance.

The Agent Command Queue page contains the following fields:

Option	Description
Device Name	The name of the device. Click a name to view device details.
Type [Plug-in, Source]	The type of message, such as Run Process.
Command	The content and information contained in the message.
Expiration	The date and time when the message expires, also called Keep Alive time. Messages are deleted from the queue automatically when they expire.
Status	The status of the message, such as Completed or Received.

Delete messages from the Agent command queue

You can delete messages that are no longer needed from the Agent command queue.

Go to the appliance Control Panel:

◦

If the Organization component is not enabled on the appliance, log in to the appliance Administrator Console, https://appliance_hostname/admin, then select Settings > Control Panel.

◦

On the left navigation bar, click Support to display the Support page.

In the Troubleshooting Tools section, click View Agent command queue to display the Agent Command Queue page.

Select the check box next to one or more messages.

Select Choose Action > Delete, then click Yes to confirm.

View the Agent Command Queue

Managing Agent communications

View the Agent Command Queue

View Agent task status

Agents installed on managed devices periodically check in to the appliance to report inventory, update scripts, and perform other tasks.

Configure Agent communication and log settings

◦

On the Organization Detail page that appears, locate the Communication and Agent Settings section.

◦

The Communication Settings page appears.

Option	Suggested Setting	Notes
Agent Logging	Enabled	Whether the appliance stores scripting results provided by Agents installed on managed devices. Agent logs can consume as much as 1GB of disk space in the database. If disk space is not an issue, enable Agent Logging to keep all log information for Agent-managed devices. These logs can be useful during troubleshooting. To save disk space, and enable faster Agent communication, disable Agent Logging.
Agent Debug Trace	Enabled	If selected, this option allows you to record the Agent's debug trace. This information allows administrators to monitor the Agent's performance, and to diagnose common problems.
Agent Inventory	12 hours	The frequency at which Agents on managed devices report inventory. This information is displayed in the Inventory section.
Agentless Inventory	1 Day	The frequency at which Agentless devices report inventory. This information is displayed in the Inventory section.
Catalog Inventory	24 hours	The frequency at which managed devices report inventory to the Software Catalog page.
Metering	4 hours	The frequency at which managed devices report metering information to the appliance. Requires metering to be enabled on devices and applications.
Scripting Update	4 hours	The frequency at which Agents on managed devices request updated copies of scripts that are enabled on managed devices. This interval does not affect how often scripts run.
Max Download Speed	As required	The maximum download speed, as required. Choose from the available options.
Process Timeout	1 hour	The maximum length of time the agent process run before being terminated. For more details, visit https://support.quest.com/kb/177093/how-to-allow-more-time-for-a-kace-script-to-run-before-it-times-out-.
Disable Wait for Bootup Tasks	Disabled	If selected, this option stops the agent from executing bootup tasks.
Disable Wait for Login Tasks	Disabled	If selected, this option stops the agent from executing login tasks.

In the Agent Status Icon Settings section, specify the following settings:

If selected, this option allows you to display the agent status on managed devices.

If selected, this option allows you to suspend the agent's activity on managed devices using the system tray (Windows) or menu bar (Mac OS).

NOTE: Some critical background tasks are still allowed to run, including inventory, replication tasks, and urgent alerts.

The maximum number of times you can snooze the agent each day on managed devices.

In the Display Name column, type the text that you want to display in the menu. For example, My FTP link.

In the URL column, type the fully qualified URL address. For example, https://www.quest.com/. The URL supports the following replacement variables:

◦

◦

◦

◦

◦

◦

◦

◦

◦

◦

For complete information about these and other replacement variables, see Token replacement variables.

You can use the column headings to sort the list. In the KACE Agent menu, the links appear in the order they are listed on this page.

NOTE: Any changes that you make in this section take effect only after the KACE Agent on the managed device reconnects to the appliance, either by restarting each individual agent, or the appliance.

In the Notify section, specify the message to use for Agent communications:

Option	Suggested Setting	Notes
Agent Splash Page Message	Default text: KACE Systems Management Appliance is verifying your PC Configuration and managing software updates. Please Wait...	The message that appears to users when Agents are performing tasks, such as running scripts, on their devices.
Agent Splash Bitmap	As required	The path to an existing .bmp file that you want to use as the splash logo.
Disable Bootup Splash	Disabled	If selected, this option stops the agent from displaying the boot-up splash logo.
Disable Login Splash	Disabled	If selected, this option stops the agent from displaying the login splash logo.

In the Agentless Settings section, specify communications settings for Agentless devices:

Option	Description
SSH Timeout	The time, in seconds, after which the connection is closed if there is no activity.
SNMP Timeout	The time, in seconds, after which the connection is closed if there is no activity.
Retry Attempts	The number of times the connection is attempted.
WinRM Timeout	The time, in seconds, after which the connection is closed if there is no activity.
VMware Timeout	The amount of time in seconds to wait for a connection to the VMware vSphere API service running on a VMware host.

If the Organization component is not enabled on your appliance, specify Agent Tasks settings.

NOTE: If the Organization component is enabled on your appliance, these Agent Tasks settings are located on the appliance appliance System Administration Console General Settings page.

This value indicates the date and time when the appliance task throughput was last updated.

The value in this field depicts the load on an appliance at any given time. For the appliance to run normally, the value in this field must be between 0.0 and 10.0.

The value that controls how scheduled tasks, such as inventory collection, scripting, and patching updates, are balanced by the appliance.

NOTE: This value can be increased only if the value in the Current Load Average is not more than 10.0 and the Last Task Throughput Update time is more than 15 minutes.

In the Duplicate Machine Detection Settings (Advanced) section, configure the following options to prevent duplicate device records

Select one or more of the following check boxes to indicate which device properties you want the appliance to use to identify potentially duplicated devices.

•

•

•

•

Specify the number of MAC addresses that are associated with the machine record that you to match with the existing device records.

Click Save.

The changes take effect when Agents check in to the appliance.

If you have multiple organizations, repeat the preceding steps for each organization.

View Agent task status

You can view the status of tasks that are currently running, or that are scheduled to run, on Agent-managed devices.

Go to the appliance Control Panel:

◦

If the Organization component is not enabled on the appliance, log in to the appliance Administrator Console, https://appliance_hostname/admin, then select Settings > Control Panel.

◦

On the left navigation bar, click Support to display the Support page.

In the Troubleshooting Tools section, click Display Agent task status to display the Agent Tasks page.

By default, In Progress tasks are listed. To view other tasks, select different filtering options in the View By drop-down list, which appears above the list on the right. Task information includes:

Column	Description
Device Name	The name of the device that is the target of the task.
Type	The type of task. Depending on appliance configuration, task types include alerts, inventory, kbot, krash upload, and scripting updates.
Started	The start time of the task.
Completed	The completion time of the task.
Next Run	The next scheduled run time for the task.
Run Time	How long it took to run the task.
Timeout	The time limit for completing the task.
Priority	The importance or rank of the task.

The options displayed depend on type of tasks available on your appliance. Typical options include:

◦

Ready to Run (connected): Tasks that are connected through the messaging protocol and about to run.

◦

Ready to Run: Tasks that are queued to run when an messaging protocol connection is established.

◦

Longer than 10 minutes: Tasks that have been waiting longer than 10 minutes for a protocol connection.

To view details about a device, click its name in the Device Name column.

The Device Detail page appears.

View the Agent Command Queue

The Agent Command Queue list shows messages, such as pop-ups and alerts, that have been queued for distribution from the appliance to Agent-managed devices.

Go to the appliance Control Panel:

◦

If the Organization component is not enabled on the appliance, log in to the appliance Administrator Console, https://appliance_hostname/admin, then select Settings > Control Panel.

◦

On the left navigation bar, click Support to display the Support page.

In the Troubleshooting Tools section, click View Agent command queue to display the Agent Command Queue page.

Pending messages appear in this queue only during continuous connection between the Agent and the appliance.

NOTE: Pending alerts appear on the Agent Command Queue page even if there is no connection between the Agent and the appliance.

The Agent Command Queue page contains the following fields:

Option	Description
Device Name	The name of the device. Click a name to view device details.
Type [Plug-in, Source]	The type of message, such as Run Process.
Command	The content and information contained in the message.
Expiration	The date and time when the message expires, also called Keep Alive time. Messages are deleted from the queue automatically when they expire.
Status	The status of the message, such as Completed or Received.

Delete messages from the Agent command queue

You can delete messages that are no longer needed from the Agent command queue.

Go to the appliance Control Panel:

◦

If the Organization component is not enabled on the appliance, log in to the appliance Administrator Console, https://appliance_hostname/admin, then select Settings > Control Panel.

◦

On the left navigation bar, click Support to display the Support page.

In the Troubleshooting Tools section, click View Agent command queue to display the Agent Command Queue page.

Select the check box next to one or more messages.

Select Choose Action > Delete, then click Yes to confirm.

Delete messages from the Agent command queue

Managing Agent communications

View the Agent Command Queue

View Agent task status

Agents installed on managed devices periodically check in to the appliance to report inventory, update scripts, and perform other tasks.

Configure Agent communication and log settings

◦

On the Organization Detail page that appears, locate the Communication and Agent Settings section.

◦

The Communication Settings page appears.

Option	Suggested Setting	Notes
Agent Logging	Enabled	Whether the appliance stores scripting results provided by Agents installed on managed devices. Agent logs can consume as much as 1GB of disk space in the database. If disk space is not an issue, enable Agent Logging to keep all log information for Agent-managed devices. These logs can be useful during troubleshooting. To save disk space, and enable faster Agent communication, disable Agent Logging.
Agent Debug Trace	Enabled	If selected, this option allows you to record the Agent's debug trace. This information allows administrators to monitor the Agent's performance, and to diagnose common problems.
Agent Inventory	12 hours	The frequency at which Agents on managed devices report inventory. This information is displayed in the Inventory section.
Agentless Inventory	1 Day	The frequency at which Agentless devices report inventory. This information is displayed in the Inventory section.
Catalog Inventory	24 hours	The frequency at which managed devices report inventory to the Software Catalog page.
Metering	4 hours	The frequency at which managed devices report metering information to the appliance. Requires metering to be enabled on devices and applications.
Scripting Update	4 hours	The frequency at which Agents on managed devices request updated copies of scripts that are enabled on managed devices. This interval does not affect how often scripts run.
Max Download Speed	As required	The maximum download speed, as required. Choose from the available options.
Process Timeout	1 hour	The maximum length of time the agent process run before being terminated. For more details, visit https://support.quest.com/kb/177093/how-to-allow-more-time-for-a-kace-script-to-run-before-it-times-out-.
Disable Wait for Bootup Tasks	Disabled	If selected, this option stops the agent from executing bootup tasks.
Disable Wait for Login Tasks	Disabled	If selected, this option stops the agent from executing login tasks.

In the Agent Status Icon Settings section, specify the following settings:

If selected, this option allows you to display the agent status on managed devices.

If selected, this option allows you to suspend the agent's activity on managed devices using the system tray (Windows) or menu bar (Mac OS).

NOTE: Some critical background tasks are still allowed to run, including inventory, replication tasks, and urgent alerts.

The maximum number of times you can snooze the agent each day on managed devices.

In the Display Name column, type the text that you want to display in the menu. For example, My FTP link.

In the URL column, type the fully qualified URL address. For example, https://www.quest.com/. The URL supports the following replacement variables:

◦

◦

◦

◦

◦

◦

◦

◦

◦

◦

For complete information about these and other replacement variables, see Token replacement variables.

You can use the column headings to sort the list. In the KACE Agent menu, the links appear in the order they are listed on this page.

NOTE: Any changes that you make in this section take effect only after the KACE Agent on the managed device reconnects to the appliance, either by restarting each individual agent, or the appliance.

In the Notify section, specify the message to use for Agent communications:

Option	Suggested Setting	Notes
Agent Splash Page Message	Default text: KACE Systems Management Appliance is verifying your PC Configuration and managing software updates. Please Wait...	The message that appears to users when Agents are performing tasks, such as running scripts, on their devices.
Agent Splash Bitmap	As required	The path to an existing .bmp file that you want to use as the splash logo.
Disable Bootup Splash	Disabled	If selected, this option stops the agent from displaying the boot-up splash logo.
Disable Login Splash	Disabled	If selected, this option stops the agent from displaying the login splash logo.

In the Agentless Settings section, specify communications settings for Agentless devices:

Option	Description
SSH Timeout	The time, in seconds, after which the connection is closed if there is no activity.
SNMP Timeout	The time, in seconds, after which the connection is closed if there is no activity.
Retry Attempts	The number of times the connection is attempted.
WinRM Timeout	The time, in seconds, after which the connection is closed if there is no activity.
VMware Timeout	The amount of time in seconds to wait for a connection to the VMware vSphere API service running on a VMware host.

If the Organization component is not enabled on your appliance, specify Agent Tasks settings.

NOTE: If the Organization component is enabled on your appliance, these Agent Tasks settings are located on the appliance appliance System Administration Console General Settings page.

This value indicates the date and time when the appliance task throughput was last updated.

The value in this field depicts the load on an appliance at any given time. For the appliance to run normally, the value in this field must be between 0.0 and 10.0.

The value that controls how scheduled tasks, such as inventory collection, scripting, and patching updates, are balanced by the appliance.

NOTE: This value can be increased only if the value in the Current Load Average is not more than 10.0 and the Last Task Throughput Update time is more than 15 minutes.

In the Duplicate Machine Detection Settings (Advanced) section, configure the following options to prevent duplicate device records

Select one or more of the following check boxes to indicate which device properties you want the appliance to use to identify potentially duplicated devices.

•

•

•

•