Active Administrator 8.7 - User Guide

Managing Active Directory Health Analyzer agents

Managing Active Directory Health Analyzer agents

You can install agents directly to a domain controller in standalone mode. The standalone agent monitors only the domain controller on which it is installed. Installing agents into a pool maximizes the efficiency by balancing the workload among the pool of load-balancing agents.

NOTE: The DAAgentConfig.exe utility is available for managing the Active Directory Health Analyzer agent if you are experiencing problems. The DAAgentConfig.exe utility is located at C:\Program Files\Quest\Active Administrator\Server\SLAgent\DAAgent. The utility is launched outside of Active Administrator® to help you troubleshoot issues. If a Active Directory Health Analyzer agent is experiencing problems, an alert is triggered and displays in the Current Alert list. See Viewing alerts and alert history. For Active Directory Health Analyzer agents in a pool, the domain controllers it monitors move to another agent, and the domain controller hosting the agent is removed from the pool and no longer monitored until it come back online.

To manage Active Directory Health Analyzer Agents

1	Select Active Directory Health | Agents.

2	Open the Analyzer Agents tab.

3	Use the tool bar to manage audit agents.

 

NOTE: When you select Remove, Start, Stop, Restart, Set Agent Startup Account, or Set Port Number, you are asked to select the account to use to manage the agent. You can use the Active Administrator Foundation Service (AFS) account, or indicate a specific user account.

 

Table 57. Audit agent tool bar

Option	Description
Refresh	Refresh the Active Directory Health Analyzer agent on all listed domain controllers.
Refresh Selected	Refresh the Active Directory Health Analyzer agent on selected domain controllers.
Install	Install the Active Directory Health Analyzer agent. See Installing Active Directory Health Analyzer agents.
Properties	Display properties for the selected Active Directory Health Analyzer agent. You also can view properties when monitoring agent performance. See Monitoring agent performance.
Limiter	Enable, disable, and edit time thresholds for notifications.
Remove	Uninstall the selected Active Directory Health Analyzer agent. NOTE: If for some reason, the Active Directory Health Analyzer agent cannot be removed, use the Remove Orphaned Agent option. NOTE: You must select the account to use to remove the agent.
Start	Start collecting events on the selected domain controller(s). NOTE: You must select the account to use to start the agent.
Stop	Stop collecting events on the selected domain controller. NOTE: You must select the account to use to stop the agent.
Restart	Restart selected Active Directory Health Analyzer agents. NOTE: Agents can be restarted only if they are started. If an agent is stopped, click Start. NOTE: You must select the account to use to restart the agent.
Workload Details	Manage workload distribution by the agent pool. See Managing agent workload. Manage email notifications for the status of load-balancing agents. See Sending agent notifications.
More | Agent Notifications	Manage email notifications for the status of standalone and load-balancing agents. See Sending agent notifications.
More | Automatic Agent Deployment	Set up automatic deployment of the Active Directory Health Analyzer agent. Manage pending deployments. You can cancel or initiate the deployment immediately. See Setting up automatic Active Directory Health Analyzer agent deployment.
More | Agent Performance Settings	Set up performance monitoring of a selected Active Directory Health Analyzer agent. See Monitoring agent performance.
More | Agent Performance	View properties and statistics to help monitor memory and CPU usage on a selected Active Directory Health Analyzer agent. See Monitoring agent performance.
More | Set Agent Startup Account	Change the Active Directory Health Analyzer agent startup account. NOTE: For optimal monitoring of domain controllers, an account with domain administrative privileges is recommended. If you cannot use an account with domain administrative privileges, use an account that is a member of the Performance Log Users and Distributed COM Users groups in the monitored domain. You also must enable Remote Access for WMI on the remotely monitored domain controllers. Some monitoring features will not be available. NOTE: You must select the account to use to set the agent startup account.
More | Set Agent Port Number	Specify the port that the Active Administrator Foundation Server uses to communicate with the Active Directory Health Analyzer agent on the domain controller. NOTE: TCP Port 15603 is the default value. If you change the agent port number from the default, make sure the port is open in Windows® Firewall on the computer hosting the Active Directory Health Analyzer agent. NOTE: You must elect the account to use to set the agent port number.
More | Remove Orphaned Agents	Removes the Active Directory Health Analyzer agents from the selected computers. NOTE: If the Remove option does not uninstall the agent, use this option.
More | View Agent Log	View the Active Directory Health Analyzer agent log. NOTE: The log entries exist in memory. You can use the Filter Log Entries option to search for specific log entries. You can right-click and copy a selection of log entries to the clipboard. If you require a log file for troubleshooting, use the Active Directory Health Analyzer agent configuration utility. See Using the Active Directory Health Analyzer agent configuration utility.
More | Test Agent Status	Test the Active Directory Health Analyzer agent connection.
More | Configure Firewall Rules	Configures Windows® Firewall to allow the Active Directory Health Analyzer agent to communicate with the Active Administrator Data Service (ADS).
More | Upgrade	Upgrade the selected Active Directory Health Analyzer agent.
More| Upgrade All	Upgrade all listed Active Directory Health Analyzer agents.
More | Group by Status	Group the list of agents by status.
More | Remove Grouping	Remove the grouping.
More | Excluded Domain Controllers	Manage the list of domain controllers that are excluded from monitoring. See Excluding domain controllers.
Tasks	Manage the tasks that pertain to the Active Directory Health Analyzer Agent. See Managing tasks.

Managing agent workload

Managing agent workload

As domain controllers are added, removed, started, or stopped, the agent pool automatically redistributes the workload. A workload evaluation is run every 24 hours automatically, but you can trigger it manually as well. You may find you need to add more agents to the pool to help with the workload. See Installing Active Directory Health Analyzer agents into a pool.

To run a workload evaluation

1	Select Active Directory Health | Agents.

2	Open the Analyzer Agents tab.

3	Click Workload Details.

The agents and the number of domain controllers monitored by the agent display along with their status and time stamp of the last evaluation.

▪	If you want to send notifications when a load evaluation occurs, click Agent Notifications.

▪	To view the domain controllers that an agent is monitoring, click Agent Details.

4	Click Evaluate Agent Load.

A message displays stating an evaluation will begin in one minute.

Sending agent notifications

Sending agent notifications

By default, an email notification is sent when an agent goes into a critical state, a stopped state, and when the agent has recovered. You also can select to send an email notification when the agent goes into a warning state or when an agent workload evaluation is performed, which occurs if a load-balancing agent cannot recover.

To manage agent notification

1	Select Active Directory Health | Agents.

2	Open the Analyzer Agents tab.

3	Select More | Agent Notifications.

NOTE: For load-balancing agents, you also can set agent notifications by selecting Workload Details | Agent Notifications.

4	By default, agent notifications are enabled. Clear the check box to disable notifications.

5	Select the status of the agent to trigger the email notification.

NOTE: For stand-alone agents, if the Load Evaluation check box is selected, a notification is not sent because load balancing does not occur.

6	Click Add to add an email address to the list of recipients for the email notifications. You can edit a selected address or remove selected addresses from the list.

 

NOTE: You also can manage the DA Agent Notification Settings email address list from the Settings menu. See Managing email addresses.

7

Click OK.

Monitoring agent performance

Monitoring agent performance

You can monitor the memory and CPU usage of Active Directory Health Analyzer agents. In addition, performance monitoring displays properties about the selected agent to help you maintain agent health.

Topics:

•	Viewing agent performance

•	Viewing agent performance