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On Demand Global Settings Current - User Guide

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Adding an on-premises agent

The following steps describe the general process for installing and configuring the On Demand on-premises agent. For the detailed procedures, see To add an agent and To configure an agent .

For information about the permissions required to install an agent and the permissions needed by the agent service account, see Agent prerequisites .

1
Generate a passphrase on the How to Add an Agent page. Take note of the passphrase.
2
Add the agent to On Demand.
An agent package is generated with a unique key.
3
Download the agent package and copy it to the member server on which you want to run the agent.
4
Install the agent, specifying the required information including the passphrase.
Once agent is installed it connects to the On Demand organization.
5
Configure the agent specifying the actions it can perform and domains with which it works.
* 
NOTE: On-premises hybrid agent support

Installation platforms (x64) supported for the following versions:

•
Windows Server 2016
•
Windows Server 2019
•
Windows Server 2022
To add an agent
1
Log in to On Demand using the credentials you used to sign up for On Demand.
2
In the navigation panel on the left, click Tenants.
3
Click Hybrid Agents.
4
Click Add Agent,
When you click Add Agent, the How to Add an Agent page is displayed. You must create a passphrase that will be used when you install the agent.
5
To create a passphrase, use one of the following options:
•
Click Generate New to get a new passphrase.
•
Enter a passphrase manually. The passphrase can be from 4 to 100 words (32 to 1024 characters long).
•
Edit a displayed passphrase to make it more complex (such as adding numbers or characters).
•
Enter a passphrase word count (from 4 to 100 words) and click Generate New to get a passphrase of the specified word count. NOTE: The passphrase must be from 32 to 1024 characters long.
6
When you decide to use the displayed passphrase, click Copy and Continue.
The passphrase is copied to your clipboard. Ideally, you should paste it into a Notepad or Word document to keep for future reference.
7
Once the installation package is ready, click Download.
The agent package with a unique key is downloaded to your computer.
 
* 
IMPORTANT: You must install the agent within 10 days or the unique key will expire. Also, you cannot re-use an agent package, even if you have removed the agent from a previous installation. You must download and install a separate agent on each server.
8
Copy the agent package to the server and double-click the AgentSetup.exe file.
The installer is packaged as a self-extracting executable. If you run the installer without arguments, it prompts you for the required installation parameters, including the folder where the agent should be installed. You also are asked for the passphrase that was copied to your clipboard.
For information about the available arguments, see Installing the agent using the command shell .
 
* 
IMPORTANT: The maximum number of agents is limited to 10 per organization. If you need a higher number of agents, contact Quest Support.
9
In the command line console, enter the following information in response to the prompts:
•
Agent installation path: The folder to which the agent files will be extracted. If you do not specify the path, the default path is set to C:\QuestAgent.
•
Enter Y when you are prompted to install Quest On Demand On-Premises Agent.
•
Agent name - optional. If you do not specify an agent name, the NETBIOS name of the computer is used.
•
Credentials (user name and password) of the account that is used to run the agent service. The account specified must be a domain account and must have local administrator rights on the computer where the agent is being installed. Other required rights depend on the modules with which the agent will be used.
•
Passphrase - The generated passphrase that you generated on the How to Add an Agent page.
About agent installation

Depending on your browser and the download options that you configured, when you click Download, the AgentSetup.exe file is downloaded to the location you specify. In most cases the AgentSetup.exe file is downloaded to your Downloads folder.

The setup program is a console application. If you double-click the AgentSetup.exe file, a console window is opened and you are prompted for information such as installation folder and service user name and password. Optionally, you can open a command shell and manually execute the installer from the command line which allows you to specify arguments

The file name of the downloaded file is AgentSetup.exe. The installer is packaged as a self-extracting executable. If you run the installer without arguments, it prompts you for all required installation parameters, including the folder where the agent should be installed.

You can run the AgentSetup.exe from any directory (as long as you run the program on the computer on which it is to be installed). The self-extracting executable prompts you for the folder to which the agent files will be extracted. The self-extracting installation package extracts the files to the specified target folder and runs the setup program (Setup.exe) from the target folder.

Once an agent installation package is used to install the agent on a computer, you cannot use the same package to install the agent on another computer.

 
* 
IMPORTANT: The installation key included in the installer is a unique one-time key that cannot be used again to install the agent elsewhere, even if you uninstall the agent from the current computer.

After you have installed the agent, it is recommended that you delete the file containing the passphrase (if you saved it to a file) and the downloaded agent installation package. However, do not delete the AgentSetup.exe file that was extracted.

Installing the agent using the command shell

If you open a command shell, you must open it with elevated permissions (such as “Run as administrator”). The setup program requires admin rights.

You can provide the parameters for agent installation through command line switches. This method allows the agent to be installed without any prompts. The supported switches are as follows:

--outdir <output_directory>

Provides the target directory where the agent files will be extracted. This is the only switch that is handled directly by the self-extracting executable. All other switches are forwarded to the agent setup program that is executed after the files are extracted.

--quiet

Prevents prompting. When you use this switch, you must also specify all parameters that do not have default values through the command line. If any parameters are missing, the installation will fail.

--name <name>

The name used to identify the agent. The agent name is displayed in the On Demand Agent configuration page once the agent installation is completed. If no name is provided, the NETBIOS name of the computer is used as a default value.

--user <username>

The Windows user account under which the agent service is run. This is a required parameter. The user account specified must be a domain account and must have local administrator rights on the computer where the agent is being installed. The local administrator rights are needed to allow the agent to perform an auto-update when new versions of the agent become available.
Additional permissions depend on the workload being performed by the agent. Refer to the documentation for the specific On Demand module for more information. For example, to manage on-premises groups in License Management, the agent service account must have Write Members rights on the group object in Active Directory.
The account is granted Log On As Service rights on the local system during installation.

--password <password>

The password of the Windows user account under which the agent service is run. It is a required parameter. This password is not stored anywhere within On Demand. The password is only used to configure the startup properties of the Windows service.

--passphrase “<passphrase>”

The generated passphrase that was created on the How to Add an Agent page. The passphrase is required to install the agent. Since the passphrase will contain spaces, you must use quotation marks to enclose the passphrase.

Configuring an agent

After you have installed the agent, you must configure the agent with the on-premises domains to which the agent is connected and the actions the agent can perform.

To configure an agent
1
Click Tenants in the left navigation bar and select Hybrid Agents.
A tile for the newly installed agent is displayed. The text under the headings for Domains and Agents shows Not Configured.
2
Click Edit Configuration.
3
In the Actions section, view the list of actions and select the actions that the agent is allowed to perform.
For example, you could select Modify group membership if you want to be able to assign a user license through an on-premises group in the On Demand License Management module.
Consult your On Demand module documentation for Actions you might need to enable and other Action related requirements.
4
In the Connected Domains section, do one of the following steps:
•
Click Add New and add an on-premises domain to On Demand that will be connected to this agent. For information about adding a domain, see Adding an Active Directory domain .
- OR -
•
Click Select Existing and select a domain that has already been added to On Demand.
5
Click Save.
Editing an agent configuration

After an agent is configured, you can update the agent configuration at any time. When you view an agent tile for a configured agent, you can see the computer on which the agent is installed and the number of allowed actions and the number of connected agents.

To update an agent configuration
1
On the agent tile, click Edit Configuration.
Basic information about the agent such as the agent name, the name of the computer on which the agent is installed is shown. Additionally you can see the configuration details including the allowed actions for the agent and the domains to which the agent is connected.
2
You can update the agent configuration as follows:
•
For actions, you can click Select Actions to update the allowed actions.
•
For connected domains, you can click either Add Domain or Select Existing to add a new domain for the agent or to connect the agent to an existing domain.
3
When you have made your changes, click Save.

When viewing the information for the configured agent, you also have the option of removing an action or a connected domain.

To remove the action or domain from the displayed agent configuration, click beside the action or domain.

Automatic updates for on-premises agents

If you have an agent installed and running and Quest has released a new version, the agent is automatically upgraded in your environment. When a new version of the agent is available, Quest will generate a package to be distributed to all organizations. Each installed agent will be updated. Updates do not require any manual intervention and the upgrade does not require a system reboot.

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