KACE Systems Management Appliance 14.1 Common Documents - KACE Service Desk Administrator Guide

Specify the following settings in Agent tab:

◦

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
Enable 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.
Konea Connection Timeout	80 seconds	Configurable konea tunnel timeout check for bootup MI.
Enable Wait for Bootup Tasks	Disabled	If selected, this option stops the agent from executing bootup tasks.
Enable Wait for Login Tasks	Disabled	If selected, this option stops the agent from executing login tasks.

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

Agent Status Icon On Device

Suggested Setting

Notes

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

Enable Agent Snooze on Device

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.

Agent Snooze Max Count (per day)

1 snooze

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

Agent Status Icon Shortcuts

As required

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:

Click

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:

◦

◦

◦

◦

◦

◦

◦

◦

◦

◦

$(KACE_AGENT_VERSION)

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 tab, specify the message to use for Agent communications:

Option	Suggested Setting	Notes
Agent Splash Page Message	Default text: KACE Service Desk 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 tab, 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 System Administration Console General Settings page.

Last Task Throughput Update

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

Current Load Average

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.

Task Throughput

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.

Required to match an existing machine record

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.

•

Machine Name

•

BIOS Serial Number

•

Manufacturer

•

Operating System Family

MAC Addresses

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 the Agent Command Queue

Managing Agent communications

Configure Agent communication and log settings

View Agent task status

View the Agent Command Queue

Delete messages from the Agent command queue

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.

Specify the following settings in Agent tab:

◦

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

◦

The Communication Settings page appears.

Option	Suggested Setting	Notes
Enable 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.
Konea Connection Timeout	80 seconds	Configurable konea tunnel timeout check for bootup MI.
Enable Wait for Bootup Tasks	Disabled	If selected, this option stops the agent from executing bootup tasks.
Enable Wait for Login Tasks	Disabled	If selected, this option stops the agent from executing login tasks.

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

Agent Status Icon On Device

Suggested Setting

Notes

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

Enable Agent Snooze on Device

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.

Agent Snooze Max Count (per day)

1 snooze

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

Agent Status Icon Shortcuts

As required

Click

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:

◦

◦

◦

◦

◦

◦

◦

◦

◦

◦

$(KACE_AGENT_VERSION)

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 tab, specify the message to use for Agent communications:

Option	Suggested Setting	Notes
Agent Splash Page Message	Default text: KACE Service Desk 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 tab, 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 System Administration Console General Settings page.

Last Task Throughput Update

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

Current Load Average

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.

Task Throughput

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

Required to match an existing machine record

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.

•

Machine Name

•

BIOS Serial Number

•

Manufacturer

•

Operating System Family

MAC Addresses

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

Configure Agent communication and log settings

View Agent task status

View the Agent Command Queue

Delete messages from the Agent command queue

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.

Specify the following settings in Agent tab:

◦

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

◦

The Communication Settings page appears.

Option	Suggested Setting	Notes
Enable 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.
Konea Connection Timeout	80 seconds	Configurable konea tunnel timeout check for bootup MI.
Enable Wait for Bootup Tasks	Disabled	If selected, this option stops the agent from executing bootup tasks.
Enable Wait for Login Tasks	Disabled	If selected, this option stops the agent from executing login tasks.

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

Agent Status Icon On Device

Suggested Setting

Notes

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

Enable Agent Snooze on Device

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.

Agent Snooze Max Count (per day)

1 snooze

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

Agent Status Icon Shortcuts

As required

Click

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:

◦

◦

◦

◦

◦

◦

◦

◦

◦

◦

$(KACE_AGENT_VERSION)

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 tab, specify the message to use for Agent communications:

Option	Suggested Setting	Notes
Agent Splash Page Message	Default text: KACE Service Desk 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 tab, 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 System Administration Console General Settings page.

Last Task Throughput Update

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

Current Load Average

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.

Task Throughput

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

Required to match an existing machine record

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.

•

Machine Name

•

BIOS Serial Number

•

Manufacturer

•

Operating System Family

MAC Addresses

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.

Updating the KACE Agent on managed devices

View KACE Agent updates

Configure Agent update settings

Upload Agent updates manually

The appliance automatically checks with Quest for KACE Agent updates at approximately 03:40 every day. In addition, the appliance checks Quest for Agent updates whenever the appliance is rebooted.

When Agent updates are available, they are automatically downloaded to the appliance, provided that the appliance is connected to the Internet, and an alert appears on the Home page of the appliance Administrator Console. Until you configure deployment settings, however, Agent updates are not automatically deployed to managed devices. Click the link in the alert to configure deployment settings.

In addition, you can check for Agent software updates, obtain Agent updates manually, and configure Agent update settings any time. Obtaining updates manually is useful if your appliance is not connected to the Internet.

View KACE Agent updates

You can view KACE Agent updates in the Administrator Console.

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 Appliance Updates.

The Appliance Updates page appears. The current Agent bundle appears in the Agent section.

Optional: To check for updates: In the Agent section, click Check for Update.

The appliance checks for updates, and the results appear on the Logs page.

Configure Agent update settings

After Agents are installed on devices, they are designed to update themselves automatically based on the Agent update settings you choose on the Update Agent Settings page. This is true regardless of the provisioning methods used to deploy the Agents, including appliance provisioning, GPO wizard, other GPO deployments, or image deployment.

If you have multiple organizations, you configure Agent update settings for each organization separately.

Go to the Update Agent Settings page:

Log in to the appliance Administrator Console, https://appliance_hostname/admin. Or, if the Show organization menu in admin header option is enabled in the appliance General Settings, select an organization in the drop-down list in the top-right corner of the page next to the login information.

On the left navigation bar, click Settings, then click Provisioning.

On the Provisioning Panel, click Agent Update from KACE.

If a new Agent update is available, it appears in the Available Agent Bundle section.

Click Apply in the Available Agent Bundle section.

The new Agent version number appears in the Advertised Updates section, and the Enabled check box in the Agent Settings section is cleared, disabling automatic updates. This enables you to test the updates on selected devices before deploying them system-wide.

View or specify the following Agent update settings:

Option	Description
Enabled	Deploy the update to the selected appliance devices during the next scheduled inventory interval. Clear the check box to prevent updates from being installed.
Modified	Read-only: The time the most recent Agent bundle was downloaded.
All Devices	Deploy the update to all devices that have the KACE Agent installed. If this option is selected, the Devices and Labels elements do not appear on the page.
Devices	Update only specific devices. Select the device names in the drop-down list that appears when you click in the field, or type the first few characters of a device name to sort the list. For example, type Dev to list matching device names such as Device-1, Device-2, and so on. This option is not available when you select All Devices.
Restrict to Labels	Display the Edit Labels dialog. Search for and select labels, and update devices assigned to the selected labels. This option is not available when you select All Devices.
Notes	Any additional information you want to provide.

Click Save.

The update is deployed to the selected devices during the next scheduled inventory interval. If you use Replication Shares, and failover to the appliance is not selected, Agents are updated after the Replication Shares are updated.

If you limited deployment to specified devices for testing, select additional devices in the Agent Settings section of the Update Agent Settings page when your testing is complete.

The update is deployed to the selected devices during the next scheduled inventory interval.

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

Upload Agent updates manually

In most cases, Agent updates are automatically downloaded to the appliance when they become available. However, you can download updates from Quest and manually upload Agent updates to the appliance as needed. This is useful if your appliance is not connected to the Internet, or if Agent updates are available but have not yet been downloaded to the appliance automatically.

To download Agent updates from Quest, you must obtain customer login credentials by contacting Quest Support at https://support.quest.com/contact-support.

To manually check for updates, go to the appliance Control Panel:

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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.

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On the left navigation bar, click Appliance Updates to display the Appliance Updates page.

The version of the current Agent bundle appears in the Agent section.

Click Check for Agent Updates in the Agent section.

The appliance checks for updates, and the results appear on the Logs page.

To obtain updates:

https://support.quest.com/kace-systems-management-appliance/download-new-releases.

Download the Agent update bundle and save the file locally.

Go to the Update Agent Settings page:

On the left navigation bar, click Settings, then click Provisioning.

On the Provisioning Panel, click Agent Update from KACE.