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Can we get an official statement about the new agent option?

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basil.robert

I'd like to give the new Agent Beta a try, but first I need to know what are the current (and roadmap for the near future) features and benefits of using the agent. I also need to know how (and how often) it communicates with the inventory server.

The only documentation you have for the agent explains how to install and uninstall it and nothing else.

I (and I'm sure many others) can't push out software to my network endpoints without at least a basic understanding of what it does and how it will interact with our network.

I'd post this is the new beta support area but there is nowhere there to post questions.

 

Thanks!

 

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Comments

11 comments
Date Votes
  • Official comment
    Avatar
    Brigg Angus
    (Edited )

    As mentioned elsewhere in this thread, we have two resources that explain the optional Agent:

    The Agent FAQ
    The Official Agent Blog Post (Provides an overview of the Agent and links to the documentation.)

  • Avatar
    basil.robert

    I'm really excited about the agent option.

    I'm really hoping the agent will (in time) alleviate some of the issues I'm having trying to scan the inventory of 25,000 endpoints across 57 different sites. It sure would be nice to have the agents push that data to the server instead of having the server have to reach out and pull it from every endpoint.

     

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  • Avatar
    Corellian, Shane

    Hi Robert,

    We are finishing up a FAQ on the agent. It should be completed soon and it will answer the questions everyone has been asking (such as encryption, communication, features, etc.) 

     

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  • Avatar
    basil.robert

    Thanks Shane!

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  • Avatar
    christian.bacher

    I bet......the videocast tomorrow ;-)

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  • Avatar
    Permanently deleted user

    @Robert Basil:

    The Community section is what correlates to this forum: https://beta.pdq.com/community

    I do not believe posts will be carried forward to the live version, so it's best to keep asking questions here for now. Please test out the beta site though, we'd love to get feedback!

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  • Avatar
    Permanently deleted user

    Here's the FAQ Shane mentioned: https://support.pdq.com/hc/en-us/articles/360003044012

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  • Avatar
    basil.robert

    Colby, Shane and the rest of the PDQ team.

     

    Thanks for the Agent FAQ, answers a lot of questions...

     

    1. Update the Current User field immediately as users log on and off.
    2. Update the Uptime field as soon as a computer boots back up.
    3. Keep a log of Events such as Logon, Logoff, Startup, and Shutdown. The Agent sends these as quickly as possible. If the Agent is unable to communicate with any servers, it will store these Events until it is able to communicate again.
    4. Run a Computer Details scan with every Agent Heartbeat (5 minutes, not currently configurable.)

     

    When the agent reports back to the server does that report also include the results of the computer details scan?

    I see a lot of details being sent from the Agent back to the Server and that's a good thing. One worry I do have though is with a large 25,000 endpoint network like ours and with students logging in and out of machines every class period (45 minutes long) I can see this overwhelming the server.

    In the future I would like to be able to limited (say every 90 minutes or so) the agent check-in?

    The Agent is defiantly a step in the right direction, thanks for all your hard work on this!

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  • Avatar
    Permanently deleted user

    > When the agent reports back to the server does that report also include the results of the computer details scan?

    Only when it sends an Agent Heartbeat, not when it sends Events.

     

    > I see a lot of details being sent from the Agent back to the Server and that's a good thing. One worry I do have though is with a large 25,000 endpoint network like ours and with students logging in and out of machines every class period (45 minutes long) I can see this overwhelming the server.

    We don't have a way to replicate an environment that large here, so we're hoping to hear back from customers like you on how it performs :)

     

    > In the future I would like to be able to limited (say every 90 minutes or so) the agent check-in?

    I believe we will have a way to configure this in the future. I have no ETA on that.

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  • Avatar
    sean johnson

    Well that explains the spike in CPU use. We only have about 1000 clients and our PDQ VM got pelted. That probably explains why some of the agents keep going to external and back I assume a great deal of our agents have synced up 5min windows. McAfee's (Intel) agent has similar issues and has to randomize it's reporting window.

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    Permanently deleted user

    @Sean Johnson

    Please open a ticket with support@pdq.com, they can help troubleshoot the high CPU usage.

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