PDQ Agent and local server managing the same servers? Brainstorming session....
Howdy,
I have a unique setup in that I manage servers that are located in 5 different data center around North America. None of these data centers can talk to each other so I have a PDQ server setup in each location. This means if I want to check which servers have a certain piece of software, I have to remote into 5 different servers, setup 5 different collections, etc. This is time consuming as well as just being annoying.
So, I'm wondering if it might work to use the Inventory Agents with a central PDQ server. I know I can't use this for deploying our software, but it might be great to at least be able to figure out what servers do or don't have a certain thing so I can then go target them.
I'm envisioning that this would still require a PDQ server in each location running Inventory and Deploy, but it would then also utilize the Inventory Agent on each machine reporting back to a different central server. Once I would use the central server to figure out if any machines needed anything, I could them go create the local collection on the local PDQ server to target the local Deploy for pushing out 3rd party software.
Does that make sense? Does anyone see a flaw in that thinking as to why it might or might not work?
Thanks!
Comments
We are announcing the End of Life (EOL) of the optional PDQ Agent beta from our existing products. See this blog post for more information https://www.pdq.com/blog/pdq-agent-status-update/
I don't see any issues with that plan. It should work very well.
Since I already have PDQ installed, can I convert the install at our home office to a Central Server install and then have the agents check into that, or do I need to reinstall it and start over? I did everything as stand alone when i did the initial installs.
Thanks.
Central Server is a mode PDQ Deploy and Inventory can operate in. You can switch modes under Options->Central Server at any time
OK, so I'm looking at how to deploy the agent. I found this page: https://support.pdq.com/knowledge-base/876#4
Since these machines have never been scanned by PDQ in our home office, I'm assuming I have to do the Manual Install for computers that have Not been scanned.
Unless I'm reading this wrong, I have to manually create an entry for every server in PDQ Inventory first, and then generate a custom installer that I have to get out to the server and then run it from there? Is that right? Is there not a way to just install the agent with generic connection information and let it Check In with PDQ Inventory on its own? I have 600+ servers that I was thinking about putting the agent on and having them all check in with the home office. If that means I have to create 600 manual entries, 600 config files, and install the program 600 times by hand, that's nuts. And for every new machine we create I have to do that again?
Please tell me I'm missing something here...