Agent/Probe Install Fails - Communication with server failed

Last Modified

Wed Oct 05 14:45 GMT 2022

Description

  • During the installation of the probe you may encounter an error message saying "Communication with Server Failed"
  • You can see that the probe is trying to connect to local IP instead of public IP.

Environment

  • N-able N-central 9.0 and above

Solution

  • This error means that the Communication Settings have been incorrectly set.
  • If this is the first customer you are deploying to then you need to change the settings globally:
  1. Login to N-able N-central using the Product Admin account
  2. Select your Service Organization (SO) in the top left (should be Orange)
  3. Select Administration > Defaults > Agent & Probe Settings
  4. Enter the correct Server Address
  5. Remove the incorrect server address
  6. Select the Propagate check box
  7. Select Save
  8. Re-download the desired agent/probe and re-try the installation.
  • If this is happening to only one customer:
  1. Login to N-able N-central using the Product Admin or SO Admin account
  2. Select your Customer in the top left (should be Green)
  3. Select Administration > Defaults > Agent & Probe Settings
  4. Enter the correct Server Address
  5. Remove the incorrect server address
  6. Select the Propagate check box
  7. Select Save
  8. Re-download the desired agent/probe and re-try the installation.
  • Now, please try the following:
  1. In the all devices view, choose add > More Options > "Manually Create a Device that Represents an External Website or IP Address" and then fill out the name and IP address.
  2. Make sure local agent is checked > select Save (This will create a device entry in N-able N-central)
    • NOTE: You can leave the other fields blank as they'll be updated once the agent is installed.
  3. Copy the activation key by selecting the All Devices view, select the device and choose Settings > Local Agent
  4. On the machine, run the Windows Agent installer downloaded from your N-able N-central server, which can be found under Actions > Download Agent/Probe Software > System Agent/Probe (NOT the one listed under "Customer/Site Specific Software")
  5. Input this activation key into the installer (This will link the entry in N-able N-central to this installation of the agent)
Note: Please make sure .Net Framework is installed as it's an agent requirement. Consult the release notes from your N-able N-central version to verify which version you need to have installed.