How to install a Windows agent

 

The Windows agent monitors local services and reports any issues. The agent is also used with Patch Manager to communicate with the Windows Update server to request a lists of available updates for the device.

When installing on a Hyper-V server, its is a good idea to install an agent on every virtual machine. This enables you to patch each virtual machine like a physical server.

There are customer-specific and generic system installers.

The customer-specific installers are pre-configured with activation keys, registration token, customer names, and IP address of your N-able N-central server. As the customer-specific installers are very easy to use, we recommend that you make them your first choice when downloading the agent or probe software.

Generic system installers require you to specify either the activation key, or the IP address of your N-able N-central server and a customer name or customer ID. These installers are useful when you want to keep a copy of a certain version of the agent or probe offline.

You need a device's agent activation key to install the agent software. You can find the activation key by navigating to the All Devices view and clicking on the name of the device. In Device Details, click Settings > Local Agent. Next to Activation Key, click Get Activation Key then Copy Activation Key.

If your client uses third-party antivirus, anti-malware, endpoint protection, or any form of security software that performs regular or real-time scans, it is vital to establish the exclusions outlined in our N-central Windows Agent Exclusions for third party AV products article before attempting to deploy our Agents and Probes.

Deploying Agents or Probes without applying the necessary exclusions in the security software can lead to various issues. These include complete deployment failures, through to partially working appliance that experience spurious and intermittent issues throughout their lifespan.

For troubleshooting installation issues, see the N-ableMe Knowledge Base.

For a list of supported Windows versions see Supported operating systems.

  1. Click Actions > Download Agent/Probe.
  2. From the Select Customer/Site drop-down menu, select a customer or site.
  3. Click Get Registration Token.

    4. When selecting a customer-specific agent to download, the registration token is included in the download. You do not need to generate a key. For more information on registration tokens, see Registration tokens for agent installation.

  4. In the Customer/Site Specific Agent/Probe area, click the Windows Agent link.

    Alternatively, you can download a generic Windows agent from the System Agent/Probe area, keeping in mind that you will need to specify either the activation key or the IP address of your N-able N-central server, and a customer name or customer ID. To find the customer ID, click Administration > Customer and look in the Access Code column.

  5. Launch the installer and follow the instructions to complete the installation.

    6. If a Windows agent has already been installed, you will be offered the option to uninstall it before continuing with the installation of the new agent. If the Remove the Program screen is displayed, click Remove to uninstall the existing agent. When the existing agent has been successfully removed, you will need to click Finish to continue installing the new agent.

The agent software installs and communicates with the N-able N-central server and discovers the device. N-able N-central will restart the backup Windows services to update database configuration.