Update the Linux Agent

New Linux Agent versions are available on a regular basis to include security enhancements, new features, enhancements for existing features, additional vendor support, and general improvements.To take advantage of these improvements, we recommend you update your Linux Agents regularly.

There are two Agent version types:

  • General Availability (GA) — Latest production Agent release
  • Release Candidate (RC) — Release Candidate Agents undergo extensive testing before you can download them, but if you choose to download an RC Agent, it could include be minor bugs

As part of our Linux Agent release policy, we support the current and previous GA Agent, and any current RC Agents, on a rolling basis with information on each Agent release logged in the Release Notes.

You can upgrade the Linux Agent on your devices to match your company software roll-out policy. You can upgrade the Linux Agent on one device or on multiple devices using one of the following methods:

If configured, the update process begins the next time the Agent communicates with N-sight RMM and installs the Agent without any user interaction.

You can use a mixed approach when rolling out the updates. For example, set the all workstations option at the Client or Site level and then use the individual device option to exclude specific workstations.

For each Device, the Agent version displays in the South-pane Summary tab and in the North-pane Agent Version column.

Agent updates are performed regardless of the distribution version, which may not officially be supported by the selected version of the Linux Agent.

To verify the source of any future updates, we recommend you install the Linux Agent package GPG (GNU Privacy Guard) key.

Automatic Update

You can set up an automatic update to update an individual server or multiple servers with a GA Agent version.

Requires Linux Agent 2.0.1 or later installed on the device.

To set up an automatic update:

  1. On the All Devices view, go to Agent > Agent Auto-update Settings.

    The Agent Auto Update dialog displays.

    The expandable left-hand tree indicates the current Agent version status for the Client and Site nodes.

    agent_update_ok Latest version of the Agent installed on all devices
    agent_update_mixed Devices contain a mixture of old and new Agents
    agent_to_update Older versions of the Agents are installed on all devices
    agent_update_pendingAgent update pending
  2. Select the node level to apply the update to in the left menu (all Servers, or specific Clients or Sites).
  3. Choose the required action in the server drop-down menu:
    • Servers: Update All Linux Servers to the latest Agent.
    • Client: Update All Linux Servers at this Client and associated Sites or choose to update the specified Individual Servers to the latest Agent.
    • Site: Update All Linux Servers at this Site or choose to update the specified Individual Servers to the latest Agent.
  4. Click Save to apply and exit.

By default servers inherit the update settings from the Site, which will in turn inherit the update settings from the Client, which will in turn inherit update settings for all servers.

Manual Update

You can manually update an individual server with a GA or RC Agent version.

To download and run the installer on each server:

  1. On the All Devices view, go to Agent > Download Agent > Download Linux Agent .
  2. Select the required installer:
    • DEB Installer — Debian-based systems, including Ubuntu
    • RPM Installer — other distributions
    • Raspberry Pi DEB Installer — Raspberry Pi based systems

    The Agent installer compressed file is downloaded to the device.

  3. When the download completes, go to the download directory and run the following commands as root:
    • For Debian-based distributions
      • When in the root shell

        # dpkg --install ./rmmagent.deb

      • Using sudo

        $ sudo dpkg --install ./rmmagent.deb

    • Other distributions

      # rpm --upgrade ./rmmagent.rpm

What do you want to do?