How will the latest agent version install?

9 years ago

Hi Christopher, AGENT UPDATE AUTOMATION With Snow Inventory 5, the time-consuming task of keeping your Inventory agents up to date, or changing Inventory configuration settings, can be fully automated from within the Snow Inventory Admin Console. New versions of the Snow Inventory Agents are automatically downloaded to the Admin Console and updates can be distributed from the Snow Inventory Server to the full estate, with complete change management control, avoiding time consuming agent rollouts. SNOW AGENT REPOSITORY The Snow Agent Repository is a file repository with all available versions of the Snow Inventory Agents. The Snow Agent Repository is automatically updated using the Snow Update Service. SNOW AGENT VERSION UPDATEAUTOMATION Agent version upgrades are managed through the Snow Inventory Admin Console. Upgrading the agent version, or even adding additional inventory capabilities through a custom script, can be achieved with ease directly from the user interface – either updating the whole estate or targeting parts of the estate, such as a specific BU, with an update. You can schedule updates to only occur in a specific timeframe. This is relevant when updating business critical environments and defining the service maintenance windows for when agent updates are permitted. Alternatively, it can be part of a change management process, whereby an update can be scheduled to occur rather than being activated instantly. SNOW AGENT CONFIGURATION UPDATE AUTOMATION Agent configurations are managed through the Snow Inventory Admin Console. Here you get an instant overview of all your different Inventory Agent configurations and have the ability to change the behavior of the agents. SNOW INVENTORY 5 RELEASE NOTES can be found here: Inventory 5 Release notes At the agent side you might have a look @ the agent HEARTBEAT In addition to the scheduled scans, the Snow Inventory Agent for Windows sends heartbeats according to a configurable interval. The heartbeat is a simple communication between the agent and the Inventory Server where the agent asks the server for tasks. Examples of tasks include agent updates, configuration updates, addition/removal of support files, and initiation of scans outside of the configured schedule. By default, the heartbeat is performed randomly every 60-120 minutes. Each heartbeat generates 1.4 kB of incoming network traffic and 0.5 kB of outgoing network traffic. Per day, the network traffic will amount to 22.4 kB of incoming and 8 kB of outgoing per agent installation. For details on configuration of heartbeats, refer to the settings http.poll_interval and http.poll_variance in the configuration-doc.html file. Snow Agent User Guide: Snow Inventory Agent for Windows - Update revision 5.2 can be found here: Agent 5.2 User guide Hope this helps in answering your question. Kind Regards Jan

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Community Manager (Flexera Software)
9 years ago
Hi Christopher, AGENT UPDATE AUTOMATION With Snow Inventory 5, the time-consuming task of keeping your Inventory agents up to date, or changing Inventory configuration settings, can be fully automated from within the Snow Inventory Admin Console. New versions of the Snow Inventory Agents are automatically downloaded to the Admin Console and updates can be distributed from the Snow Inventory Server to the full estate, with complete change management control, avoiding time consuming agent rollouts. SNOW AGENT REPOSITORY The Snow Agent Repository is a file repository with all available versions of the Snow Inventory Agents. The Snow Agent Repository is automatically updated using the Snow Update Service. SNOW AGENT VERSION UPDATEAUTOMATION Agent version upgrades are managed through the Snow Inventory Admin Console. Upgrading the agent version, or even adding additional inventory capabilities through a custom script, can be achieved with ease directly from the user interface – either updating the whole estate or targeting parts of the estate, such as a specific BU, with an update. You can schedule updates to only occur in a specific timeframe. This is relevant when updating business critical environments and defining the service maintenance windows for when agent updates are permitted. Alternatively, it can be part of a change management process, whereby an update can be scheduled to occur rather than being activated instantly. SNOW AGENT CONFIGURATION UPDATE AUTOMATION Agent configurations are managed through the Snow Inventory Admin Console. Here you get an instant overview of all your different Inventory Agent configurations and have the ability to change the behavior of the agents. SNOW INVENTORY 5 RELEASE NOTES can be found here: Inventory 5 Release notes At the agent side you might have a look @ the agent HEARTBEAT In addition to the scheduled scans, the Snow Inventory Agent for Windows sends heartbeats according to a configurable interval. The heartbeat is a simple communication between the agent and the Inventory Server where the agent asks the server for tasks. Examples of tasks include agent updates, configuration updates, addition/removal of support files, and initiation of scans outside of the configured schedule. By default, the heartbeat is performed randomly every 60-120 minutes. Each heartbeat generates 1.4 kB of incoming network traffic and 0.5 kB of outgoing network traffic. Per day, the network traffic will amount to 22.4 kB of incoming and 8 kB of outgoing per agent installation. For details on configuration of heartbeats, refer to the settings http.poll_interval and http.poll_variance in the configuration-doc.html file. Snow Agent User Guide: Snow Inventory Agent for Windows - Update revision 5.2 can be found here: Agent 5.2 User guide Hope this helps in answering your question. Kind Regards Jan
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- Landon Owens (Flexera Software)
  9 years ago
  I want to add to 's response that the updating of the agents is something that needs to be configured and deployed. It is not controlled by Snow, or our products. I get this question a lot. the Snow Update Service will automatically update the Agent Repository in Snow Inventory but it is up to the SAM Practitioner and/or Snow Inventory Administrator to setup the deployment package and initiate it. At no point will Snow update the agents without somebody telling Snow Inventory to do it. To say it another way, the Snow Inventory Administrator has to build out a deployment package in order for the snow agents to update themselves. Landon.Ownens Snow Support Manager – North America
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  - Anthony
    9 years ago
    Hi Landon, Can you please confirm if doing a fresh install of the agent requires server reboot? Regards, Michael
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    Landon Owens (Flexera Software)
    9 years ago
    It does not "require" a server reboot. But it does require a restart of the service, which tends to prompt to reboot the system. if you do not want to reboot, then simply restart the service. Is that ... easy to understand. :-)
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