Manually apply agent policy

[sean_w_walker]

Is it possible to manually apply an agent policy during install? My customer is not allowed to have their agents download policies from the Beacon server due to regulatory compliance regulations. I need to know how I can get policy files to each agent another way upon initial agent installation.

[rmiller1]

Hi Sean,

You can update the agent configuration at install using the MGGSETUP.ini file as detailed here:

https://docs.flexera.com/FlexNetManagerSuite2020R2/EN/GatherFNInv/index.html#SysRef/FlexNetInventoryAgent/topics/FA3-DeploymentNotesWin.html

I would suggest that the agent configuration may need to change over time, and doing this via controlled Beacon policy is the correct way to do this, particualrly if there is a large number of agents to re-configure.

I'd also think that as both the Beacon and Agents are typically on-premise, there is reduced risk. The agent to beacon communications can also be configured for encrypted communications via HTTPS and over TLS1.2

I'm not aware of your environment configuration, but this may be worth revisting?

[ChrisG]

Policy can be manually applied on a computer by running the "mgspolicy" agent command.

On Windows, this command should be run using an account local administrator rights to update policy from the specified beacon URL:

"c:\Program Files (x86)\ManageSoft\Policy Client\mgspolicy.exe" -t Machine -o DownloadRootURL=http://your-beacon/ManageSoftDL -o UILevel=Auto

 On UNIX-like operation systems, run the command using root rights:

/opt/managesoft/bin/mgspolicy -t Machine -o DownloadRootURL=http://your-beacon/ManageSoftDL

 (Adjust the path to mgspolicy as appropriate based on the agent installation directory you have used.)

[sean_w_walker]

Thanks Chris, but the problem is that network communication from the agent to the Beacon for Download will be blocked, so the mgspolicy command won't work.

[ChrisG]

OK. I'm not really sure I understand the question or line of thought behind this question then. Policies come from beacons, so if a device cannot connect to a beacon then it can't get policy updates.

Is there some other place that you're thinking it would be possible to get policies from that would work for this environment that you are working in?

[sean_w_walker]

I've been researching and talking to the Flexera account team. It looks like I will have to use Core Deployments in this case or a variation of it. Agent policy download from the Beacon will be blocked at the network level, so we will have to control agent behavior via command line.