View agent connections and status, update agents, or manage agents

Review agent connection and deployment status.

The following steps require Administrator rights.

1. Click Settings > All Settings in the menu bar.
2. Under Node & Group Management, click Manage Agents.

The icon displayed next to each Agent/Node indicates the status of the node or an agent icon. The agent icon indicates one of the following:

• A SolarWinds Platform Agent has been deployed to a server not managed as a node
• A SolarWinds Platform Agent has been deployed to a managed node but the currently used polling method is not the agent

Choose a list of resources and statistics to monitor

This is only available for agents that are deployed on nodes.

• For a Single Agent: Select the nodes, click Choose Resources, and choose items on the node you want to monitor.
• For Multiple Agents: Select the nodes, click Choose Resources. The server uses Network Sonar Discovery to discover available resources on the agents you have selected . You can choose items on the nodes to monitor.

Manage the agent as a new node

Select the agent and click Manage as Node. The Add Node page opens and is pre-configured with the agent's details.

View installed agents details

Click More Actions > Viewed installed agent plug-ins to view the agent status, connection status, plug-in status, and plug-in version.

Click More Actions > View installed plug-ins report to view a report of the same information for all agents.

Reboot the node the agent is installed on

Click More Actions > Reboot Agent Machine.

This button is disabled by default. It is enabled when the installation of an agent requires a system reboot.

Update the agent manually

If you have disabled automatic updates of agents, you can see Update Required in the Agent Status column of the Manage Agents view when an update is available.

Update the agent to ensure compatibility with the version of SolarWinds Platform your agent needs to communicate with.

Although agents may continue to work in a limited capacity when an upgrade is pending, SolarWinds recommends that you update the agent at the earliest opportunity.

To update an agent:

1. Select the agent.
2. Click More Actions > Update.

The agent is updated.

Re-establish a connection to an agent using server-initiated communication

The server tries to re-establish the connection to the passive agent when the connection is lost and automatic reconnection fails. This can also be used for connecting to an agent that was deleted but not uninstalled.

Click More Actions > Reconnect to passive agent.

Manage Agents table columns

The table on the Manage Agents page displays information on the status and connection of your agents.

Column	Description
Agent/Node	Name or IP address of the listed node.
Agent Status	Current status of the listed agent. Connected/OK: Everything is working. Unknown: The agent is connected but no communication is received. If the agent is in the Unknown status for a long time, try renewing the communication. Select the agent and click More > Restart Agent Service. Update Available: The agent version is older than the version on the server and should be updated. Update in Progress: The agent is currently being updated. Reboot Required: The agent needs to be rebooted in order to finish the installation of plug-ins. Reboot in Progress: The agent is currently being rebooted. Once reboot is complete, the agent should finish installation of plugins. Reboot Failed: The agent cannot be rebooted. It may be temporarily offline or there may be some other issue. Restarting: The agent is restarting. Plugin Update Pending: A plugin on the agent has an older version than the one that is on the server and should be updated.
Connection Status	Current connection status of the listed agent. Connected/OK: The agent is connected. Unknown: The agent management service is not running. Service not Responding: The agent management service is running, but the agent is not connected. Deployment Pending: An agent deployment is going to start, but has not started. Deployment in Progress: The agent is being deployed to the target node. Deployment Failed: Agent deployment failed. Invalid Response: The status displayed if the agent responds in an unexpected manner. Waiting for Connection: The agent was approved, but has yet to connect to the SolarWinds Platform server.
Registered On	Date when the agent was added to the agent management system.
Mode	Agent communication type: Agent-initiated: The agent initiates the connection to the agent management system. Server-initiated: The agent listens on its designated port for connections from the SolarWinds Platform server.
Version	Version of the agent software. This is helpful in determining which agents should be updated.

When viewing Linux/Unix-based nodes monitored by SolarWinds Platform Agents for Linux/Unix, the table includes additional columns. These columns include the following:

Column Header	Description
Agent - Package Distro Name	Displays the distribution name of the installer package. This is the name of the common installer for Linux/Unix distributions. For example, suse displays as the common installer for all 64-bit SUSE distributions.
Agent - OS Distro Name	Displays the general distribution name of the Operating System. For example, opensuse displays for an installed SUSE distribution.
Agent - Operating System	Displays the installed Operating System name and version. This value will differ from the package installer version. For example, opensuse 42.1 x64 is the installed OS version for this SUSE distribution.
Agent - Package Operating System	Displays the installation package name and version for the distribution. The installer package version may differ from the installed Operating System version. For example, suse 10.0 x64 is the package version for this SUSE distribution.