Agent installation for Windows

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Introduction

The SolarWinds Service Desk (SWSD) Discovery Agent runs as a service. After the agent is installed, it automatically updates any and all core libraries it runs on, as well as future enhancements (code).

SolarWinds doesn't push anything to the agent/scanner from our servers. The agent is designed to check for updates from the server.

When updates are available they get installed. On average, the agent is updated quarterly.

In addition, the SolarWinds Discovery Agent Watchdog Service keeps watch on the Solarwinds Discovery Agent Service, and restarts it if it stops for any reason.

Use the information in the following sections to install the Discovery Agent on a single Windows computer. After you complete the deployment and setup procedures on one computer, you can perform a mass deployment to install the agent on host devices throughout your organization.

Navigation

Setup > Discovery & Assets > Installation.

Prerequisites

Ensure that the following prerequisite requirements are met before installing.

Supported platforms

The Discovery Agent is supported on the following platforms:

• Windows 7.x
• Windows 8.x
• Windows 10
• Windows 11

SolarWinds supports the following Windows Server operating systems:

• Windows Server 2008 R2 (October 2009)
• Windows Server 2012 (September 2012)
• Windows Server 2012 R2 (October 2013)
• Windows Server 2016 (September 2016)
• Windows Server 2019 (October 2018)
• Windows Server 2022 (August 2021)

Firewall requirements

The following domains and ports must be allowed.

Purpose	Destination IP	TCP/UDP	Destination Port	Protocol
Report asset data to the SWSD platform	agt.samanage.com + agteu.samanage.com (EU accounts only) + agtau.samanage.com (AU accounts only)	TCP	443	HTTPS
Obtain the external IP address for monitored devices	opendns.com	UDP	53	DNS

Although the required firewall settings are only for outbound traffic (Destination IP and Port), when a session is initiated from inside the firewall, it allows incoming traffic because it knows it is a response to a legitimate request.

Network Service account

The Discovery Agent requires an NT Authority|Network Service account. The NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE account is a built-in Windows account that has limited privileges and is commonly used to run services that need to access network resources. See Network Service Account (Microsoft Learn).

Installation

The first step in the installation process is to download the Discovery Agent (MSI or EXE). After downloading, you have the following options for installing it on a single computer:

• Run the MSI file.
• Run the Discovery Agent EXE Setup wizard
• Perform silent installation using a command line.
• Instructions for golden image vendor.

Download the Agent installation file for Windows

1. Navigate to Setup > Discovery & Assets > Installation.

   

2. To the right of Discovery Agent Windows, click Download MSI/EXE file.

3. From the dropdown, select the file type you want to download (MSI or EXE) and save it to your local computer.

   

4. Run the file you downloaded:

   • If you downloaded the MSI file, you can open the file to install on your local computer.

   • If you downloaded the EXE file, you need to run the Discovery Agent Setup wizard.

Run the MSI file

Open the MSI file and follow instructions.

You can also perform a silent installation of the MSI file. See Silent MSI Install.

Run the Discovery Agent EXE Setup wizard

1. Review the installation prerequisites and employ all required corporate security measures in your deployment.

2. Launch the Discovery Agent wizard.

3. At the Welcome message, click Next to begin.

   

4. If you agree with the license agreement, select I accept the agreement, and then click Next.

   

5. In the Ready to Install dialog, click Next.

   

6. When prompted, click Finish to complete the installation.

   

   When the installation is complete, the Discovery Agent runs an inventory scan for the first time. This may take several minutes to complete.

   The agent then begins reporting on the preconfigured parameters (for example, hardware and software). It may take a few moments for the information to display in your SWSD instance.

Perform silent installation using a command line

If you want to install the Discovery Agent using a Windows command line, perform the following steps:

1. Open Terminal.

2. Navigate to the Download folder.

3. Execute the installer with the mode unattended and proxy command line arguments.

   "<folder>\Solarwinds_Discovery_Agent_<version>_installer.exe" --mode unattended
   --enable_proxy 1 --proxy_address [address] --proxy_port [port] --proxy_username [username] --proxy_password [password]

   Replace [address], [port], [username], [password] with the appropriate information based on the related proxy.

   Be aware that SWSD cannot pick proxy settings automatically. Proxy settings are saved to the configuration file and are used for agent communication.

Install MSI using silent command

You can also choose to perform a silent installation of the MSI file.

msiexec /i c:\softwares\Solarwinds_Discovery_Agent_{{version}}_installer.msi /qn

Instructions for golden image vendor

1. Install the discovery agent on a machine that will be used as a base image for deployment.

2. Delete the history.yml file from the agent as part of machine creation process before sealing the image. The history.yml file is located at:

   • Program Files\Solarwinds Discovery Agent\data\history.yml
     or
   • Program Files (x86)\Solarwinds Discovery Agent\data\history.yml.

Mass deploy

After the single deployment is complete, you can perform a mass deployment. See Agent installation for mass deployment.

Uninstall the Discovery Agent

To uninstall the Discovery Agent, go to Control Panel > Programs and Features > Uninstall a program. Select the agent and complete the uninstall procedure.

Uninstall using command line

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Solarwinds Discovery Agent\uninstall.exe"

For silent uninstall use

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Solarwinds Discovery Agent\uninstall.exe" --mode unattended

Force an inventory refresh for the Discovery Agent

After you enable the Discovery Agent, the agent inventory automatically updates every 24 hours. The agent runs as a Windows service and triggers a refresh based on that schedule.

To optimize for outbound bandwidth utilization, the agents randomize the next inventory refresh within a 24-hour time frame. This process prevents all agents from reporting at the same time.

Optionally, you can force the agent on a targeted machine to manually push an update. To push the update, open a Command Prompt window and run the following commands or copy the code into the prompt. If the prompt does not return an error message, the procedure completed successfully.

Potential error/warning message

Message: When performing a force update command for Windows computers, you might receive a warning message:

Starting force data collection

Ignoring racc-1.6.0 because its extensions are not built. Try: gem pristine racc --version 1.6.0

Done!

Solution: Ignore the message. Wait a few minutes so the Discovery agent messages are processed and reflected in SWSD. Be aware that it could take 6-7 hours for the data to be imported into SWSD.

"c:\Program Files (x86)\Solarwinds Discovery Agent\agent\ruby\bin\ruby.exe" "c:\Program Files (x86)\Solarwinds Discovery Agent\agent\src\mini_kernel\cmd.rb" -f

Related topics

• Agent installation for Linux
• Agent installation for Mac
• Agent installation for mass deployment
• Setup: Discovery & assets