• Article

How to Configure a Computer for Agentless Management

 

Updated: May 13, 2016

Applies To: System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager, System Center 2012 - Operations Manager, System Center 2012 SP1 - Operations Manager

System Center 2012 – Operations Manager can gather performance and availability data on a computer that does not have an agent installed by using a proxy agent that is installed on another computer. Use agentless-monitoring of computers when it is not possible or desirable to install an agent on a computer.

An agentless-managed computer is a Windows-based computer that is discovered by using the Operations console. You assign an management server or agent-managed computer to provide remote (proxy) agent functionality for the computers.

Agentless-managed computers are managed as if there is an agent installed on them. Not all management packs work in agentless mode. For more information, see the documentation for the management packs you are running.

To configure Windows-based computers for agentless management

  1. Log on to the Operations console with an account that is a member of the Operations Manager Administrators role for the management group.

  2. Click Administration.

  3. At the bottom of the navigation pane, click Discovery Wizard.

  4. On the Discovery Type page, click Windows computers.

  5. On the Auto or Advanced? page, do the following:

    1. Select either Automatic computer discovery or Advanced discovery. Automatic computer discovery scans for Windows-based computers in the domain. Advanced discovery allows you to specify criteria for the computers that the wizard will return, such as computer names starting with NY. If you select Automatic computer discovery, click Next, and then go to step 7. If you select Advanced discovery, continue with the following steps.

    2. In the Computer and Device Classes list, select Servers and Clients, Servers Only, or Clients Only.

    3. In the Management Server list, click the management server or gateway server to discover the computers.

    4. If you selected Servers and Clients, you can select the Verify discovered computers can be contacted check box. This is likely to increase the success rate of agent deployment, but discovery can take longer.

      Note

      If the Active Directory catalog does not contain the NetBIOS names for computers in a domain, select Verify discovered computers can be contacted. Otherwise, the Browse, or Type In option fails to find computers. This affects computers in the same domain as the management server, in another domain with a full trust relationship, and in untrusted domains by using a gateway server.

    5. Click Next.

    Note

    The wizard can return approximately 4000 computers if Verify discovered computers can be contacted is selected, and it can return 10,000 computers if this option is not selected. Automatic computer discovery verifies that discovered computers can be contacted. A computer that is already managed by the management group is not returned.

  6. On the Discovery Method page, you can locate the computers that you want to manage by either scanning or browsing Active Directory Domain Services or typing the computer names.

    If you want to scan, do the following:

    1. If it is not already selected, select Scan Active Directory and then click Configure.

    2. In the Find Computers dialog box, type the criteria that you want to use for discovering computers, and then click OK.

    3. In the Domain list, click the domain of the computers that you want to discover.

    If you want to browse Active Directory Domain Services or type the computer names, do the following:

    - Select **Browse for, or type-in computer names**, click **Browse**, specify the names of the computers that you want to manage, and then click **OK**.

- In the **Browse for, or type-in computer names** box, type the computer names, separated by a semi-colon, comma, or a new line. You can use NetBIOS computer names or fully qualified domain names (FQDN).

  7. Click Next, and on the Administrator Account page, do one of the following:

    - Select **Use selected Management Server Action Account** if it is not already selected.

- Select **Other user account**, type the **User name** and **Password**, and then select the **Domain** from the list. If the user name is not a domain account, select **This is a local computer account, not a domain account**.

  <div class="alert">


  > [!IMPORTANT]
  > <P>The account must have administrative privileges on the targeted computers. If <STRONG>This is a local computer account, not a domain account</STRONG> is selected, the management server action account will be used to perform discovery.</P>


  </div>

  8. Click Discover to display the Discovery Progress page. The time it takes discovery to finish depends on many factors, such as the criteria specified and the configuration of the environment.

    Note

    Computers that are already managed by the management group will not be returned by the wizard.

  9. On the Select Objects to Manage page, do the following:

    1. Select the computers that you want to be agent-managed computers.

    2. In the Management Mode list, click Agentless and then click Next.

    3. Click Change, select the proxy agent that you want to use, click OK, and then click Next.

  10. On the Summary page, do the following:

    1. Leave the Agent installation directory set to the default of %ProgramFiles%\System Center Operations Manager or type an installation path.

      Important

      If a different Agent installation directory is specified, the root of the path must exist on the targeted computer or the agent installation fails. Subdirectories, such as \Agent, are created if they do not exist.

    2. Leave Agent Action Account set to the default, Local System, or select Other and type the User name, Password, and Domain. The Agent Action Account is the default account that the agent will use to perform actions.

    3. Click Finish.

  11. In the Agent Management Task Status dialog box, the Status for each selected computer changes from Queued to Success; the computers are ready to be managed.

    Note

    If the task fails for a computer, click the targeted computer. The reason for the failure is displayed in the Task Output text box.

  12. Click Close. The computers will be listed in the Administration workspace in Agentless Managed.