Configure Windows agents

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Important

This version of Operations Manager has reached the end of support. We recommend you to upgrade to Operations Manager 2022.

In System Center – Operations Manager, when you install an agent on a computer, a Microsoft Monitoring Agent application is added to the Control Panel. You can use the application to change the account that the agent will use when performing actions requested by the management server to remove a management group from an agent configuration and to configure the Active Directory integration setting for the agent. To perform these tasks, you must have local Administrator permissions on the computer.

Note

If you want to automate the process of adding or removing management groups from an agent, you can use the Operations Manager cmdlets or the Agent API from the Operations Manager Agent Configuration Library, allowing you to write scripts that can automate the agent configuration process.

Note

When you save changes in the Microsoft Monitoring Agent application, the Microsoft Monitoring Agent service will be stopped and restarted.

Configure an agent to report to multiple management groups

Use the following procedure to make an Operations Manager agent a member of multiple management groups, also referred to as multi-homing. For example, an agent can be configured to report Active Directory data to the Directory Services Management Group and Exchange data to the Messaging Management Group. An agent can be a member of up to four management groups.

You don't need to use the same deployment method for all the management groups.

Note

It might take one day or longer for the discovered instances of the agent to be made part of the new management group. They will be added after the next discovery interval.

Do one of the following:

  • On the agent-managed computer, in the Control Panel, double-click Microsoft Monitoring Agent. In Microsoft Monitoring Agent, on the Operations Manager tab, select Add, enter the information for the new management group, and then select OK.

  • Run the Discovery Wizard from the Operations Manager Operations console that is connected to the new management group, select the desired computers, and deploy the agent to them. For more information, see Install agent on Windows using the Discovery Wizard. (The menu item in the Operations console named Discovery Wizard opens the Computer and Device Management wizard.)

  • Run the MOMAgent.msi Windows installer package on the desired computers, and modify the installation by adding a new management group. For more information, see Install Windows Agent Manually Using MOMAgent.msi.

Change the account configuration for an agent

You can use the following procedure to change the account that the agent will use when performing actions requested by the management server.

  1. On the agent-managed computer, in the Control Panel, double-click Microsoft Monitoring Agent.
  2. On the Operations Manager tab, select a management group and select Edit.
  3. In the Agent Action Account section, edit the account information and select OK.

Remove a management group from an agent

You can use the following procedure to remove a management group from the agent configuration.

  1. On the agent-managed computer, in the Control Panel, double-click Microsoft Monitoring Agent.
  2. On the Operations Manager tab, select a management group, and then select Remove.
  3. Select OK.

Note

You can remove all management groups while leaving the agent installed. This is useful in situations such as when you want to prepare a computer for imaging and want an image with the agent installed but without assignment to a specific management group.

Change the Active Directory Integration setting for an agent

You can use the following procedure to change the Active Directory integration setting for an agent.

  1. On the agent-managed computer, in the Control Panel, double-click Microsoft Monitoring Agent.
  2. On the Operations Manager tab, clear or select Automatically update management group assignments from AD DS. If you select this option, on agent startup, the agent will query Active Directory for a list of management groups to which it has been assigned. Those management groups, if any, will be added to the list. If you clear this option, all management groups assigned to the agent in Active Directory will be removed from the list.
  3. Select OK.

Next steps