New preview capability - Track your hard-to-reach assets using IT Agent, the future of LsAgent

[Gilian]

Hi everyone!

Lansweeper is delighted to announce the availability of its new IT Agent in your Lansweeper Site, now in Preview. Track your hard-to-reach assets using the IT Agent which tracks the details of a single computer running Windows, Linux, or Apple MacOS and sends these directly to your Lansweeper Site.

 

How to access IT Agent in your Lansweeper Site

1. Open a browser and navigate to https://app.lansweeper.com.
2. Choose the Lansweeper Site to which you want to link the IT Agent Discovery. 
3. Go to Configuration > Installations > Download installers/packages > IT Agent Discovery

A brief explanation

• Learn how to install/deploy IT Agent here.

• After a successful installation, the IT Agent(s) will be shown in your Lansweeper Site in Configuration > Installations

• When you keep that page open, it auto refreshes and the total assets will change from 0 to a higher number (usually 1 but can be higher if monitors are connected to the asset). To see the asset data you can click on the “Total assets” number and open the specific asset details or you can go to Inventory > Installations > name of the machine hosting the IT Agent. Some data might still be missing we’re continuously mapping and expanding our global data model.

• Logs can be found here by default:
  • Installer:
    • "C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Temp\Lansweeper_IT_Agent_Discovery_installer.log"
      "C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Temp\Lansweeper_IT_Agent_Discovery_uninstaller.log"
    • "C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Temp\Lansweeper.IT.Hub.log"
  • Modules:
    • Hub: "C:\Program Files\Lansweeper IT Agent Discovery\sensor\logs\Lansweeper.IT.Sensor.log"
    • IT Sensor: "C:\Program Files\Lansweeper IT Agent Discovery\sensor\logs\Lansweeper.IT.Hub.log"

FAQs

When should I use IT Agent over LsAgent?	-IT Agent can send the discovery results directly to your Lansweeper Site (without the need of an LS scan server on prem) -IT Agent auto-updates itself on Windows (like LsAgent) but also on Linux and macOS -IT Agent gathers extra data on the devices (such as user info on macOS) which will be mapped in your Lansweeper Site and made visible. -IT Agent can be installed silently on Windows (like LsAgent) but also on Linux and macOS -IT Agent for Windows was built on .NET 6.0 which has a reduced vulnerability risk in comparison to LsAgent for Windows (built on .NET FW 4.8)
During the installer I get the message: “There has been an error. Could not start Lansweeper IT Agent Discovery Hub Service. The application will exit now.” How can I solve it?	If you receive this message during the installation, you can follow this procedure to resolve it: Press Windows + R to open Run Type regedit to open the Registry Editor. Navigate to the location below or copy-paste the location in the navigation bar. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control Now the Control registry folder is selected. Move to the right side and create a new DWORD (32-bit) Value called ServicesPipeTimeout Now in the Edit Value window, change the Base to Decimal. Enter a value of 600000 in the Value Data field. Click on OK to save the changes. Exit the Registry Editor and restart your system. (You need to restart, otherwise, the change doesn’t work.) After restarting, run the IT Agent installer again. We’ve noticed this on machines being a bit slower but haven’t figured out the root cause yet (slow hard disk, low memory, low CPU,…)
Why is the size of the IT Agent installer rather big?	Currently, the IT Agent installer has all the core next-generation discovery components, resulting in a bigger installer. To cater to mass deployments, over metered connections, we're looking to decrease this size by stripping redundant parts and keeping only those required for local computer scanning.
What is the scan frequency of the IT Agent?	The IT Agent does a daily scan of the computer it’s installed on. This frequency of 24h can’t be changed yet.
Can I force the IT Agent to do an ad hoc rescan of the asset(s), now?	IT Agent does a rescan every 24 hours by default. You can’t force an ad hoc scan yet.
How many IT Agent installations can I link to my Lansweeper Site?	A limit of 500x IT Agent installations per Lansweeper Site is currently applied.
Why am I not seeing all asset data (yet)?	We’re remapping all data to a universal data model. As we’re doing this in phases, you’ll only see certain data sections available on the asset page of assets discovered by IT Agent. Currently, these sections are available: HW Operating System Software Monitor And this list is continuously being extended.
How do I solve duplicate issues?	You can resolve duplicate assets by opening Configuration › Installations and unlinking the IT Agent installation(s), and removing all related data.
Can I disable the auto-update behavior?	Auto update is enabled by default in an 8-hour time window varying between 08:00 am and 06:00 pm (18:00). Though not recommended, you can still disable the auto-update behavior after installation by running the following command on the machine running IT Agent: sc config "Lansweeper IT Agent Discovery Update service" start= disabled sc stop "Lansweeper IT Agent Discovery Update service" Be aware that your Lansweeper Site does require a minimum version of your IT Agent(s) to keep syncing so it's advised to re-enable the auto-update behavior when you can to ensure correct inventory data.
Can I unlink the IT Agent installation from my Lansweeper Site?	Yes, you can by going to Configuration > Installations > choosing the installation with type IT Agent and clicking “UNLINK INSTALLATION” in the top right. After confirming with your site name, the data of the assets it discovered will no longer be added to your inventory. Remark: After unlinking, IT Agent is still scanning and trying to send its data to your Lansweeper Site. To avoid this from happening, we recommend you uninstall the IT Agent on the machine it was installed on. We’re looking to automate this process so you don’t have to manually uninstall IT Agents you no longer want to track.
If I uninstall IT Agent on the asset, could you also unlink the installation in your Lansweeper Site?	We like to promote centralized management from within your Lansweeper Site. When you decide to unlink the IT Agent installation, we plan on auto-uninstalling IT Agent to keep a clean system. If you still do a manual uninstall on the machine itself, we could go for a global option in your Lansweeper Site that auto-archives installations of type IT Agent and/or IT and keeps/deletes data (ls-to-do). Currently, unlinking from your Lansweeper Site means the asset data is also removed but we plan on offering you the option to choose whether or not to keep the data when unlinking the IT Agent from your Lansweeper Site (ls-to-do)

Request for feedback

It's time for us to let you try and test this new feature. We hope this first version will give you an easy-to-deploy agent-based discovery.

Finally, we're all ears! Your feedback is valuable, and we'd love to hear it.

Feel free to share in the comments or share your logs and screenshots privately to preview@lansweeper.com

Kind regards,

Gilian De Raes
Product Manager | Lansweeper

[rinks]

I'm assuming the install is required on all of our assets meaning deployment by an Intune package like we do with LsAgent, or is this something that is installed on the main server that is hosting the Lansweeper installation and automatically updates assets that are authorized on our network since we are linking with the cloud site directly?

[Gilian]

@rinks ,

Thanks for the suggestion.
For now, it's indeed recommended to do a silent deployment of the IT Agent installer/package using for instance Intune. The possibility of deploying IT Agent to your assets, already in your inventory, will be considered once Lansweeper Network Discovery (successor of Lansweeper you know today) is released. 

[Gilian]

Hi @eranavni ,
1: Difference between current LsAgent and new IT Agent:
-IT Agent can send the discovery results directly to your Lansweeper Site (without the need of an LS scan server on prem)

-IT Agent auto-updates itself on Windows (like LsAgent) but also on Linux and macOS

-IT Agent gathers extra data on the devices (such as user info on macOS) which will be mapped in your Lansweeper Site and made visible.

-IT Agent can be installed silently on Windows (like LsAgent) but also on Linux and macOS

-IT Agent for Windows was built on .NET 6.0 which has a reduced vulnerability risk in comparison to LsAgent for Windows (built on .NET FW 4.8)

2: If you install it on a machine without an internet connection, you can't use it (yet). Once Lansweeper Network Discovery (successor of Lansweeper you know today) is released, you can have your IT Agent installs point to the LS Network Discovery Hub(s) (successor of the syncer scan server) which sync the results to your LS Site.

[eranavni]

Thanks for the detailed response.

now you got me even more curious about the 2nd part of your answer.  

[eranavni]

Hi,

I have 2 questions

1. what is the difference between the old LS Agent and the new IT Agent?
2. if i install it on machines that don't have internet connection but only internet connection to the LS server on prem, can i still install it? 

thanks 😊