Applications Systems

Application dependency agent plug-ins in SAM do not deploy if automatic agent updates are disabled

SAM deploys agent plug-ins to nodes when Application Dependency polling detects interaction between an application and/or application process and a node. If the Allow Automatic Agent Updates option is disabled for the Orion Platform, SAM cannot deploy agent plug-ins to server nodes and the status of the agent appears as "Plug-in update required" on the Manage Agents page.

First published date

11/8/2018 2:18 PM

Last published date

2/15/2020 1:14 PM

Overview

If the Allow automatic agent updates option is not enabled on the Agent Settings page, SAM cannot deploy agent plug-ins to server nodes when Application Dependency polling detects a connection between an application and a node. The status of the agent changes to "Plug-in update required" on the Manage Agents page.

Product section

Server Application Monitor

Cause

By default, the Allow Automatic Agent Updates option is enabled on the Settings > All Settings > Product Specific Settings > Agent Settings page. Application Dependency polling is also enabled by default so that SAM can poll agent-monitored nodes to detect connections between applications, application processes and nodes.

SAM deploys agent plug-ins to agent-monitored nodes when Application Dependency polling detects an interaction between an application and/or application process and a node. Although most Orion Platform agents are deployed in advance, application dependency agent plug-ins are deployed immediately if an application-to-node connection is found.

If the Allow Automatic Agent Updates option is disabled on the Agent Settings page in the Orion Web Console, SAM cannot deploy agent plug-ins to server nodes and the status of the agent appears as "Plug-in update required" on the Manage Agents page.

Resolution

To resolve this issue for future agent plug-in updates, consider enabling the Allow Automatic Agent Updates option on the Agent Settings page. Otherwise, you can update agent plug-ins manually in the Orion Web Console.

  1. Navigate to the Settings > All Settings > Manage Agents page.
  2. Select the agent(s) and click More Actions > Update.
You can also use the Group Policy Administrative template, 
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\SolarWinds\Agent, to enable automatic agent updates. See the Orion Agent Active Directory Group Policy Administrative Template blog post in the SolarWinds online IT community, THWACK, for details.

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