Agent based Scanning for Fresh AE installations

With the AssetExplorer 6900 release, agent-based scanning for Windows, Linux, and Mac machines is introduced. This feature is provided by ManageEngine Endpoint Central (formerly Desktop Central). So, all customers from builds above AE 6900 must deploy ME Endpoint Central for scanning Windows, Linux, and Mac machines in their environment. They will also need Endpoint Central agents installed in a remote machine.

Note for customers already using any other UEMS products other than ME Endpoint Central

If any of the following ME products are installed and used in your environment, we recommend you contact our support before proceeding with this installation for configuring changes in asset inventory.

Patch Manager Plus On-Premise/Cloud
Remote Access Plus On-Premise/Cloud
Device Control Plus
Vulnerability Manager Plus
Patch Manager Plus Cloud
Endpoint Central (formerly Desktop Central) Cloud

About Endpoint Central (formerly Desktop Central)

Endpoint Central is a robust unified endpoint management system. It comprises features like Patch Management, Software Deployment, Endpoint security, OS imaging, and deployment, etc. Agents from Endpoint Central improve AssetExplorer' asset scanning functionality by fetching complete hardware details during the scan as well as maintaining the uniformity of data fetched across Windows, Linux, and Mac machines. Endpoint Central agent integration also avoids the need to have two agents for users who already have integration between AssetExplorer and Desktop Central.

Features from Endpoint Central for fresh customers of AE

i. Agent-based inventory of Windows, Mac, and Linux machines

ii. Warranty information for devices

iii. Auto upgrade of agents to newer versions

Other features from Endpoint Central for fresh customers of AE with AE UEM Remote Access Plus Add on

i). Chat *

ii). Remote control Windows, Mac, and Linix machines.

iii). Wake-on-LAN *

iv). Announcement (supported in ServiceDesk Plus and not supported in AssetExplorer) *

v). System manager *

Does Endpoint Central come for free for existing AE customers?

No, the inventory and remote control functionalities for Windows, Linux, and Mac machines and warranty information of devices are the only features provided for AE customers through Endpoint Central after deployment of Endpoint Central agents. However, as Endpoint Central gets installed in trial edition for the first 30 days, all Endpoint Central functionalities like patch management, OS deployment, etc can be performed from the Endpoint Central console. After 30 days, the Endpoint Central version will get converted to a free edition and all Endpoint Central functionalities can be performed for only 25 assets and 1 technician. However, the Endpoint Central will cater to all AE functionalities like inventory or remote control for the number of nodes and technicians purchased in AE when the operations are performed from AE.

Prerequisites for Endpoint Central installation

Endpoint Central (formerly Desktop Central) can only be installed on a Windows machine. If AE is installed on a Linux machine, then Endpoint Central has to be installed manually on another Windows machine and integrated with AE under Admin >> Integrations >> Endpoint Central. As Endpoint Central is installed within the AE folder, a minimum of 1 GB of free space is required.
If Endpoint Central (formerly Desktop Central) is purchased separately, please refer here for detailed hardware requirements based on the number of assets purchased.

Ports used in Endpoint Central

Server

Port

Purpose

Type

Connection

8383

For communication between the agent and the Endpoint Central (formerly Desktop Central) server

Source: Agent

Destination: Endpoint Central (formerly Desktop Central) server

HTTPS

In bound to server

8027

The notification server port is responsible for communicating on-demand operations from the server to the agent.

Source: Agent

Destination: Endpoint Central (formerly Desktop Central) server

TCP

In bound to server

Tools and Remote Control

Port	Purpose	Type	Connection
8444	For Sharing remote desktops, System Manager, Chat Source: Agent Destination: Endpoint Central (formerly Desktop Central) server	HTTP	In bound to server
8032	For transferring files Source: Agent Destination: Endpoint Central (formerly Desktop Central) server	HTTP	In bound to server
8443	For Sharing Remote Desktops, System Manager, Chat Source: Agent Destination: Endpoint Central (formerly Desktop Central) server	HTTPS/UDP (for voice & video chat)	In bound to server
8031	For transferring files Source: Agent Destination: Endpoint Central (formerly Desktop Central) server	HTTPS	In bound to server

Database supported by Endpoint Central

By default, Endpoint Central gets installed with bundled PGSQL. Endpoint Central also supports MSSQL. Please check here for MSSQL versions supported by Endpoint Central.
Click here for detailed steps for moving Endpoint Central to MSSQL.

OS supported by Endpoint Central agents

Endpoint Central agents can be installed on machines with the following OS

Windows OS

Windows 11
Windows 10
Windows 8.1
Windows 8
Windows 7
Windows Vista
Windows XP

Windows Server OS

Windows server 2019
Windows server 2016
Windows server 2012 R2
Windows server 2012
Windows server 2008 R2
Windows server 2008
Windows server 2003 R2
Windows server 2003

Mac

10.7 Lion
10.8 Mountain Lion
10.9 Mavericks
10.10 Yosemite
10.11 El Capitan
10.12 Sierra
10.13 High Sierra
10.14 Mojave
10.15 Catalina
11.0 Big Sur

Linux

Ubuntu 10.04 and later versions
RedHat Enterprise Linux 6 and later versions
CentOS 6 and later versions
Fedora 19 and later versions
Mandriva 2010 and later versions
Debian 7 and later versions
Linux Mint 13 and later versions
Open SuSe 11 and later versions
Suse Enterprise Linux 11 and later versions
Pardus 17, and 19
Oracle Linux Server 6, 7, and 8

Steps for Deploying the Endpoint Central agents

From the 6.9 version of AE, Endpoint Central is being used for agent-based scan for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS. Therefore, users are requested to deploy Endpoint Central (formerly Desktop Central) agents.

Below are the steps for deploying Endpoint Central agents.

Step 1: Downloading and installation of Endpoint Central

Step 2: Configuring the Agent settings

Step 3: Ensure ports used by Endpoint Central are open

Step 4: Downloading Endpoint Central agents for Windows, Linux, and Mac machines

Step 5 : Methods for deploying Endpoint Central agents in Windows

Step 6: Imaging a Windows computer with a Endpoint Central agent

Step 7: Deploying Endpoint Central agents in Linux

Step 8: Deploying Endpoint Central agents in Mac

Step 9: What if Remote AE servers are used?

Step 10: Procedure for AE running with Fail Over Service(FOS) enabled

Agent - Server communication in Endpoint Central

Operations such as scanning a device, taking remote control of a device or tools action from AE is performed in the remote machines through Endpoint Central server and agents.

The Endpoint Central agent communicates with the Endpoint Central server immediately after its installation in the remote machine and posts the inventory data. The agent communicates with the Endpoint Central server through HTTPS during system startup and every 90 minutes thereafter till the system is shut down, gets the actions to be performed in the remote machine, and executes it. This 90 minutes policy is majorly used for any asynchronous operations like schedule scan, any agent configuration changes, etc.

The agents also establish a session with the Endpoint Central server through TCP for getting notified for actions that have to be executed on demand like Scan Now or remote control.

Is agent server communication secure?

By default, the Agent-Server communication will happen through HTTPS (Encrypted) communication. These steps enforce trusted HTTPS communication between agent and server. These configurations can be enabled under Agent security settings

Enable certificate-based authentication for agent-server communication

Enabling this option would have the agent-server communication with client certificate authentication. Enabling this option in AE would in turn enable this setting in Endpoint Central too. Click here for more details on the procedure.

Enable agent-server trusted communication

Before enabling this setting, it is required that a valid third-party SSL certificate is applied in Endpoint Central. Click here for steps to configure SSL certificate in Endpoint Central, this has to be done only from the Endpoint Central console.

Note: Once this setting is enabled it cannot be disabled again as the agents will fail to communicate with the server again.

Enabling this setting would enable it in Endpoint Central too and have the agent-server communication to be trusted. Click here for a detailed procedure.

Agent resource utilization

All the below data are predicted from a single agent machine. Disk space will be consumed up to 1GB (approximately) from the agent installed drive.

Agent Process	Running application name	Bandwidth consumption(approximately)	CPU consumption(approximately)	Memory (RAM) consumption (approximately)
At Agent Idle state	dcagentservice.exedcondemand.exedcagenttrayicon.exe(Running separateapplication for eachlogged on user)(For windows andMac)[ Above 3 are everrunning processes ]	1 Kbps	0-2%	11 MB
Refresh policy(90 mins once -without any deployment)	dcconfig.exe	4KB	0-2%	6MB
Inventory scan(At Scheduled time in server)	dcinventory.exe	2MB	17-20%	14MB
Agent Upgrade(Applying PPMand If agentversionchanges)	dcconfig.exe AgentUpgrader.exe	20MB	2-5%	3MB