Deploying Linux Agents with Automate
Overview
The following instructions outline the steps to install the Linux agent. The agent was developed on Fedora 11 (32-bit) and Fedora 13 (64-bit) but will work with a variety of Linux versions. Some screens may vary slightly depending on what version of Linux you are using.
Important: If the computer already has a ConnectWise Automate® agent, it can update to the new Automate agent by using the Force Update command. To do so, select the desired agent machine(s), right-click and select Force Update from the menu. You can select multiple agents by holding down the Shift key or using the Ctrl key. The command will be queued for the agent machine and will execute after the next check-in. All remnants of the old agent will be removed. The new agent will use the same Computer ID and Location as the old agent.
Requirements and Supported Linux Versions
Please refer to the Linux Agent section on our Automate Requirements page for information regarding requirements and supported versions.
Install the Linux Agent from a Web Browser
If the version of Linux includes a GUI then you can use any browser to navigate to the Web Control Center and install the Linux agent. If it does not, please refer to the If your version of Linux does not include a GUI section below.
To install the Linux agent from the Web Control Center:
Tip: If a template and administrative password have not been assigned to the location in the Deployment & Defaults tab, you will not see a custom installer for this location.
- Download the agent install from the Web Control Center. Refer to Web Installers for more information.
- When prompted to run or save, click Save. The file will automatically be saved to the Downloads directory.
- Open a terminal window (e.g., Applications > System Tools Terminal).
- Enter
cd ~/Downloads
and press Enter.
- Enter either
unzip LTechAgent_x86.zip
or unzip LTechAgent_x86_64.zip
(depending on the install agent file you downloaded) and press Enter. The contents will be unzipped into a newly created folder named LTechAgent.
- Enter
cd
LTechAgent
and press Enter.
Note: The file, install.sh, is a Linux shell script used to install the agent. It is readable text and not an executable. In the event of problems occurring during installation, this script will create a log file /tmp/ltech_install_log.txt.
- You need to give execute permissions, this way the install.sh file can be run as a program. Enter
chmod
+x ./install.sh
or you can run it directly by entering sudo bash + ./install.sh
. If it succeeds there will be no output. The agent will install in /usr/local/ltechagent. These directories will be created for you if they do not exist. The agent is now completely installed.
- Verify the two ltechagent processes are running. Enter
ps
–ef | grep ltech
and press Enter. You should see the two ltechagent processes as shown by the following example:
- Once installed, verify that the following files were created in the /usr/local/ltechagent directory. Enter
cd
/usr/local/ltechagent
and press Enter and then enterls
–l
and press Enter. Two important files to make note of are shown below:
-
agent.log - Displays log information about the agent status.
-
uninstaller.sh - Shell script that uninstalls the agent.
If your version of Linux does not include a GUI
- Open the terminal or connect to the machine remotely to run commands.
- Increase the permissions for the session by running the SU command. Use SUDO in place of SU when SU cannot switch to root permission.
- Enter the password to authorize the use of SU or SUDO.
- OPTIONAL: As a best practice, navigate to the directory where you want the file to be downloaded so you know where it is located. To do so, enter the change directory command
cd
and the directory where you want the download to go, e.g., cd ~
.
- Verify WGET or CURL is installed to facilitate the download of the agent install package. To verify:
- For WGET: Run the command
wget –V
to provide a version of WGET if it is installed, or the command will not be found if it is not installed.
- For CURL: Run the command
curl –V
to provide a version of CURL if it is installed, or the command will not be found if it is not installed.
- If neither tool is installed, pick one and install it using the appropriate package manager for the distribution.
- On the following step, place the downloaded agent to an accessible web address for the server you are trying to install the agent on. To download the agent:
For WGET: Run the following command: wget -O agent.zip <file location url>
. The file is named agent.zip.
For CURL: Run the following command: curl -L -o agent.zip <file location url>
. The file is named agent.zip.
Note: WGET uses an uppercase O and CURL uses a lowercase o as the switch to rename the download.
- Run the command
unzip ./agent.zip
to expand the zip file contents to the current directory.
Important: Zip is required for agent installation and updates. Please do not proceed without Zip being installed.
- Run the command
cd LTechAgent
to change to the new directory.
- Run the command
chmod +x install.sh
to make the install script executable.
- Run the command
./install.sh
to install the agent.
- Run the command
ps -ax | grep ltech
to verify that the agent is running.
Note: There may be two running executables, one is an agent update helper and the other is the main agent process.
- Run the command
service ltechagent status
to verify that the agent is registered with the service manager.
Note: The service command may not be supported on all distributions.
View the Installation Log
The shell script, install.sh, used to install the agent will create a log file in the event of problems occurring during the installation. The log file is /tmp/ltech_install_log.txt.