Download and Install the Agent

The Scalable Agent installation package appropriate for your application can be downloaded from your Asset Vision instance.  The Agent can be installed on an individual basis or packaged and distributed across your environment using your preferred distribution method.

NOTE: For Windows-based devices, there is a new Windows Desktop agent that is available for download. This agent is intended to replace the previous (legacy) Windows Desktop agent. Both the legacy and new Windows Desktop agent packages have been made available to ease the transition. Only one agent may be run at a time on each device, but the different agent may be run at the same time on different devices within the environment for testing an adoption purposes. As always with new technology, it is recommended to test the new agent on a few devices for environment compliance. For more information, please contact Scalable Support.

Downloading and Installing the Scalable Agent

Downloading and Installing the Optimize Agent
  1. Navigate to Setup > Agents > Deployment > Agent Download.
  2. Click on the desired Download Installer link to download the appropriate installer package:
    • EXE for Windows-based machines
    • PKG for macOS-based machines

Installing a Windows Desktop Agent

For Windows Desktop machines, the legacy agent package is an executable (.exe) that may be run locally on the client machine, or executed using any existing remote management tool to install the agent. Local Administrator privileges are required to install the agent onto the machine. Shortly after an agent is installed, a related record should be visible in the Asset Vision UI under the Status >> Machines with Agents Data View.

As an optional installation verification step, once the agent is installed, there will be two Windows Services created:

  1. SSI Survey Client - The main Agent service. It has an associated process named SurveyClientNT.exe that runs anytime the machine is running.
  2. SSI Installer Service - The Installer/Controller for the SSI Survey Client service. It has an associated process named SCInstallerNT.exe which is run only anytime the SSI Survey Client needs to be restarted, installed, uninstalled, or updated.

Installing a Windows Desktop Agent (New)

For Windows Desktop machines, the Agent (New) package is an executable (.exe) that may be run locally on the client machine, or executed using any existing remote management tool to install the agent. Local Administrator privileges are required to install the agent onto the machine. Shortly after an agent is installed, a related record should be visible in the Asset Vision UI under the Status >> Machines with Agents Data View.

As an optional installation verification step, once the agent is installed, there will be a entry in Programs and Features (aka Apps and Features) called Scalable Desktop Agent, as well as a Scalable Desktop Agent service running in the Service Control Manager on the local device.

Installing a Windows Server Agent

For Windows Desktop machines, the Server Agent package is an executable (.exe) that may be run locally on the client machine, or executed using any existing remote management tool to install the agent. Local Administrator privileges are required to install the agent onto the machine. Shortly after an agent is installed, a related record should be visible in the Asset Vision UI under the Status >> Machines with Agents Data View.

As an optional installation verification step, once the agent is installed, there will be a entry in Programs and Features (aka Apps and Features) called Scalable Server Agent, as well as a Scalable Server Agent service running in the Service Control Manager on the local device.

Installing an Agent on a macOS machine

For macOS machines, the PKG file is to be run locally on the client machine. Once agents are installed and start reporting in you will see them under the Status menu. Locally Administrator privileges are required to install the agent onto the machine.

To install the agent:

  • Run the macOS agent installer (avagent.pkg).
  • Proceed through the typical macOS installer steps.
  • You may be prompted to enter administrative account credentials. Enter these credentials and click on Install Software. The installer process will start.
  • When the process completes installation you’ll see a final window with a message "Installation complete!". Click on Close.

As an optional installation verification step, once the agent is installed, you should see two running processes in Activity Monitor that will indicate its proper installation:

  1. avagent.bin - This is the primary agent executable.
  2. avagent-usage.bin - This is the agent session client.

NOTE: In-place upgrades of the macOS agent are not supported. To install a new version of the macOS agent, an existing agent must be uninstalled first.

Post-installation Steps:

macOS Catalina and Newer Versions

After the agent is installed on macOS Catalina, you may see popup windows that request "Input Monitoring" and "Screen Recording" permissions. These are required for the macOS agent. Once these permissions are granted, click on the "Quit Now" for them to take effect.

macOS Mojave

After the agent is installed on macOS Mojave, you will need to grant "Accessibility" permission to the "avagent-usage" application. This permission is required for the macOS agent. A user can grant this permission under "Security & Privacy" as show below:

macOS High Sierra

No additional permissions are required for High Sierra or older.

Installing an Agent on a Chrome OS device

Installation of an Agent on a Chrome OS device requires that you have an active Google Directory Services account and Google-approved Chrome OS devices enrolled and managed in your Google Admin Console. For more information regarding installing and configuring agents on Chrome OS devices, please see the Chrome OS Agent Configuration lesson.

Check the Status of the Agent

Check the Status of the Agent

The Agent Status Dashboard provides a default summary display of agent status data and can be configured to add additional graphs, charts, and other visual representations of Scalable Agent data.

Machines with Agents

Machines with Agents

The Machines with Agents menu displays all machines that have agents installed.  The Quick status column provides a color coded guide for agent status.  

  • Green: agent is up to date and has recently reported in
  • Yellow: agent is out of date and requires update
  • Red: agent has not made contact in more than a week

All other menus organized under the Machines with Agents menu are a subset of this menu but with predefined filters for ease of display and management. Details about these view may be found in the Agent Status article.