Advance Agent install process and troubleshooting tips

Applies to LANDESK Management Suite 8.8, LANDESK Management Suite 9, LANDESK Management Suite 9.5

Advance Agent Creation

Two files are created when and Advance agent is created on the core server.

• <advance agent name>.msi 
  • This is a ~1 MB MSI package. When this package runs on a device it installs  the LANDesk® Advance agent service. The Advance agent service downloads  the associated full agent configuration package and initiates the  install.
• <advance agent name>.exe 
  • This is the real agent installation file and it will call wscfg32.exe to  install the LANDesk agent.

When creating an Advance agent, the dialog prompts for a path and a name  for the Advance agent configuration. The path and name of the agent  configuration are coded into the MSI along with the hash value of the EXE.  The Advance agent service will use the name and hash to determine the  package to download and install. In the Advance agent configuration  window bandwidth-friendly distribution options can also be configured. All  settings configured in the Advance Agent dialog are included in the  Advance agent MSI and are used by the Advance agent service after the  MSI is installed.

Deploying the Advance Agent

The Advance agent can be deployed a few different ways. One is to create an advance agent push job from the LANDesk Managment Suite Console. This job can be created from the Scheduled Tasks pane.

Deployment Steps

1. When the Advance Agent Push scheduled task is started from the core server, the LANDesk scheduler service will create $LDDIR$ folder under C drive on the client and will copy AdvanceAgent.msi to this folder.
2. Msiexec.exe will run this AdvanceAgent.msi. This will create C:\Program Files\LANDesk\LDClient folder and will install AdvanceAgent.exe and other files to this folder.
3. AdvanceAgent.msi will install the advanced agent registry keys,install the advance agent service, install the files to C:\Program Files\LANDesk\LDClient folder, open the firewall policy for AdvanceAgent.exe and so on. And the AdvanceAgent.exe will download <advance agent name>.exe
   Note: A AdvanceAgent.log for this particular step will be created on C:\Windows\TEMP\ folder.
4. AdvanceAgent.exe will create a service called"LANDesk Advanced Agent". This service will create C:\Program Files\LANDesk\LDClient\sdmcache\ldlogon\AdvanceAgent folder and download <advance agent name>.exe to this folder.
   Note: Another AdvanceAgent.log will be created for this step under C:\Program Files\LANDesk\LDClient folder. This log file will log the download process.
5. After the <advance agent name>.exe is downloaded to the client machine, Explorer.exe will execute the file, then wscfg32.exe will install the agent.

Troubleshooting

There are two log files on the client machine for advance agent deployment:

• AdvanceAgent.log under C:\WINDOWS\TEMP folder, this is the log file for advanceagent.msi. After the deployment, this log will not be deleted.
• AdvanceAgent.log under C:\Program Files\LANDesk\LDClient folder, this is the log file for LANDesk Advance Agent service, this will log the download of the EXE file. After the EXE file is downloaded successfully, this log file will be deleted. But if the EXE file is not downloaded successfully, the log file will be there.

Here is a screenshot of these files:

I have the process monitor capture file, IF anyone is interested in researching this, I can offer the file(It's huge, about 400mb, so I can't attach it in this article)

I also attached the AdvanceAgent.log file under C:\WINDOWS\TEMP folder for an example.