Deployment Group Settings General
The Deployment Group > Settings > General tab provides the following options to configure the deployment group.
In this section:
Server Polling and Downloads
The Server Polling and Downloads period determines how frequently the Deployment Agent communicates with the Management Server to check for changes related to assigned product agents, configurations or deployment group settings.
The period can be set to occur as low as 1 minute or as high as 7 days. The default is 1 hour and the following are selectable values:
- Minutes - 1, 5, 15, 30
- Hours - 1, 4, 8, 12
- Days - 1, 2, 5, 7
Server Polling and Downloads
Sets the frequency the client computer checks the server for changes to the deployment group. When new settings, agents or configurations are detected, the client downloads the relevant components and installs them. The client computer also initiates diagnostics tests when a request is detected on this poll period. The default computer poll period is 1 Hour.
Product agents and configurations install according to the installation schedule. Select Settings node > Installation tab to configure the schedule settings.
Poll Variance
After the period is determined, you can include a poll variance to reduce the impact of multiple Deployment Agents polling at any one time. The variance ranges from 0 to 100 percent and works by staggering when the Deployment Agents poll. For example, if a poll period is set to 10 minutes with a variance of plus or minus (+/-)10% the Deployment Agent will poll between 9 and 11 minutes. The default variance is 20%.
The Server Polling and Downloads ranges from 1 minute to 7 days. The options for setting the poll period are limited to avoid overloading the demand on network bandwidth which very short poll periods would cause and the risk of missing critical updates and downloads that much longer poll periods might cause.
Event Data Uploads
The Event Data Uploads period determines how frequently the Deployment Agent uploads event data from the managed endpoint device to the Management Server database.
The period can be set to occur as low as 1 minute or as high as 1 day. The default is set to 30 minutes and the following are selectable values:
Minutes - 1, 5, 15, 30
Hours - 1, 4, 8, 12
Day - 1
After the period is determined, you can include a variance to reduce the impact of multiple Deployment Agents uploading at any one time.
Event Data Uploads
Sets the frequency with which client endpoints upload event data.
The upload poll period variance works in the same manner as the computer poll period variance and is used to stagger the times when the Deployment Agents upload event data to the Management server. The default upload poll period is 30 minutes.
The Event Data Uploads ranges from 1 minute to 1 day. The options for setting the poll period are limited to avoid overloading the demand on network bandwidth which very short poll periods would cause and the risk of missing critical updates and downloads that much longer poll periods might cause.
Configuration Deployment Format
Select the format in which to deploy configurations:
- Windows Installer MSI
- Native Configuration
When deploying a native configuration the Deployment Agent persists the configuration file using the file name configuration.a?mp. The file name is saved into the registry so that each product knows where to find the configuration.
Native configuration files contain the version of the configuration and upgrade and product code, these values are the same as those stored in the MSI file which means they can be converted to an MSI and back again.
- Location - select the ellipsis to select the required folder location.
The native configuration path can only be a valid local path, it cannot be empty or be a network path.
Caution: The Deployment Agent expands environment variables included within the native configuration path under the context of the LocalSystem account. This means environment variables such as %UserProfile% will be expanded to "C:\Windows\System32\config\SystemProfile" and not the user profile of the currently logged on user. Use of the user profile environment variables is not recommended.
Deployment Agent Permissions
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Allow self-registration - Select this option to allow local administrators to force the Deployment Agent to self-register with this deployment group. Self-registering Deployment Agents are installed using a command line with the GROUP_NAME parameter specifying the group with which the Deployment Agent registers.
This option is disabled by default but provides an alternative method for installing Deployment Agents on managed computers to register with a specific Deployment Group on the Management Center rather than predefining the group membership in the Management Console.
This option is disabled for the (Default) Deployment Group.
-
Allow unregistration - Select this option to allow local administrators to request Deployment Agents unregister computers from this deployment group.
If a computer has been unregistered by the CCA Command tool the Deployment Agent service must be restarted for it to be re-registered.
- Allow update initiation - Select this option to allow local administrators to request Deployment Agents immediately install and uninstall packages for this deployment group regardless of the deployment group installation schedule.