Agent Management

Please be aware there are significant changes coming in Ivanti Neurons Agent Management. This will impact your Neurons workflow. For further details see Migrating to New Agent Management.

The Ivanti Neurons Agent is the end-point facility of the Ivanti Neurons Platform. The Agent is in charge of a range of tasks, including endpoint registration and configuration, common messaging, error reporting, etc.

Proxy Configuration for Ivanti Neurons Agent is configurable through the options file, applicable only to Windows devices.

Engines such as the Edge Intelligence engine and its sensors, or the Automation engine can be installed by the agent. Engine tasks can then be scheduled and triggered by the agent.

The engines and sensors often require privileged access to perform their work, so they generally run as LocalSystem. For example, if you use the agent to execute a PowerShell script, the Automation engine runs the script as LocalSystem.

Requirements

To be able to take advantage of all features1 of the Neurons Platform, endpoints on which the Neurons Agent will be installed need to comply with all of the following requirements. This may preclude some versions of otherwise supported operating systems, because they cannot meet other requirements.

If you have firewalls that prevent communication between the Neurons Platform and an Ivanti Neurons Agent, create a firewall exception for *.ivanticloud.com.
For more information, see Required URLs, IP addresses and ports.

You cannot install an agent on a device that has the Connector server utility installed.

Installing the Agent

To download the Ivanti Neurons Agent software, go to Admin > Agent Management in the left navigation pane.

To install an Ivanti Neurons Agent on a Microsoft Windows endpoint, first choose your preferred installation method:

  • Interactive installation

    1. On the Interactive tab, choose the version of the agent you want to install: with or without remote control.
    2. Click the appropriate Download button.
      Two files are downloaded:
      • the agent installation file (.exe), and
      • the configuration settings (.options).
    3. Make sure that the two downloaded files are in the same folder, and run the installation file.

  • Silent installation

    1. On the Silent tab, choose the version of the agent you want to install: with or without remote control.
    2. Click the appropriate Download button.
    3. Use the command line with installation parameters that is provided on the page to run the installation file.

To install an Ivanti Neurons Agent on an Apple macOS endpoint, first choose your preferred installation method:

  • Interactive installation

    1. On the Interactive tab, Download the agent installation disk image (.dmg).
    2. Mount the disk image and run the installation package (.pkg) that it contains.
      Wait for the installation to complete.
    3. On the Interactive tab, copy the appropriate command: with or without remote control.
    4. Open Terminal and run the command.
      This registers the agent in your Neurons environment.

  • Silent installation

    1. On the Silent tab:
      • Download the agent installation disk image.
      • Copy the appropriate set of commands: with or without remote control.
    2. Execute the commands.
      This mounts the disk image, runs the installation package it contains, and registers the agent in your Neurons environment.

During installation of the Neurons agent on macOS devices several permissions and notifications dialogs will appear, which may include use of Location Services for the location sensor. These permissions and notifications have to be set and/or allowed for the agent to function correctly.
You can find MDM profiles to set most of these permissions in advance on the Ivanti Community, in the KB article MDM Profiles for Ivanti Neurons.

To install an Ivanti Neurons Agent on a Linux endpoint:

  1. Choose the applicable Linux distribution.
  2. Download the agent installation file (.sh).
  3. Open a shell as root and navigate to the downloaded installation file.
  4. Execute the installation file:
    sh <filename>.sh
    This installs the agent and registers it in your Neurons environment.

After the agent has been installed and is listed on the Devices page, you can view the device details, or ask questions on the Edge Intelligence page.

If you use distribution software (such as Ivanti Endpoint Manager) that sends the arguments separately, remember to remove the agent filename from the copied text before you paste it into the distribution software. For details on how to use Ivanti Endpoint Manager to distribute the Ivanti Neurons Agent, see How to deploy an Ivanti Neurons Agent using Endpoint Manager.

Uninstalling the Agent

  • To uninstall an Ivanti Neurons Agent on a Microsoft Windows endpoint, execute the following command:
    C:\Program Files\Ivanti\Ivanti Neurons Agent\STAgentManagement.exe -uninstall
  • The uninstall log can be found at:
    C:\ProgramData\Ivanti\Ivanti Neurons Agent\Logs\AGENT_uninstall.log
  • For an overview and explanation of possible parameters, execute the following command:
    C:\Program Files\Ivanti\Ivanti Neurons Agent\STAgentManagement.exe /?

For additional information, see this article in the Community: How to uninstall the Ivanti Neurons Agent.

  1. To uninstall an Ivanti Neurons Agent on an Apple macOS endpoint, execute the following command from the Terminal or using a device management application:
    /usr/local/com.ivanti.cloud.agent/IvantiAgent/bin/stagentctl uninstall
  2. Navigate to Users & Groups in system settings on the machine, and delete the _ivantiNeuronsMacPatchAgent account.
    Alternatively, use the command sudo sysadminctl -deleteUser _ivantiNeuronsMacPatchAgent.
  • No uninstall log is left behind.
  • For an overview and explanation of possible parameters, execute the following command:
    /usr/local/com.ivanti.cloud.agent/IvantiAgent/bin/stagentctl

For additional information, see this article in the Community: How to manually uninstall the macOS Neurons Agent.

  • To uninstall an Ivanti Neurons Agent on a Linux endpoint (as well as all installed engines), execute the following command:
    /opt/ivanti/cloudagent/bin/stagentctl uninstall
  • The uninstall log can be found at:
    /opt/ivanti/cloudagent