Installing the Asset Discovery Agent

This how-to article will help admins to install the Asset Discovery Agent. The user must have the ability to install applications on the devices to be discovered by the agent, or they must have the ability to install via group policy.

Overview

This article describes how TeamDynamix Asset Discovery works with the Asset Discovery Agent to collect information about Windows computers. The Asset Discovery Agent is a Windows-based agent which can be installed on computers in your environment and will report data back to the TeamDynamix Asset Discovery Service. The Asset Discovery Service will then relay that information back to TeamDynamix according to the configuration in your discovery jobs.

The Asset Discovery Agent will be installed on multiple computers and will periodically pass information about those computers to the Asset Discovery Service, i.e., the Scanner. When a discovery job runs, this information will be passed to TeamDynamix in the cloud, and discovered assets, product models, product types, and manufacturers will be created based on the settings configured for that job.

By default, the Agent will reach out to the Asset Discovery Service every 30 minutes to check for any scheduled jobs that need to be run, then run the jobs and push the results to the Asset Discovery Service to then relay the information back to TeamDynamix.

Configuring the TeamDynamix Asset Discovery Agent

When configuring a discovery job to use the Asset Discovery Agent, the Agent Data Provider should be selected. This data provider includes only the Maximum Age setting, which controls the maximum age of collected data which is passed from the Scanner. This defaults to 30 days when not provided.

Installing the TeamDynamix Asset Discovery Agent

To collect data about individual machines, the TeamDynamix Asset Discovery Agent must be installed on each one. The Agent can be installed manually, through the command line, or as a group policy. 

Manual Installation

To manually install the Agent:

  1. Run the installation file provided by TeamDynamix. The file’s name will be TdxWinAgentSetup.msi.
  2. Click the Next button.

  1. Click the Browse button to select the installation location, then click the Next button. 

  1. In the TDX Discovery Agent Information window, you can override the following defaults for how the agent will be installed. Click the Next button.
  • Agent Service Name
  • Agent Service Display Name
  • Service Identity 

  1. In the TDX Discovery Scanner Information window, enter the following information to connect to the Scanner. This information can be accessed by logging on to the machine running the discovery scanner software, launching the TDX Discovery Manager application and selecting Utilities > Agent Install Assistant. 
  • Discovery Scanner Network Address or Name
  • Discovery Scanner ID
  • Discovery Scanner Certificate Name

  1. Click the Install button.

Command Line Installation

You can script the installation of the agent using the msiexec command. You will need to choose which of the parameters you want to provide, which correspond to the fields described in the manual installation above. All parameters are required for the following command to install the agent silently in the background: 

msiexec /i tdxwinagentsetup.msi /qn SERVER_ADDR=[SERVER_ADDR] SERVER_PORT=[SERVER_PORT] SERVER_ID=[SERVER_ID] CERTNAME=""

The following optional parameters can also be used:

  • SERVICE_NAME=[short name of service on agent computer. Default is 'TdxDiscoveryAgent']
  • SERVICE_DISPLAYNAME=[display name of service on agent computer. Default is 'TeamDynamix Discovery Agent']
  • SERVICE_IDENTITY=[LocalSystem, LocalService, NetworkService, User. Default is LocalSystem.]
  • SERVICE_USERNAME=[Username to run service as when SERVICE_IDENTITY is 'User'.]
  • SERVICE_PASSWORD=[Password for user identified by SERVICE_USERNAME]
  • APPDIR=[directory into which the agent should be installed

Generating a Transform (MST) File

Alternatively, instead of including individual parameters with the install command, you can generate a transform file by navigating to the TDX Discovery Manager application and selecting Utilities > Agent Install Assistant > Generate MST, then clicking the Generate MST button. This uses the TRANSFORMS property which replaces the other parameters.

msiexec /i tdxwinagentsetup.msi /qn TRANSFORMS=example.mst

Group Policy Installation

To install the Agent using a Group Policy: 

  1. Generate a transform (MST) file 
    Generate a transform file as described above.
  2. Create a distribution point 
    Create a file share that is accessible to all computers on which you would like to install the agent and place the tdxwinagentsetup.msi file and your MST file in it.
  3. Create a new Group Policy Object (GPO) and associate it with the domain
    The exact procedure depends on the operating system version you are running, but involves using the Group Policy Management application to create a new GPO and link it to the desired domain. As part of creating the GPO, you can select which computers in the domain should have the agent installed on them by using the Security Filtering section. To install the agent on all computers in the domain, configure the GPO to apply to Domain Computers in the Security Filtering section.
  4. Assign the TDX Agent MSI package and MST transform to the GPO:
    1. Edit the new GPO by right-clicking on it and selecting Edit. Right-click on Computer Configuration > Policies > Software Settings > Software installation and select New > Package. 
    2. In the file browse dialog that appears, enter the path to the MSI distribution point. Note that this must be a path that can be resolved from all computers on which the agent should be installed. Typically, using a UNC path is best. 
    3. You will then be prompted for a deployment method – select Advanced. On the properties dialog that is displayed, click on the Modifications tab, and add your MST file into the Modifications list. Click the OK button.
    4. The next time a computer in the domain and included in new GPO created here reboots, the Discovery Agent will automatically be installed and connected to the TDX Discovery Service.

Summary of Installed Files

The file paths below are relative to the install directory chosen while installing the service:

  • /config/ – This folder contains the configuration files which determine how the agent runs. 
  • /logs/ – This folder contains log files for the agent. 
  • /results/ – This folder contains the results of the agent's discovery, which are sent to the Asset Discovery Service. 
  • /servicelog/ – This folder contains log files for the service itself, independent of the jobs that it runs. 
  • tdxdiscagent.exe – This is the agent executable itself, which runs as a Service on the computer where it is installed.  
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