Running the Install/Uninstall Agents Wizard

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When you run the Install/Uninstall Agents Wizard to create Computer Discovery rules, MOM discovers the computers and immediately installs agents as soon as you complete the wizard. This happens regardless of the automatic agent management settings for the Management Servers.

The Install/Uninstall Agents Wizard allows you to specify which account you want MOM to use to install the agent, and which account you want the agent to use to perform actions on the managed computer.

To install agents immediately by using the Install/Uninstall Agents Wizard

  1. In the MOM Administrator console, expand Administration, and then click Computers.

  2. In the details pane, click Install/Uninstall Agents Wizard.

  3. If you have more than one Management Server in the management group, the Select Management Server page appears. Select a Management Server from the drop-down list and then click Next.

    Note

        You can add computers to any Management Server in the management group by running the Install/Uninstall Agents Wizard. The Management Server that you select will be the primary Management Server for the managed computers on which you install agents.

  4. If you have previously installed agents to the selected Management Server, the Install or Uninstall Agents page appears. Leave the Install Agents option selected and then click Next.

  5. On the Method for Discovering Computers and Installing Agents page, click Browse for or type in specific computer names, or click Search Criteria, and then click Next.

  6. If you selected the Browse for or type in specific computer names option in Step 3, complete the following steps:

    1. On the Computer Names page, click Browse to locate computers on your network, or type the names of computers where you want MOM to install the agents.

      Note

      You can use Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDN) or NetBIOS names. If you have Active Directory, you should use FQDN names. If you use NetBIOS names, MOM automatically contacts each of those computers to verify that they exist. This slows down computer discovery.

      Note

      You can also use the domain\computername format to indicate computers specifically. This format can also be used to discover computers in workgroups, when the workgroup name is used instead of the domain

    2. Click Next and proceed to Step 8.

  7. If you selected Search Criteria in Step 3, complete the following steps:

    1. On the Computer Discovery Rules page, click Add.

    2. In the Computer Discovery Rule property dialog box, specify the rule properties. For more information about the rule properties, see the "Computer Discovery Rule Properties" section earlier in this chapter.

    3. Repeat Steps a) and b) for each computer or group of computers that you want to install agents on.

    4. Click Next and proceed to Step 8.

  8. On the Agent Installation Permissions page, leave the Management Server Action Account selected, or click Other and type a User name and Password for the account.

    Note

        If you specify another account, that account must have administrative credentials on all computers that you are installing agents on.

    User names in the format user@domain.com are not supported for push agent installation.

  9. On the Agent Action Account page, leave the Local System option selected, or click Other and type a User name and Password for the account.

    Note

        It is recommended that you use the Local System account as the Agent Action Account. For more information about the Action Account, see the Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Security Guide.

  10. On the Agent Installation Directory page, type the local directory where the MOM agent will be installed on the targeted computers. The default directory is %PROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft Operations Manager 2005.

  11. On the Completing the Install/Uninstall Agents Wizard page, review your selections. If you want to monitor the agent installation progress, select the Show task progress check box, and then click Finish.

When you use the Install/Uninstall Agents Wizard, the Management Server performs a limited computer discovery when you complete the wizard. MOM discovers only the specific computers that match the newly created Computer Discovery rules. For more information, see the "Discovering Computers" section later in this chapter.

If changes to the properties for a Computer Discovery rule result in excluding agent-managed computers that were previously included, MOM continues to manage those computers until the agent is uninstalled.