Process Manual Agent Installations in Operations Manager 2007

Applies To: Operations Manager 2007 R2, Operations Manager 2007 SP1

Manual installation of an agent refers to the process of running MOMAgent.msi locally on a computer that is to host a Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 agent. When it is installed, the agent attempts to join the specified management group by contacting a specified management server. You can use security settings at both the management group and the management server level to configure how requests from manually installed agents are processed.

The following three options are available to process manually installed agents.

Option Action

Reject new manual agent installations

Designates that all requests from a manually installed agent will be denied by Operations Manager 2007. This is the most secure setting and is selected by default.

Review new manual agent installations in pending management view

Designates that all requests from a manually installed agent will be directed to the Pending Management node before being allowed to join the management group. An administrator must first review the request and manually approve the agents' request.

Auto-approve new manually installed agents

This option is available only if Review new manual agent installations in pending management view has been selected. This setting causes Operations Manager 2007 to automatically allow any manually installed agent to join the management group. This is the least secure option.

Important

A management group or management server must be configured to accept agents that are installed with MOMAgent.msi or they will be automatically rejected and therefore not displayed in the Operations console. If a management group is configured to accept manually installed agents, the agents will display in the console approximately one hour after they are installed.

The following procedures show you how to configure security settings for manual agent installations.

How to Configure Security for Manual Agent Installations for the Management Group

Use the following procedure to configure a management group to accept or deny agents that are installed manually.

To configure manual agent installations settings for a management group

  1. Log on to the Operations console with an account that is a member of the Operations Manager Administrators role for the Operations Manager 2007 management group.

  2. Click the Administration button.

  3. In the Administration pane, expand Administration, and then click Settings.

  4. In the Settings pane, expand Type: Server, right-click Security, and then click Properties.

  5. In the Global Management Server Settings - Security dialog box, on the General tab, do one of the following:

    • To maintain a higher level of security, select Reject new manual agent installations, and then click OK.

    • To configure for manual agent installation, click Review new manual agent installations in pending management view, and then click OK. For more information about manual agent installations, see the How to Approve a Pending Agent Installation section later in this topic.

    • Optionally, select Auto-approve new manually installed agents.

How to Override Manual Agent Settings on a Management Server

Use the following procedure to override the Management group Manual Agent Installs setting and configure the setting for a specific management server.

To override the manual agent installs setting for a management server

  1. Log on to the Operations console with an account that is a member of the Operations Manager Administrators role for the Operations Manager 2007 management group.

  2. Click the Administration button.

  3. In the Administration pane, expand Administration, expand Device Management, and then click Management Servers.

  4. In the results pane, right-click the management server that you want to view the properties of, and then click Properties.

  5. In the Management Server Properties dialog box, click the Security tab.

  6. On the Security tab, do the following:

    • To maintain a higher level of security, select Reject new manual agent installations, and then click OK.

    • To configure for manual agent installation, click Review new manual agent installations in pending management view, and then click OK.

    • Optionally, select Auto-approve new manually installed agents.

  7. Click OK.

How to Approve a Pending Agent Installation

Use the following procedure to approve an Operations Manager 2007 agent installed for a management group with MOMAgent.msi. This procedure is not needed if the management group has been configured to automatically approve manually installed agents.

Tip

In Microsoft Operations Manager 2005, the Pending Management window displayed both agents that were in the process of being installed and those that were in the process of being uninstalled. In Operations Manager 2007, only those agents that are in the process of being installed are displayed in this window.

To approve a pending agent installation

  1. In the Operations console, click Administration.

  2. Click Administration, expand Administration, expand Device Management, and then click Pending Management.

  3. In the Pending Management pane, select computers in Type: Manual Agent Install.

  4. Right-click the computers, and then click Approve.

  5. In the Manual Agent Install dialog box, click Approve. The computers now appear in the Agent Managed node and are ready to be managed.

    Note

    Rejected agents remain in Pending Management until the agent is uninstalled for the management group.