Communications

• 5 min to read •

The 'Communications' area of the console settings allows you to configure the agent timer and download settings, inventory scan policies, and the patch content download settings.

Prerequisites 

A Syxsense Manage account that has 'Admin' permissions

Discovery: Communications Area

 

Communications Area

Click on 'Settings'  in the top right corner of the screen.

The 'Communications' area of the console settings will be displayed.

(Click on the 'expand' arrow if required)

API Tokens

You can Add a new API access token, Edit the existing ones, Revoke and Regenerate already expired tokens.

Find out more about the API Tokens on the Syxsense API page.

Timers

If devices are being managed using the legacy agentless technology (see the 'Features' section below) this area allows you to configure the behavior of the 'dissolving' agent that is installed on devices via a vRep whenever devices are targeted with a task.

 Agentless is a legacy option and must be requested from your account manager or the technical support team.

Be aware that the configurable options have no effect on devices that have a MicroAgent or vRep installed. These options allow you to:

  • Spesify software update scan frequency
  • Select how you want the agent to dissolve after it has received its last command
  • Keep cached files downloads for: X days - allows the cached download option to be configured. The default is 5 days.
  • Download Folder option allows for the download folder override; leave this field empty for default. The default location on Windows will be C:\$VCMSTEMP$\DownloadFolder
  • Wake-on-LAN port number allows for configuration of the default WoL port of 7
  • Blackout Hours (Global): Enabling this option will enforce blackout hours on all devices in the console.
Discovery Settings

A Discovery Task uses a simple ping sweep across an IP range when trying to discover devices.

Enabling deep scan causes the task to carry out multiple pings as well checking the required ports directly (rather than wait for name resolution).

Inventory

Devices that have a MicroAgent or vRep installed will send inventory information back to the console based on the settings within this section.

Both the frequency and content of the scan are configurable.

 It is possible to have multiple 'Inventory Temples' configured that may run with different frequencies and return different content.

Features

This area of the console determines whether discovered devices will have a full MicroAgent installed or a dissolving agent.

The devices are agentless and will only have a temporary agent installed when they are targeted with a task. 

 Agentless is a legacy option and must be requested from your account manager or the technical support team.

You can configure the inventory upload to the console together with a device startup.

Network traffic generated by the solution can be configured in this area.

The ability to disable the console background images is also provided.

Patch Download Settings

The following options can be configured:

  • The 'Content Download Details' option controls whether newly released patch content is automatically downloaded to your console. With this setting ticked the console will carry out a daily check for the new patch content.
  • The 'Automatic Scan’ option determines whether the system will be scanned for the new vulnerabilities. All the components that are possibly vulnerable are placed in the 'To Be Checked' area and are then included in a scan task.
  • The 'Set how Device Health color is calculated' option determines whether new patch content is immediately included in the algorithm that sets the device health globe color. A delay will allow you time to deploy new patch content before it influences the health globe colors.

 Recommended Enabled: Include Feature Update version in Device Health. Feature Updates eventually fall out of support and thus will not include new security updates. When this occurs for outdated Windows devices, the indicator will remain red until the OS version has been upgraded.

  • The 'Deploy all new patches on release' option configures whether an auto fix is set to on or off for patches as they are downloaded into the console. Turning on an auto fix for a patch will cause a device to download and install the patch if the system reports that it requires remediation during a patch scan. If triggered, a patch scan task will deploy patches that have an auto fix turned on.

 This setting does not turn on an auto fix for patches already downloaded to the console.

  • The 'Troubleshoot patch deployments' option turns on patch logging down to the component level of the patches. This will allow detailed logs to be created which can help troubleshoot patch installation issues.
  • The 'Check Now' button will force the console to immediately check for any new patch content that has been released.
AWS Settings This options allows to pull virtual devices data from the AWS portal.
Azure Device Management Manage devices that have been joined or registered in Azure AD.

 

 

Last Update: Mar 12, 2024

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