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How to enable / disable auto-update of the Agent
How to enable / disable auto-update of the Agent
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Written by Arick Disilva
Updated this week

Before you enable auto-update, please ensure you have set up the Temporary Antivirus Exceptions to avoid any issues with your antivirus software.

Enabling Auto-Update

The Autoupdate tab allows you to create update channels that you can assign to computers for automatically updating them to the desired Agent versions, on a scheduled basis. For example, you can create a channel to update a computer to the latest version of the Windows Agent on Sundays from 12 am – 1 am. In this case, the Agent will check for the latest update every Sunday and try to download and apply the update within the given timeframe if the computer is online. If the computer is offline on a given Sunday, the Agent will try again the next Sunday.

The Agent checks for an update every 15 minutes and it takes about a minute for the installation process on the computer. However, it might take 2-3 hours for the update to take place to avoid network throttling and load.

There are two steps to applying the auto-update feature:

Step 1: Create a Channel

First, you will need to create the update channel to select which Agent version will be applied on what schedule.

1. Click the Gear icon near the top-right corner of the dashboard.

2. Click Settings underneath the pop-up menu.

3. Select the Autoupdate tab. The Agent automatic updates screen will open:

4. Click the Create channel button to create a new channel. The Create channel window will open:

a. Enter a name for the channel in the NAME field.

b. Select days when the update will be applied.

c. Click the small Circles to set the PERIODS. You can add a new period by clicking the Plus (+) button and delete a period by clicking the Minus () button. Note that the updates are scheduled according to the UTC time zone and not by the user’s time zone.

d. Enable the AUTO-UPDATE TO THE LATEST VERSION option if you want to automatically update a computer to the latest version of the Agent each time a new version is released. If you disable this option, you will be able to select the Agent version manually (see below).

e. If you’ve disabled the above option, you can choose an Agent VERSION manually. Select an Agent version for macOS. Click the Plus button to add a version for Windows. Click the X button if you want to remove an OS.

f. Click the CREATE CHANNEL button to save the channel. After you have created a channel, you can assign it to a single computer from the Computer’s Settings window or to multiple computers from the Computer Action Menu.

5. You will see a list of existing channels.

6. Click the Pencil icon to edit a channel.

7. Click the Trash Can icon to remove a channel. When you remove a channel, a computer using the channel will switch to the Default channel. Note that you cannot remove the Default channel.

Step 2: Apply the Update Channel to Computer(s)

The second step is to apply the update channel you created in Step 1 above to one or more computers.

1. Select one or more computers from the Computers screen by clicking the tick marks in front of the computers’ names.

2. Select the Change update channel option from the Computer Action Menu on top. A pop-up window will open:

  1. Select an update channel from the UPDATE CHANNEL list.

  2. Click the CONFIRM button.

Notes:

  • You will need Windows Agent 23.41 or above and Mac Agent 24.45 or above to use custom update channels. Older versions of the Agent only support the Default channel.

  • If you haven’t applied any update channel to a computer, the Default channel will be used. Currently, the Default channel is configured to disable auto-update (the AUTO-UPDATE TO THE LATEST VERSION option disabled, the Mac Agent filed is empty, and the Windows Agent set to 0.0.1).

Disabling Auto-Update

Uncheck all the days in a channel to disable auto-update for that channel:

Enabling/Disabling Auto-Update via Installation/Config File Parameters

You can also enable/disable auto-update via installation/configuration file parameters.

Unless disabled during the Agent installation or in the Agent's config file, an Agent will update itself based on the update channel settings defined on the Dashboard. Disabling automatic updates during installation or in the Agent config file will prevent the Agent from checking for updates.

Windows

Via the Installation Parameters

You can enable/disable auto-update when installing the Agent by adding the TMDISABLEAUTOUPDATE=0 or TMDISABLEAUTOUPDATE=1 command line parameter to the file name. Where, 1 means enable, 0 means disable. For example, to enable auto-update, use the following command:

msiexec /i teramind_agent_v0.1.249_x86.msi TMDISABLEAUTOUPDATE=1

To disable auto-update, use the command below:

curl teramind_agent_v1.235-d(1).pkg | sudo bash -

Via the Configuration File

For an existing Agent installation, you can change the Agent configuration file to enable/disable auto-update. The configuration file is usually located at this location:

The config file is usually located in the following locations:

  • Hidden Agent: C:\ProgramData\{4CEC2908-5CE4-48F0-A717-8FC833D8017A}\config

  • Revealed Agent: C:\ProgramData\Teramind Agent\config

Here, <agent version> is the Agent version, for example, 20.0.1084. <guid> is the globally unique identifier of the Agent. For example, {551DD8F9-2009-4565-B57B-1390B7DA6AF0}. Check out this Knowledge Base article to learn how to find your Agent version.

To enable the auto-update, add this line to the agent.conf file:

disable-autoupdate=0

Alternatively, you can just remove the disable-autoupdate line entirely to enable auto-update.

To disable auto-update, add this line:

disable-autoupdate=1

Mac

Via the Installation Parameters

You can enable/disable auto-update when installing the Agent by adding the -d(0) or -d(1) command line parameter to the file name. Where, 1 means enable, 0 means disable. For example, to enable auto-update, use the following command:

curl teramind_agent_v1.235-d(0).pkg | sudo bash –

To disable auto-update, use the command below:

curl teramind_agent_v1.235-d(1).pkg | sudo bash -

Via the Configuration File

For an existing Agent installation, you can change the Agent configuration file to enable/disable auto-update. The configuration file is usually located at this location: /usr/local/teramind/agent/etc/agent.conf).

To enable the auto-update, add this line to the agent.conf file:

disable-autoupdate=0

Alternatively, you can just remove the disable-autoupdate line entirely to enable auto-update.

To disable auto-update, add this line:

disable-autoupdate=1

On-Premise / Private Cloud Deployment

The auto-update feature isn't available on On-Premise or Private Cloud deployments.

However, you can push the latest agent available in your dashboard to online computers from the Computers List. Please see the How to update the Teramind Agent remotely guide for further details.

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