Install Agents on Unprotected Devices

Written By Marissa Fegan (Super Administrator)

Updated at June 1st, 2020

As ConnectWise Automate is a network-based device management system, it's a snap to identify unprotected endpoints and deploy VIPRE agents to them as needed.

Unprotected devices on Server and Cloud

ConnectWise Automate makes it easy to view unprotected devices across your entire network and deploy VIPRE to them as needed. The clear benefit is that while VIPRE Endpoint for Server identifies unprotected agents on a contained network, VIPRE Cloud does not yet have that possibility; Cloud endpoints can theoretically be anywhere in the world and not necessarily on the same network. 

However, since all your endpoints are linked to ConnectWise itself, you have visibility to them and can deploy agents as you like. These unprotected devices can be monitored from the dashboard. This is one of the useful cross-application utilities that the VIPRE Plugin provides, as administrators are able to work with the data in both the ConnectWise solution and your VIPRE sites.

Installation and Deployment

To install VIPRE on unprotected devices

The VIPRE agent is the piece of software that is deployed to (installed on) the endpoint device. 

  1. Select a device group or a single device
  2. Select the VIPRE tab
  3. Click on Unprotected. This will display all machines on which the VIPRE agent has not been installed
  4. Select the site name and the policy under which you want the selected device(s) to be managed
  5. Click Install

The installation process begins. During the agent install process, the status will be updated accordingly to tell you when the installation has been started or completed. 

The actual agent type that is installed depends on whether you are deploying to a VIPRE Server site or a VIPRE Cloud site. The agent software for Server vs. Cloud is functionally identical (and in fact, both are always updated simultaneously). 

Installing the agent may take a few minutes, as it includes the deployment of the file, the actual Windows install, and potentially a reboot.

Refer to Related Articles for more information on automating the installation process through the use of custom scripting.

Monitoring the installation process

Though the process is automated, administrators may want to check to see what the status of the install is. If desired, the ConnectWise Control Center can be used to look at each device and identify processes that have been started and completed, in addition to seeing the queue of current actions. The ConnectWise server shows which commands have been executed in order, what the status of the command is, and when it was last updated. Command details give more information on the tasks that need to be completed.

Updating VIPRE agents is handled at the policy level. If you want to adjust whether agents automatically update to the latest released agent software, this change is made at the policy level. Log in directly to your VIPRE Server Console or VIPRE Cloud Console in order to check a specific policy’s settings. 

VIPRE sites run periodic version checks, and auto-updating agents will be notified that a new agent version is ready to be downloaded and updated to. If auto-update is enabled in a policy, agents on that policy will then proceed to update their own software based on the update settings.