Manual Agent installation issue - "Installing Agent Software" message when attempting to choose resources

I have the scenario where SolarWinds does not have any server administration permissions, so I cant use WMI (easily) or use the agent installation from within SolarWinds.

I can however install the agents manually, and have been doing so successfully most of the time.
I have been doing this via the route suggested by Support of copying the c:\programdata\solarwinds\agent\ files across from my Main Polling Engine to the target machine and then running the agent install msi locally. (Apparently this avoids issues with copying the plugins across networks which can cause hanging).

For most of my installs, this has been perfect.

However, on 1 particular server (in production use, so I can't simply log in and reboot, and it's under change control) I have the scenario where:

1. The agent has connected back - oddly reporting a 169.x.x.x IP

2. The agent states Plugin Update required

3. If I list resources, I get this popup

and I therefore cannot select the resources I wish to monitor.

4. The agent is currently reporting in CPU & Memory, Machine Type etc. - So it evidently communicating on some level.

I have attempted the following:

1. Restart of the Agent Service on the server
2. Restart of the Agent Service from the Orion Console
3. I have run a plugin report and can view the versions (they do look old - but others with the same version are working fine).

Any thoughts on what next?
Would running "Update" work? (I have auto updates turned off - and SW does not have admin permissions to install the agent automatically).

Thanks

Tim

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alphabits

I am having this same problem on a few Linux servers. Particularly frustrating.

Already confirmed no networking issues.

Also tried complete removal of the agent from the server and fresh install of brand new agent.

Still no good.

I've created a case with Support and uploaded the agent diagnostics. Hopefully I'll hear something this month.

sum_giais

I would attempt updating the agent. That implies you’re not running the agent version that should be running with the orion engine version and may be part of your issue if so. It’s not recommended to run older agents with newer orion versions and typically a new version of the agent is provided with every release.

Also note that once the agent is installed in Windows, the service runs under the ‘NT Authority\System’ built-in account which is essentially local admin. It has permissions to update/install. Deploying via Orion pre-install is a separate function. Running an update on an installed agent I don’t believe depends on or utilizes WMI (note not 100% sure on this.)

If that doesn’t work I would uninstall the agent, reboot, purge the ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\SolarWinds\’ and ‘C:\ProgramData\SolarWinds\’ folders. There’s also registry keys in ‘HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\SolarWinds\Agent’ that you could clean up, as well as confirm that the SolarWinds cert store and certificate are removed post uninstall. In manage local system certificates the agent creates a ‘SolarWinds Agent’ cert store that holds both the required certificates.

Good luck and hope this helps.

aLTeReGo

While I don't believe the 169.x.x.x address is related to the issues you describe installing Agent related plugins, it certainly can't hurt to try changing it.

This typically occurs when there are two or more network interfaces in the machine, one of which is unused but is ordered higher (or lower depending upon perspective) than the interface that is active. To change the IP address the Orion Agent uses, simply edit the node properties, click 'Select IP Address', select the radio button for the 'real' IP address of the machine. Next, click the 'Select IP address' button and the 'Submit' button on the 'Edit Properties' page to save your changes.

Once completed, wait a few minutes and attempt to run a 'List Resources' again.

alphabits

I actually ended up needing to ssh into the Linux servers and manually configure the Solarwinds agent.

After that everything worked fine. Changed the DNS to IP and entered in all of the login information.

TimWhite_LC2

Thanks, I didn't realise I could update it without admin on the server, that's very helpful.
I will attempt this when I'm back in the office next week.

I agree, it does seem that I must have older plugins somehow, even though the agent is reporting 2.4.4.2285 which is the agent that goes with 2020.2.4 as far as I understand.

TimWhite_LC2

Thanks, I will give that a go.

TimWhite_LC2

Thanks Alterego, I will amend this once I have the details of the correct IP (it has 4 IPV4 addresses, albeit 2 are 169....)

TimWhite_LC2

Update - The server was rebooted a few times over the weekend before I had a chance to attempt the update and now 'completed' the install and has the correct plugins, so I've not had a chance to try the update of the agent.

Annoyingly a second server was in a similar state (reported as working, but when I looked to run the choose resources job it stated 'installing software').
I tried restarting the agent from the SW GUI and it has reported "Restarting" ever since.

I logged onto the server and the agent service was running.
Data is being reported back
I've restarted the agent service on the server.

Nothing clears this "restarting" message.

Any thoughts on this?
Push out an update?
Delete and re-add the agent in the GUI?

This does seem like the GUI isn't communicating properly with the agent somehow.

Cheers
Tim

aLTeReGo

Is your second machine running Windows? If so, it sounds like the Agent is awaiting a reboot of the server to finish the install/upgrade of the .NET Framework. The Agent itself is written in C++, but many of the Orion plugins are written in C# and therefore require the .NET Framework to be installed before certain jobs will function. When you click List/Choose resources, those plugins and their plugin dependencies are then deployed to the agent.