Agent upgrade overview
The Connected Agent supports both manual and automated upgrades. Choose the one that best meets your needs:
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Manual. Provides an interactive Agent upgrade.
Users download a newer version of the Agent from the Connected web application and then run it. This interactive upgrade method uses a wizard with a few simple pages to step users through the upgrade process. Customer-level administrators can define the specific Agent version available to users for each operating system. For more information, see Configure the Agent versions available for user download and Upgrade the Agent interactively.
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Automated. Two automated methods silently upgrade Agents without user interaction:
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Auto-upgrade method. Automatically upgrades all Agents in a group.
For this method, you specify an Agent version for a particular group, and Connected silently automates the rest of the upgrade process. For more information, see Initiate auto-upgrades of Agents.
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Command-line upgrade. Upgrades Agents regardless of group.
For this type of upgrade, use a custom script or software deployment tool that distributes the new Agent to multiple users, regardless of group, and then installs it on their computers based on a set of command-line options. For more information, see Upgrade the Agent from the command line.
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Which type of upgrade should I use?
The upgrade method you use depends on which users you plan to upgrade. Each method is best suited for a particular upgrade scenario. Do you want to upgrade a single user? A group of users? Subsets of users across groups? Here are a few additional points to consider:
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For manual upgrades, the Downloads page provides all users access to the same version of the Agent installation page for download.
If you want specific users to upgrade to a version other than the one set at the company level, either provide those users a copy of that version or upgrade them using an automated method. The administrator's version of the Downloads page provides access to all available Agents.
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The command-line method provides the most control for companies with their own software deployment tools and processes. However, it requires the most work by the administrator.
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The auto-upgrade method is the easiest way to upgrade Agents and requires the least administrator or user interaction. However, if you have very large groups or do not want to upgrade an entire group at once, it might not be the best option.
If you like the ease of upgrades that this method provides but do not want to upgrade entire groups at once, you can still use this method with a creative use of groups. See how.For example, assume that you want to conduct a small pilot program with some developers to test a new version of the Agent. However, your Development group contains 2000 users. With a little effort, you can still use the auto-upgrade method for this pilot program. Here is one way to do so:
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Create a subgroup that inherits policies under Development, the users' current group.
The subgroup automatically inherits all of its parent group's policies so moving Development users to this group will not impact their Connected features or data. If you create this group in another location in your group hierarchy, be sure to review the new group's effective policies. If you find that they do not meet your needs, set appropriate policies for the group.
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Move users from the Development group to your new pilot group.
Connected immediately notifies each user's Agent of the change. On receipt of the notification, the Agent starts to rescan the user's computer based on the new group's policies. For more details about the impact of moving users from one group to another, see Understand the impact of group-related changes.
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