Real-Time Agent Manager

The Real-Time Agent Manager is a Windows service installed on the same machine that the ControlUp Agent Windows service is installed on. Installing the Real-Time Agent Manager also installs the ControlUp Agent. The Real-Time Agent Manager’s main functionality is to act as a “watchdog” for the ControlUp Agent. For example, if the ControlUp Agent stops, the Real-Time Agent Manager restarts the agent. Reciprocally, if the Real-Time Agent Manager stops, the ControlUp Agent restarts the Real-Time Agent Manager.

When you run the following Real-Time Console actions on an agent machine, they will also apply to the Real-Time Agent Manager:

• Upgrade/Install

• Start

• Stop

• Restart

Note that when you change the listening port of an agent, both the ControlUp Agent and the Real-Time Agent Manager will restart.

You can configure the Real-Time Agent Manager and the ControlUp Agent either in the Real-Time Console or with MSI.

Prerequisites to enable Agent Manager

• Version 9.0

• .NET 6.0 must be installed on the agent machine for the Real-Time Agent Manager to work. If you install the Real-Time Agent Manager with the console, .NET 6.0 is installed together with it by default.

Configure Agent Manager in Console

By default, the Real-Time Agent Manager is installed when you install a 9.0 ControlUp Agent with the console. If the agent installation fails, the console will still try to install the Real-Time Agent Manager, irrelevant to the success of the agent installation.

To disable the Real-Time Agent Manager installation in the console:

In Settings > Agent > deselect the Enable Agent Manager checkbox:

Enabling or disabling the Real-Time Agent Manager only affects whether the console installs the Real-Time Agent Manager together with the agent or not. It doesn’t affect any of the Real-Time Agent Manager’s features while the service is already running.

Configure Agent Manager with MSI

If you don’t use the console to upgrade your agents (and install the agent manager), you can use our new MSI packages to upgrade your agents:

• Use ControlUpAgent-RealTimeAgentManager-net6-x64-signed-9.0.0.xxxx.zip for an agent machine that already has .NET 6.0 installed.

• Use ControlUpAgent-RealTimeAgentManager-Dotnet-net6-x64-signed-9.0.0.xxxx.zip for an agent machine that doesn’t have .NET 6.0 installed. Note that you must manually install .NET 6.0 on the agent machine.

Note

Both ControlUpRealTimeAgentManager MSIs will also install the ControlUp Agent.

Configure Registry Settings

ControlUp Agent key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Smart-X\ControlUp\Agent\AgentWatchdog

ControlUp Agent Manager key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Smart-X\ControlUp\Real-Time Agent Manager

Values:

• IntervalSec. Interval (seconds) between restarts attempts of the service. Default: 60 , Minimum: 10, Maximum: 600.

• RestartAttempts. Number of restart attempts for service. Default: 3, Minimum: 3, Maximum: 20.

• ResetPeriodHour. Number of hours before trying to restart again after failed attempts. Default: 24, Minimum: 1, Maximum: none.

• ServiceDownDuration. Minimum time (seconds) the observed service is stopped before watchdog restarts it. Default: 60, Minimum: 1, Maximum: none.

Watchdog Logic

The Real-Time Agent Manager and the ControlUp Agent share common watchdog logic with a few differences:

• The Real-Time Agent Manager watchdog functionality is activated when the Real-Time Agent Manager Service starts, and continues to run until you fully stop the Service.

• If the Real-Time Agent Manager watchdog detects that the services its observing are uninstalled, a log is written in the log4net and the Event Viewer.

  • The Real-Time Agent Manager watchdog will check if the service is installed again every 30 seconds.

  • The agent watchdog won’t continue checking if the service is installed again after the first time, you must restart the agent to reactivate the agent watchdog.

• If the Real-Time Agent Manager watchdog detects that the services its observing are running, it will wait asynchronously until the services are in stopped status.

• If the Real-Time Agent Manager watchdog detects that the services its observing are stopped (including stop pending or paused) for 60 seconds (configurable under the ServiceDownDuration value), it will try to restart the service for 3 attempts (configurable under the RestartAttempts value), with each attempt after 60 seconds (configurable under the IntervalSec value).

• If all attempts fail, you can schedule the next time to try to restart after 24 hours (configurable under the ResetPeriodHour value).

Troubleshooting

Issue

You stop the ControlUp Agent in the Services manager, but the ControlUp Agent service keeps restarting.

Solution

1. In the Services manager, stop the Real-Time Agent Manager.

2. After 60 seconds (configurable under the ServiceDownDuration value), the agent tries to restart the Real-Time Agent Manager. Stop the agent.