Refresh

The Agents page will refresh every 60 seconds by default or this can be switched off

The Auto-Refresh and Show in subfolders settings will be remembered when you next log in

Show in subfolders  

By default, the list of agents only shows those in the current folder. Check this to view and manage agents in this folder and all folders below it, a useful option if you’re managing a large folder structure.

Create new...

Use to tell Highlight about a new agent or agent group you’re creating

Agent server software

Download the agent server software, required for setting up a Highlight agent on a server

Agent groups are used when planning resilience, allowing both agents in a group to independently poll their assigned Highlight folder(s). Groups may have one or more agents, the first listed being the primary agent which is used for tech testing, for example.

New Agent Group

Create Use after entering a name to create the new agent group

Connectivity alerts

If one agent in a group used for polling cannot contact individual devices, Highlight sends a weekly notification to those email addresses in the agents' Notify field. The email will be sent on a Tuesday morning UTC, and will include the total number of watches for which there has been at least 24 hours of good samples received from one poller but only bad samples from the other.
IP/Name details will be included for up to 200 watches, split between those not contactable by poller 1 and those not contactable by poller 2. See example below.

Alerting is enabled by default. Uncheck "Connectivity alerts" to stop receiving these alert emails.

Edit Agent Group

This dialog is opened using to the right of each group name.

Save Use after altering an existing agent group name

Delete An agent group can only be deleted if it does not contain any agents. Move agents to another group or to Unassigned to delete the group.

To assign an Agent group to a folder refer to Agent selection below

For each existing agent, you can see the following options:

1. State: an agent is activated when it communicates for the first time

   agent is communicating and enabled

   agent has not activated or is not communicating

   agent has activated but is not enabled

2. Name: shows the agent name as assigned by a user

3. Defined: shows the Inheritance Icon and full path

   the agent is inherited from the root folder or

   the agent is created in a folder with the full path shown

4. Use to view details on the agent such as the notify email address or to delete an agent
   Use to access agent tools for ping, traceroute and to view assignment details (see section below)

5. Agent ID: a Highlight generated identifier

6. Last contact: agents attempt to make contact every 10 seconds. This field displays coloured text showing the period of time since contact was made:

   green

   if contact made within the last 3 minutes (e.g. <1 min)

   red

   if no contact for 3 or more minutes (e.g. 2 hours)

   black

   if there's never been contact (displays Never)

7. Enabled:

   enabled (green toggle)

   disabled (red toggle)

Agent icon

agent is communicating and enabled

agent has not activated or is not communicating

agent has activated but is not enabled

Agent

Enabled or   Disabled, a message shows which user last enabled this agent and when

Name

any text that helps you identify this agent, which may include the hostname for example. This field is required.

Notify

one or more email addresses (separated with a comma) to receive alerts from Highlight should this agent go off-line or stop responding. Highlight will only send alerts for activated, enabled agents. See the agent notification sample emails section below.
This field is required and an actively monitored email address is highly recommended to ensure the agent gets prompt attention if down.
If the agent is one of a pair in an agent group used for polling, Highlight also sends a weekly email to the Notify address(es) for watches that are only accessible from one of the agents in the group.

Notify after

by default, alerts are sent after 30 minutes and again after another 30 minutes. This can be adjusted down in 5 minute intervals to receive quicker notification.

Group

at creation an agent will be Unassigned by default or if assigned to an existing group, the option to Make Primary will also become available.
The first agent listed in a group is the designated primary agent, which is used for technical testing and marked with when the agent is edited. Typically a group also has one secondary agent although further agents are permitted if used for flow collection.

Defined In

shows the Inheritance Icon and full path from the folder level where the agent is installed

the agent is inherited from the root folder or

the agent is created in a folder with the full path shown

Create Click brings up the Edit Agent window which contains a single use Activation Code. You need to copy and paste this code into the agent installation dialog on the intended server. Note: the activation code is only visible once. If you require the code again it will need to be regenerated using Reset and entered into the agent dialog on the server.

To assign an Agent to a folder refer to Agent selection below

To edit an agent click anywhere on the line or on .

1. Details: see Create new agent section above

2. Status: this area shows

   ID

   a Highlight generated identifier

   Activated

   Activated or Not activated to indicate if the agent is activated or not

   Reset

   use to reset the activation code. Note: this will cause an existing active device to go inactive

   Activation Code

   displayed only after clicking Create for a new agent or Reset for an existing agent, this code needs to be entered into the agent dialog on the server

   Status

   Communicating or Not communicating to indicate if the agent is communicating or not

   Last contact

   shows the last agent contact date and time; for a communicating agent contact is continuous but the time only updates when the dialog is opened

3. Host details: this area is updated once a day if the agent is enabled and contact made. It shows

   Last update

   shows the date and time of the most recent agent contact, typically this updates once a day

   Hostname

   shows the agent's name if contact has been made

   IP addresses

   shows the agent's IP addresses if contact has been made

   OS version

   shows version (for example, Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Standard) if contact has been made

   Processor

   shows the first processor found (if more than one) and the number of cores

   Memory

   shows how much memory is installed

Save Use to save any changes to an existing agent

Delete Use with caution as deleting an agent may mean Highlight can no longer collect and show data for any associated watches. See the agent tools section below - the Assignment tab shows which folders are using a particular agent. Deletion of an agent cannot be undone.

To use an agent or agent group in Highlight requires two separate actions - creating the agent/group, then telling Highlight where to use that agent/group to do a particular job. This gives you a lot of flexibility in how agents are used.

To assign an agent or group to a folder, select the folder in Network Explorer and from Admin Browse, and select to edit

Settings are inherited, so if you select an agent in one folder, those settings will apply to all folders beneath it unless locally overridden.

You can tell Highlight to use a given agent for any combination of Poller & WiFi, Flow and Controller collection.

Poller & WiFi and Controller tabs

No collection

Don't poll any watches under this folder

Defined locally

Select this option to override any inherited settings and specify one (or more) agents/agent groups to be available for use as the Poller.

Inherit from [folder]

This is the default and means this folder will inherit the settings from a folder somewhere above it in the tree. The inherited settings will be shown in the list below for information. To change it, select Defined locally.

More than one agent or group may be selected on the Poller & WiFi and Controller tabs

Changing the default poller could cause Highlight to stop collecting data. Only make changes which are fully understood. Contact us for assistance if required.

A blue star indicates this is the default poller to be used for each watch in this folder. This can be overridden for individual bearer watches using Edit watch.

An empty star appears when you hover on a selected agent or agent group. Click the star to make the selection default. See Poller & WiFi tab image above.

Flow collection

No collection

Don't collect Flow data for this folder - any Flow watches that are configured under this folder will not be notified to the agent, so flows received by the agent are ignored

Defined locally

Select this option to override any inherited settings and specify which agents and/or groups can collect Flow. These agents will be notified by Highlight of any Flow watches configured beneath this folder and process Flow data received.

Inherit from [folder]

This is the default and means this folder will inherit the settings from a folder somewhere above it in the tree. The inherited settings (i.e. the selected agent, if there is one) will be shown in the list below for information. To change it, select Defined locally.

More than one agent or group may be selected on the Flow collection tab

Agent tools are useful for troubleshooting from within Highlight.

IP Tools tab

Target

Enter a hostname or IP address and select Ping or Traceroute - buttons are disabled until a valid target is entered and while waiting for results

Ping

Verify the target is reachable and return results including average time taken to reach the target

Traceroute

Trace the route to the target and return results showing up to 30 hops

Assignment tab

Review this tab to determine which folders are using this agent. See the agent selection section above for how to change which agent is in use for a folder.

Initial agent offline email

Note: 30 minutes is the default notification period for both the initial and secondary email.
An admin user can adjust these down in 5 minute intervals to receive quicker notification.
See the Notify after field in the create new agent section above.

Second and final agent offline email

Agent online email