What resources does a Master-Agent control?

Operationally, each Master-Agent is a separate instance with ownership of its own resources, such as:

• Database files

• Reports

• Logging

• Agent Settings

Note: Prior to UpdateEXPERT Premium 7.x the items listed below were kept in the Registry. As of UpdateEXPERT Premium 7.x, the majority of items listed below are kept in MSDE or SQL Server database tables.

• Enumeration results

• Query results

• Default and Alternate Credentials data

• Required Updates data

• Validation results

• Group and Profile data

• Leaf relationship data

• Resumable Task data

Registry data is under the key:

  HKLM\SOFTWARE\St. Bernard Software\UpdateEXPERT

The Master-Agent (UEAgent.exe) receives directives from the Console user, and in turn delegates specific tasks to other processes on the local system including UEFile.exe (file transfer), UELog.exe (writes ActorUserLog.txt file), and UEActor.exe (database access). Additionally, the Master-Agent may communicate with Leaf-Agents (UEAgent.exe in Leaf "role") on remote machines, who in turn utilize their own subset of resources.

Leaf-Agents have their own copy of the remediation database, and control their own UEFile, UELog, and UEActor processes. Leafs do NOT maintain Enumeration, Query, or Validation data. Nor do they keep any Credentials data, "Required Updates" data, Group or Profile data. Because Leaf Agents do not rely on Microsoft networking services to talk to the Master, and because they have a subset of Master-Agent resources, they are able to help the Master-Agent in the following ways:

• Provide encrypted communications and data transfer for secured machines

• Process a Master-Agent Query or Validation request locally, sending back only the results

• Download their own patches from the internet, instead of from the Master, avoiding the copying of patches over a slow link.

• Make use of "Bandwidth Throttling", controlling the impact of file copy operations over a slow link.

• Provide Wake-on-Lan relay service to the Master-Agent (UpdateEXPERT Premium 7.x)

• Install and run the patch installer locally, avoiding the usual transfer of this file

All of the above either lowers the aggregate packet traffic between Leaf and Master as compared to an Agentless machine, or provides intelligence on the target machine that assists the Master-Agent.