Agentless Tracking

You can install a Cloud Agent on the host, which is using Agentless tracking. Ensure that you use the same host ID associated with the host to avoid duplicate records.

You can configure the location of the host ID file installed on your MacOS hosts with the recommended default of /etc (the agent creates or uses a qualys directory under /etc). This is recommended best practice if you are interested in using MacOS Agent and Agentless Tracking to evaluate the same host.

Once configured, the same file with the same host ID tag is accessed by our service when the host is evaluated using

• Agentless Tracking and
• Cloud Agent

Steps to Install Cloud Agent for Hosts with Agentless Tracking

1. Check your Unix Authentication Record

   This is the record you are using to access the system using Agentless Tracking. In this record, you can get the location of the host ID file for the authentication record.

   If you want help with Agentless Tracking, log in to the Qualys Cloud Platform, go to Help > Contact Support, and search for Agentless Tracking.

2. Use the agent configuration tool (qualys-cloud-agent.sh) and the HostIdSearchDir option to install the MacOS Agent and configure the location of the host ID file, respectively. 
   
   Ensure that this location matches the location defined in your authentication record. By default, HostIdSearchDir is set to /etc/.

   To stay consistent with the Agentless Tracking location, Qualys appends /qualys/hostid to the path provided.
   
   Example - Install as root user and set host ID file to /mydir/qualys/hosted

$ /usr/local/qualys/cloud-agent/bin/qualys-cloud-agent.sh ActivationId="022224c8-31c7-11e5-b4f7-0021ccba987e" CustomerId="146556fa-31c7-11e5-87b6-021ccba987e" HostIdSearchDir="/mydir/"

Steps to Avoid the Creation of Duplicate Hosts

The following are the steps to avoid the creation of duplicate asset records for the agent using agentless tracking.

1. Configure HostIdSearchDir for your Cloud Agent
   
   Configure the location of the host ID file using the agent configuration tool (qualys-cloud-agent.sh) and the HostIdSearchDir option.
   
   Refer to the following example - Install as root user and set the host ID file to /mydir/qualys/hostid.
   
   $ /usr/local/qualys/cloud-agent/bin/qualys-cloud-agent.sh HostIdSearchDir="/mydir/"
2. Uninstall duplicate Cloud Agents that are not communicating with Qualys Cloud Platform.

To learn more about uninstalling a Cloud Agent, refer to the Uninstalling Cloud Agent.