Preinstallation Steps

We recommend you check the following sections before installing Cloud Agent on your host:

Activation Key

You need a Cloud Agent activation key to install it on your host assets. The activation key provides a way to group agents and bind them to your Qualys Cloud Platform subscription. You can create different keys for various business functions and users.

Benefits of adding asset tags to an activation key Tags assigned to your activation key will be automatically assigned to agent hosts. This helps you manage your agents and report on agent hosts.

Running Cloud Agent Installer

You must run the Cloud Agent installer from an elevated command prompt, or use a systems management tool using elevated privileges.

Activating Cloud Agent

Ensure that you activate your Cloud Agent for different Qualys applications such as Vulnerability Management (VM). Activating a Cloud Agent for an application consumes an agent license. You can set up auto-activation by defining various Qualys applications for activation keys or manually in the Cloud Agent user interface.

If you skip the Cloud Agent activation, it only syncs inventory information to the Cloud Platform (IP address, OS, DNS and NetBIOS names, MAC address), and no host assessments will be performed.

Number of Agents you can Install

You can install any number of agents but can activate a Cloud Agent only if you have a license. The Agents tab in the Cloud Agent user interface tells you about your installed agents.

Cloud Agent Provisioning

Once installed, Cloud Agent connects to the Qualys Cloud Platform and provision itself. You can see agent status on the Agents tab—this is updated continuously. If your agent doesn’t have a status, meaning it has not successfully connected to the cloud platform, and you need to troubleshoot.