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 Manage Agents

In the Agents tab, you'll see all the agents in your subscription and their status. Keep in mind your agents are centrally managed by our Cloud Platform.

How do I install agents? Our wizard will help you do this quickly! You'll create an activation key, download the agent installer and run the installer on each host. Ready to get started? Go to Agents and click the Install New Agent button.

How do I apply tags to agents? You can apply tags to agents in the Cloud Agent app or the Asset View app. By default, all agents are assigned the Cloud Agent tag. You can add more tags to your agents if required. Learn more

Find where your agent assets are located! We’re now tracking geolocation of your assets using public IPs. Asset Geolocation is enabled by default for US based customers. Learn more

Be sure to activate agents for vulnerability scanning, compliance scanning, or both. Once activated you can deactivate at any time. Your options will depend on your account settings. Tell me the stepsTell me the steps

There's multiple ways to activate agents:

- Auto activate agents at install time by choosing this option in your activation key settings.

- Use Quick Actions menu to activate a single agent on your agents list.

- Activate multiple agents in one go. Learn more

- Use the Actions menu to activate one or more agents on your agents list.

Once agents are installed successfully you'll see inventory data such as IP address, OS, hostnames within a few minutes. Each agent collects data for the baseline snapshot and uploads it to the cloud platform. After this agents upload deltas only. Learn moreLearn more

As soon as host metadata is uploaded to the cloud platform scanning is performed and assessment details are available in your account right away.

How it works

The initial upload of the baseline snapshot (a few megabytes) contains comprehensive metadata about the target host, things like network posture, OS, open ports, installed software, registry info, what patches are installed, environment variables, and metadata associated with files. After that only deltas (a few kilobytes each) are uploaded.

Agents have a default configuration that controls agent behavior. You can customize the various configuration settings. Learn more

Agents are self-updating When a new agent version is available, the agent downloads and installs it automatically. No reboot is required. The timing of updates depends on performance settings in the agent's configuration profile. Want to delay upgrading agent versions? Click here

Cloud Agent Expiration When a module or subscription expires, the respective modules get deactivated after seven days from the date of expiration except the Inventory (Global AssetView/CyberSecurity Asset Management).

If the module or subscription is extended, the modules are not reactivated automatically. You must activate the modules again manually.

Uninstall Cloud Agent This option removes the agent from the UI and your subscription. You can choose this option from Quick Actions menu to uninstall a single agent, or from the Actions menu to uninstall multiple agents in one go. Once uninstalled the agent no longer syncs asset data to the cloud platform. You can reinstall an agent at any time using the same activation key or another one you choose.

Uninstalling the Agent from the Cloud Agent UI or API

Uninstalling the Agent from the host itself

Self-Protection feature The self-protection feature helps to prevent non-trusted processes to make unwanted changes to Qualys Cloud Agent. To enable the feature, contact your Qualys representative.

You can disable the self-protection feature if you want to access the agent data and artifacts required by debugging, such as log files. You can generate a key to disable the self-protection feature for an agent. Learn more

Want to remove an agent host from your subscription? Just uninstall the agent as described above.

Run on-demand scan: You can run on-demand scan in addition to the defined interval scans. This provides flexibility to launch scan without waiting for the next interval scan. Learn more

Change activation key: You can run change activation key for a single or multiple agent hosts. With this option, you can change the activation key for a Cloud Agent easily. Earlier, the
activation key could be changed only locally using commands. Learn more

Apply Custom Logo: You can use the customized logo image added for the notifications on the selected agent host using this option in the Quick Actions menu. Learn more

Troubleshooting Options: You can use troubleshooting options in the Quick Actions menu. Learn more

Don't see any agents? The Agents tab shows you Cloud Agentthat have registered with the cloud platform. Once installed, Cloud Agent connect to the cloud platform and register themselves right away. Click here to troubleshoot.

Agent Permissions Managers are granted all Cloud Agent  Permissions by default. You might want to grant subusers these permissions. Learn more

Agent Installation

Cloud Agent Platform Availability Matrix

Download User Guide (PDF) Windows | Linux | BSD | Unix | MacOS

Steps for Proxy configuration

Windows | Linux/BSD/Unix | MacOS

Did you Know? You can choose the columns you'd like to see in your agents list. Go to the Tools menu (above the list) and select Columns.

Tip Looking for agents that have connected, not connected within N days? Use the search filters above your agents list.