Set up agent auto-configuration

Beginning with Portal 8.89 and Windows Agent 8.90a, backups on Windows servers can be configured automatically based on job templates. When agent auto-configuration is set up in Portal, you do not have to manually select a vault account and create a backup job and schedule for each Windows server.

To set up agent auto-configuration:

• Super users create job templates that are available for all child sites in Portal. A job template specifies the name and type of job (Image or Local System) to create, the data to back up, whether to retry failed backups, and schedules for running the job. See Create job templates.

• Parent site admin users enable agent auto-configuration in child sites that they manage, and select job templates and vault profiles for configuring new agents that register to the sites. Parent site admin users can also customize job templates for their child sites. See Enable agent auto-configuration in child sites and Create and edit custom job templates.

  Note: Agent auto-configuration cannot be enabled in parent sites.

You can then install Windows agents with default encryption passwords, and register the agents to Portal child sites where agent auto-configuration is enabled. See Install the Windows Agent and plug-ins. Agent auto-configuration must be enabled in the site when an agent first registers to Portal. An agent will not be automatically configured if you enable this feature after the agent is registered to Portal.

Every three minutes, Portal finds and auto-configures eligible Windows agents. When an agent is successfully configured, a backup job for the Windows server is created that has:

• The name, description, settings and schedules specified by the job template selected for the child site.

• A randomly-assigned time for running backups with “Days of Week” and “Days of Month” schedules. By default, the time is between 8 PM and 8 AM, but a different time window might be specified in your Portal instance.

• The vault profile selected for the child site.

• The data encryption password specified when the agent was installed.

To determine whether an agent has been configured automatically, you can view the agent on the Computers page in Portal. If the agent has been configured, a backup job appears. If the agent has not been configured, an auto-configuration status message appears. See Determine whether an agent has been configured automatically.

Note: In Portal instances and sites where agent auto-configuration is not available, agents can be configured when you click the "Configure Automatically" button, but the resulting jobs cannot be customized using job templates. See Add the first backup job for a Windows computer.