JetPatch Agent Manager Orchestration: Management Services and Provisioning

To orchestrate managed agent configuration, provisioning, and monitoring, and management server registration and configuration, you create and configure management services. Each management service includes a set of configuration options that can subsequently be provisioned to endpoints, applying all of the service's details to those endpoints.

There are two types of management services:

• JetPatch connector management services deploy the connector to endpoints with relevant settings, enabling JetPatch Agent Manager to manage the endpoints; and define endpoint-level throttling.
• Agent management services deploy a managed agent to endpoints, along with various managed agent settings; and, for server-to-endpoint management products, enable per-endpoint server-end tasks such as automatic agent registration.

In more detail:

Each agent management service can define some or all of the following:

• Managed agent:
  • A specified managed agent, of a specified management tool version
  • Pro-active management (watchdog) settings for the managed agent
  • Resource control (throttling and failure alert) settings for the managed agent
  • Settings specific to the management tool (for example, the tool's connection parameters to its management server) or configuration file
• For server-to-endpoint management tools: A management server plugin and associated settings. The plugin is executed on the management server upon service provisioning, removal, or relevant configuration change, to perform any relevant per-endpoint server-end tasks, such as:
  • Register the managed agent with the management server, and unregister upon removal
  • Associate the endpoint with a server policy group
  • Schedule endpoint polls or backups
  • Configure the server's host file to recognize the managed agent by hostname
• One or more health monitoring test scripts and associated settings, to be periodically executed on the endpoint.

Each JetPatch connector management service defines the following:

• Connector version (including build)
• Endpoint-level throttling settings
• Location on endpoint for installing the connector.

The connector can be manually provisioned to endpoints, and is automatically provisioned when a managed agent is provisioned to an endpoint that doesn't yet have the connector. Management service selection for automatic provisioning is configurable by policy.

Agent management service provisioning can be automatically by policy, so that new VMs or cloud instances are immediately governed according to organizational policy, or services can be manually provisioned to endpoints.

Some management services are provided by JetPatch Agent Manager. You can customize them or create your own.