Create Agent Live Installer - Windows/Linux/macOS

This type of Agent deployment is useful when the remote and local deployment options do not work in your environment. In such cases, you can distribute the Agent Live Installer via email and let the user deploy it. You can also run the Agent Live Installer from removable media (a USB flash drive, for example).

The client machine needs to have an internet connection to download the Agent installation package and to connect to the ESET PROTECT Server.

In the Quick Links section of the menu bar, click Other Deployment Options. In the Deploy Agent window, click Create installer button under Create Agent Live Installer. The Agent Live installers window will open.

Package creation

Deselect the check box Participate in product improvement program if you do not agree to send crash reports and anonymous telemetry data to ESET (OS version and type, ESET product version and other product-specific information). If the check box is left selected, telemetry data and crash reports will be sent to ESET.

Certificate

A Peer Certificate and ESET PROTECT Certification Authority is chosen automatically based on the available certificates. If you want to use a different certificate than the one automatically selected, click the ESET PROTECT Certificate description to select from a list of available certificates. If you want to use a Custom certificate, click the radio button and upload a .pfx certificate file. See Custom certificates with ESET PROTECT for further details.

Enter a Certificate passphrase if needed. For example, if you have specified the passphrase during the installation of ESET PROTECT, or if you are using a custom certificate with a passphrase. Otherwise, leave the Certificate passphrase field blank.

The certificate passphrase must not contain the following characters: " \ These characters cause a critical error during the initialization of the Agent.

Configuration

In this section, you can customize the following settings for the Agent Live installer package:

1.Optionally, you can change the Name and enter a Description for your package installer.

2.Click Select tags to assign tags.

3.Agent configuration (optional) - Use this option if you want to apply a configuration policy to the ESET Management Agent. Click Select and choose from the list of available policies.

4.Server hostname (optional) - Type the ESET PROTECT Server hostname or IP address. If necessary, you can specify the Port number (default is 2222).

5.Parent group (optional) - Select the Parent group where the computer will be placed after installation. You can select an existing static group or create a new static group to which the device will be assigned after the installer is deployed.

6.If you use an HTTP Proxy, select the check box Enable HTTP Proxy settings and specify the Proxy settings (Host, Port, Username and Password) to download the installer via Proxy and set ESET Management Agent connection to Proxy to enable communication forwarding between ESET Management Agent and ESET PROTECT Server. Read more about Proxy here.

The communication protocol between Agent and ESET PROTECT Server does not support authentication. Any proxy solution used for forwarding Agent communication to ESET PROTECT Server that requires authentication will not work.

Enable Use direct connection if HTTP proxy is not available if you want to allow this fallback option.

7.Click Finish to generate links for Windows, Linux and macOS Agent installer files.

online_installer_wizard1

8.Click Download under the installer file(s) that you want to download and save the zip file.

9.Unzip the file on the client computer where you want to deploy ESET Management Agent and run PROTECTAgentInstaller.bat (Windows) or PROTECTAgentInstaller.sh script (Linux and macOS) to run the installer.

•Check the status log on the client machine C:\ProgramData\ESET\RemoteAdministrator\Agent\Logs\status.html to make sure ESET Management Agent is working properly. If there are problems with the Agent (for example, it is not connecting to the ESET PROTECT Server), see troubleshooting.

•ESET PROTECT 9.0 supports the automatic upgrade of ESET Management Agent on managed computers.

Deployment from a custom remote location

To deploy the Agent from a location other than the ESET repository, modify the install script to specify the new URL where the Agent package is located. You can also use the IP address of the new package.

Find and modify following lines:

Windows:
set url=http://repository.eset.com/v1/com/eset/apps/business/era/agent/v9.../agent_x64.msi
set url=http://repository.eset.com/v1/com/eset/apps/business/era/agent/v9.../agent_x86.msi
set url=http://repository.eset.com/v1/com/eset/apps/business/era/agent/v9.../agent_arm64.msi

Linux:
eraa_installer_url=http://repository.eset.com/v1/com/eset/apps/business/era/agent/v9.../agent-linux-i386.sh
eraa_installer_url=http://repository.eset.com/v1/com/eset/apps/business/era/agent/v9.../agent-linux-x86_64.sh

macOS:
eraa_installer_url=http://repository.eset.com/v1/com/eset/apps/business/era/agent/v9.../agent_macosx_x86_64.dmg

Deployment from a local shared folder

You can deploy the ESET Management Agent using Agent Live Installer from your local shared folder without the ESET Repository Download Server:

•If the ESET Management Agent installer and Agent Live Installer are in the same folder:

a)Create the Agent Live Installer script for Windows/Linux/macOS.

b)Open the Agent Live Installer in a text editor and find the ESET repository URL download link for ESET Management Agent installer (see Deployment from a custom remote location above).

c)Download the ESET Management Agent installer from the ESET repository.

d)Place the Agent Live Installer and the ESET Management Agent installer in the same folder.

e)Agent Live Installer automatically detects the ESET Management Agent installer located in the same folder.

Use the same ESET Management Agent installer version and filename (.msi, .dmg, .sh) as referenced in the Agent Live Installer.

•If the ESET Management Agent installer and Agent Live Installer are in different folders, follow the steps below:

Windows:

1.Copy the .msi Agent installer(s) to a local directory.

2.Edit the PROTECTAgentInstaller.bat file to use the local Agent installer.

•agent_x64.msi

a)Change the line set url=%installDirectory%\agent_x64.msi to point to the local download file.

b)Add a command copy /y \\server\share\agent_x64.msi %installDirectory% before the line set url=%installDirectory%\agent_x64.msi

•agent_x86.msi

a)Change the line set url=%installDirectory%\agent_x86.msi to point to the local download file.

b)Add a command copy /y \\server\share\agent_x86.msi %installDirectory% before the line set url=%installDirectory%\agent_x86.msi

•agent_arm64.msi

a)Change the line set url=%installDirectory%\agent_arm64.msi to point to the local download file.

b)Add a command copy /y \\server\share\agent_arm64.msi %installDirectory% before the line set url=%installDirectory%\agent_arm64.msi

The original file looks like:

agent_live_installer_edit_bat

See the updated file below. Use your own URL (local shared folder), but do not change the %installDirectory%:

agent_live_installer_edit1

Agent Live Installer verifies the integrity of installation files based on their checksum. This is a unique string generated for each file. If the file changes, its checksum changes as well.

Make sure that the user account under which the installation package is executed has write permission to the local shared folder. The path can contain spaces, for example \\server\share\Agent_x64.msi (do not use quotation marks "").

3.Replace the line:

" echo.packageLocation = DownloadUsingHTTPProxy^("!url!", "!http_proxy_hostname!", "!http_proxy_port!", "!http_proxy_username!", "!http_proxy_password!"^) "

with: echo.packageLocation = "!url!"

agent_live_installer_edit_3

4.Save the file.

macOS:

1.Open the PROTECTAgentInstaller.sh script in a text editor.

2.Delete lines: 62-69 and 73-86.

agent_live_mac_1

3.Replace the lines highlighted below with the path to your local installer (Use your own local shared folder path):

local_dmg= "/path_to_local_agent/agent_macos_x86_64.dmg"

agent_live_mac_2

agent_live_mac_3

4.Save the file.

Linux:

1.Open the PROTECTAgentInstaller.sh script in a text editor.

2.Delete lines: 32 and 33:

agent_live_linux_1

3.Insert the following line with the paths to your local installer.

agent_live_linux_2

4.Replace lines 36 - 54 with the path to your local x86_64 installer. See the highlighted area in the image. Use your own URL (local shared folder), instead of the one shown below.

agent_live_linux_4

agent_live_linux_3

5.Delete lines 49 - 70.

agent_live_linux_5

6.Save the file.

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