Intel vPro, Centrino Pro Post Configuration, Adding New Devices, Using Agent Presence AP

Intel® vPro™ and Intel® Centrino® Pro Processor Technology Quick Start Guide

Step 7: Post Configuration

Once you’ve deployed and configured your Intel vPro client machines, there are still some additional actions you should consider.

Adding New Devices:

As new Intel vPro clients are added to the network you will need to perform the deployment process described above to activate Intel AMT on the new devices, discover the new devices, and then add them to your management database. This procedure should be added to your standard maintenance procedures.

Updating Procedures to Include Intel AMT Features:

Work with your management console to determine how best to utilize the new capabilities available to you through your Intel vPro devices. Further, it is a good idea to update your procedures to utilize Intel vPro features, such as those procedures your help desk staff follow when helping users. For example, you will want to update the process to re-image a PC that has blue screened at a remote site using the new Intel AMT features (i.e., SOL and IDE – Redirection) now available in your management console.

Using Agent Presence (AP):

Agent Presence (AP) monitors for the existence of agents. The LANDesk client agents must be installed on the client PC in order to use AP. AP is automatically configured when the LANDesk client agents are installed. However, you can perform additional configuration in the Configure Intel vPro Options Agent Presence Configuration page of the LDMS console.

Agent Presence is either enabled for all managed Intel AMT 2.x machines or disabled for all machines. It cannot be enabled or disabled for specific machines. AP enabling is controlled by the Enable Agent Presence Monitoring check-box in the configuration page mentioned above.

By default, AP monitors the following two processes on the client machine:

Agent	Reason for AP Monitoring
LANDesk Management Agent (RESIDENTAGENT.EXE)	The LANDesk Management Agent is monitored because
	most of the Client\Server communication between
	LANDesk agents and the LANDesk Core is done through
	this agent.
LANDesk Monitoring Service (COLLECTOR.EXE)	The LANDesk Monitoring Service is monitored because
	it is the heart of the LANDesk monitoring system.

While these agents are running you can monitor any other service on the client machine using the LSM service monitoring tool. These agents and their descriptions are defined in AGENTPRESENCE.XML which is sent down to the Intel AMT non-volatile memory (NVM) storage area on the client Intel AMT machine and subsequently read by the LANDesk agent to determine what it should monitor.

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