Can't Deploy Agents in a Workgroup - no errors - nothing happens

[gregski]

total newb here, I have a small Microsoft Windows lab with a 2019 server with SQL 2019 and ePO 5.10.0 on it, I am trying to push the 5.5.1.342 agents to my test workstations via the System Tree and I am getting no feedback or I just don't know where to look, 

the ePO console is completely unintuitive and the System Tree just has one line item with my machine name there and a State of Unmanaged when I click it to see more details there is nothing there, no event log or status or error of any kind, the Agent Deployment tab is blank???

I saw Brian Desmond's blog https://blogs.msmvps.com/briandesmond/2009/07/13/mcafee-epo-agent-deployment-logs/?unapproved=21&mod... where he says look at the %ProgramFiles%\McAfee\ePolicy Orchestrator\db\Logs and open server.log but there is nothing there from today when I pushed the deployment

I saw a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swn4Yr381xo&t=143s where a guy says look at the Task Manager on the client and look for a process called  FrmInst.exe but I never see it

I also checked the System and Application event logs on the client machine and see nothing there

I saw these two McAfee KB articles but they don't seem related, these are for once the Agent is installed:

How to troubleshoot an Endpoint Security installation failure

https://kc.mcafee.com/corporate/index?page=content&id=KB87589

Minimum data collection steps for Endpoint Security issues https://kc.mcafee.com/corporate/index?page=content&id=KB86691

so that leaves me with this article

Push Agent Installation Program to 'computer name' Fail! (when deploying the McAfee Agent)

https://kc.mcafee.com/corporate/index?page=content&id=KB56386&_ga=2.123854793.2133665403.1585088438-...

which is vague at best, says what to do but not how to do it, I am beginning to think this is impossible to do in a Workgroup, and wish McAfee would just come out and say that

Althoug I can map a drive to the ADMIN$ share now, I will never be able to pass the Start\Run test in a Workgroup

Solution

The following environmental requirements are necessary to successfully send an agent installation from the ePO Server or Remote Agent Handler to a client.

• Enable the following on the network and the client computer:
  • NetBIOS protocol
  • Network protocols and ports needed for computer name resolution
  • ADMIN$ share
  • File and Print sharing
  • Server service
  • Remote Registry service

sorry for the long post, I am frustrated, but I hope this will also help others as I know I can't be the only one struggling with pushing the ePO agents

[gregski]

contents of my Server Task Log

[awbattelle]

Hey Greg, 

Fear not, you will become more familiar with the ePO console, and maybe even come to love it as much as I do.

So have a couple of questions to help us figure out why you are having so much trouble.

1) Why are you trying to deploy the 5.1 agent? You should be deploying at least the 5.6x. Why not 5.6.4?

2) Are you using the Embedded Credential one? Or the non-embedded one.

3) How exactly are you trying to push the agents? 

4) Since this is w workgroup, do you have a common admin password to authorize your installations?

5) have you tried a manual install on any of your nodes. Can you see these in ePO?

Let us know!

[gregski]

thank you so much for the super quick reply, all great points/questions, let me answer them one by one as quick as I can

1) I just downloaded an Evaluation copy of ePO on Match 15th so I just assumed it would have come with the latest agents, I honestly didn't know there were newer ones, and although my company is a paying Enterprise customer I am the newest member of their team and just got asked to learn this product officially like last week, so I don't even know our Grant number yet, and the boys may not allow me to have it for a while, especially do to the Corono virus etc. Can I just download the latest agents using my Evaluation mode?

[gregski]

2) Are you using the Embedded Credential one? Or the non-embedded one.

I'm not even sure I know what that means, I'm sorry I think I can guess at it but I rather have you explain what you mean.

[gregski]

3) How exactly are you trying to push the agents?

In the ePO console I click on Systme Tree at the top then the New Systems blue button

How to add systems: take the first option
Push agents and add systems to the current group (Workstations)

Target systems: just enter the IP address of the Workstation I want to push the agents to

Credentials for agent installation:
Domain: (.) period
User name: administrator
Password: my simple basic password

[gregski]

New Systems screen

[gregski]

4) Since this is w workgroup, do you have a common admin password to authorize your installations?

yes, username is Administrator and the password is the same everywhere (I understand that each machine has a different SAM and SID and all that Jazz, but now I can map drives successfully all day long)

[gregski]

5) have you tried a manual install on any of your nodes. Can you see these in ePO?

yes and yes, however and I'm sure you realize this the whole point is to deploy these remotely as we have over 3,000 machines up and down the golden state of California, in production ha ha

[LKS]

Hey gregski,

I was going through your long post and seems you are trying to push Agent from EPO 5.10. I know we are asking more questions, but we need to know what exactly happens here.

* You can absolutely push Agent to workgroup machines from EPO. You just have to put (.)period in the domain files and enter the common Administrator username and password (it should be a part of local administrator group on the client machine).

* If you are using ePO 5.10, have you installed CU6 (cumulative update) which can be downloaded from software manager in EPO.

* Also you can download latest agent 5.6.4 from Software Manager in EPO. 

* What does it says in server task log when you push agent to the client machine.

* Ofcourse if you are trying to push Agent from EPO, please ensure the follow options are enabled on client machine.

Enable the following on the network and the client computer:

• NetBIOS protocol
• Network protocols and ports needed for computer name resolution
• ADMIN$ share
• File and Print sharing
• Server service
• Remote Registry service

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