Adding Computers by Manual Installation of Agent and CIS

Installing the ESM agent locally is an alternative way of establishing connectivity between an endpoint and the ESM Central Service server. This is useful for scripting installation, or should the endpoint not be reachable from the ESM server’s network.

The ESM setup file can be downloaded as an executable from the admin console. The file can be transferred onto media such as DVD, CD, USB memory so that the agent can be installed manually onto target machines rather than via the ESM interface. A single copy of the installation files can be used to install the agent on any number of target machines.

Upon successful installation of the agent it automatically establishes connection to the ESM Central Service Server and the endpoint can be controlled by the Administrator in the same way as it would if it were imported via the deployment wizard.

The endpoint security software, Comodo Internet Security (CIS) is typically also manually installed in the endpoint can be remotely managed by ESM once installation of the Agent is completed. If the Agent is installed first (with the endpoint having no CIS), the deployment wizard can be used to install CIS via the installed Agent.

Alternatively, Comodo Internet Security (CIS) can be installed in endpoint computers separately and from the CIS interface the endpoints can be connected to ESM. For more details refer the sections, How to Install CIS and How to Connect CIS to CESM at the Local Endpoint.

The newly added computer will be included to the default group 'Unassigned'. The administrator can then import the computer into the required group to which the computer is allotted.

Downloading the Offline Agent Installer

Navigate to the 'computers' area of the admin console and click 'download' tile.

Click 'Save' in the 'File Download' dialog and save the file in the location of your choice.

Important Note: Web browsers run on server OS may not allow downloading files through it by default, due to policy restrictions. For this reason, in order to download the agent setup file through the ESM admin console accessed through a web browser like Internet Explorer installed on a server, the local computer policy of the server has to be configured to disable the file download restrictions.

Installing the Agent onto the Endpoint

The agent setup file can be copied to the target endpoint computer from DVD, CD, USB memory or by any other means and saved in a desired location. The agent can also be deployed using a third-party software distribution package.

The installation process can be started in the following ways:

By double clicking the setup file to start the installation wizard.

From the Windows CMD line. Command line options are as follows:

The command should be entered in the following format:

<file path in which agent setup file is stored>/ AgentSetup.exe /Options

The options are explained in the following table. Some Options have multiple notations. These are separated by ' | ' in the following table.

Option	Description
/s \| /server	Pointing the endpoint to the ESM server by specifying its host name or address
/p \| /port	To specify the port number of the ESM Server. Default port numbers are: 57194 for connecting using HTTPS port 57193 for connecting using HTTP port
/l \| /log	To specify the path and file name to store the log file.
/q \| /quiet	To agent the agent in silent mode. The agent installation will not require any user interaction.
/help	Display the help information on installing the agent.

Option

Description

/s | /server

Pointing the endpoint to the ESM server by specifying its host name or address

/p | /port

To specify the port number of the ESM Server. Default port numbers are:

57194 for connecting using HTTPS port

57193 for connecting using HTTP port

/l | /log

To specify the path and file name to store the log file.

/q | /quiet

To agent the agent in silent mode. The agent installation will not require any user interaction.

/help

Display the help information on installing the agent.

Step 1 - Welcome Screen

The welcome screen of the agent installation wizard will be displayed.

Click 'Next' to continue.

Step 2 – Specifying Server Address and Port

In the next step you must enter the host or IP address of the server in which CESM is installed and the port number the endpoint should be connected. By default, these fields will be populated with the details of the server from which the agent is downloaded.

If you want to connect the endpoint to another CESM server, enter that server host or IP address and the port number and click 'Next'.

Step 3 - Selecting Products to be Installed

The next stage is to select the products to be installed. The installer will first check whether any of these items are already installed. You must first uninstall any older versions of CIS or the Agent that are detected.