Keeping the KACE Agent up to date is important, especially when upgrading or having recently upgraded the K1000. While it’s possible to have KACE handle the K1000 agent and its subsequent upgrades, we’ve chosen to deploy the K1000 Agent via group policy. In this document we’ll look at the steps to update the K1000 Agent in Group Policy for HQ and our Branch Offices.
- Make sure you have the latest K1000 Agent downloaded. You can download it HERE.
- The latest versions are at the bottom, however you may need to go up a few levels to find the latest folder with a windows platform subfolder, which contains the MSI
- Rename of the KACE Agent to include your K1000’s FQDN.
- i.e. ampagent-5.x.xxxxx-x86.msi becomes ampagent-5.x.xxxxx-x86_<k1000name.domain>.msi
- In 5.4 you need to run a script to change the language of the MSI to English. You can download the script HERE.
- Open a command prompt and change it's location where the script and MSI are located and run the following command “cscript setlang.vbs C:\pathtoampagent\ampagent-5.4.1000-x86_<k1000name.domain>.msi 1033”
- Other languages are available by changing the four digit number at the end: 1028 zh-TW, 1031 de-DE, 1033 en-US, 1034 es-ES, 1036 fr-FR, 1040 it-IT, 1041 ja-JP, 1046 pt-BR, 2052 zh-CN
- Copy the KACE Agent MSI file to a shared location that Group Policy can deploy from.
- Open Group Policy Management and find the GPO that the KACE Agent installs under. Right click it and choose Edit.
- If your GPO only installs the KACE Agent, Right click the GPO and Choose "User Configuration Settings Disabled" this will skip the User Configuration portion and result in a faster GPO update.
- In the group policy object navigate to Computer Configuration -> Policies -> Software Settings -> Software Installation. Then right click and choose New -> Package.
- Navigate to the location you placed the KACE Agent in Step 3, Choose Assigned deployment method.
- In remote offices it may take a while to show up after you added it, just be patient.
- Right click the new setting and click Properties. Set the name to Dell KACE Agent 5.x.xxxx and click apply, and then OK to close.
- In the GPO Editor right click the old KACE Agent and choose All Tasks -> Remove. Choose “Allow Users to continue to use the software, but prevent new installations” or "Immediately uninstall the software from users and computers" whichever is preferable in your environment and click OK.
- Duplicate Steps 4-8 if you have any additional GPOs that push the agent to other groups.
- Duplicate Steps 3-8 for other office GPOs if needed.
See Also: Installing KACE Agent via GPO, How to Download Agent Executables
Please remember also, that not all OS are supported anymore on 5.4. You should keep that in mind, if you have mixed environments. - Nico_K 10 years ago
We're part of a larger infrastructure with NTLM requirements that prevent us from using Kace's "Provisioned Configurations". Very sad.
We deploy new agents and agent updates via GPO's and as part of the initial build of new machines, but Kace will auto update most clients that already have an agent. Some existing agents get updated via Kace and some get the GPO.
The reason for my question above is that I have seen agents get updated to 5.4.10622 on just about all clients, but many have communication issues with the K1000 until I manually remove and reinstall the agent.
I've also seen clients get updated to 5.4.10622, but under that client's Software\Install Programs listing, "Dell KACE Agent (5.3.53177)" is listed. To be clear, on that client's Detail page in Kace, under the summary it shows 5.4.10622, but under Installed Software, it shows 5.3.53177. - murbot 10 years ago
It's a personal preference, it works really well in our environment, if doing the uninstall would be preferable in your environment I say go for it. There really wasn't a reason for it beyond that. I'll change that line to advise people to pick whichever works best for their environment. Thanks!
As for the last part, that's weird, I haven't encountered that. If it's causing connectivity or reporting issues you might put in a question here at IT Ninja to see if anybody else has run into it. With everybody upgrading recently I would imagine somebody else has probably had that issue. - samzeeco 10 years ago
I've called Kace support a handful of times regarding these and similiar issues since the 5.4 SP1 upgrade and they seem swamped with problems. No lasting resolution to a number of issues.
I should've stuck with 5.3.
5.4 has been a nightmare so far. - murbot 10 years ago
You did run the language fix on the 5.4.10622 agent right? If you don't it's like Chinese instead, I don't know if that would cause any issues, but perhaps it might. Strange that it would install the version, but not work, with a reinstall it would start working. I'm guessing the install you're reinstalling it with is the same one you used in the GPO?
Our agents often show errors when we check in and watch them, but they always report everything back and bring down any software deployments we send them so we don't really mind, plus is funny when we get a new person on and they start freaking out lol. - samzeeco 10 years ago
5 patches total
1 error'd with a version reference
1 did not apply
3 succeeded
kbox_patch_5.4_hdattachments_K1_12420.kbin - Got message on screen that it does not apply
kbox_patch_5.4.76847_reporting_labelnames_2013020.kbin - Wrong Version screen message
kbox_patch_5.4SP1-ConsolidatedBugFix-12577_12331.kbin - Installed
kbox_patch_5.x_DellUpdatesConsolidated_BugFix_12559.kbin - Installed
kbox_patch_5.4_HD_KB_Comment_K1_12456.kbin - Installed - murbot 10 years ago
As well, check out steps 2.2-4 it walks you through changing the language on the Kace agent. You can verify if it is done or not by opening the software installation in GPO and opening the properties on the Kace agent. The language should report as English (United States), if it's reporting as Chinese you may want to try running the fix and then seeing if the English version causes the same issues. - samzeeco 10 years ago
Ran the script and fixed my GPO SDP's then recreated the software packages with the new MSI. Thanks for the help and quick responses. - murbot 10 years ago
When others have gone to update their GPO objects, have you chosen to Allow Users to continue to use the software, but prevent new installations†or "Immediately uninstall the software from users and computers"?
Just curious - dkurz8814 10 years ago
P.S. Is that required for the 5.5 agent? - mburns 9 years ago
One improvement I've made to this setup, is I set up a DFS Replicated folder for each site, I then place the Kace Agent MSI in it. By doing this and setting the GPO pointer to the DFS location, each site uses the local Kace Agent and I only have to update one GPO instead of one GPO for each site. - samzeeco 6 years ago