System Requirements

This section provides a list of requirements for the Windows system on which the Nectar End Point Client Agent will be installed.

Platform Requirements

Nectar End Point Client Agent 3.1 for Windows is supported for the following Microsoft operating systems:

• Windows 10/11

Platform requirements vary depending on the number of virtual endpoints that have been licensed for the agent.  The following table lists the minimum platform requirements for installation of a Nectar End Point Client Agent on a system running Windows 10/11

Ports and Protocols

During setup, the Nectar End Point Client Agent setup wizard will offer to automatically create Windows firewall exceptions for the ports used by the agent and Controller. If you disable this option or are using a third-party firewall, ensure that the following local and remote ports are open in your firewall configuration to allow the agent to function properly.

Local Ports:

Remote Ports:

* Default port number. A different port number can be assigned during setup/configuration of the Controller (see the Nectar EPC-Controller SSE Installation Guide or Nectar EPC-Controller MSE Installation Guide for details).

Test Interface IP Addressing

When running an active test on an agent, it is necessary to select a specific local interface and IP address to be used as the test interface. It is therefore strongly recommended that a static IP address be assigned to any network interface that will be used to run tests, rather than using DHCP to assign addresses automatically. If dynamic addressing is used and a test interface IP address changes, it will cause all tests currently running on the old IP address to fail, along with any tests scheduled to run using the old IP address.

Dynamic or static IP assignment can be used for the management domain interface used to communicate with the Controller, if it is a dedicated interface that will not be used to run tests. For any interface that will be used as a test interface, static IP addressing is advised.

Installing and Configuring the Agent

This chapter provides instructions for installation and initial configuration of the Nectar End Point Client Agent on a Windows system.

Running the Nectar End Point Client Agent Setup Wizard

For installation on Windows systems, the Nectar End Point Client Agent installation software is provided as an executable file that includes a menu-driven setup wizard to assist in installing the Nectar End Point Client Agent and configuring the agent for initial use. 

After installation, the setup wizard can be used to edit the agent's configuration settings (see Modifying the Agent Configuration) or uninstall the agent (see Uninstalling the Agent).

 To begin the installation of the Nectar End Point Client Agent:

1. If you have not done so already, save the Nectar End Point Client Agent setup executable to a directory on the host system where the Nectar End Point Client Agent will be installed.

2. In Windows Explorer, double-click the file name to launch the Nectar End Point Client Agent setup wizard. 

3. On the setup wizard welcome screen, click Next to continue. 

   

4. On the End-User License Agreement screen, after reading the terms of the software license agreement, select I accept the terms in the License Agreement and then click Next to continue. (If you do not accept the terms in the license agreement, click Cancel to exit the installation.) 

   

5. The Agent Identification screen shows the configured name and description for the Nectar End Point Client Agent. The Agent Name field indicates the name that will be displayed in the Controller interface when the agent connects to the Controller. The Agent Description field is an optional field that can be used to identify the agent or indicate a location such as a city, location/zip code, office name, floor, network, etc.

   

6. By default, the Agent Name is the Windows computer name and the Agent Description field is blank. If desired, enter a new name for the agent in the Name field and/or a description in the Agent Description field.  Click Next to continue.

7. On the Agent Organization and Group IDs screen, enter the Organization ID and Group ID to assign to the agent, if applicable.

   1. OrgID= “customer”

   2. GroupID= “global” 

      

Organization ID and Group ID can be used to automatically associate an agent with a specific resource group and pool license key when the agent connects to the Nectar EPC-Controller Controller. After the agent successfully connects and is authenticated, if there is a resource group configured with the same Organization ID and Group ID, the agent will be assigned to that resource group. If the resource group has an agent pool license key that still has unassigned licenses available, Nectar EPC-Controller will attempt to license the agent from that pool key. 

For details on the relationship between resource groups, Organization ID/Group ID, agent pool license keys and agents, refer to the Nectar EPC-Controller 3.7 Reporter Administration Guide or Nectar EPC-Controller 3.7 Reporter User Guide. 

8. On the Domain Configuration screen, enter the name and passphrase for the administrative domain to which this Nectar End Point Client Agent will be assigned. For security reasons, the Controller and all agents to be used by the Controller must be configured with the same domain name and passphrase. If not, the agent will not be able to connect to the Controller. The domain and passphrase will be given to you by Nectar Support or your support partner.

   

9. When you have finished configuring the domain credentials, click Next to Continue.

10. The Controller Connectivity screen provides the option to enter the IP address or hostname and port for the managing the Nectar EPC-Controller Controller. For Address:, enter neccontroller.us.nectar.services. Use 443 for the port, and select Port is fixed.

    

11. Test the connection by clicking Test. The Status field will indicate whether the connection attempt to the specified address was successful. If the connection is unsuccessful, confirm that the IP address/hostname and port are correct and that the Controller is up and running.

12. To add the Controller address, click Add. The address will be displayed in the Controller(s) list box near the bottom of the screen. 

13. When you have finished configuring Controller connectivity settings, click Next to continue. Then click Install to install the Endpoint Client.

14. When the Setup Complete screen is displayed, click Finish to exit the setup wizard.

    

Silent Installer

You can run this batch file from your computer or some kind of push program. Be sure you have a copy of the installer and this batch in the same directory when running it. Modify the following to match your deployment:

• set host=NS-%COMPUTERNAME% - The first 2 letters are an identifier for your EPC

• NectarEPClientInstaller64-admin-3.1.106.exe - change the version to match the one to be deployed

• AGENT_ORGID=YOURORGID - modify to match your organization ID

• AGENT_GRPID=YOURGRPID - modify to match your group ID 

• MGMT_DOMAIN_PASS=YOURPASSPHRASE - modify to match your organization domain passphrase

set host=NS-%COMPUTERNAME%
echo %host%
Msg * "Installing Nectar End-Point Client 3.8 (US Controller)"

NectarEPClientInstaller64-admin-3.1.106.exe /s /v"/qn AGENT_NAME=%host% AGENT_ORGID=YOURORGID AGENT_GRPID=YOURGRPID MGMT_DOMAIN_PASS=YOURPASSPHRASE MGMT_DOMAIN_NAME=nectarusprod CONTROLLER_CSV=neccontroller.us.nectar.services:443 AGENT_LOG_LEVEL=INFO"

Uninstalling the Agent

To uninstall the Nectar End Point Client Agent, from the Windows Control Panel, open the Apps & Features menu. In the list of installed programs, locate and select Nectar Nectar End Point Client Agent and then click Uninstall.   

Troubleshooting

This section provides recommended steps for troubleshooting common agent installation and operation issues.

Diagnosing Unexpected Agent Behavior

Each time the Agent is started, a new Syslog-style log file, C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local\Nectar\EPClient\Agent directory.  This log file may be examined in the event of a problem with the operation of the agent. Up to the last 10 log files are preserved in rotation (named nectarpc.0 through nectarpc.9). You may be asked to provide these log files to Nectar Support.

Agent Will Not Connect to the Controller

If the agent has been configured with the address and port number for the Controller but is unable to connect to the Controller, a firewall on the Controller host may be blocking connections on the port used to listen for incoming agent connections (default is TCP 40006 ). Ensure that the firewall on the Controller host is configured to allow connections on this port, or as an alternative, try to manually add the agent in the Nectar EPC-Controller Reporter UI. 

Instructions for configuring the Linux firewall using firewalld in Red Hat Enterprise Linux/CentOS 7.x or iptables in RHEL/CentOS 6.x are provided as an appendix in the Nectar EPC-Controller SSE Installation Guide and Nectar EPC-Controller MSE Installation Guide.

Revoking a Pool Key before Upgrading or Uninstalling the Agent

If an agent has been licensed using a pool license key, before uninstalling or upgrading the agent software to a new version it is recommended that you revoke the pool key assigned to the agent. Failure to do this may "orphan" the license and prevent it from returning to the license pool where it can be reused.

For instructions on revoking a pool license key from an agent, refer to the Nectar EPC-Controller Reporter Administration Guide provided with your Nectar EPC-Controller software.

Problems Running Tests

If the agent was installed and configured successfully but is unable to execute tests, check to make sure that the agent is not being blocked by the firewall. For a list of ports that must be open for the agent to function properly, refer to Ports and Protocols.