An agent is a deployment package that enables you to manage
nodes. After
you deploy
an agent to a node, it enables you to collect data, discover
services, monitor events, and run actions and commands that control
the node.
Before HPOM for Windows 8.00, management servers and agents
communicated using DCE/RPC. HPOM 8.10 includes an agent that
communicates using HTTPS. Although the DCE agent is currently still
supported, you are encouraged to use the HTTPS agent for new nodes.
If nodes already exist in your environment that have DCE agents,
consider migrating to the HTTPS agent.
The HTTPS agent offers the following benefits:
Secure communication based on the HTTPS protocol. All
communications between management servers nodes is strongly
encrypted.
Policy,
message,
and action
security. Policies, messages, and actions all contain signatures,
which management servers and nodes create and check using
certificates. If a malicious user attempts to tamper with a signed
policy, message, or action, the signature becomes invalid.
Simplified firewall configuration. Nodes and management servers
accept all inbound communications to a single port, so it is
simpler to configure firewalls and proxies.
Multiple management servers can deploy policies to the same
node.