Starting the PATROL Agent on Windows

This section describes the following methods of starting the PATROL Agent on Microsoft Windows operating systems:

Command line
Windows Services Applet

The platform determines which method you use to start the PATROL Agent. The agent supports startup scripts for most platforms.

PATROL Agent configuration utility

You can use the PATROL Agent configuration utility to configure a PATROL Agent to use a specified user account and select a security library.

If no domain name is specified in the User Name text box, the domain name where the user signed on is used. A domain name can be added explicitly, for example,

DOMAIN_NAME\user\encrypted_password

The utility verifies to see that the specified user account has all the required rights to perform the following tasks:

Act as part of the operating system
Increase Quotas
Log on as a service
Replace a process level token
Log on locally
Profile system performance
Debug programs

Note

For Windows 2003 and Windows XP, the right to increase Quotas is represented as the right to Adjust memory quotas for a process. For Windows 2003, the right to log on locally is represented as the right to Allow log on locally.

If the user account does not have the correct rights, a notification dialog is displayed. To modify an account's rights, open the Windows User Manager, modify the rights for the user account accordingly, and run the Configuration utility again.

Modes for running the PATROL Agent for Windows

The PATROL Agent for Windows can be run either as a service or as an interactive console application. When run as a service, the agent does not provide textual feedback during its execution. When run as a console application, it is interactive. The agent provides textual feedback during execution, allowing you to perform diagnostics on its operation.

Specifying an account for the PATROL Agent for Windows

This section explains how to select a user account for the PATROL Agent.

Note

If you have already overridden the /AgentSetup/defaultAccount (creating an agent configuration change file), this task does not have any effect. It changes the value of /AgentSetup/defaultAccount in the config.default file, which is overridden by the value stored in agent configuration change file.

Click Start > Programs > BMC PATROL > Agent Configure.

The PATROL Agent Configuration dialog box is displayed.

PATROL Agent configuration dialog box
Provide the following information:
- Your user name for the host you are running
- Your password

Starting the PATROL Agent for Windows with the services applet

This section explains how to use the Windows services utility to start the PATROL Agent on a Windows host.

For Windows 2000 or later, select Start > Settings > Control Panel > Administrative Tools.
Double-click the Services icon. The Services dialog box is displayed.
For Windows 2000 or later, select the BMC Patrol Agent service, then select Action > Properties, enter any command line arguments in the Start parameters field, click Start.
The PATROL Agent service starts.

From version 9.5.00 onwards, the Display name for PatrolAgent Windows service name is "BMC PATROL Agent".

Starting the PATROL Agent for Windows from a command prompt

This section explains how to start the PATROL Agent on a Windows host.

Before you start the PATROL Agent for Windows, make sure you have performed the following actions:

Verify that you are logged on to the host where you want to start the PATROL Agent.
Verify that no PATROL Agent is already running. From the command line, enter "net start" and press ENTER to view the services that are running.

Type the following command in the command line and press Enter:

PatrolAgent -p <portNo>

A message notifies you that the PATROL Agent is bound to TCP port you specified. The port number allows you to specify a TCP port on which the PATROL Agent will accept connections from PATROL Console. The port number is optional. If you do not specify a port, the PATROL Agent will use the default port number, 3181.

For a complete list of command line arguments, see Command line arguments for starting the PATROL Agent.

Active Directory Support

The PATROL Agent supports the Windows Active Directory service. The Active Directory performs the following tasks:

Stores information about objects in the enterprise
Uses a structured data store as the basis for a logical, hierarchical organization of directory information
Integrates security through the following tasks:
- Logon authentication
- Access control to objects in the directory

A single network logon provides an authorized network user with access to resources anywhere on the network.

Where to go from here

Starting and stopping the PATROL Agent