Operating system detection and the AGENT_PLATFORM* property

Using the AGENT_PLATFORM property, you can manually specify the operating system of devices on which you want to install an agent using the Agent Installer.

In some situations you may have to manually provide a value for the AGENT_PLATFORM property. Its possible values are:

• IBM AIX
• Linux 32-bit
• Linux 64-bit
• Linux 64-bit S390
• Oracle Solaris 10/11 SPARC
• Solaris 10/11 x86
• Solaris 8/9 SPARC
• Solaris 8/9 x86
• Microsoft Windows 32-bit
• Windows 64-bit

For a procedure describing how to set property values, see Setting values for system object properties.

Process for determining a device's operating system

When an Agent Installer Job executes, it attempts to determine the operating system of the target devices. The job uses the following sequence:

1. The job checks the AGENT_PLATFORM property for each target device. If the value of the property is "Unknown," the job continues with the next step. If the value of the property is set to a valid entry for an operating system, the job continues, as described in step 5.
2. Using remote host authentication routing rules, the job determines which remote host authentication definitions to use. The job attempts the remote host authentications in the order in which they are listed in the remote host authentication routing rule until an authentication succeeds.
3. Using the command execution protocol specified in the successful remote host authentication (that is, PsExec, SSH, SUDO, or SU), the system runs a series of commands to determine the host OS. These commands include uname for UNIX platforms and regedit for Windows.
4. The job enters a value for the AGENT_PLATFORM property to identify the OS of the target device.
5. The job installs an agent using the installation package that the agent bundle maps to the OS identified during the authentication process.

If an Agent Installer Job fails to identify the OS for a target host, you must manually provide a value for the AGENT_PLATFORM property to enable agent installation.