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Commands on the host — vesana-agent and vesana-collector

The agent and the collector ship their own commands, which you run directly on the monitored machine. This page lists all of them. An unknown command prints the list as well.

Agent on Windows (PowerShell)

Open PowerShell as Administrator. The program lives in C:\Program Files\Vesana Agent\; every command has this form:

& "$env:ProgramFiles\Vesana Agent\vesana-agent.exe" <command>

Check and set up:

  • version — show the installed agent version.
  • test — run every check configured on the server once, show each result live and send them to the server. First choice after installing or when a check stays "waiting for data". Details: Test checks immediately.
  • reconfigure — enter a new server URL and/or token in config.yaml (asks for both, empty = unchanged). Then restart the service: Restart-Service VesanaAgent.
  • run — run the agent in the foreground; errors appear directly in the console. Stop with Ctrl+C.

Agent Lock (protect the host from Vesana, see Agent Lock):

  • lock — turn Agent Lock on; offers to take over what is currently running (--yes without asking, --no-takeover approves nothing).
  • lock status — show what is approved and what is waiting (--show prints the waiting contents).
  • lock approve — review waiting entries and approve them one by one.
  • lock approve --all — approve all waiting entries at once (--yes without asking).
  • lock approve --sha256 <fingerprint> — approve exactly this content (for many servers via GPO/remoting).
  • lock prune — remove approvals nothing uses anymore.
  • lock reset --yes — recreate a broken approval file (lock stays on, approvals are gone).
  • unlock — turn Agent Lock off (approvals stay stored).

Manage the service:

  • install — register the Windows service VesanaAgent (creates a config.yaml template if needed).
  • upgrade — stop the service, point it to the current vesana-agent.exe and start it again (after replacing the binary by hand).
  • start / stop — start or stop the service; the command waits until the service is really running or stopped.
  • status — show the service state.
  • uninstall — stop and remove the service. Complete removal is described in Uninstall.

The Windows built-ins work just as well: Get-Service VesanaAgent*, Start-Service VesanaAgent, Stop-Service VesanaAgent, Restart-Service VesanaAgent. The log is C:\ProgramData\Vesana\Agent\agent.log, e.g. Get-Content "$env:ProgramData\Vesana\Agent\agent.log" -Tail 50.

Agent on Linux

As root or with sudo:

sudo vesana-agent <command>
  • version, test, reconfigure, run — as on Windows. After reconfigure: sudo systemctl restart vesana-agent.
  • lock, lock status, lock approve [--all | --sha256 <fp>], lock prune, lock reset --yes, unlock — as on Windows.

On Linux systemd controls the service, not the agent: sudo systemctl start|stop|restart|status vesana-agent, log with sudo journalctl -u vesana-agent -f. install, start, stop, status and uninstall exist on Windows only.

Options for all agent commands

  • --config <path> — use a different config.yaml (default: Windows C:\ProgramData\Vesana\Agent\config.yaml, Linux /etc/vesana-agent/config.yaml).
  • --state-dir <path> and --service-name <name> — only for a second agent on the same machine, e.g. --service-name VesanaAgent-Zweite status.

Collector (Linux)

The service runs from /opt/vesana-collector/vesana-collector. This file and its folder belong to root; the service account, which also runs scripts from Vesana, cannot replace it. The same file serves the commands on the host (the installer renews it on every run; the self-update swaps it through a root helper, see Collector):

  • version — show the version of this copy.
  • reconfigure — enter a new server URL and/or API key in /etc/vesana/collector.env, as the service account: sudo -u vesana-collector /opt/vesana-collector/vesana-collector reconfigure; then sudo systemctl restart vesana-collector.
  • lock … / unlock — Agent Lock, same subcommands as the agent: sudo /opt/vesana-collector/vesana-collector lock ….

Service and log: sudo systemctl start|stop|restart|status vesana-collector, sudo journalctl -u vesana-collector -f. The active collector on the Vesana server runs (service vesana-active-collector), like its commands on the host, from /opt/vesana-active-collector/vesana-active-collector.

What is not available on the host

Deactivating hosts, maintenance windows, creating checks or changing thresholds happens in Vesana only. Conversely, Agent Lock can only be switched on and off on the host — Vesana just shows its state.