manage_agents

manage_agents is available in two versions:

• a version for OSSEC server installations
• a version for OSSEC agent installations

The purpose of manage_agents is to provide an easy-to-use interface to handle authentication keys for OSSEC agents. These authentication keys are required for secure (encrypted and authenticated) communication between the OSSEC server and its affiliated agent instances.

manage_agents argument options

-V

Display OSSEC Version.

-h

Display the help message.

-l

List available agents.

-e <agent_id>

Extracts key for an agent (Manager only).

-r <agent_id>

Remove an agent (Manager only).

-i <key>

Import authentication key (Agent only).

-f <file>

Generate clients in bulk from <file> (Manager only). The file is a comma delimited file containing the IP addresses and agent names to be added. This file should be located within /var/ossec, and referenced by its path relative to /var/ossec.

Example:

# cat /var/ossec/k
192.168.1.2,host02
192.168.1.3,host03

# /var/ossec/bin/manage_agents -f /k
Bulk load file: /k
Opening: [/k]
Agent information:
   ID:002
   Name:host02
   IP Address:192.168.1.2

Agent added.
Agent information:
   ID:003
   Name:host03
   IP Address:192.168.1.3

Agent added.

Usage

The OSSEC manual goes into details on usage of this command at Managing Agents