One of the many new features in OpsMgr 2012 is the Agent control panel applet.

While this applet has several key features, the primary use is the ability to add and remove management groups from the agent/server.  While this was possible in OM 2007, you had to run the MSI or “Modify” the agent setup in Control Panel > Programs and features.  Now – we no longer have to run through agent setup – and can configure this via a simple applet.

Opening this applet, we are presented with the following:

As you can see – adding or removing a Management Group is a snap.

You can also EDIT an existing management group – but all we can change is the default agent action account.  This is handy if you have deployed servers as local system, but your server owners want the workflows to execute under a specific domain credential that the server owner controls the password on.  This makes a useful scenario to avoid configuring run-as accounts in a highly distributed environment.

One thing to note here – this applet demonstrates that Active Directory Integration is enabled by default.  Yes – that is correct – the Health Service defaults to enabled for AD integration, even if you pushed your agents out via the console, or manually installed.  This is because you could be multi-homed with a non-AD integrated management group, and another AD integrated management group.  If you NEVER wanted your agents to participate in any AD integrated management groups – you could consider disabling this.  I will discuss some command line methods to control this functionality below.  Note:  This UI simply controls the registry -

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\HealthService\Parameters\ConnectorManager\EnableADIntegration         (0 = disabled, 1 [default] = enabled)

So – let’s summarize. 

The key features of the OpsMgr agent applet are:

1. Ability to add and remove management groups on an agent
2. Ability to change default agent action account on the agent itself
3. Ability to turn on/off AD integration

Command line/script examples:

Additionally – the deployment of this applet gives us command line/script controls of these features.  The applet is deployed via a DLL that is installed/registered upon agent deployment.  This DLL can also be deployed/registered manually if required. 

“Regsvr32 AgentConfigManager.dll” which is documented in the SDK doco here:    http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh329076.aspx

Additionally – you can script add/remove of management groups:  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh329017.aspx

Or output/monitor management groups, configurations, etc:  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh352628.aspx

Detailed documentation on these SDK methods are available in the 2012 reference library:  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh329031.aspx