How To: Manually Restart CT&I Windows Agent

Scenario

If you are ever in the position where you need to restart the CT&I Agent for Windows, the following process will give you some guidance.

Method 1 (Recommended)

This is using the same commands the Guest Agent uses to maintain the agent. Run below commands in a PowerShell session.

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cd C:\Packages\Plugins\Microsoft.Azure.ChangeTrackingAndInventory.ChangeTracking-Windows\<version>
# Stop Change Tracking Service
.\cta_windows_handler.exe disable

# Start Change Tracking Service
.\cta_windows_handler.exe enable

Method 2 (If method 1 does not work)

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$serviceName = "change_tracking_service"

# Stop Change Tracking Service
Stop-Service -Name $serviceName -Force

# Start Change Tracking Service
Start-Service -Name $serviceName

How To: Manually Purge CT&I Windows Agent

Scenario

If you are ever in the position where you need to manually purge the CT&I Agent for Windows, the following process will give you some guidance.

Make sure to uninstall the CT&I extension from Azure Portal first, regardless of a failed uninstallation, as below process is only for the agent on OS, not for extension itself.

Method 1 (Recommended)

This is using the same commands the Guest Agent uses to maintain the agent. Run below commands in a PowerShell session.

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cd C:\Packages\Plugins\Microsoft.Azure.ChangeTrackingAndInventory.ChangeTracking-Windows\<version>
.\cta_windows_handler.exe disable
.\cta_windows_handler.exe uninstall

Method 2 (If method 1 does not work)

1. Remove change_tracking_service

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   $serviceName = "change_tracking_service" # Stop the service if it is running Stop-Service -Name $serviceName -Force # Remove the service using sc.exe sc.exe delete $serviceName

2. Remove local files

• C:\Program Files\ChangeAndInventory\ *
• Optional: C:\WindowsAzure\Logs\Plugins\Microsoft.Azure.ChangeTrackingAndInventory.ChangeTracking-Windows<version>\ *
• Optional: C:\Packages\Plugins\Microsoft.Azure.ChangeTrackingAndInventory.ChangeTracking-Windows<version>\ *

How To: Manually Onboard CT&I Windows Agent

Scenario

If you are ever in the position where you need to manually onboard the CT&I Agent for Windows, the following process will give you some guidance.

Method 1 (Recommended)

This is using the same commands the Guest Agent uses to maintain the agent. Run below commands in a PowerShell session.

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# Setup change_tracking_service
cd C:\Packages\Plugins\Microsoft.Azure.ChangeTrackingAndInventory.ChangeTracking-Windows\<version>
.\cta_windows_handler.exe install

# Start change_tracking_service
.\cta_windows_handler.exe enable

Method 2 (If method 1 does not work)

Manually setup change_tracking_service. This needs PowerShell in elevated session.

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# Define service parameters
$serviceName = "change_tracking_service"
$displayName = "ChangeTrackingOneAgent"
$description = "This is a Go service that runs the ChangeTracking agent process."
$version = "2.24.0.0"
$exePath = "C:\Program Files\ChangeAndInventory\svc\change_tracking_service.exe"
$exeArgs = "C:\Packages\Plugins\Microsoft.Azure.ChangeTrackingAndInventory.ChangeTracking-Windows\$version\agent\change_tracking_agent_windows_amd64.exe change_tracking_service C:\Packages\Plugins\Microsoft.Azure.ChangeTrackingAndInventory.ChangeTracking-Windows\$version"
$startMode = "Automatic" # For start mode 'Auto'
$delayedAutoStart = $true

# Create the service
New-Service -Name $serviceName -BinaryPathName "$exePath $exeArgs" -DisplayName $displayName -Description $description -StartupType $startMode

# Set the delayed auto start
$regPath = "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\$serviceName"
Set-ItemProperty -Path $regPath -Name "DelayedAutostart" -Value 1

# Start the service
Start-Service -Name $serviceName

Note: You may backup any files in C:\Program Files\ChangeAndInventory\ if exists prior to these scripts.

How To: Enable Trace Logging of CT&I Windows Agent

Scenario

If you are ever in the position where you need to trace down details on how CT&I Agent Linux works, the following process will give you some guidance.

Step 1: Change Log Level in Configuration File

In order to enable debug logging of CT&I Agent, we need to edit the configuration file C:\Packages\Plugins\Microsoft.Azure.ChangeTrackingAndInventory.ChangeTracking-Windows\<version>\application.yml. There are three parts we need to take care of

1. Enable trace logging for cta_windows_agent.log. Enable debug log for this is usually enough as this is the main agent log, which contains communication with AMA and details of Files/Services/Software/Registry inventory and changes. Edit the level to TRACE.

   

2. Enable trace logging for cta_windows_handler.log. The is the log of handler services, brings up agent main process, provides basic environment parameters to the agent. Edit the level to TRACE.

   

3. Enable trace logging for cta_windows_watcher.log. The is the log of checking whether agent main process/service are running. Edit the level to TRACE.

   

Step 2: Restart CT&I Agent

• For how to restart CT&I Agent, Please refer to How To: Manually Restart CT&I Windows Agent .

Note:

• After restarted the CT&I Agent, we need to wait for some time for debug logs being populated. Typically 1 hour would be good to collect a cycle run of Registry Keys, Services, Software and Files.
• Please change the collection level back to avoid filling up disk space after logs are collected.