Application Resilience policies for Cisco Secure Client

You can activate an Application Resilience policy for Cisco Secure Client (formerly Cisco AnyConnect® Secure Mobility Client) to collect information about the functional status of Cisco Secure Client installed on your Windows devices and to view the results in reports. You can also configure the policy to attempt to repair or reinstall the application.

Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client changed its name to Cisco Secure Client. Cisco Secure Client can refer to either product name, depending on the version of the application you are running.

Application Resilience policies for Cisco Secure Client are supported on devices running:

  • a supported version of the Windows operating system

  • PowerShell version 5.1 or higher

    Due to PowerShell restrictions imposed by Microsoft, Application Resilience isn't supported for this application on devices running Windows 11 SE.

  • one of the following versions of Cisco Secure Client:

    • 5.x or higher

      Significant software changes in higher versions may cause health checks to become invalid.

    • 4.9.x
    • 4.8.x
    • 4.6.x
    • 4.4.x

This platform requires the installation of the AnyConnect Client on the organization's devices.

In addition to checking the version, the following table describes the health checks performed:

If you select Report higher versions as Compliant, higher versions report Compliant without running health checks.

Component Test performed
Services Installed Running Signed by
Cisco Secure Client - AnyConnect VPN Agent (VPNAgent.exe) P P

One of the signers entered in the policy configuration

By default, Signers contains "Cisco Systems, Inc.".
Application name

The application uses one of the following names:

  • Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client

  • Cisco Secure Client - AnyConnect VPN

In addition to checking the version, the following table describes the health checks performed:

If you select Report higher versions as Compliant for version 4.9.x, higher versions report Compliant without running health checks.

If you select Report higher versions as Compliant for version 4.8.x, 4.6.x, or 4.4.x, higher versions report Compliant if all health checks, other than the version check, pass.

Component Test performed
Services Installed Running Signed by
Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Agent (vpnagent.exe) P P Cisco Systems, Inc.
Application name

The application uses one of the following names:

  • Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client

  • Cisco Secure Client - AnyConnect VPN

You can configure an Application Resilience policy for Cisco Secure Client to enable the Application Resilience (RAR) component A lightweight software component of the Secure Endpoint Agent that detects the status of third party applications installed on a device. The component may also attempt to repair the third party application if it is non-compliant. The RAR component is deployed on a device only when the device is associated with a customized policy group and that policy group's Application Resilience policy is activated. to attempt to repair Cisco Secure Client if it's not functioning, or reinstall it if it's missing or can't be repaired.

Depending on the Absolute product licenses associated with your account, the Report and repair and Report, repair, and reinstall options may not be available.

The RAR component of the Secure Endpoint Agent can respond to the following issues:

Issue Resolution
Repair
TheCisco Secure Client - AnyConnect VPN Agent (VPNAgent.exe) service isn't running

The RAR component restarts the service.
The Cisco Secure Client - AnyConnect VPN Agent (VPNAgent.exe) service isn't installed and the service's executable can be detected on the device

The RAR component reinstalls the missing service.
Reinstall

Downgrades are not supported. If the version installed on a device is higher than the expected version, no action is taken.
The Cisco Secure Client - AnyConnect VPN Agent (VPNAgent.exe) service isn't installed and the service's executable cannot be detected on the device

The RAR component downloads and installs the configured version of the application.
The Cisco Secure Client failed to be repaired, or the expected version isn't installed
Issue Resolution
Repair
The Cisco Secure Client AnyConnect VPN Agent for Windows (vpnagent.exe) service isn't running

The RAR component restarts the service.
The Cisco Secure Client AnyConnect VPN Agent for Windows (vpnagent.exe) service isn't installed and the service's executable can be detected on the device

The RAR component reinstalls the missing service.
Reinstall

Downgrades are not supported. If the version installed on a device is higher than the expected version, no action is taken.
The Cisco Secure Client AnyConnect VPN Agent for Windows (vpnagent.exe) service isn't installed and the service's executable cannot be detected on the device

The RAR component downloads and installs the configured version of the application.
Cisco Secure Client failed to be repaired, or the expected version isn't installed

The installer:

  • must be an MSI file

  • can have any file name

The RAR component looks for the following files names when checking pre-cached installers:

Component File name
Installers CiscoAnyConnect.msi

Before you activate an Application Resilience policy, you need to configure the policy. You need to configure the application version in addition to the settings in Configuring Application Resilience policies.

To configure the application version:

  1. Under Application version, select 5.* or higher from the drop-down.

  2. Enter the version in Cisco Secure Client (formerly Cisco AnyConnect® Secure Mobility Client) version.

    • The target version must be a sequence of digits separated by a period.
    • You can use wildcard "*" characters after the major version, for example, 5.* or 5.0.*.

    Make sure the version you are entering is consistent with version 5.x or higher.

If you selected the Report, repair, and reinstall option, you also need to configure these settings in addition to the settings in Configuring Application Resilience policies.

To configure the Cisco Secure Client specific settings:

  1. [Optional] To only reinstall the application if it's missing, select the checkbox next to Do not reinstall or upgrade if the app is already installed. When this option is selected, the application is not reinstalled when either of the following conditions apply:

    • The application version is lower than the expected version.
    • The application can't be repaired.
  1. [Optional] Under Additional installer commands, enter the applicable command-line parameters to configure any settings not covered by the policy configuration. For more information about the available command line parameters, see Cisco's documentation.

Before you activate an Application Resilience policy, you need to configure the policy. You need to configure the application version in addition to the settings in Configuring Application Resilience policies.

To configure the application version:

  1. Under Application version, select 4.9.* from the drop-down.

  2. Enter the version in Cisco Secure Client (formerly Cisco AnyConnect® Secure Mobility Client) version.

    • The target version must be a sequence of digits separated by a period.
    • You can use wildcard "*" characters after the minor version, for example, 4.9.*.

    Make sure the version you are entering is consistent with version 4.9.x.

Before you activate an Application Resilience policy you need to configure the policy.