Installing the Linux agent

Depending on the Absolute product licenses associated with your account, Linux support may not be available.

To manage your devices in Absolute, you first need to download and install the Secure Endpoint Agent on each device. After the agent is installed, it contacts the Absolute Monitoring Center to be enrolled and receive a unique identifier. A device record is then created in the database and the device information detected by the agent is made available in the Secure Endpoint Console.

To ensure that your Linux devices are compatible with the agent, they need to meet the following requirements:

  • Device is running a supported operating system

  • The following command-line utilities are installed on each device:
    • upower
    • dmidecode
    • dnsdomainname
    • arch
    • stat
    • sfdisk
    • localectl
    • free
    • vmstat
    • df
    • xrandr
    • nmcli
    • networkctl
    • iw

    If these utilities are not installed, some hardware information will not be collected.

  • Internet connection

Installation of the Secure Endpoint Agent on a Linux device requires administrator privileges.

You can deploy the Secure Endpoint Agent on your Linux devices by downloading the Linux core agent The core agent (also known as rpcnet) is a small software client that resides in devices that are managed in the Secure Endpoint Console. After the core agent is initially installed on a new device, it is activated with its first connection to the Absolute Monitoring Center and the device is enrolled in Absolute. The core agent then makes scheduled connections every 24.5 hours. installer from the console.

Package contents

The contents of the downloaded package depend on the Linux distribution:

The download package contains the following files:

  • absolutecoreagent-<version>.deb: debian installer for the core agent
  • install.sh: shell script to run the core agent installer
  • AbsoluteAgent.dat: text file containing your account metadata
  • AbsoluteAgent.sig: signature file

  • AbsoluteAgent.checksums: file containing the SHA-256 hash of the installer

    You can use a hash verification tool, such as CertUtil, to verify that the contents of the AbsoluteCoreAgent.msi installer has not been altered during download. For more information about verifying a SHA-256 file hash on a Windows device, see Microsoft documentation.

  • A readme file for each supported language that includes information about the contents of the agent installation package and how to install the agent

Before you run the installer, ensure that the AbsoluteAgent.dat and AbsoluteAgent.sig files are in the same folder as the .deb file. Agent installation cannot be completed if these files are not present.

The download package contains the following files:

Before you run the installer, ensure that the AbsoluteAgent.dat and AbsoluteAgent.sig files are in the same folder as the .rpm file. Agent installation cannot be completed if these files are not present.

The installer is packaged in a zip file. Before running the installer, you need to extract (unzip) the zip file.

To extract the installer:

  1. Complete the steps to download the Linux core agent installer.

    An account-specific installer is downloaded in one of the following zip files:

    • AbsoluteUbuntuX64CoreAgent-<version>-<account ID>.zip
    • AbsoluteUbuntuARM64CoreAgent-<version>-<account ID>.zip
    • AbsoluteRhelX64CoreAgent-<version>-<account ID>.zip
    • AbsoluteRhelARM64CoreAgent-<version>-<account ID>.zip

  2. From the location where you saved the downloaded zip file, extract its contents to a local folder, a network drive, or to removable media such as a USB device.

You need to use the command line to run the installer locally on a Linux device.

Administrator privileges are required to run the installer.

To install the agent:

  1. Ensure that you have extracted the downloaded zip file.

    If you copied the installer file to another location, ensure that the AbsoluteAgent.dat and AbsoluteAgent.sig files are also copied over. Agent installation cannot be completed if these files are not present.

  2. Open a Terminal window. For example type CTRL+ALT+T.

  3. Use the cd command to navigate to the location where you extracted the downloaded zip file.

    For example:

    Copy 
    cd /tmp/agent

  4. Run the shell script (install.sh) to install and set up the core agent:

    1. Enter the following command to assign execute permissions to the install.sh shell script:

      Copy 
      chmod u+x install.sh

    2. Enter the following command to run the shell script using admin (root) privileges:

      Copy 
      sudo ./install.sh

  5. Verify that an Installed successfully message is returned, indicating that the installation was successful.

After installation, the agent contacts the Absolute Monitoring Center and receives a unique identifier. You can verify that the agent was successfully installed in the following ways:

You can verify that an agent is activated by downloading the Persistence Status Monitor and triggering an agent call.

You can verify that an agent is activated by reviewing the Activation report in the Secure Endpoint Console.

To verify the agent installation using the console:

  1. Log in to the Secure Endpoint Console as an Administrator.
  2. On the navigation bar, click Reports.
  3. Under Categories, click Device, and then click Activation to open the Activation report.

It may take several hours to process the device's information and make it available in the console. The data in the Activation report is sorted in descending order by Activation date, so the newly activated device should show at or near the top of the result grid. If it doesn't show, the device has failed to contact the Absolute Monitoring Center. If so, you can trigger an agent call.

It's best practice to avoid backing up a device with an activated Secure Endpoint Agent. Restoring the backup may lead to unexpected outcomes, depending on the policies, actions, and rules deployed to the backed up device.

If you want to create a backup, ensure that you:

  • Exclude the following folders/files from the backup:
    • /opt/absolute/rpcnet
    • /opt/absolute/ctes
  • Reinstall the Secure Endpoint Agent after the backup is restored.