Application Resilience policies for Absolute Secure Access

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

Application Resilience policies for Secure Access are supported only on devices running the Windows 10 operating system and the following version of Secure Access:

  • 12.x

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

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

Component Test performed
Services Installed Running Signed by

One of the following:

  • Absolute Secure Access Client (messerv.exe)
  • Mobility XG Client (messerv.exe)
 P P

One of the following:

  • Absolute Software Corp.

  • NetMotion Software, Inc
Drivers Installed Running Signed by

One of the following:

  • Absolute Secure Access Packet Filter (nmfilter.sys)
  • NetMotion Packet Filter (nmfilter.sys)
 P P

One of the following:

  • Absolute Software Corp.

  • NetMotion Software, Inc

You can configure an Application Resilience policy for Secure Access to enable the Application Resilience (RAR) component A lightweight software component of the Absolute 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 Secure Access if it's not functioning, or reinstall it if it's missing or can't be repaired.

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

The RAR component of the Absolute agent can respond to the following issues:

Issue

Resolution
Repair

One of the following services isn't running:

  • Secure Access Client or Mobility XG Client (messerv.exe)

The RAR component restarts the service.

One of the following services isn't installed and the service's executable can be detected on the device:

  • Secure Access Client or Mobility XG Client (messerv.exe)

The RAR component reinstalls the missing service.

One of the following drivers isn't running:

  • Secure Access Packet Filter or NetMotion Packet Filter (nmfilter.sys)

The RAR component restarts the driver.

One of the following drivers isn't installed and the driver's executable cannot be detected on the device:

  • Secure Access Packet Filter or NetMotion Packet Filter (nmfilter.sys)

 The RAR component reinstalls the missing driver.
Reinstall

One of the following services isn't installed and the service's executable cannot be detected on the device:

  • Secure Access Client or Mobility XG Client (messerv.exe)

The RAR component downloads and installs the configured version of the client.

NOTE  Downgrades are not supported. If the version installed on a device is higher than the expected version, no action is taken.

One of the following drivers isn't installed and the driver's executable cannot be detected on the device:

  • Secure Access Packet Filter or NetMotion Packet Filter (nmfilter.sys)

Secure Access failed to be repaired, or the expected version isn't installed

NOTE  Absolute Secure Access may require multiple restarts for both Report and repair, and Report, repair, and reinstall. The Absolute agent doesn't force the device to restart, so a status of Not Compliant may continue to show in the Application Resilience reports. To complete the repair or reinstall process, have the device user restart the device twice.

You can add a 32-bit installer, a 64-bit installer, or both. The installers:

  • must be MSI files

  • can have any file name

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

Component File name
Installers NetMotion.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 12.* from the drop-down.

  2. Under Absolute Secure Access version, enter the version of Secure Access you expect to be running on your devices.

    • The target version must be a sequence of digits separated by a period.

    • You can use wildcard "*" characters after the major version number, for example, 12.* or 12.70.*.

IMPORTANT  Make sure the version you are entering is consistent with version 12.x or higher.

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

To configure the Secure Access specific setting:

Under Absolute Secure Access Server Address, enter the VPN server address provided by Absolute in the following format: 255.255.255.255.