Application Resilience policies for VMware Carbon Black Cloud

You can activate an Application Resilience policy for VMware Carbon Black Cloud™ (Carbon Black Cloud) to collect information about the functional status of the Carbon Black Cloud sensors installed on your Windows devices and view the results in reports. You can also configure the policy to attempt to reinstall the application.

Application Resilience policies for Carbon Black Cloud 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 the Carbon Black Cloud sensor:

    • 3.7.x or higher

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

    • 3.5.x
    • 3.4.0.x

There is a known issue upgrading the Carbon Black Cloud sensor from version 3.4.0.x. If you encounter issues upgrading, we recommend that you try uninstalling version 3.4.0.x. For more information, see VMware Carbon Black documentation.

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
Cb Defense (RepMgr.exe) P P

One of the signers entered in the policy configuration

By default, Signers contains "Carbon Black, Inc.".
Carbon Black Cloud WSC (RepWSC.exe) P n/a

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
Cb Defense (RepMgr.exe) P P Carbon Black, Inc.
Carbon Black Cloud WSC (RepWSC.exe) P n/a

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

Report higher versions as Compliant is not available.

Component Test performed
Services Installed Running Signed by
Cb Defense (RepMgr.exe) P P Carbon Black, Inc.
Cb Defense WSC (RepWSC.exe) P n/a

You can configure an Application Resilience policy for Carbon Black Cloud 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 reinstall the Carbon Black Cloud sensor if it's not functioning or missing.

The Report and repair option isn't supported. Depending on the Absolute product licenses associated with your account, the Report, repair, and reinstall option or the Report and reinstall option may not be available.

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

Issue Resolution
Reinstall

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

One or more of the following services aren't installed:

  • Cb Defense (RepMgr.exe)
  • Carbon Black Cloud WSC (RepWSC.exe)

The RAR component downloads and installs the configured version of the application.
The Cb Defense (RepMgr.exe) service isn't running
The expected version of the Carbon Black Cloud sensor isn't installed
Issue Resolution
Reinstall

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

One or more of the following services aren't installed:

  • Cb Defense (RepMgr.exe)
  • Cb Defense WSC (RepWSC.exe)

The RAR component downloads and installs the configured version of the application.
The Cb Defense (RepMgr.exe) service isn't running
The expected version of the Carbon Black Cloud sensor isn't installed

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 CarbonBlack_3.7.msi
Component File name
Installers CarbonBlack.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:

Under VMware Carbon Black Cloud version, enter the version of Carbon Black Cloud sensor 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, for example, 3.7.* or 3.7.1.*.

Make sure the version you are entering is consistent with version 3.7.x or higher.

To configure the Carbon Black Cloud specific setting:

  1. Under Company registration code, enter the assigned company registration code.
  2. [Optional] Under Additional installation commands, enter the applicable installation command-line parameters to configure any settings not covered by the policy configuration.

For information about obtaining your company registration code, refer to Carbon Black documentation.

Before you activate an Application Resilience policy you need to configure the policy. If you selected the Report, repair, and reinstall option or the Report and reinstall option, configure this setting in addition to the settings in Configuring Application Resilience policies.

To configure the Carbon Black Cloud specific setting:

Under Company registration code, enter the assigned company registration code.

For information about obtaining your company registration code, refer to Carbon Black documentation.