Assigning policy groups to an agent version

If automatic agent updates are disabled for your account, you can assign one or more policy groups to a specific version of the Secure Endpoint Agent.

Before you can perform this task, you first need to disable automatic agent updates. This action assigns the current version of the agent to your account, which prevents the automatic update of the agent when a new agent version is released.

If you did not complete this prerequisite before a new agent version was released, you can't assign policy groups to a specific agent version.

Agent downgrades are not supported. After you assign an agent version to a policy group, you are not permitted to move any of the policy group's devices to a policy group that is assigned a lower agent version. However, there is one exception. Deleting a policy group automatically moves all its devices to the Global Policy Group, which will result in an agent downgrade if the agent version of the Global Policy Group is lower.

To assign policy groups to an agent version:

  1. Log in to the Secure Endpoint Console as a user with Manage permissions for Version Control. All default Administrator roles are granted this permission.

  2. On the navigation bar, click Settings > Agent Management.

    The Agent management page opens to show the LATEST agent version, the DEFAULT agent version, and all agent versions currently assigned to at least one policy group. The Allow Absolute to manage agent updates slider is set to Off (gray).

    If the slider is set to On (green), the prerequisite for this task is not met.

    For each agent version in use, the following icons show:

    Icon

    Description

    The number of policy groups assigned to the agent version

    The number of devices assigned to the agent version

    If the UNSUPPORTED label shows next to an agent version, the version was released more than 18 months ago and it is no longer supported. For the policy groups that are currently assigned to this agent version, it's best practice that you assign them to a higher, supported version at your earliest convenience.

  3. Select the Show unused versions checkbox. The page refreshes to show all agent versions that are available for assignment to your devices.

  4. [Optional] To view the policy groups that are currently assigned to a particular agent version, click the icon next to the version.

  5. From the list of agent versions, decide which version you want to assign by doing the following:

    1. Next to the agent version, click either or > Release Notes. The applicable Secure Endpoint Agent release notes open.
    2. Review the release notes to learn about the new features, functionality, and fixes introduced in this version of the agent.
  6. Do one of the following:
  1. Click next to the policy group that you want to assign.

  2. On the menu that opens, select an agent version.

    Note that only eligible agent versions are available for selection. You can't select an agent version that was released more than 18 months ago or is lower than the version currently assigned to the policy group. The LATEST and DEFAULT agent versions are labeled.

  3. Review the information on the confirmation dialog and click Confirm Update.

The policy group is assigned to the agent version. As each device in the policy group connects to the Absolute Monitoring Center, its Secure Endpoint Agent is updated to the new agent version.

  1. Click next to the applicable agent version and click Assign Policy Groups. If the option is grayed out, all policy groups are already assigned to this agent version, or a higher one.

  2. On the dialog that opens, select each policy group and click Assign.

    Only eligible policy group are available for selection. You can't select a policy group that is assigned to a higher agent version.

  3. Review the information on the confirmation dialog and click Confirm Update.

The policy groups are assigned to the agent version. As each device in the selected policy groups connects to the Absolute Monitoring Center, its Secure Endpoint Agent is updated to the new agent version.