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Version 6.30
Version 6.30
  • Welcome
  • Nexthink V6
  • Overview
    • Software components
    • Collector
    • Finder
    • Engine
    • Portal
    • Nexthink Library
    • Digital Experience Score
  • Installation and configuration
    • Planning your installation
      • Overview of the installation process
      • Hardware requirements
      • Connectivity requirements
      • Software requirements
      • Reference architectures
    • Installing Portal and Engine Appliances
      • Installing the Appliance
      • Installing the Appliance on Azure
      • Installing the Appliance on AWS
      • Installing the Appliance on OTC
      • Managing Appliance accounts
      • Setting the names of the Portal
      • Setting the names of the Engines
      • Specifying your internal networks and domains
      • Federating your Appliances
      • STIG compliance in Web Console
      • Connecting the Portal to the Engines
      • Configuring session performance storage
      • Configuring device performance storage
      • Setting up a software license
      • Sending email notifications from the Appliance
      • Allocating resources for the Portal
    • Installing the Collector
      • Installing the Collector on Windows
      • Installing the Collector on macOS
      • Installing the Collector for a Proof of Value
      • Assigning Collectors to Engines
      • Assignment of roaming Collectors
      • Collector MSI parameters reference table
      • Nxtcfg - Collector configuration tool
      • Inspecting the connection status of the Collector
      • Querying the status of the TCP connection of the Collector
      • Reporting the URL of HTTP web requests
      • Auditing logon events
      • Viewing user interactions in virtualized and embedded environments
      • Engage notifications on macOS
      • Configuring Collector level anonymization
    • Collector remote connectivity
      • Redirecting and anonymizing Collector traffic
      • Redirecting the Collector TCP channel
      • Support for DirectAccess
      • Windows Collector proxy support
      • Mac Collector proxy support
    • Installing the Event Connector
      • Installing the Event Connector on Linux
    • Installing the Finder
      • Installing the Finder on Windows
      • Enabling Cross-Engine Finder features
      • Expanding the time frame of investigations in the Finder
      • Enabling Finder access to the Library
      • Finder proxy support
    • Updating from V6.x
      • Updating the Appliance
      • Content centralization when updating the Appliance
      • Updating the Collector
      • Viewing Collector deprecated fields
      • Updating the Finder
    • Security and user account management
      • Importing and replacing certificates
      • Hierarchizing your infrastructure
      • Adding users
      • Enabling SAML authentication of users
      • Just-In-Time provisioning of user accounts
      • Enabling Windows authentication of users
      • Multi-factor authentication for local accounts overview
      • Provisioning user accounts from Active Directory
      • Establishing a privacy policy
      • Disabling local accounts for interactive users
      • Setting the complexity and minimum length of passwords for local accounts
      • Protecting local accounts against brute force attacks
      • Preventing password saving in the Finder
      • Controlling session timeouts in the Portal
      • Security settings in the Appliance
      • Setting the Do Not Disturb periods between campaigns
    • Data retrieval and storage
      • Data retention
      • Increasing the maximum number of metrics
      • Establishing a data retention policy in the Engine
      • Storing Engine data in a secondary disk drive
      • Importing data from Microsoft Active Directory
      • Setting the locale in the Portal
      • Changing the Time Zone of the Portal
      • Time Zones and data collection
      • Changing the data collection time of the Portal
      • Nightly task schedules timetable
      • Changing the thresholds of High CPU warnings
      • Automatic restart of unresponsive Engine
    • Maintenance operations
      • Logging in to the CLI
      • Special operation modes for the Engine and the Portal
      • Changing the default ports in the Appliance
      • Centralized Management of Appliances and Engines
      • Monitoring the performance of the Appliance
      • Resizing partitions in Appliance
      • Configuring the system log
      • Examining the logs in the Portal
      • GDPR - Retrieving or anonymizing personal data
      • Finding out unlicensed devices
      • Removing devices
      • Installing third-party software in the Appliance
      • Installing VMware Tools in the Appliance
      • Operational data sent to Nexthink
      • Sending additional data to Support
    • Disaster recovery
      • Planning for disaster recovery
      • Web Console backup and restore
      • Engine backup and restore
      • Portal backup and restore
      • Rule-based assignment backup and restore
      • License backup and restore
      • PKI backup and restore
    • Branding
      • Branding the Portal
      • Branding of campaigns
  • User manual
    • Getting started
      • Logging in to the Finder
      • Logging in to the Portal
      • Enabling STIG in Webconsole
    • Querying the system
      • Searching the subject of interest
      • Executing an investigation
      • Creating an investigation
      • Editing the options of an investigation
      • Combining logical conditions in investigations
      • Navigating through the results of an investigation
      • Properties of users and devices
    • Visualizing system activity in the Finder
      • Getting a quick overview
      • Graphically observing the activity of users and devices
      • Observing service performance
      • Viewing network connections
      • Viewing web requests
      • Viewing executions
    • Monitoring IT custom metrics
      • Creating a metric
      • Examples of metrics
      • Session performance
      • Device performance
      • Following the evolution of a metric
      • Finding the visuals of a metric
    • Monitoring IT services
      • Analyzing service quality
      • Creating a service
      • Following the evolution of a service
      • Specifying URL paths of web-based services
    • Engaging with the end user
      • Getting feedback from the end users
      • Types of campaigns
      • Creating a campaign
      • Editing a campaign
      • Types of questions
      • Controlling the flow of questions
      • Translating a campaign
      • Triggering a campaign manually
      • Limiting the reception rate of campaigns
      • Scrutinizing the results of a campaign
      • Continuously measuring the satisfaction of employees
    • Rating devices and users with scores
      • Computing scores
      • Creating a score
      • Checking and comparing ratings
      • Computing potential savings
      • Score XML Reference
      • Documenting scores
    • Remotely acting on devices
      • Scenarios for remote actions
      • Creating a remote action
      • Executing remote actions
      • Triggering a remote action manually
      • Writing scripts for remote actions on Windows
      • Writing scripts for remote actions on Mac
      • Example of self-healing scenario
      • Example of self-help scenario
      • Application control and remote actions
    • Organizing objects with categories
      • Classifying objects of the same type
      • Creating categories and keywords
      • Tagging objects manually
      • Tagging objects automatically
      • Importing tags from text files
    • Getting notified by the system
      • Receiving Engage campaigns
      • Receiving email digests
      • Receiving alerts
      • Creating a service-based alert
      • Creating an investigation-based alert
    • Building web-based dashboards
      • Introducing dashboards in the Portal
      • Creating a dashboard
      • Examining metrics in depth
      • Documenting dashboards
      • Assessing license use
      • Computing dashboard data
      • Reusing dashboard content
    • Importing and exporting authored content
      • Methods for reusing authored content
      • Manually sharing Finder content
      • Importing a content pack
      • Conflict resolution
      • Exporting a content pack
  • Library packs
    • Compliance
      • Device Compliance
    • Configuration Manuals
      • Overview (Configuration Manuals)
      • Installing A New Version Of A Library Pack
    • Digital Employee Score (DEX score)
      • DEX Score Installation And Configuration
      • Detailed Library Pack Changelog
    • Device management
      • Reduce logon duration
      • Group Policy Management
      • Hardware Asset Renewal
      • Hardware Asset Renewal Advanced
      • Application Auto-Start Impact
    • Remote Employee Experience
      • Remote Worker Experience
      • Home Networking
      • Change Log And Upgrade Process
      • Remote Worker Vs Office Worker Device Category
      • Remote Worker Insights
      • DEX V2 Upgrade Of Remote Worker
    • Persona Insight
      • Persona Insight - Overview
      • Persona Insight - Library Pack
      • Persona Insight - Score Only Pack
      • Persona Insight - Without Campaign pack
      • Persona Insight - Getting Started and Upgrade Procedure
      • Persona Insight - Configuration Guide
      • Persona Insight - Troubleshooting - Multiple devices on multiple engines
      • Persona Insight - Reference Guide
      • Persona Insight - Example Pack
      • Persona Insight - Device Sizing
        • Persona Insight - Device Sizing Overview
        • Persona Insight - Device Sizing Configuration
      • Persona Insight - Application Sizing
        • Persona Insight - Application Sizing Overview
        • Persona Insight - Application Sizing Configuration
      • Legacy Persona documentation
        • Persona Insight - Library Pack (V.1.0.0.0)
        • Persona Insight - Base Pack
        • Persona Insight - Base Pack Advanced
        • Persona Insight - Customization Guide (V1.0.0.0)
        • Persona Insight - Configuration Guide (V1.0.0.0)
        • Persona Insight - Reference Guide (V1.0.0.0)
    • GSuite
      • GSuite: Health
      • GSuite: Services
      • GSuite: Sentiment
      • GSuite: Advanced Health
    • Support
      • Support: Level 1
    • Shadow IT
      • Shadow IT
    • Malware Protection
      • Malware Protection
    • Office 365 Health
      • Office 365 Health: Overview
      • Office 365 Health: Services
    • Office 365 OneDrive
      • OneDrive Summary
      • OneDrive Operations
      • OneDrive Advanced Health
      • OneDrive Migration
      • OneDrive Sentiment
      • OneDrive Management
      • OneDrive Advanced Operations
    • Office 365 Teams
      • Teams Overall Configuration
      • Teams - Migration
      • Teams - Health
      • Teams - Advanced Health
      • Teams - Adoption
    • Microsoft 365 Apps
      • Microsoft 365 Apps - Operate
    • Employee Self Service
      • Overview
      • Configuration
      • Usage
    • Onboarding Experience Management
      • OEM - Overview
      • OEM - Configuration
    • Office 365 Outlook
      • Outlook Troubleshooting
    • Virtualization
      • Virtualization: Operate
      • Virtualization: AVD - Advanced
      • Virtualization: Citrix Advanced
      • Virtualization: Project
      • Virtualization: Troubleshooting
        • Virtualization: Troubleshooting: Configuration
    • Windows
      • Win10: Configuration
      • Win10: Migration
      • Win10: Feature Update
      • Win10: Quality Update
      • Windows Defender Management
      • Administrators Management
    • Windows 11
      • Windows 11 - Readiness
      • Windows 11 - Migration Pilot
      • Windows 11 - Migration
      • Windows 11 - Operate
    • Webex
      • Webex Operate
    • Zoom
      • Zoom Operate
    • Remote Actions
      • Get Performance Monitor Data
      • Skype For Business
      • Restart Device
      • Upload Logs to S3 using PreSigned URLs
    • Software Asset Optimization
    • Collaboration Optimization
      • Collaboration Optimization - Solution Overview
      • Collaboration Optimization - Configuration
      • Collaboration Optimization - Usage / Troubleshooting
    • Systems Management
      • Manage Configuration Drift
      • MS ConfigMgr - Client Health
        • MS ConfigMgr - Client Health - Summary
        • MS ConfigMgr - Client Health - Configuration Guide
      • Intune
        • Intune - Health
          • Intune - Health - Summary
          • Intune - Health - Configuration Guide
    • Return to the office
      • Return to the office - Planning
      • Return to the office - Readiness
    • Green IT
      • Green IT - Overview
      • Green IT - Configuration Guide
    • Hybrid Working
      • Hybrid Working Experience
      • Hybrid Working Experience - Installation and upgrade procedure
  • Integrations
    • Nexthink ServiceNow Service Graph Connector
      • Overview
        • Roles and Permissions
        • Modules
      • Installation and Configuration Guide
        • Pre-requisites
          • Configure Identification Rules
          • Import and setup the CMDB categories in Finder
        • Setup
          • Configure the connection
          • Configure import properties
          • Configure additional engines
          • Set up scheduled import jobs
      • Data transformation and mapping by default
      • How to customize the behaviour of the Connector
      • FAQ
        • Why ServiceNow Service Graph Connector?
        • What about Nexthink CMDB Connector?
        • Why is the name the primary key for the devices?
      • Troubleshooting
        • IRE identification issues
          • [No Choice found in the sys_choice table for the target table](integrations/nexthink-servicenow-service-graph-connector/troubleshooting/ire-identification-issues/ no-choice-found-in-the-sys_choice-table-for-the-target-table.md)
          • Identification rules not created
          • Discovery_source choice not created
        • Timeout Errors
          • ECCResponseTimeoutException
          • HTTP 0 error
        • MID server issues
          • java.lang.NullPointerException
          • MID Server memory issues
          • Not trusted certificates in Quebec release
        • Configure credentials issues
          • [Not allowing update of property authentication_choice](integrations/nexthink-servicenow-service-graph-connector/troubleshooting/configure-credentials-issues/ not-allowing-update-of-property-authentication_choice.md)
          • Invalid username/password combo (HTTP 401/403)
        • Configure Engines Issues
          • [The client secret supplied for a confidential client is invalid](integrations/nexthink-servicenow-service-graph-connector/troubleshooting/configure-engines-issues/ the-client-secret-supplied-for-a-confidential-client-is-invalid.md)
        • No Cis imported and no errors found in the log
    • Nexthink ServiceNow Incident Management Connector (IMC)
      • Installation and configuration guide (IMC)
      • Troubleshooting Guide (IMC)
      • Domain separation installation (IMC)
    • Nexthink ServiceNow CMDB Connectors
      • Installation and Configuration Guide
      • Troubleshooting Guide
      • Field transformation and normalisation examples
    • Nexthink Event Connector
      • High level overview
      • Installation and Configuration Guide
      • Troubleshooting guide
      • RPM installation
      • Splunk specific documentation
        • Upgrading from Splunk Connector to Event Connector
        • Splunk add-on installation and usage
    • Nexthink Chatbot SDK
      • Introduction and concepts
      • Installation, configuration and update guide
        • Installation and configuration
        • Update to newer version
        • Uninstallation
        • Authentication
        • Topics configuration
        • Remote action configuration
        • Advanced configuration
        • Additional resources and references
      • Dimensioning guide
      • Troubleshooting
      • Technical solution description
      • Downloads and release notes
  • Glossary and references
    • Search and information display
      • Search in Finder
      • Keyboard shortcuts for column display selection
      • Campaign display compatibility
      • Real-time and consolidated service data
      • Service errors and warnings
      • Errors and warnings for devices and executions
      • Types of widgets
      • Widget compute state in charts
      • Errors in the execution of remote actions
      • Top results of Cross-Engine investigations
      • Engine data history
    • Tooltips in the user and device views
      • Alerts tooltips
      • Warnings tooltips
      • Errors tooltips
      • Activity tooltips
      • Services tooltips
    • Database information and organization
      • Maximum supported values
      • Local and shared content
      • Device Identification
      • Local IP address of devices
      • Timestamping of events
      • Boot and logon duration
      • Application startup duration
      • Application not responding events
      • Memory and CPU usage
      • Status of TCP connections
      • Status of UDP connections
      • Network and port scan conditions
      • Binary paths
      • Maximum number of Binaries
      • Package Executable Mapping
      • Metro apps
      • Investigation with packages
      • Portal aggregation and grouping
      • Focus time metric
    • Security
      • Access rights and permissions
      • Active Directory authentication
      • Canonical domain names for Windows authentication
      • System alerts
      • Audit trail
      • Appliance hardening
      • STIG hardening
      • FIPS 140-2 compliance
      • Security bulletins
        • Is Nexthink affected by Okta breach
        • Is Nexthink affected by SolarWinds breach
        • Nexthink and Log4j - Security bulletin
        • CVE-2022-22965 - Security Vulnerability Spring4shell - Spring Framework
        • Version 6.22.2.10: Security Vulnerability Maintenance Release
        • The Collector V6.27.X Release – Security Bulletin
    • References
      • Components of the Collector
      • Server support
      • Compatibility mode
    • Glossary
      • Activity
      • Alert
      • Application
      • Binary
      • Campaign
      • Category
      • Connection
      • Dashboard
      • Destination
      • Device
      • Domain
      • Entity
      • Event
      • Executable
      • Execution
      • Focus time
      • Hierarchy
      • Installation
      • Investigation
      • Keyword
      • Metric
      • Module
      • Object
      • Package
      • Platform
      • Port
      • Printer
      • Score
      • Service
      • Session
      • System boot
      • User
      • User logon
      • Web request
      • Widget
  • API and integrations
    • Integrating with Nexthink
      • Event Connector
      • Getting data through the NXQL API
      • Bidirectional integration with the Finder
      • Count metrics API
      • Software metering API
      • Services API
      • List Engines API
      • GetSID API
      • Triggering campaigns via their API
      • Triggering remote actions via their API
      • Audit trail API
      • Integrating investigation-based alerts
      • Downloads
    • NXQL API
      • Introducing the NXQL API
      • NXQL Tutorial
      • NXQL language definition
      • NXQL Data Model
    • Integrations
      • Excel integration with NXQL
      • Power BI
      • Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2
      • Splunk Event Connector
    • ServiceNow
      • CMDB Connector
      • Incident Management Connector
      • Event Management
On this page
  • Overview
  • Sizing your installation
  • Traffic reduction
  • Taxonomy of servers
  • Engine configuration
  • Only client-like (WVD / Citrix / RDS) servers
  • Only non-client servers
  • Mixed setup
  • Act support
  • Engage support
  • Compatibility of Collector with Receive Segment Coalescing (RSC)

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  1. Glossary and references
  2. References

Server support

Last updated 9 months ago

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Overview

Although Nexthink is a solution designed for monitoring the devices of the end-users, the same monitoring techniques may be applied to servers to some extent. In Nexthink V5, it is possible to install the Collector on Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) / Citrix / RDS servers, where each server is roughly equivalent to having a group of end-user devices. Starting from V6, Nexthink also supports the installation of the Collector in other types of Windows servers (note that V5.3 offers server support for specific Windows Server versions as well). Therefore, a new type of device is available in Nexthink: the server.

The Collector reports basically the same analytics from a server as from the device of an end-user, except for some security-related information. Indeed, the technology used by the Collector to retrieve security information is not available on servers, so data on the following areas is missing:

  • Antivirus

  • Antispyware

  • Firewall

Also keep in mind that, as for normal devices, the Collector does not report incoming connections for servers. Only outgoing connections are recorded.

Sizing your installation

Servers usually generate much more activity than end-user devices. As a rule of thumb for sizing your installation, consider that a server is equivalent to 20 end-user devices. Calculate the number of Engines that you need according to the following formula, where S is the number of servers and D is the number of end-user devices in your setup:

  • Number of Engines = (20 * S + D) / 6000

The for the Engines apply.

Traffic reduction

The typically higher network activity of servers with respect to end-user devices often generates lots of connections and events that might saturate the Engine. Therefore, the Engine has set in place a strategy to reduce the traffic of servers, although it applies to the traffic of all types of devices. When a device connects to too many destinations or opens too many ports in a burst, the Engine can automatically decide to aggregate these connections into a single connection, setting its port or its destination value to multiple. In the case of a device launching a burst of web connections to many domains, the Engine aggregates the connections as one connection where the value of the domain is multiple.

In this manner, individual information about the connections is lost, but the amount of traffic information stored in the Engine is kept to a reasonable level. Otherwise, the explosion of connections could drastically reduce the history available in the Engine. Even with the traffic reduction policy in place, you should expect a slight reduction on the history available in the Engine if you install the Collector on servers.

The strategy for reducing traffic is configurable (see below). Choose between normal and aggressive, depending on whether you prefer to aggregate connections gently or almost right away. An aggressive policy lets you keep a longer history in the Engine at the expense of losing the individual information of more connections.

Taxonomy of servers

Find below a classification of servers according to their function. Depending on the function of the server, you should be aware of the chances that the Engine reduces server traffic.

Client-like (WVD, Citrix, RDS)

Supported from V5. Traffic reduction rare.

Application (Mail, SQL Database)

Traffic reduction depending on load.

Agent manager (SCCM)

Traffic reduction probable.

UDP server (DNS)

Traffic reduction certain.

Proxy (Web proxy)

Expect to have web traffic reduction and bigger Collector usage of your network. Installation on a web proxy is therefore not recommended.

Bot (Scanner, Stress test)

Not supported, since just one server may behave as thousands of end-user devices. Do not install the Collector on servers of the bot class.

Engine configuration

Set the traffic reduction policy by editing the configuration file of the Engine. In addition, configure whether you want the outgoing traffic of servers to be used in the computation of services. Usually, this only makes sense for client-like (WVD / Citrix / RDS) servers.

  1. Log in to the CLI of the Engine.

  2. Open the configuration file for editing: sudo vi /var/nexthink/engine/01/etc/nxengine.xml

  3. Write the following settings in the corresponding section of the configuration file:

    • In the aggregation section, set destination_reduction_policy to normal or aggressive.

    • In the service section, set compute_service_on_server to true or false.

  4. Save your changes and exit: :wq

Alternatively, use the nxinfo command to change the configuration settings of the Engine. For instance, to set the destination reduction policy to normal and turn on the computation of services on servers, type in:

  • sudo nxinfo config -s aggregation.destination_reduction_policy=normal

  • sudo nxinfo config -s service.compute_service_on_server=true

After modifying the settings, find the following lines with the provided values in the configuration file:

Code
<aggregation>
  <destination_reduction_policy>normal<destination_reduction_policy>
</aggregation>
<service>
  <compute_service_on_server>true<compute_service_on_server>
</service>

Depending on the types of servers that you have, use the settings described below.

Only client-like (WVD / Citrix / RDS) servers

  • Destination reduction policy: normal.

  • Compute service on servers: true.

Whenever possible, assign the WVD / Citrix / RDS servers to the same Engines of the end-user devices that they serve.

Only non-client servers

  • Destination reduction policy: aggressive.

  • Compute service on servers: false.

If possible, assign non-client servers to an Engine separate from those used by end-user devices.

Mixed setup

  • Destination reduction policy: aggressive.

  • Compute service on servers: true.

In the case of a mixed setup with both client-like and non-client servers, you may want to compute a service for client-like servers and actual clients (end-user devices) only.

To compute services selectively, manually tag those devices that you want to include in the computation and set a condition on the services for taking into account only those tagged devices. For instance:

  1. Create a category called, for example, Compute services.

  2. Add two keywords to the categories without auto-tagging rules: yes and no.

  3. Manually tag all your end-user devices and client-like servers with the keyword yes and the non-client servers with the keyword no.

  4. Add a condition on devices in the definition of each service to include in the service only those devices tagged with the yes keyword:

Whenever possible, assign WVD / Citrix / RDS servers to the same Engines of the end-user devices that they serve and group non-client servers in separate Engines.

Act support

Engage support

Engage is supported on WVD / Citrix / RDS servers when a full desktop session is streamed (app streaming does not support Engage) and .NET framework 3.5 or later is installed on the streamed desktop.

Compatibility of Collector with Receive Segment Coalescing (RSC)

The driver of a network interface that is compatible with RSC can coalesce multiple TCP segments received and present them as a single larger segment to the networking layer of the operating system.


RELATED TASKS

RELATED REFERENCES

Because server can host multiple sessions simultaneously (that is, there can be more than one current interactive user), remote actions are executed on servers only when they are run as .

To enable Engage for servers, remember to set the option Enable for all devices when , as the default option Enable except on servers explicitly disables the delivery of campaigns to servers.

The Collector version 6.30.2.4 or higher is compatible with , a technology present in Windows Server 2012 and later that improves the reception of network traffic by offloading network processing from the CPU to the network interface. Windows desktop operating systems also support RSC since Windows 8, but the use of RSC is usually limited to Windows servers with high input traffic.

hardware requirements
local system
Receive Segment Coalescing
Creating a remote action
Installing the Collector
Hardware requirements
Operating systems supported by the Collector
Receive Segment Coalescing (external)
installing the Collector