Deploying Network Glue Collector for an IT Glue organization

The Network Glue Collector is a lightweight Windows service that can run on any server or workstation. It is uniquely configured per network and uses a number of protocols including SNMP, ICMP, ARP, and WMI.

NOTE  SNMP does not support Windows devices.

Network Glue uses a vendor-agnostic method by using standard OIDs to collect SNMP data. So,the SNMP will only work if a manufacturer makes the data available on the standard OIDs that we use. If some manufacturers of network devices do not make the required data available over SNMP, these devices may not be fully supported at this time.

This article shows you how to deploy the Network Glue Collector for your IT Glue organizations either on-site or through a remote monitoring and management (RMM) tool.

NOTE  Data sent from the Collector to IT Glue is encrypted using Transport Layer Security (TLS) and uses a secure authentication mechanism with our back-end systems.

The Collector agent does not support SNMP for Windows Workstations.

Prerequisites

System Requirements:

• Windows 10 Pro or Windows 2016 Server and up
• 5GB of free disk space
• Minimum of 2GB RAM

Instructions

We strongly recommend that you install the Network Glue Collector on a server, rather than a workstation. If the Collector is installed on a workstation, collection services may stop running if the workstation is turned off or sent to sleep.

Deploying the Network Glue Collector on-site:

1. To download and install Network Glue Collector, navigate to Account > Network Glue and follow our KB article Setting up Network Glue for an IT Glue organization.
2. Once you have completed the setup, download the Network Glue Collector installer file.
   
3. Open the file to initiate the wizard and click Next on each screen to complete the setup. You can change the install path if you prefer to install the Collector somewhere other than the default location.
   
4. Click Finish once the install is complete.
   
5. A screen will appear asking you to enter an unused Collector key. To obtain the key, navigate to Account > Network Glue and click on the Copy to clipboard icon beside the key.
   

   NOTE  The Account > Network Glue page is only accessible by IT Glue Administrators and Managers. For Lite users and above, access the Network Glue Collector by navigating to Organization > Networks.

6. Paste in the key and click Continue. The Network Glue Collector will initiate the sync to your specified IT Glue organization.
   
7. Verify all the details and click Confirm.
   
8. Network Glue will initiate the sync to your specified IT Glue organization. When completed, click Finish.
   
9. To see the sync status, navigate to the IT Glue organization you have deployed Network Glue to and click Networks in the sidebar. Alternatively, you can also navigate to Account > Network Glue.
   

   NOTE  If you do not see Networks in the organization sidebar, please refer to our Add assets to the Organization Sidebar KB article.

10. After the Network Glue Collector has successfully installed, navigate to Account > Network Glue and click the Start Manual Sync button in the Sync Information box on the right side of the screen. Depending on the size and complexity of your network, it may take several hours to sync your network data.
    
11. After the sync has completed, navigate back to Account > Network Glue > Sync Information box to check the SNMP status on your scanned devices. It will show the number of devices in which SNMP was disabled.
    

    • To view the disabled devices, click on the Device Matching button in the top-right corner. In the Device Matching screen, click on all three tabs (Unmatched, Matched, and Ignored) and filter the SNMP column for "Disabled". Now you can turn on SNMP manually in order to return a more complete network diagram. For more details on device matching, refer to our Guide to Network Glue device matching KB article.

Deploying the Windows Installer through your RMM:

Most RMM tools support the ability to distribute application installation packages remotely to a managed machine on your client's site. If you would like to deploy Network Glue Collector remotely through your RMM, see the links below to some of our partner's most popular RMM solutions:

• Kaseya VSA
• Labtech Automate
• Datto RMM
• SolarWinds N-Central

Scripting the installation of the Network Glue Collector:

To install the Network Glue Collector into the default location, refer to the below example script:

#Default Install Location:
#Install the Network Glue Collector
msiexec /qn /i NetworkGlueCollector.msi /L*V install-silent.log
#Configure the Network Glue Collector
C:\Program Files (x86)\Network Glue\Collector\bin\register-device.exe"-i <Network Glue Collector Key>

See the below images showing two example commands:

To install the Network Glue Collector into a custom location, refer to the below example script:

#Custom Folder Location:
#Install the Network Glue Collector
msiexec /qn /i NetworkGlueCollector.msi INSTALLFOLDER="c:\test msi" /L*V install-silent-custom.log
#Configure the Network Glue Collector
"c:\test msi\Collector\bin\register-device.exe" -i <Network Glue Collector Key>

To uninstall the Network Glue Collector, refer to the below example script:

#UNINSTALL
msiexec /x NetworkGlueCollector.msi /L*V uninstall.log

To start using the network diagram, refer to our Guide to the Network Glue network diagram KB article next.

Related Items

Check out our Guide to successful Network Glue deployment article for more information on the Network Glue deployment process.