Introduction

With workers now having the ability and choice to work from home, VSM Everywhere (VSM-E) provides customers and business partners with a tool to help monitor and diagnose unmanaged systems that are active outside of an office environment.

Setting Up VSM Everywhere

What You Will Need

Before installing the VSM-E client you will need the following:

• A Virsae Cloud Collector and the URL for this collector
• A copy of the VSM-E installer
• A VSM Everywhere profile group configured in the web portal
• Administrator-level permissions on the machine where the VSM-E client will be installed.

Configuring a Cloud Collector

The VSM-E client is designed to communicate with a VSM Cloud Collector. Click here for instructions on setting up an Equipment Location with the 'Appliance' type set to Virtual (Virsae Cloud).

Once a VSM Cloud Collector has been administered please contact support@virsae.com to request the URL for this collector.

Getting the Installer

Contact  support@virsae.com  for a copy of the VSM-E installer package.

Configuring a VSM Everywhere Profile Group

Before a VSM-E client can start tracking the performance of a system, it must first know what metrics it needs to track. This is determined by creating a VSM-E Profile group.

To create a Profile Group go to the Virsae Web Portal and then navigate to Service Desk > Equipment Locations > VSM Everywhere.

Customer View (of Equipment Locations):

Business Partner view (of Equipment Locations):

VSM Everywhere (From Equipment Locations):

Once you reach the Profile Groups page, you will see the following.

A profile group represents a set of metrics that the VSM-E client will track.

To configure a profile group, click the "+" button at the bottom of the group list to begin adding a new group.

Enter a group name and choose which metrics you wish to track. Once complete click the 'Add Group' button

The table below describes what each option represents.

Default groups have a tick beside their name in the side navigation bar.

You can edit groups at any point by pressing the "Edit Group" button. All fields are editable.

You can also delete groups at any time. 

Installing VSM Everywhere

The MSI installer accepts all of the default command line arguments provided by an MSI, as well as two additional arguments: CGWS and GROUP.

The following command will also display the default MSI command line arguments; VSM_Everywhere.msi /?

You can use either Command Prompt or PowerShell to install manually or Intune to automate installs.

Manual Installation

Installing Via Command Prompt

To get started with the installation we need to open Command Prompt in administrator mode.

First, press the Windows Key on your keyboard or click the Start icon on your taskbar.

Next search for "Command Prompt".

Find the "Command Prompt" option in the results.

Next press "Run As Administrator"

After opening the command-line interface, use the Installation Commands section to create an installation string.

Install Via Powershell

To get started with the installation we need to open Powershell in administrator mode.

First, press the Windows Key on your keyboard or click the Start icon on your taskbar.

Next search for "Powershell".

Find the "Powershell" option in the results.

Next press "Run As Administrator"

After opening the command-line interface, use the Installation Commands section to create an installation string.

Installation Commands

Note: Do not install the MSI via double click or right click options as it will be installed without the appropriate configuration. Please follow the instructions below.

Note: The instructions below are intended for scripted unattended installation. If you require to use the GUI to monitor the installation, remove the quiet installation argument /qn or use /qf for the full GUI.

Install

The command line and powershell arguments below contain the placeholders {VIRSAE CLOUD COLLECTOR URL} and {PROFILE_GROUP}, replace these respectively with your Cloud Collector URL  and Profile Group name.

The path to the *.msi file and the install.log will need to be altered to suit the location of your installation files.

Note: The path to the install.log needs to be an existing path and will not be created.

If VSM Everywhere is installed with no group name, or if the collector could not find the requested group, the default Profile Group will be used instead.

// Command Prompt
> msiexec /i "C:\Path\To\VSM_Everywhere.msi" /qf /norestart /L*v "C:\path\to\install.log" CGWS="{VIRSAE CLOUD COLLECTOR URL}:443" GROUP="{PROFILE_GROUP}"  

//Powershell
> Start-Process msiexec.exe -Wait -ArgumentList '/i "C:\Path\To\VSM_Everywhere.msi" /qf /norestart /L*v "C:\path\to\install.log" CGWS={VIRSAE CLOUD COLLECTOR URL}:443 GROUP="{PROFILE_GROUP}"'

The following example will perform a silent install of VSM-E with logging. The Virsae Cloud Collector URL is 'a356dhgj4g5j690f9e333a60da99x.VL-beta.virsae.io'  and the VSM Everywhere profile group is 'NZ/AUS'  

// Command Prompt
> msiexec /i "C:\Temp\VSM_Everywhere.msi" /qf /norestart /L*v "C:\Windows\Temp\install.log" CGWS="a356dhgj4g5j690f9e333a60da99x.VL-beta.virsae.io:443" GROUP="NZ/AUS"  

//Powershell
> Start-Process msiexec.exe -Wait -ArgumentList '/i "C:\Temp\VSM_Everywhere.msi" /qf /norestart /L*v "C:\Windows\Temp\install.log" CGWS=a356dhgj4g5j690f9e333a60da99x.VL-beta.virsae.io:443 GROUP="NZ/AUS"'

Uninstall Command

To uninstall the VSM Everywhere Client from a command line, use one of the following commands.

The path to the *.msi file and the uninstall.log will need to be altered to suit the location of your installation files.

// Command Prompt
> msiexec /x "C:\Temp\VSM_Everywhere.msi" /qf /norestart /L*v "C:\Windows\Temp\uninstall.log"

//Powershell
> Start-Process msiexec.exe -Wait -ArgumentList '/x "C:\Temp\VSM_Everywhere.msi" /qf /norestart /L*v "C:\Windows\Temp\uninstall.log"'

Upgrading VSM Everywhere

To upgrade, simply install over the VSM Everywhere Client by using the latest installer and the same installation commands that were used to install the client previously.

Install Via Microsoft Intune

Prepare a Win32 App For Intune

To install the VSM Everywhere client using Microsoft Intune, you will need to convert the .msi installer into the .intunewin type.

Follow the instructions detailed inside of the Prepare Win32 app content for upload article with the VSM_Everywhere.msi installer.

Add A Win32 App

Once the .intunewin file has been created, we can add it to Microsoft Intune which will automate the installation of the VSM Everywhere client to devices.

Use the Add, assign, and monitor a Win32 app in Microsoft Intune tutorial to add the installer to Microsoft Intune.

For "Step 2: Program", in the above tutorial, use the examples below on this page to define your Install and Uninstall commands. Include the version number provided in the MSI. This will help with support and updates. 

msiexec /i VSM_Everywhere.msi /qn /norestart /L*v "C:\Windows\Temp\install.log" TARGETDIR="C:\Program Files\Virsae Group\Machine Proxy Agent E" CGWS="a356dhgj4g5j690f9e333a60da99x.VL-beta.virsae.io:443" GROUP="NZ/AUS"

 msiexec /x "{988CA538-BD2B-4362-95B3-A89501732179}"

The version and MSI GUID can be found in the VSM_Everywhere.msi file properties.

For "Step 4: Detection Rules", Manually configure a detection rule, selecting MSI and enter the version GUID above. Optionally use "File" detection and check for the folder "C:\Program Files\Virsae Group\Machine Proxy Agent E".

In Supersedence set the previous version you want upgraded by this version and ensure 'Uninstall previous version' is set to No.

Collecting Logs

If an installation fails, use the Win32 app installation troubleshooting guide to collect logs from where you have defined logs to be sent in the installation command that was defined

in the Add a Win32 App section.

App Availability and End User Notifications

To control what notifications an end-user receives and when the VSM Everywhere client should be installed by, see the section linked here: "Set Win32 app availability and notifications".