Kaseya’s Copy Settings function is often overlooked, but is a very powerful way to make bulk changes to one or more agents. Read below to learn about how to use this function in different use cases.
Use Case #1 – “Oops.. I installed the wrong template on a machine!”
Hey, don’t sweat it, this is easy to fix! The first inclination is to uninstall and re-install the correct deployment package, but remember the agent is the agent! You are really not changing that when you re-install, what you really need to do is change the SETTINGS on that agent, not the agent itself.
Enter “Copy Settings” – Go to Agent Tab> Configure Agents> Copy Settings.
At the top of the screen you will see a link that says “select machine ID“. Click this link.
This will bring up a list of all of your machines. For simplicity sake, change the Group ID to only show your template folder (#1), and then select the correct template that you meant to install (#2).
Once you click the correct machine (template), it will bring up a box that allows you to customize WHAT you want to copy. In this case we installed the wrong template, so we want to update almost everything.
Below is the list of all the the options. My “Best Practices” recommendation is to select “Do Not Copy” on the items below, and replace (copy) the rest.
Once you click “Done” (#2 above), you will be returned to screen that you started from. You will notice that the “Select machine ID” has been replaced with the name of the machine you are going to copy from (#1 below). Now all you need to do is select the machine(s) that you want to update (#2), and click “Copy”
That’s it! All the correct settings were copied to the errant machine!
Use Case #2 – You just changed all the email addresses on the Event Log alerts and you need to update all your other machines!
If you reviewed our blog on changing email addresses, you noticed we mentioned using the Copy Settings command as a Tip. The process is the same as Case #1 except when you get to the part about updating which settings, you are going to click “Select All” under the “Do Not Copy” column (#1 below), and then select “Replace” on only the specific group of alerts or monitor sets that you want changed (in our example it was Event Log alerts (#2)).
Click “Done“, return to the main screen, and proceed as in Case #1 above, selecting the machine or machines you want to update.
Tips and Warnings
- Use Views to segment groups of machines, so you can update them in bulk.
- Use caution when selecting Agent Procedures as it will update all of the procedures as if it was a new computer and you may find your entire network running a new Audit.
- Use caution when selecting Monitor sets, as it will update and replace all existing monitor sets, which will cause you to lose any previous data.
I hope this post saves you time when making bulk changes. If you have other uses for Copy Settings, please leave your comments below!
