Universal Agents

This article covers the Universal Agents page in the Kentik portal.

About the Universal Agent

Kentik’s Universal Agent collects key metrics on the availability, health, and performance of your network infrastructure. After installing the agent on a host machine on your network (see Universal Agent Deployment), you add features to the agent by installing Agent Capabilities.

Did You Know?: All Kentik Agents will gradually be replaced with Agent Capabilities of the Kentik Universal Agent.

Agent Capabilities

Agent capabilities are the operational functions of an agent that allow it to perform task. Features of Kentik’s Universal Agent include:

• Automatically updates itself

• Sends host metrics and capability metrics, usable in Data Explorer and Metrics Explorer

• Agent/capability metrics can be used to create agent alerts

Supported Capabilities

The following table describes the different capabilities that Kentik Universal Agent supports, the methods to implement them, use cases, and related workflows.

For capability deployment and management through the portal, see Deploy a Universal Agent Through the Portal and Universal Agent Portal Management.

For capability deployment and management through the API, see Deploy a Universal Agent Through the Kentik API and Kentik's API Repo on GitHub. Kentik APIs provides an introduction to the Kentik API.

Notes:

• A Universal Agent capability identifier is the same as its binary. Find the Capability Identifier describes how to locate this information.

• The DNS OTT Tap capability replaces the standalone kprobe software agent as the method for tapping DNS data, as described in Enable OTT DNS Collection.

• The Flow Proxy and SNMP/ST capabilities replace the standalone kproxy software agent as the method for forwarding flow telemetry data.

• Some capabilities may be Early Access. Contact your Kentik Account Team for more information.

Find the Capability Identifier

To find the binary name (capability identifier) of a Universal Agent capability through the portal, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Universal Agents page via Settings » Universal Agents in the Kentik portal's main nav menu.

2. Under Agents, click an agent row. This action opens the Agent Details drawer for that agent.

3. In the Agent Details drawer, click Installed Capabilities to display the capabilities paused or running on the agent.

4. Click Details next to the capability you wish to view.

5. In the capabilities detail page that appears, locate the Binary field to view the binary name for that capability.

System Requirements

When deploying Universal Agents and enabling capabilities, ensure your host machine meets the necessary hardware requirements for optimal performance. Hardware needs scale based on the volume of telemetry data and the specific capabilities enabled. To understand how running multiple capabilities on the same agent impacts system requirements and performance please see the Understanding Agent Workload Scaling section.

Understanding Agent Workload Scaling

Running multiple capabilities with a single agent is a convenient deployment model. However, it’s important to understand that running multiple workloads compounds the resource utilization of an agent and contention can result in more compute and memory resources being required to perform the same amount of workload.

Another common factor can be environmental and whether the traffic being ingested from sources such as Flow, syslog and traps occur in bursty patterns or consistently over time. Highly volatile traffic patterns can require additional resources to properly scale the workload for reliability.

Supported Operating Systems

The Universal Agent is built and validated against the following distributions. Kentik utilizes modern toolchains that require specific library versions (e.g., glibc) found in these releases.

Support Matrix

The following table details the Linux distributions, supported operating system versions, and package formats validated for Universal Agent deployment.

Legacy and Unsupported Systems

Kentik does not support the installation of the Universal Agent on distributions that have reached vendor End of Life (EOL).

• CentOS 7: Officially unsupported. Internal capability workflows do not support building against CentOS 7 or any Enterprise Linux version prior to version 8.

• Other EOL Distros: Any distribution version not explicitly listed in the Support Matrix is considered unsupported.

WARNING: Attempting to install the Universal Agent on unsupported systems will likely result in installation failures due to missing dependencies or runtime execution errors.

Agent Status

A deployed Universal Agent can be in one of the following states, as indicated in the Status column of the Universal Agents list:

• Up: The agent was last seen by Kentik within 30 minutes.

• Down: The agent was last seen by Kentik over 30 minutes ago.

• Not Authorized: The agent is not yet authorized to connect to Kentik.

Note: Authorization is part of the agent installation process (see Universal Agent Deployment).

Network & Firewall Allowlist Requirements

This section details the network firewall requirements for the Universal Agent, including required outbound SaaS endpoints and local inbound ports.

Outbound SaaS Egress Rules

To ensure complete agent functionality and to prevent telemetry data loss, your perimeter firewalls must permit outbound egress traffic from the Universal Agent host to Kentik SaaS endpoints. All communication between the agent and Kentik SaaS is strictly outbound and encrypted using TLS over TCP port 443. Blocking required endpoints, such as api.kentik.com or grpc.api.kentik.com, can interrupt capability operations, software updates, and telemetry ingestion.

The Universal Agent strictly initiates all outbound connections to Kentik SaaS endpoints and encrypts all traffic using TLS 1.2 or higher over TCP port 443. At the application layer, the agent transmits data using standard HTTPS or HTTP/2-based gRPC.  If your network uses Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) or SSL inspection proxies, your security policies must permit gRPC traffic over port 443.

The following table describes outbound rules from the agent host to Kentik SaaS.

Note:  EU and EMEA tenants must replace *.kentik.com with *.kentik.eu endpoints.

Local Network Ingestion Rules

In addition to perimeter egress, internal network and host firewalls must allow local infrastructure to communicate directly with the Universal Agent host. The agent acts as a local receiver, using standard listening ports to capture telemetry (NetFlow / sFlow on UDP port 9995, SNMP polls on UDP port 161, and syslog server on UDP/TCP port 514). Certain capabilities may also require bi-directional or outbound local connections (SSH config scraping on TCP port 22, BGP peering sessions on TCP port 179) (see Agent Capabilities).

The following table describes the rules for internal network firewalls or host firewalls (iptables / ufw / Windows Firewall) allowing devices to communicate with the Universal Agent.

Universal Agent Deployment

You can deploy a Universal Agent through the portal or programmatically through the API. Choose portal deployment for a guided setup of smaller deployments, or API deployment when automating programmatic or partner-driven fleet rollouts at scale.

All Universal Agent deployments require a provisioning token.

About Provisioning Tokens

A provisioning token securely registers Universal Agents over the Kentik API without requiring manual portal access or long-lived credentials. Upon initial startup, the agent reads the token from the K_REGISTER_PROVISIONING_TOKEN environment variable to register itself directly. You can configure tokens to auto-approve agents immediately or hold them in a Not Authorized status until an administrator grants approval. This mechanism provides a low-risk, fully scriptable onboarding workflow across standalone Linux hosts, Docker containers, and Kubernetes clusters.

Provisioning tokens enforce the following security and multi-tenant rules:

• Organization Scope: Kentik strictly binds each token to a single organization, preventing you from transferring an agent to another organization post-registration.

• Short Lifespan & Usage Caps: Custom expiration schedules and strict usage caps (maxUsageCount) eliminate long-lived credential risks.

• Runtime Token Updates: The K_REGISTER_PROVISIONING_TOKEN environment variable overrides install-time credentials, allowing you to replace expired tokens without reinstalling the agent binary.

• Partner & Third-Party Onboarding: Partner teams and system integrators can deploy agents into a customer organization safely over the API without requiring portal login access or persistent credentials.

• Clean Staging & Org Locking: Because registered agent identities are permanently tied to the issuing organization, staging agents in a lab organization requires re-registering them with a customer-scoped token before customer deployment.

Token Authorization Statuses

The following table describes token authorization statuses for portal and API deployments.

Token Revocation & Risk Management

To maintain a minimal exposure window, set a strict maxUsageCount and short expiry when creating a provisioning token. Once all intended agents in a deployment run have registered, you can immediately revoke the token via the kagent provisioning-tokens API. Revoking a provisioning token prevents new agents from registering with those credentials while leaving already registered and authorized agents unaffected.

Deploy a Universal Agent Through the Portal

To deploy a new instance of the Universal Agent via Docker or Linux through the portal, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the Universal Agents page via Settings » Universal Agents in the Kentik portal’s main nav menu.

2. Click + Deploy Agent to open the dialog.

3. Under Installation, select Docker or Linux and click the corresponding tab.
   The generated command that appears automatically bundles your company ID (K_COMPANY_ID) and a provisioning token (K_REGISTER_PROVISIONING_TOKEN).

4. Click Copy to copy the command from the text area.

5. Open a terminal window on the host machine and paste the command. (To use a web proxy, see Install Agent via Web Proxy).

6. Run the command. The new agent will appear in the Select an Agent list. The Host Name column will vary as follows:

   1. Docker: The agent's Docker container ID.

   2. Linux: The hostname of the Linux system where the agent was installed.

7. Click Authorize to authorize the agent to connect with Kentik. The dialog will refresh with basic information, optional fields, and a Continue button.

   

8. Optionally add Display Name, Description, and Site Name. Click Continue to proceed.

9. Select the capabilities to enable for this agent by clicking the toggle switch next to each capability.

   

10. Click the Finish button to complete the deployment process. Once deployed, the agent will appear on the Universal Agents List.

Tip: If you close the dialog before clicking Authorize, the agent will appear on the Universal Agents List with a “Not Authorized“ status and won't be functional. To resolve this, click Deploy Agent to reopen the dialog and click Authorize.

Note: A token generated through a portal installation has a time-to-live (TTL) of one hour. You can register as many agents as you wish during that one-hour window before requesting a new token. After this timeframe, you will need to re-run the generated command in Step 3 to generate a new provisioning token and continue installations.

Install Agent via Web Proxy

Use the https_proxy environment variable to set the proxy's URL:

• Docker: Provide the environment variable as part of the docker run command:

  --env https_proxy=http://address.of.your.proxy

• Linux: Set the environment variable before running the install command:

  export https_proxy=http://address.of.your.proxy

Deploy a Universal Agent Through the Kentik API

For portal-free automated universal agent deployments across hosts, Docker, or Kubernetes clusters, follow these steps:

Notes:

• Before starting, ensure you have the following:

  • A Kentik API user (email + API token) for the target organization.  

  • The target organization's company ID.  

  • Network Egress to grpc.api.kentik.com (US) or grpc.api.kentik.eu (EU) on port 443.

1. Create a provisioning token in the target organization by executing a POST request against the API host for the target organization's region.
   The account you authenticate with determines which organization the token belongs to.

   curl -sS -X POST \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -H "X-CH-Auth-Email: $K_API_EMAIL" \
     -H "X-CH-Auth-API-Token: $K_API_TOKEN" \
     -d '{
       "name": "poc-fleet",
       "maxUsageCount": 5,
       "requiresApproval": false,
       "config": { "siteId": "1234" }
     }' \
     https://grpc.api.kentik.com/kagent/v202401/provisioning-tokens

   Tip: You can customize the token's expiration schedule when creating it via the Provisioning Tokens API by passing a future ISO 8601 timestamp in the expiresAt payload attribute, for example:

   "expiresAt": "2026-07-04T12:18:53.092Z"

   See the Provisioning Tokens API reference for full schema details.

2. Extract the token value by locating the generated token string within the JSON response under .token.token.
   This value is the secure credential that must be handed to the deploying agents.

3. Deploy the agents with the token.

   1. Standalone Linux or Docker: Supply the token directly to the host's bootstrap environment before launching the agent service:

      export K_COMPANY_ID=<target-company-id>
      export K_REGISTER_PROVISIONING_TOKEN=<token-value>

      Note: The K_REGISTER_PROVISIONING_TOKEN variable overrides any values stored at install time, allowing you to update expired tokens without reinstalling the agent.

   2. Kubernetes (Helm):
      Pass the company ID and token as strings into the chart parameters during installation:

      helm install kagent https://github.com/kentik/kagent-helm/archive/refs/heads/main.tar.gz \
        --set-string kagent.companyId=<target-company-id> \
        --set-string kagent.provisioningToken=<token-value>

      Notes:

      • Set maxUsageCount on the token to at least the number of replicas you deploy, as each individual pod will consume one use.

      • If you are using the Kubernetes Helper, you can also use the generate-provisioning-token.sh helper script included in the kagent-helm repository to automate token creation.

      • Deploy Universal Agents with Helm provides more information for deploying Universal Agents with Helm.

4. Retrieve the agent's install ID by querying the API to list all agents awaiting authorization within the target organization to capture your specific install.id:

   # List agents awaiting authorization to get the install ID
   curl -sS -H "X-CH-Auth-Email: $K_API_EMAIL" -H "X-CH-Auth-API-Token: $K_API_TOKEN" \
     "https://grpc.api.kentik.com/kagent/v202401/agents?unregistered=true" \
     | jq -r '.agents[] | "\(.install.id)\t\(.install.hostMetadata.hostname)"'

5. Authorize the agent by submitting a PUT request containing the retrieved install-id to complete the secure verification process.
   The API response returns a permanent, numeric agent-id.

   curl -sS -H "X-CH-Auth-Email: $K_API_EMAIL" -H "X-CH-Auth-API-Token: $K_API_TOKEN" -X PUT \
     "https://grpc.api.kentik.com/kagent/v202401/agents/authorize/<install-id>"

6. Enable and configure agent capabilities programmatically.
   Once the agent status shows as Up, enable specific capability names via PATCH request using the returned agent-idname:

   curl -sS -H "X-CH-Auth-Email: $K_API_EMAIL" -H "X-CH-Auth-API-Token: $K_API_TOKEN" \
     -X PATCH -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"enabled":true}' \
     "https://grpc.api.kentik.com/kagent/v202401/agents/<agent-id>/capabilities/kproxy"

   Tip: If you deploy an agent using an auto-approve token (requiresApproval: false), the agent is automatically authorized upon initial registration. You can skip the step to Authorize the agent and proceed directly to managing capabilities.

Universal Agent Portal Management

This section lists operations and management tasks for the Universal Agent performed through the portal.

Note: Step 6 in Deploy a Universal Agent Through the Kentik API describes how to enable and configure agent capabilities programmatically.

Edit a Universal Agent

To edit a deployed Universal Agent instance through the portal, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the Universal Agents page via Settings » Universal Agents in the Kentik portal’s main nav menu.

2. Click the edit button (pencil icon) in the agent's row in the list.

3. Update the Name, Description, Closest Network Device, and/or Site.

4. Click Save to save changes and exit or Cancel to exit without saving.

Install a Capability

To install a capability (see Agent Capabilities) on a Universal Agent instance through the portal, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Universal Agents page via Settings » Universal Agents in the Kentik portal’s main nav menu.

2. Click the agent's row in the list to open the Agent Details Drawer.

3. Under Capabilities » Available: Compatible and Supported, click Install for any capabilities you wish to add this Universal Agent instance.

Manage a Capability

To manage an installed capability on a Universal Agent instance through the portal, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Universal Agents page via Settings » Universal Agents in the Kentik portal’s main nav menu.

2. Click the agent's row in the list to open the Agent Details Drawer.

3. Under Capabilities » Installed: Running or Paused on this Agent, click Details.

4. In the Capability Drawer, you can take the following actions:

   1. View the capability’s details like Status, Run State, Command Line Args, and metrics visualizations.

   2. When applicable, click Edit to reveal additional capability settings like command line arguments/values.

      1. Click Save to save changes and exit or Cancel to exit without saving.

   3. Click Back to return to the Agent Details drawer.

   4. Click Disable this Capability to temporarily turn off this capability for this Universal Agent instance.

Configure the DNS OTT Tap Capability

Telemetry is collected via the DNS OTT Tap capability, which supports three primary data ingestion modes:

• Direct (On-Server): Agent installed directly on BIND9 or Linux-based resolvers.

• Promiscuous (SPAN/Mirror): This mode is used when the agent is installed on a separate host and receives a copy of the traffic from a network tap or port mirror. The agent interface must be set to promiscuous mode to capture traffic not specifically destined for the host's MAC address.

• DNSTAP Receiver (Preferred): Agent acts as a listener for real-time DNS logs from appliances like Infoblox. This mode must be explicitly configured to listen on a specific port for the incoming DNSTAP stream.

To edit the DNS OTT Tap capability through the portal, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Universal Agents Page via Settings » Universal Agents in the Kentik portal’s main nav menu.

2. Click the agent's row in the list to open the Agent Details Drawer.

3. Under Capabilities » Installed: Running or Paused on this Agent, click Details for DNS OTT Tap.

4. Click Edit to reveal the current command line argument/value settings.

5. Make the changes, as follows:

   1. Update an Existing Argument: Select a different Command Line Value from the dropdown.

   2. Add a New Argument: Click Add to add a row, then choose the argument and value (see supported combinations below).

6. Click Save to save changes and exit or Cancel to exit without saving.

Supported argument/value combinations for the DNS OTT Tap capability:

Configure the Flow Proxy Capability

To configure the Flow Proxy capability of the Universal Agent, which receives, processes, and forwards your flow telemetry data to Kentik, through the portal, follow these steps:

Note: The Flow Proxy capability packages the standard Kentik Proxy (kproxy) binary into a managed component within the Universal Agent framework.

1. Go to the Universal Agents page via Settings » Universal Agents in the Kentik portal’s main nav menu.

2. Click the agent's row in the list to open the Agent Details Drawer.

3. Under Capabilities » Installed: Running or Paused on this Agent, click Details for Flow Proxy.

4. Click Edit to reveal the current command line argument/value settings.

5. Configure the command-line arguments as necessary (see below table), and click Save.

   1. The Universal Agent downloads the kproxy binary, applies the configuration, and starts the process.

   2. The agent’s Status field on the Universal Agents page updates from 'Pending' to 'Up'.

6. Configure your routers, switches, and other network devices to export flow telemetry to the IP address of the Universal Agent host on the UDP port specified in the Port field (e.g., 9995).

Troubleshooting a Flow Proxy

• Status is Down: If the capability status displays 'Down' with an error, such as exit status 10, it typically indicates a configuration error. Ensure that all required fields are correctly populated.

• No Data in Portal: If the capability status is ‘Up’ but you see no flow data in the Kentik portal, verify the following:

  • Network devices are configured with the correct destination IP and port.

  • There are no firewalls on the agent’s host or in the network path blocking the flow export UDP port.

  • Check the agent logs for connection errors or other warnings.

Uninstall a Capability

To uninstall a capability from a Universal Agent instance through the portal, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Universal Agents page via Settings » Universal Agents in the Kentik portal’s main nav menu.

2. Click the agent's row in the list to open the Agent Details Drawer.

3. Under Capabilities » Installed: Running or Paused on this Agent, click Uninstall for the capability you wish to remove from this Universal Agent instance. Once the capability has been removed, you’re returned to the Agents list.

Tip: You can reinstall a capability on an agent at any time by clicking the capability’s Install button in the Agent Details Drawer.

Back Up & Restore a Universal Agent

Each Universal Agent maintains a unique identity based on a cryptographic keypair. Preserving this identity is crucial for disaster recovery or when migrating the agent to a new host machine (VM). By restoring the agent's identity, you ensure that the Kentik platform recognizes the agent as the same entity, retaining its configuration and history without requiring re-authorization.

There are two methods for backing up the agent:

1. Full Directory Backup (Recommended): Backs up the entire binary and configuration state.

2. Identity-Only Backup (Advanced): Backs up only the specific key files required to recover the agent's identity.

Method 1: Full Directory Backup (Recommended)

This method involves archiving the entire /opt/kentik directory and is the simplest approach and is recommended for most users to back up and restore a Universal Agent.

Backup

1. Ensure the agent is authorized and functioning.

2. Create a backup of the entire /opt/kentik directory. You can use standard Linux tools (e.g., tar, rsync, or snapshotting tools) to secure this directory.

Restore

To restore a failed agent or migrate to a new VM:

1. Restore the /opt/kentik directory from your backup to the new host.

2. Execute the agent repair command to fix permissions, recreate systemd service files, and start the service:

sudo /opt/kentik/bin/kagent repair

Note: This process works even if the new host has a different hostname or IP address.

Method 2: Identity-Only Backup (Advanced)

This method is useful for "Infrastructure as Code" environments where you prefer to install a fresh Universal Agent binary but inject the previous agent's identity.

Backup

Locate and safely store the following two key files, which constitute the agent's identity:

• /opt/kentik/components/kagent/current/conf/keys/private_key.pem

• /opt/kentik/components/kagent/current/conf/keys/public_key.pem

Restore

To recover the agent state on a new or rebuilt host/VM:

1. Install the Agent: Perform a fresh installation of the Kentik Universal Agent on the new host using the standard installation script or package.

2. Stop the Agent: Ensure the service is stopped before swapping keys.

sudo systemctl stop kagent

3. Restore Keys: Copy your backed-up private_key.pem and public_key.pem files to the target directory, overwriting any auto-generated keys:

   /opt/kentik/components/kagent/current/conf/keys/

4. Restart the Agent: Once restarted, the agent will reconnect to the Kentik platform using the restored identity.

sudo systemctl restart kagent

Universal Agents Page UI

The Universal Agents page, accessible via Settings » Universal Agents in the main nav menu, allows you to manage all the Universal Agents deployed by your organization.

Key UI elements include:

• Auto-refresh/Refresh: Automatically or manually updates the agent list.

• Deploy Agent (Admin-only): Opens the Deploy a Universal Agent dialog for deploying new agents.

• Show/Hide Filters: Toggles the Filters pane (see Universal Agents Filters).

• Search: Restricts the Universal Agents List based on keywords you enter and/or filters you select

  • To clear all entered text, click the X in the Search field.

  • To clear a filter, click the X in a lozenge.

  Note: For text-based searches, keywords are matched against the Name and Capabilities columns only.

• Filters: Provides controls to narrow the agents list (see Universal Agents Filters).

• Universal Agents List: A table displaying your deployed Universal Agents.

Note: Member-level users can view Universal Agents, but only Admin-level users can add, edit, or remove them (see About Users).

Universal Agents Filters

The Filters pane on the left of the Universal Agents List refines the list based on these options:

• Capability: Filters by installed capabilities (see Agent Capabilities).

• Status: Filters by agent status (e.g., “Up”).

• Version: Allows adding and removing filters for specific agent versions via a dropdown list.

• Site: Allows adding and removing filters for specific sites (see About Sites) via a dropdown list.

Notes:

• Add a Version or Site filter by selecting one or more values from the dropdown.

• To remove any filter, click the X in the lozenge in the search field.

Universal Agents List

The Universal Agents list shows all the deployed Universal Agents for your organization. To change the sort order of the list, click a heading to select a column, then click the resulting blue up or down arrow to choose the sorting direction (ascending or descending).

List Columns

The Universal Agents list includes the following columns of information about each deployed Universal Agent:

• Status: Agent's current operational state.

• Name: Agent's assigned name.

• CPU: Percentage of CPU utilized by the agent.

• MEM: Percentage of memory utilized by the agent.

• Public IP: Agent's public IP address.

• Private IP: Agent's private IP address.

• Site: Associated site name.

• Version: Agent's software version.

• Capabilities: Tags indicating agent functionalities.

List Actions

The Universal Agents list includes the following action buttons per row:

• Edit (pencil icon): Modify agent properties (see Edit Agent Drawer).

• Remove (trash icon): Delete the agent instance (requires confirmation).

Agent Details Drawer

Access the Agent Details drawer by clicking an agent's row in the Universal Agents List.

Agent Details UI

The Agent Details drawer includes the following UI elements:

• Close (button): Closes the drawer.

• Name: Displays the agent's name.

• Edit (button): Opens the Edit Agent Drawer.

• Properties (fields): A set of fields with metadata about the agent (see Agent Details Fields).

• Capabilities (pane): Lists the agent's capabilities in collapsible sections by Capability Categories, each with:

  • Install (button): Installs a capability.

  • Details (button): Opens a detailed view of an installed capability (see Capability Drawer).

  • Toggles (switch): Turns a capability ON (blue) or OFF (grey).

• Metrics (pane): Charts showing the agent's CPU and memory utilization for the last hour (all capabilities combined).

• View in Metrics Explorer (button): Opens the view in Metrics Explorer.

Note: When a capability section is collapsed, the total count of capabilities for that section is shown in a blue bubble.

Capability Categories

Capability categories shown in the Agent Details drawer are:

• Installed: Running or Paused on this Agent

• Available: Compatible and Supported

• Available: Compatibility not guaranteed

• Upcoming: Planned future release

Agent Details Fields

Agent properties are listed in the drawer and include the following:

• Status: The agent status (e.g., "Up").

• Host Name: The name of the host where the agent is deployed.

• Version: The Kentik-maintained version number for the agent.

• Public IP: The public IP address of the agent's host machine.

• Private IP: The private IP address of the agent's host machine.

• Site: The site to which the agent is associated, if any.

• Description (only if specified): A description string specified in the agent's settings

• Closest Device: A field with two states:

  • If the Closest Network Device field is already specified in the Edit Agent Drawer, this field shows that value.

  • If the value isn't already specified, this field is an Edit link which opens the Edit Agent Drawer, enabling you to specify the closest device.

• Host OS: The operating system and CPU type of the agent’s host machine.

• Created on: The date-time when the agent was created.

• Last seen on: The date-time when the agent last connected to Kentik.

• Agent ID: The ID number (integer) of the agent.

• Install ID: A unique ID (string) generated and stored on the host when the agent was installed.

• Host Machine ID: The unique ID (string) of the host, collected from the host OS.

Edit Agent Drawer

Use the Edit Agent drawer, accessible via the Edit button in the Agent Details Drawer, to view and change details of your installed Universal Agents.

The Edit Agent drawer includes the following UI elements:

• Cancel (button): Closes the drawer without saving any changes.

• Save (button): Saves changes to agent settings and exits the drawer.

• Name: Your organization's name for the agent (defaults to host name).

• Description: An optional, user-provided description of the agent.

• Closest Network Device (SNMP/ST only): A drop-down with which to specify the device in your network that is the fewest hops from the host on which the agent is installed.

  Note: This setting facilitates topology-aware device status reporting in NMS.

• Site: A field showing the site, if any, to which the agent is currently assigned, which could be a data center or a VPC in a cloud provider (see About Sites). To set or change the site, click in the field to drop down a filterable list of sites, then click on a site in the list to select it.

• Create a New Site (button): If a site hasn't yet been defined for the location where the agent host is located, click the button to create a new site (see Configure Site Fields).

Configure Site Fields

When you click the Create a New Site button, the following fields are added to the Edit Agent drawer to enable you to enter the information required to create a new site:

• Site Name: A name for the new site.

• Street Address: The physical location of the new site, given as a street address.

• Use an Existing Site: If you decide not to create a new site, click this button to hide the Configure Site fields and instead choose a site from the Site drop-down.

Capability Drawer

The Capability drawer, which opens by clicking Details on an agent capability, has the following UI elements:

• Back/Cancel (button): Closes the drawer without saving any changes.

• Save (button): Saves changes and exits the drawer.

• Status: The capability status (e.g., "Up").

• Version: The version number for the capability, as distinct from the agent version, e.g., "v1.109.0".

• Binary: The binary name installed for this capability (e.g., "kdns").

• Run State: A description of how long the capability has been enabled (e.g., "Running since 2025-05-28 10:00 as pid 762"). If capability is disabled, this will be blank.

• Interface (DNS OTT Tap only): Indicates which interfaces are included, e.g., "All", "eth0, "lo", "gre0", or "gre101" (see Manage a Capability).

• Promiscuous Mode (DNS OTT Tap only): "True" if promiscuous mode is enabled, otherwise "False" (see Edit a Capability).

• Metrics chart(s): Varying by capability as follows:

  • SNMP/ST: Metrics per second

  • DNS OTT Tap: DNS Responses per second, Discards per second

  • SNMP Trap Receiver: Traps per second, Receiver errors per second

  • Syslog Server: Messages per second, Dropped messages per second

• View in Metrics Explorer: Opens the view in Metrics Explorer

• Devices (SNMP/ST only): Lists the devices for which a SNMP/ST capability is collecting metrics, if any. Click the device name to open its details page. If no devices are found, "No devices found" is displayed.

• Enable/Disable this Capability: Click to enable/disable the capability.

  Tip: In addition to using the button in the Capability drawer, you can enable/disable capabilities with the toggle switches in the Agent Details drawer (see Agent Details UI).