Install Tenable Agent

This section describes how to install a Tenable Agent on the following operating systems:

• Windows

• macOS

• Linux

Once installed, an agent links to Tenable Nessus Manager or Tenable Vulnerability Management after a random delay ranging from zero to five minutes. Enforcing a delay reduces network traffic when deploying or restarting large amounts of agents, and reduces the load on Tenable Nessus Manager or Tenable Vulnerability Management.

Plugin downloads occur after linking, but the timing varies by manager type:

• Tenable Nessus Manager — Agents download plugins immediately upon linking.
• Tenable Vulnerability Management — Agents download plugins after being assigned their first scan.

Plugin downloads can take several minutes and must complete before an agent can return scan results.