Remote Agent Settings

All agent advanced settings can be set via the agent's command line interface, as described in Advanced Settings in the Tenable Nessus Agent Deployment and User Guide. However, you can modify some settings remotely via Tenable Nessus Manager.

To modify remote agent settings:

  1. In the top navigation bar, click Sensors.

    The Linked Agents page appears. By default, Linked Agents is selected in the left navigation menu and the Linked Agents tab is active.

  2. Do one of the following:

    1. In the agents table, click the row for the agent you want to configure.

      The agent detail page appears. By default, the Agent Details tab is open.

    2. Click the Remote Settings tab.

      The Remote Settings page appears.

    3. Modify the agent settings:

      Setting Description Default Values
      Scan Performance

      Sets scan performance, which affects CPU usage. Low performance slows down scans, but reduces the agent's CPU consumption. Setting the performance to medium or high means that scans complete more quickly, but the agent consumes more CPU. For more information, see Agent CPU Resource Control in the Tenable Nessus Agent User Guide.

      		 high low, medium, or high
      Plugin Compilation Performance

      Sets plugin compilation performance, which affects CPU usage. Low performance slows down plugin compilation, but reduces the agent's CPU consumption. Setting the performance to medium or high means that plugin compilation completes more quickly, but the agent consumes more CPU. For more information, see Agent CPU Resource Control in the Tenable Nessus Agent User Guide.

      		 high

      low, medium, or high
      Nessus Agent Log Level

      The logging level of the backend.log log file, as indicated by a set of log tags that determine what information to include in the log.

      If you manually edited log.json to set a custom set of log tags for backend.log, this setting overwrites that content.

      For more information, see Manage Logs.

      		 normal
      • normal -Changes the backend.log logging level to normal and sets log tags to "log", "info", "warn", "error", "trace"
      • debug - Changes the backend.log logging level to debug and sets log tags to "log", "info", "warn", "error", "trace", "debug"
      • verbose - Changes the backend.log logging level to verboseand sets log tags to "log", "info", "warn", "error", "trace", "debug", "verbose"
      Maximum Scans Per Day Specifies the maximum number of scans to run on the agent per day. 10 Integers 1 or more
      Automatic Hostname Update When enabled, when the hostname on the endpoint is modified the new hostname will be updated in the agent's manager. This feature is disabled by default to prevent custom agent names from being overridden. no yes or no

    1. Do one of the following:

      • In the agents table, select the check box next to each agent you want to edit.

      • In the table header, select the check box to select the entire page.

    2. In the upper-right corner, click the Manage button.

      A drop-down menu appears.

    3. Click the Remote Settings button.

      The Remote Settings page appears.

    4. Modify the agent settings:

      Setting Description Default Values
      Scan Performance

      Sets scan performance, which affects CPU usage. Low performance slows down scans, but reduces the agent's CPU consumption. Setting the performance to medium or high means that scans complete more quickly, but the agent consumes more CPU. For more information, see Agent CPU Resource Control in the Tenable Nessus Agent User Guide.

      		 high low, medium, or high
      Plugin Compilation Performance

      Sets plugin compilation performance, which affects CPU usage. Low performance slows down plugin compilation, but reduces the agent's CPU consumption. Setting the performance to medium or high means that plugin compilation completes more quickly, but the agent consumes more CPU. For more information, see Agent CPU Resource Control in the Tenable Nessus Agent User Guide.

      		 high

      low, medium, or high
      Nessus Agent Log Level

      The logging level of the backend.log log file, as indicated by a set of log tags that determine what information to include in the log.

      If you manually edited log.json to set a custom set of log tags for backend.log, this setting overwrites that content.

      For more information, see Manage Logs.

      		 normal
      • normal -Changes the backend.log logging level to normal and sets log tags to "log", "info", "warn", "error", "trace"
      • debug - Changes the backend.log logging level to debug and sets log tags to "log", "info", "warn", "error", "trace", "debug"
      • verbose - Changes the backend.log logging level to verboseand sets log tags to "log", "info", "warn", "error", "trace", "debug", "verbose"
      Maximum Scans Per Day Specifies the maximum number of scans to run on the agent per day. 10 Integers 1 or more
      Automatic Hostname Update When enabled, when the hostname on the endpoint is modified the new hostname will be updated in the agent's manager. This feature is disabled by default to prevent custom agent names from being overridden. no yes or no

  3. Do one of the following:

    • To save and immediately apply the setting, click Save and Apply.

      Note: For some settings, applying the setting requires an agent soft (backend) restart or full service restart.

    • To save the setting but not yet apply settings, click the Save button.

      Note: For the setting to take effect on the agent, you must apply the setting. In the banner that appears, click Apply all changes now. For some settings, applying the setting requires an agent soft (backend) restart or full service restart.