Agent Settings

To change agent settings, use the nessuscli utility on the command line interface to set available settings. For more information, see Nessuscli Agent.

Agent Manager Settings

On your agent's manager, you can configure system-wide agent settings to specify inactive agent options and blackout window settings for all your linked agents. For more information on creating, modifying, and deleting blackout windows, see Blackout Windows.

In Nessus:

Option	Description
Manage Agents
Track unlinked agents	When this setting is enabled, agents that are unlinked are preserved in the manager along with the corresponding agent data. This option can also be set using the `nessuscli` utility. Note: Inactive agents that are automatically unlinked by Nessus Manager automatically relink when they back online.
Remove agents that have been inactive for X days	Specifies the number of days an agent can be inactive before the manager removes the agent. Requires that Track unlinked agents is enabled.
Override Blackout Windows (Nessus 8.3 and earlier)
Exclude all agents from software updates	When enabled, this option overrides scheduled blackout windows. It prevents agents from receiving software updates at any time. Agents continue to receive plugin updates and perform scheduled scans.
Blackout Windows (Nessus 8.4 and later)
Enforce a permanent blackout window schedule	When enabled, Nessus enforces a permanent blackout window schedule and any rules below are applied. Note: Any scheduled blackout windows are overridden by the permanent blackout window.
Prevent software updates	When enabled, agents do not receive software updates during scheduled blackout windows.
Prevent plugin updates	When enabled, agents do not receive plugin updates during scheduled blackout windows.
Prevent agent scans	When enabled, the system does not run agent scans during scheduled blackout windows.

In Tenable.io:

Option	Description
Inactive Agents
Unlink agents that have been inactive for X days	Specifies the number of days an agent can be inactive before the manager unlinks the agent. After the specified number of days, the agent is unlinked, but not uninstalled. Tenable.io automatically tracks unlinked agents and related data for the number of days specified in this option. You cannot turn off this tracking. Note: Inactive agents that are automatically unlinked by Tenable.io do not automatically relink when they come back online.
Override Blackout Windows
Exclude all agents from software updates	When enabled, this option overrides scheduled blackout windows. It prevents agents from receiving software updates at any time. Agents continue to receive plugin updates and perform scheduled scans.