Why does my Agent keep going offline?

Network Intrusion Detection/Prevention Device (NIDS/NIPS)

Many of the activities performed by the Agent can be deemed malicious and, therefore, blocked by many security controls. For example, submitting dozens of ARP requests across a local network is not considered a normal activity. Devices that may detect such traffic may potentially shut down the network port that the VM is connected to, which could affect the server that it's being hosted on.

To ensure that the VM is not being blocked by any IDS/IPS, please ensure to double check these configurations and allowlist the IP address that the scanner is installed on.

Slow network connection

In many cases, network connections could be extremely slow, preventing the Agent from calling back and checking in with the server. The Agent may attempt to run updates, install tools, etc. depending on the activities being performed on the Agent. If it is in the middle of updating or downloading something, this could potentially result in a bottleneck situation.

We have seen this quite often on remote networks that do not consist of a high download/upload speed.

The static IP address may be resetting

In some occasional scenarios, the linux VM may be configured to use a third-party network manager that chooses to use DHCP to configure its IP address, even if you have a network adapter set to a static IP address. Therefore, the static IP address may be wiped out in favor of DHCP, which may or may not necessarily be permitted by your firewall to allow outbound traffic from the IP address assigned by DHCP.

The virtual machine is going to sleep

If the Agent is installed on a user's workstation, then it's possible that the user's system is going to sleep. This happens quite often when a network administrator prefers to install the VM on a user's workstation using VirtualBox or similar platforms.

To ensure the Agent is not going to sleep, please ensure that the server or the workstation that it's hosted on is not configured to go to sleep after a period of inactivity.

The server is being rebooted

If the Agent is hosted on a Microsoft Windows machine, it may be that the system is rebooting for updates. Depending on your operating system configurations, the system may be rebooting to install patches and updates.