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Restart Agent as Administrator - what does it look like when it works?

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Best Jump, User (Posts: 5)
Oct 12, 2022 10:08:47 am EDT
Support level: Free or trial
I'm unable to get "Restart Agent as Administrator" to work. Unfortunately, there's no feedback on the Viewer side to tell me what's going on. Are there any logs I can look at to troubleshoot? What does it look like from the Viewer side when it works correctly?
Chris, User (Posts: 5)
Oct 12, 2022 10:12:04 am EDT
Support level: Free or trial
Just to be clear about what I'm seeing:
  • The colleague running Agent is not an admin.
  • I select the restart option and enter my credentials.
  • As far as I can see, nothing happens.
Pauline, Support (Posts: 2881)
Oct 12, 2022 7:09:10 pm EDT
Hello Chris,

Thank you for your message.

Could you please clarify the following:
1. Do you select anything for the Domain option in the "Restart Agent as..." window?
2. Does anything happen on the physical remote machine when you restart Agent via the feature? For example, does your colleague see a UAC prompt?
3. Are you able to log in on the remote machine itself using your Windows user credentials that you use for the "Restart Agent as..." window?

Looking forward to your reply.
Chris, User (Posts: 5)
Oct 19, 2022 8:27:50 am EDT
Support level: Free or trial
Hi Pauline! Thanks for your efforts to troubleshoot this issue with me. However, before we begin looking at the details of my particular issue, may I draw your attention to the main requests above. I want to be able to self-support, and a little documentation would go a long way.
  • Would it be possible to get a doc page that shows exactly what it looks like (on both sides) when the restart Agent feature is used?
  • Does either side generate logs that I can refer to in troubleshooting? Is there a logging switch?

Having said that...

1. Do you select anything for the Domain option in the "Restart Agent as..." window?

Excellent question! This is an area of confusion for me. We are using Microsoft 365 and Azure AD, so it's not clear whether the correct way to enter the information is
domain: mycompany user: chris
or if it should be
domain: azuread user: chris@mycompany
or else
domain: mycompany.microsoftonline.com user: chris
. Have you tested this with cloud only (non-Hybrid) M365 environments?

2. Does anything happen on the physical remote machine when you restart Agent via the feature? For example, does your colleague see a UAC prompt?

Colleague reports seeing nothing.

3. Are you able to log in on the remote machine itself using your Windows user credentials that you use for the "Restart Agent as..." window?

By rights, yes. I'm using my admin account, which can log into every machine in our tenant. But I don't have physical access to test this personally.

Thanks again for your help!
Edited:Chris - Oct 19, 2022 8:28:12 am EDT
Pauline, Support (Posts: 2881)
Oct 19, 2022 7:39:59 pm EDT
Hello Chris,

Would it be possible to get a doc page that shows exactly what it looks like (on both sides) when the restart Agent feature is used?

Sure, we actually already have a separate Documentation page dedicated to this feature here. This page pretty much describes the whole process since after you enter the proper credentials, Agent is just restarted with elevated rights the same way as if you restart it manually.

Does either side generate logs that I can refer to in troubleshooting? Is there a logging switch?

Yes, all our modules generate log files. The Host logs and Agent logs are always enabled automatically and you can also enable the logging for Viewer following this guide.

This is an area of confusion for me. We are using Microsoft 365 and Azure AD, so it's not clear whether the correct way to enter the information is

Could you please clarify if there's anything in the dropdown menu when you click on the "Domain" field? Have you tried entering any of the options, for example, "mycompany.microsoftonline.com"? You can also take screenshots of your "Restart Agent as..." window with all the information filled in and send it to us - you can blur/hide any sensitive info and/or send it to us to support@remoteutilities.com.

Looking forward to your reply.

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