macOS

The HYAS Protect Agent (HPA) empowers organizations to leverage the robust capabilities of HYAS Protect on their roaming devices. Functioning as a DNS Proxy, the HPA offers a straightforward, lightweight, and highly effective solution to extend the full benefits of HYAS Protect to your mobile workforce.

This page will review the HPA installation procedure for a Mac machine. We’ll give you both UI and Terminal options along with some troubleshooting steps if you get stuck along the way.

Architecture

• The HPA consists of two parts, a service and a UI (user interface)

  • Service/Backend: The service, also known as the backend, is responsible for the core functionality and logic of the Agent.

  • The UI, also known as the front end, is the part of the application that users interact with.

• For purposes of this document, when referring to the HPA, we mean the service and the UI together.

Starting the Agent UI

The HPA UI provides feedback, status updates and other information related to the HPA. If you wish to start the UI to view these, please perform the following steps:

1. To start the HPA UI,

   1. Navigate to the Launchpad

      1. 

2. Search for and click on HYAS. This will start the UI.

   1. 

Checking Agent Status

HYAS Protect SaaS UI

Administrators may check the status of all HPA’s from the ‘Manage’ tab in the ‘Protect Agent’ section of the HYAS Protect SaaS UI.

1. Login to HYAS Protect, click on Settings>Organization Settings> Protect Agent> Manage.

   

2. From this view, you can check the ‘Status’ column to get information on the status of all the Agents.

HYAS Protect Agent UI

It is also possible to check the status of the HPA on the local machine itself.

1. Ensure the HPA UI is running.

   1. If you do not see the HYAS in the menu bar, the HPA UI is not running. This does not mean that HYAS Protect is not protecting the machine. This only means the UI is not running.

   2. To start the HPA UI follow the instructions listed above under ‘Starting The Agent UI’

2. With the UI running, click on the HYAS icon in the menu bar.

   1. You’ll be presented with the following window:

      1. 

   2. Green means everything has passed checks and is working properly. Red signifies that there is an issue with the status and further troubleshooting may be required.

Agent Status Definitions

Protection Active

• This shows the overall status of the Agent.

Internet Check

• Checks if the HPA can reach the HYAS resolver directly. The HPA will do a DNS lookup that only HYAS can answer.

Proxy Check

• This checks whether the DNS proxy can connect to the HYAS backend. It verifies both if the service running on localhost:53 belongs to HYAS and if it can communicate with HYAS's backend. It performs a lookup that only HYAS can respond to. Therefore, if another DNS proxy is using port 53, this check will not succeed.

OS Check

• This asks the OS to do a DNS lookup. If the system is configured to use the HPA, the lookup will go to the DNS proxy and we are at step 2 again. If this fails, some other process has reconfigured DNS and competing with the HPA for DNS resolution.

Agent Preferences

The HPA on the local machine includes configurable preferences to provide greater flexibility, visibility, and advanced troubleshooting. To access Preferences, start by navigating to the Menu Bar and right-clicking the HYAS Protect icon.

• Once you click on Preferences, you’ll see the three options below:

• Start UI at login

  • Enabling this will ensure that the GUI is started on machine login.

• Notifications

  • Turning this on allows the Protect Agent to send you notifications regarding connectivity or errors that may have occurred.

• Debug Mode

  • Toggling this on can be useful if you’re having issues with your Agent. This feature enables additional logs to be collected for Client Admin or HYAS analysis.

Disabling/Enabling the Agent

Disabling

There are a few different options to “Turn off” the Agent. Let’s dive into the differences.

Disabling the UI only

This turns the UI off but allows the HPA to still run in the background.

1. Click on the HYAS Protect icon in the Menu Bar to access the settings. You’ll see the following popup.

• Clicking “Quit” here will turn off the HYAS Protect UI.

Re-enabling the UI only

• If the HYAS icon is missing from the Menu Bar, it means the UI isn’t running.

  • To start the UI, see instructions above titled, ‘Starting the Agent UI’

Disabling Protection Locally

If you wish to disable the HPA completely, you must stop the service itself.

1. Click on the HYAS icon in the Menu Bar.

2. Select, ‘Disable Protection’

   1. This will disable the HPA completely for a period of 5 minutes.

Re-enabling Protection Locally

The HPA will automatically restart after 5 minutes. However, if you wish to restart the HPA sooner perform the following:

1. Navigate to the HYAS Logo in the Menu Bar, click on it and select ‘Enable Protection’

2. This will re-enable the HPA to begin protecting your device again.

Disabling Protection via the HPA Central Management Console

1. Navigate to the ‘Manage’ tab of HPA Central Agent Management Console.

2. Select the Agent(s) you wish to disable by selecting the check box next to the Agent(s) and selecting the ‘Action’ button at the top of the screen or by selecting the Actions icon at the right of the page.

3. Then select ‘Disable Agent'

   

Confirming the Agent’s Running State

By default, the Agent runs in the background and automatically protects your machine upon installation. However, if you’d like to confirm that it’s running, you can do so by following one of the procedures below:

If the UI is NOT running (default state)

1. Run the Check Running State script in the Terminal.

If the UI is running

1. Navigate to the Menu Bar at the top of the screen and you should see:

   1. The H with the solid dot signifies that the HPA, (both service and UI is up and running)

Updating the Agent

Like all software, regular updates are crucial for fixing bugs, adding new features, and improving client experience and overall security. The update method for the HPA may differ depending on the version, so please refer to the instructions below for details specific to your version.

Agent v2.2.7 and Newer

If you machine(s) are currently on HPA v2.2.7 or newer, you may update to newer versions (2.2.8+), directly from the HYAS Protect SaaS UI.

1. Navigate to HYAS Protect, click on Settings>Organization Settings> Protect Agent> Manage.

2. Select the machine(s) you which to update (ensuring they are running v2.2.7 or newer)

3. Click on ‘Action’

   

4. Then select ‘Update Agent (v2.2.7)’

   

5. Allow up to 15 minutes for the updates to complete.

Agent v2.2.6 and Older

If you have HPA v2.2.6 or older you will not have in-place updating capabilities until you’ve updated to v2.2.7+. This means, you need to manually update your agents.

However, if you are updating to v2.2.5 or newer, it will automatically look for older versions of the HPA dating back to at least 2.1.1 and automatically uninstall the older version as part of the update process.

In all other cases, please manually uninstall the older HPA per the instructions below. For installation, follow the instructions listed above for downloading and installing the HPA.

Uninstalling the Agent

v2.2.6 and Newer

If your machines are running v2.2.6 or later, the easiest way to uninstall the HPA is through the ‘Manage’ tab in the HYAS Protect SaaS UI

1. Navigate to HYAS Protect>Settings>Organization Settings>Protect Agent>Manage

2. From the ‘Manage’ tab, select the machines you wish to uninstall the Agent from, click on ‘Action’ and select ‘Uninstall (v2.2.6+)’

3. After approximately 5 minutes, the HPA will be uninstalled from the desired machines.

v2.2.5 and Older

Older versions of the HPA require a different procedure, although this method will also work on newer versions as well.

1. Stop the HYAS Protect service.

   1. Navigate here for instructions on stopping the service.

2. Next, navigate to the Finder

   

3. Click on Applications

   

4. Search for HYAS Protect

5. Right-click on HYAS Protect and select, “Move to Trash”.