Removing devices

Manually removing devices

To manually remove a device from the Finder:

  1. Log in to Finder with administrative rights.

  2. Type the name of the device in the Search field.

  3. Right-click the device in the results of the search and select Drill-down.

  4. Right-click the device listed and select Edit... (or type Ctrl+Alt+E). The Edit device dialog shows up.

  5. Select the option remove from the list Storage at the bottom of the dialog.

  6. Click Apply. The device is marked for removal.

The Finder still displays the device until the Engine removes it from the database. During the nightly cleanup, the Engine removes from the database the devices that were not active for the last 24 hours and whose storage policy is set to remove.

Uninstall the Collector from the devices being removed to stop them from sending new activity data to the Engine. Failing to do so results in the Engine not removing the device from the database or, if the device was inactive for more than 24 hours and actually removed from the database, recreating the device in the database as soon as the Engine receives new data from it.

Once the device is tagged as remove the Portal almost immediately frees one license from the pool.

Applies to platforms | Windows | macOS

Automatic removal of inactive devices

In case that:

  • A device is inactive for more than 90 days (configurable).

  • There are no events associated to the device left in the database of the Engine.

The Engine purges all the data related to the device and automatically frees one license from the pool.

Changing the maximum inactivity period of devices

Modify the maximum inactivity period of devices for the Engine to identify a device as inactive either more quickly or more slowly and, accordingly, remove it from its database. Note that modifying the maximum inactivity period of devices is local to each Engine.

To modify the maximum inactivity period of devices:

  1. Log in to the CLI of the Appliance that hosts the Engine.

  2. Edit the configuration file of the Engine: sudo vi /var/nexthink/engine/01/etc/nxengine.xml

  3. Inside the limit section, set the new inactivity period in seconds (default value is 7776000 seconds, that is, 90 days): <limit> <max_inactivity_period>7776000</max_inactivity_period> </limit>

  4. Save your changes and exit by typing in: :wq

  5. Restart the Engine: sudo systemctl restart nxengine@1

Beware that setting the maximum inactivity period too low may result in an inefficient removal and recreation of devices with regular inactivity intervals, when these intervals are longer than the specified maximum period.

The operations described in this article should only be performed by a Nexthink Engineer or a Nexthink Certified Partner.

If you need help or assistance, please contact your Nexthink Certified Partner.


RELATED REFERENCE

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