The device list

Devices in the main navigation holds every computer, server and virtual machine Tenvara knows about, for every customer. A device arrives when the agent enrols it, when you add it by hand, or when another source (backup, Microsoft 365, the security module) reports it. The same device is recognised by its serial number and hostname, so it is never listed twice.

Devices is a module of its own, shown as Monitoring in Settings > Modules. A new MSP install starts with the service desk, so switch it on there before you add the first agent. While it is off, Devices is gone from the menu, search and Home, and a device linked to a ticket still opens read-only.

What the sidebar holds#

The Devices sidebar is where everything device related lives. Each tool has one entry, and its pages are tabs along the top of that entry's page:

The numbers beside each entry are live counts, so a glance at the sidebar tells you how many devices are offline, how many need attention and how many are behind on patches.

Network discovery, firewalls and controllers, NAS units and checks run from your server are under Infrastructure (Network, Firewalls and controllers, NAS and storage and Uptime checks). Admin elevation and tamper protection are under Security.

Statuses#

Devices held for approval when they enrol, and retired devices, are not in the list: held devices are on Devices > Enrolment, the Waiting for approval tab, and retired ones on Devices > Lifecycle, the Retired tab.

Devices of inactive customers are left out of the list and the sidebar's counts. Include inactive customers in the toolbar brings them back, and choosing the customer in the customer switcher always shows its own. When inactive customers still have devices in use, a line above the list says how many and how many are online, with Show the devices, so you can retire them. See Customers, sites and contacts.

Health is separate from status. It comes from monitoring and reads Healthy, Warning, Critical, Offline or Not monitored. See Device health.

Filtering and finding devices#

1. Type in the search box (press / to jump to it) to filter by name, user, model, serial or IP address. A user is found however Windows wrote the name: Kate Tomblin, KateTomblin and BRIGHTWATER\KateTomblin all find the same device.
2. Click a filter chip, for example Status, Last user, Session, Idle for more than (minutes), Health, Needs a look, Fullest disk, Agent, Backup, Customer, Takeover mode, Managed by Intune, Department, Book value, Criticality, Type, OS, Used by, Warning, Maintenance, Agent version, Restart pending, Patch status, Domain or workgroup, Virtual desktop pool or Open alerts, and tick the values you want. Your own device custom fields can be filters and columns too.
3. Click a column heading to sort by it.
4. Use Columns to show or hide columns, Views to pick a built-in view or save the current filters as a view of your own (Save as new view...), and Export to download the list as CSV.

The first column is Name: the name you gave the device in Edit, such as Main server or Accounts desk, or its hostname when it has none. Lists, search and Cmd+K show the name with the hostname in grey beside it, and both find the device. See Device names, hostnames and renaming the computer.

The Last user and Session columns say who is signed in and whether they are there: Active, Idle 12 min, Locked 2 hr, Disconnected (a Remote Desktop session) or Nobody signed in, greyed out while the device is offline. See Who is signed in and whether they are there.

Select devices with the tick boxes to act on them together: Run script, Backup (Protect..., Back up now..., Stop protecting..., Pause backups... and Resume backups..., with a result for each device), Set type, Move to site, Set criticality, Show a message, Print labels, Power, Maintenance, tags, and under More adding to or removing from a group, Check for updates, Install updates now, Install software..., Install winget..., Move to another customer..., Retire... and Delete.... Deleting a device removes its agent too; see Deleting a device removes its agent.

The customer switcher at the top of the screen narrows the whole list to one customer. Every column in the list can be sorted, and the Fullest disk bar makes nearly full disks easy to spot. Above the list, Agent versions counts the devices on each agent version and names any rollout that has halted; click it to open Agent updates.

The Views picker holds the built-in views: Online, Offline, Asleep, Stale, Never seen, Needs attention, Servers, Workstations, Unhealthy, Not reporting, Disks nearly full, Backup failing, Not backed up, Has agent, Online agents, Managed by Intune, Nobody signed in and Idle for more than 30 min. Default view for a role... sets the view a role starts on.

Tip: The views are ordinary saved filters. Unhealthy shows the same devices as the Health page, and Disks nearly full lists volumes at 80% or more, or forecast to fill within 30 days.

Adding devices#

There are two buttons at the top right of the list:

• Add devices creates an enrolment token and gives you the one-line install command for the agent. This is the normal way in. See Installing the agent and Supported systems.
• Add by hand creates a device record without an agent, for example a switch, a firewall, a printer or a UPS you want to document. Choose what kind of kit it is. It shows as Never seen until an agent or another source reports it.

More about devices#

• Agent updates and release channels: how new agent releases reach your devices.
• File transfer, recording and background tools and Wake-on-LAN and remote access rules.
• Admin elevation on request and Tamper protection, under Security in the main navigation.
• Older Windows and the Lite agent: Windows 7, 8.1 and older servers.
• Server sets: servers that do one job never patch at the same time.
• Security software and the agent: what the agent runs and what to allow.
• Asset lifecycle and warranty: purchase, warranty and the hardware refresh forecast.
• Policies and where settings come from: every module's policy for a device, site or customer in one place.
• The desktop viewer: remote sessions in a window of their own with the whole keyboard.
• Device names, hostnames and renaming the computer and Who is signed in and whether they are there.
• Who updates a device: Tenvara, the device itself, or nobody.
• Deleting a device removes its agent.
• Opening device web pages and forwarding ports: a NAS, printer or switch's own web page through an agent, with no VPN.
• The keyboard in a remote session, Switching sessions and Remote Desktop users and Picture quality on slow links and the connection details.
• The windows and notifications people see on their computers.
• Print labels and unique asset tags.
• Network and domains: network discovery, SNMP monitoring, domains, certificates and DNS.

Opening a device#

Click a device's name to open the device page, with its health, patches, software, scripts, alerts, tickets and documentation in one place, on the tabs Overview, Tools, Policies and Activity, with Hardening where device hardening applies. Pressing R on a row asks Connect to ...? with who is at the device before it starts a session. See The device page.