Never Use the Automox Agent to Stop or Remove the Agent

Why this is important

When using the Automox agent to schedule a worklet to either stop the agent service or remove the Automox agent, it opens up the possibility for unexpected behavior or broken agents and devices. When attempting to remove the agent or stop the service, we recommend using methods like these:

• Group Policy Objects (GPOs)
• PowerShell commands
• Manually executing these actions

While using the Automox agent to stop the agent service, what happens is a command is issued to the agent and device to stop the agent service. What breaks along the way is that the agent is usually waiting for a response from the device telling the agent that either this is "complete" or something else happened. However, because the agent service is shut off, it stops the communication and the agent is left "dead in the water". 

Starting the agent service will not typically work, because the queue process that was initiated by the scheduler to stop the agent service is left in limbo and never received a response. The command either needs to be cleared by Automox Support or the agent has to be purged and reinstalled in order to resolve the issue. 

The same logic can also be applied to uninstalling the Automox agent, as this could leave a broken agent or unexpected behavior could occur on the device.

The conclusion is that we do not recommend using the Automox agent to stop the agent service or remove the Automox agent.