ControlOne – Managing Agent Updates and Automatic Upgrade Settings

Topic

This article explains how to use the Agent Updates feature in ControlOne to manage when and how agents receive version updates.

Environment

• Cytracom ControlOne 

Description

With Agent Updates, you decide when and how your ControlOne agents get updated. You can choose to test new builds early, stay on the stable release, or stick with a long-term version that changes only when absolutely necessary.

This feature gives you:

• Flexibility: Pick the update track that fits your environment.

• Visibility:  See which version stream your agents are running (Beta, GA, or LTS).

• Control: Manage upgrades safely with staged rollouts and clear version tracking.

How to manage Agent Updates

Accessing the Feature

Once logged into ControlOne portal, a banner appears at the bottom of the ControlOne portal.The banner introduces the feature and provides navigation shortcuts:

Here’s what each option does:

• More Information : Explains what happens if no channel is selected (agents will automatically join the recommended one).

• Read More:  Opens this Knowledge Base article for full details.

• View Setting: Takes you straight to Admin Settings → Agent Updates so you can make your selection.

Selecting an Agent Release Channel

In Admin Settings, you’ll now see an option labeled Agent Updates. From here, you can pick which update track your agents will follow. Once you save your selection, it immediately updates the target version for all agents in your tenant. 

Release Channel options for your Agents

You'll see the following 3 options in the dropdown below that you can chose from

How Agent Updates Work

Agents can update in two ways:

1. Manual updates: You can trigger updates anytime using Update All Agent Versions on the Devices page.This button reflects the version associated with the selected channel in the Admin -> Settings -> Agent Updates section.

2. Automatic updates: ControlOne automatically updates agents when certain conditions are met.

The default upgrade strategy is, agents auto-update:

• When restarted, or

• During your scheduled maintenance window

What You’ll Notice

When new versions become available:

• The version number next to your agents will update according to the selected channel (e.g., Beta 2.8, GA 2.7, LTS 2.6).

• The Devices will show which version your channel is tracking. 

How Support Manages Rollouts and Exceptions

While you control which release channel your agents follow, our Support team also has tools on the backend to help ensure updates roll out safely and predictably. These configuration options are not exposed in the ControlOne UI at this time.

Per-Agent Overrides

If you’re working with Support on troubleshooting or testing a specific scenario, they can temporarily keep one or more agents on a specific version (for example, version 2.7.1) while the rest of your environment continues to follow the General Availability (GA) channel. This allows you to validate fixes or isolate issues without affecting production devices.

Paused Channels

In special cases, Support can place your entire tenant on a Paused channel. When this happens, automatic updates stop completely, giving you time to test, stabilize, or complete internal maintenance before resuming updates.

Gradual Rollouts

To reduce risk during major version releases, updates may be rolled out gradually over several days.
Support sets a start and end date and a defined percentage of agents are updated each day.

Here’s a typical rollout example:

• Day 1: ≈ 25 % of agents updated

• Day 2: ≈ 15–20 %

• Days 3-5: Remaining agents updated gradually

If any issue is detected, the rollout can be paused or canceled immediately, so only a small portion of agents are affected.

What This Means for You

These backend controls are designed to protect your production environments and provide flexibility when you need special handling.If you ever want to coordinate a phased rollout or temporarily pause agent updates, just reach out to ControlOne Support, and they can adjust your settings accordingly.