Online Help

Audit agents and audit services

This page describes the settings that control how AlloyScan manages audit agents, audit services, and inactive devices. These settings help you keep your audit environment accurate and free of obsolete records by automatically handling components and devices that are no longer active.

From this section of the Admin Center, you can:

Inactivity period

The Inactivity period setting controls how long AlloyScan retains audit agents and audit services that are no longer active.

Audit agents or services that haven't reported activity begin to accumulate inactive days. Once the duration you set in the Inactivity period field is exceeded, AlloyScan schedules the agent or service for deletion. If it remains inactive for another full inactivity period, AlloyScan then deletes it automatically. If the agent or service comes back online before the second period ends, it will uninstall itself at that point. This way, the system stays clean without removing components that were only offline temporarily.

Example: With a 30-day inactivity period specified, an inactive audit service is scheduled for deletion after 30 days. If it remains offline for another 30 days, it is deleted. If it returns within that window, it will instead uninstall itself and avoid the scheduled deletion.

Pruning

The Pruning setting enables automatic removal of devices that haven't been audited within a defined time frame.

Old or decommissioned devices - including broken or permanently offline machines - can clutter your asset inventory over time. The Pruning feature lets you set a threshold so that once a device hasn’t been audited for more than the specified number of days, AlloyScan removes it automatically from your records.

By default, this threshold is set to 365 days, meaning that devices not audited within the past year are pruned. However, you can adapt this to suit your organization’s lifecycle policies - for example, setting pruning to 730 days if devices are retired every two years.

Managing audit agents and services configuration in JSON format

At the top of the page, you can find an Import JSON button, and under the three-dot menu in the upper-right corner, you can access additional JSON options: Export JSON and Edit as JSON. These tools allow administrators to work with settings in a more technical and detailed manner.

  • Import JSON: Use this option to upload configuration data from a JSON file. This is useful when restoring a configuration from backup or applying settings consistently across multiple environments.

  • Export JSON: Click Export JSON to save the current audit agents and services configuration as a JSON file. This makes it easier to back up your configuration or share it with other administrators.

  • Edit as JSON: If you prefer direct, technical control over the settings, use Edit as JSON to open the configuration in raw JSON format. This option allows you to edit parameters such as the inactivity period (retiredPeriod) and pruning period (oldDevicesPruningPeriod) manually. After saving, the changes are immediately applied.