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Werk #20067: Windows agent: register agent updater during auto-registration

Component Checks & agents
Title Windows agent: register agent updater during auto-registration
Date May 27, 2026
Level Trivial Change
Class Bug Fix
Compatibility Compatible - no manual interaction needed
Checkmk versions & editions
3.0.0b1
Not yet released
Checkmk Ultimate, Checkmk Cloud, Checkmk Ultimate MT
2.5.0p6 Checkmk Ultimate, Checkmk Cloud, Checkmk Ultimate MT

Previously, the Agent controller auto-registration ruleset (a Checkmk Ultimate feature) did not register the Windows agent updater even when the bakery option Agent Updater → Registration was set to On first agent controller registration (keep) or On every agent controller registration (overwrite). The agent controller itself registered successfully; only the agent updater part was skipped, and the controller logged:

You requested to register for automatic updates, but the Agent
Updater is not found. Skipping Agent Updater registration.
(check_mk_agent.exe not found in the same directory as
cmk-agent-ctl)

This has been fixed for new auto-registrations after the upgrade. Hosts whose controller was already registered are not retried by auto-registration (it only runs for not-yet-registered hosts). To add the agent updater registration on such hosts, either de-register the controller first (e.g. via cmk-agent-ctl.exe delete-all) and let auto-registration run again, or register the agent updater manually from the install directory:

cd "C:\Program Files (x86)\checkmk\service"
check_mk_agent.exe updater register -s <server> -i <site> ...

Technical background

Agent controller auto-registration runs under the agent controller daemon, spawned by the Windows agent service from C:\ProgramData\checkmk\agent\bin\cmk-agent-ctl.exe.

The controller used to look for check_mk_agent.exe next to itself, which succeeds for manual agent controller calls, but fails for the daemon mode, since it's located only in the service's installation directory at C:\Program Files (x86)\checkmk\service\.

The Windows service executable is now retrieved reliably via the registered binary path of the CheckmkService service.

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