Agent Handlers allow any Trellix Agent to receive policy and task updates and report events and property changes if the ePO - On-prem server is unavailable. For example, an upgrade or network problem.
Once multiple Agent Handler are deployed, they are available to agents as failover candidates. As long as the Agent Handler is connected to the database, it can continue serving agents. This includes any policy or task changes resulting from agent properties or from administrator changes before the ePO - On-prem server goes offline.
The configuration file shared with the Trellix Agent contains a configurable fallback list of Agent Handlers. If needed, the Trellix Agent tries to connect through the list of Agent Handlers until the list ends or it can contact a valid, enabled Agent Handler.
Failover between Agent Handlers is configured in one of two ways.
Simple deployment failover
In the simple deployment failover, two Agent Handlers can be deployed as primary and secondary. All agents initiate communications with the primary Agent Handler, and only use the secondary Agent Handler if the primary is unavailable. This deployment makes sense if the primary Agent Handler has better hardware, and can handle the whole load of the infrastructure.
Failover with load balancing
The second deployment combines failover with load balancing. Multiple Agent Handlers are configured into the same Agent Handler group. The ePO - On-prem server inserts each Agent Handler in the group into the list of Agent Handlers at the same order level. The Trellix Agent randomizes Agent Handlers at the same order level, which results in an equal load across all Agent Handlers in a particular group.
Agents failover between all Agent Handlers in a group before failing through to the next Agent Handler in the assignment list. Using Agent Handler groups results in both load balancing and failover benefits.