agentless devices

Agentless devices

Introduced in v1.11.0.

Most of RemotePower's features assume a Python agent on the device posting heartbeats. That works for Linux hosts. It doesn't work for the rest of the homelab — the managed switch, the printer, the IPMI card, the IP camera, the smart plug, the UPS. v1.11.0 adds agentless device records: same CMDB metadata, same vault credentials, same SSH link feature, same place in the network map. Just no heartbeat.

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Adding one

On the Devices page toolbar, click + Agentless device. The form asks for:

• Name — required, free text up to 64 chars
• Type — switch / router / firewall / AP / printer / camera / IPMI / UPS / PDU / NAS / IoT / smart plug / phone / other
• Connected to (upstream) — optional, picks from existing devices for the network map
• Hostname / IP / MAC — all optional, but you'll want at least IP if you ever plan to use SSH-link or HTTP-link features
• Group — optional, free text
• Notes — optional, free text up to 1 KB
• Mark as currently up — checkbox, defaults to true

Save and the device appears in the list immediately with an amber outline (vs. accent-blue for agented devices) so you can see at a glance which are which.

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What works on agentless devices

• CMDB metadata — asset_id, server_function, hypervisor_url, ssh_port, Markdown documentation. All of it. The CMDB modal works identically.
• Credential vault — encrypt and store passwords against the device. Reveal is admin-only and audit-logged just like everything else.
• SSH link — for any credential, the SSH and Copy buttons work the same way. Useful for IPMI consoles, switch CLIs, any device that takes SSH login. The link uses the device's hostname / IP and ssh_port the same way as for agented devices.
• Network map — agentless devices are first-class nodes. The map only really starts being useful once you can model your switches and APs.
• Audit log — creation, deletion, credential operations are all logged.

What doesn't work

• Sysinfo, services, packages, CVE scanning, update logs, patches, monitoring graphs, custom exec, container listing, agent self-update. All of these require an agent posting data, and there isn't one.
• Online/offline detection. There's no probing in v1.11.0 — status is whatever you set in the manual_status field (defaults to True). If a device's status is wrong, edit it.
• Wake-on-LAN. Could in theory work for devices on the same L2 segment as a host that's running an agent, but isn't wired up in v1.11.0. Use the host's WoL feature if you have it.

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API

POST /api/devices/agentless:

{
  "name": "core-switch-1",
  "device_type": "switch",
  "hostname": "switch-1.lan",
  "ip": "10.0.0.1",
  "mac": "aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff",
  "group": "core-network",
  "notes": "MikroTik CRS328 in the rack",
  "connected_to": "",
  "manual_status": true
}

Returns {"ok": true, "id": "al_<hex>"}. The al_ prefix distinguishes agentless devices from agented ones (which use their enrollment-time device ID format) and from credentials (cred_<hex>) and TLS targets (tls_<hex>).

The same record can be updated through the standard CMDB and device endpoints — PUT /api/cmdb/{al_xyz} to set documentation, PUT /api/devices/{al_xyz}/connected-to to change the network-map link, DELETE /api/devices/{al_xyz} to remove it (with the same exclusion-rule path the regular delete uses).

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Device types

The fifteen accepted types are roughly:

Type	Use for
switch	Managed/unmanaged Ethernet switch
router	Edge router, firewall+router combo, MikroTik
firewall	Dedicated firewall (pfSense box, Fortigate, etc.)
access_point / ap	Wi-Fi APs, Unifi/Aruba/etc.
printer	Network printer
camera	IP camera, baby monitor, doorbell cam
ipmi	Dell iDRAC, HP iLO, Supermicro IPMI
ups	APC, CyberPower, Eaton
pdu	Switched/metered PDU
nas	Synology, QNAP, TrueNAS-without-agent (although TrueNAS Linux can run the agent if you want)
iot	Generic catch-all for IoT, ESP-based stuff
smart_plug	Tasmota, Shelly, Kasa
phone	VoIP phones
other	The escape hatch

The type list is enforced server-side because it powers the icon mapping on the network map. If you need a new type, add it to AGENTLESS_DEVICE_TYPES in server/cgi-bin/api.py.

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Future ideas (not in v1.11.0)

These keep coming up and aren't shipped:

• HTTP/ICMP probing for agentless devices to set manual_status automatically. Decided against for v1.11.0 because probing means cron jobs and outbound network permissions, and the user said no probing. May come back as opt-in.
• Auto-import from your switch via SNMP / LLDP / CDP. Real-network-monitoring territory; out of scope.
• Bulk-add from a CSV. Useful if you have 50 IoT devices to enrol at once. Possible v1.12.0 candidate.
• HTTP launch button alongside SSH link, for things like Unifi controllers and printer admin pages. Reasonable to add later — the data is there (hypervisor_url works for any HTTP admin URL), just no UI affordance for it yet.