Install MeshAgent in WinPE?

[shinomen]

I was wondering if anyone knew of a way where we could have the MeshAgent installed under WinPe? We utilize different boot utilities from USB as well as from PXE boot over the network. I was wondering if there was a way where we could inject a MeshCentral Agent into a PXE or WIM image we have so that when that environment is started we could gain a connection to the computer remotely.
For example, when I'm working remotely I can get a local user to PXE boot from the network where our disk cloning environment will boot up. It would be nice if that environment had the MeshCentral Agent running when it's started so that it can be visible from our MeshCentral controller and we could then connect to the WinPE environment that is running so that we can continue the disk cloning process.

[si458]

So long ad it's windows I don't see why it wouldn't work?
Just include the exe in your image, then maybe get ur image to auto run meshagent.exe -fullinstall to install the agent into program files OR meshagent.exe connect to connect and keep it running until the app closes?

[PathfinderNetworks]

That's a great idea. I'm going to give it a go once I have some time to try it. There are many WinPE boot utilities we use as well and, having MeshCentral, would be a nice option as we could have an onsite tech boot the device with the WinPE image and then a more senior remote tech could take over (for example).
Here is the Microsoft help guide for how to customize WinPE images. There is a section for adding apps.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/winpe-mount-and-customize?view=windows-11

[shinomen]

Well, I can report back that it works pretty well! I added the single MeshAgent.exe file to the wim image that I mounted and edited the startnet.cmd file under the windows\system32 folder to have the meshagent.exe -full install like you mentioned and committed the changes to the wim. I PXE booted and sure enough the machine showed up under MeshCentral and I was able to connect right away!
Thanks!

[si458]

also maybe the connect option rather then -fullinstall might be better
in your winpe environment as its just installing an image on the remote device

then you could for example run -fullinstall inside the OS image instead to have it always use the same nodeids etc across reboots!

just an amazing idea! i dont really use pxe, at most i use netboot.xyz to install an os if i dont have it handy on a usb drive haha

[shinomen]

I was able to play some more with this and using the connect vs -fullinstall does work better. The device goes away after some time when the remote winpe is shut off (maybe about 2 min). That's excellent because I won't have to clean up that group periodically.
I don't always use PXE but it's nice to have it if I'm not on-site.
Typically I use a USB bootable (Ventoy) to start up computers to do cloning or partition resizing. Again, I'm going to put this meshagent inside the WinPE environment wim files on that USB boot utility too so that I can go away and still access it remotely if needed.
I'm a one man MSP so the more I can do remotely without having to be tied down, the more I can accomplish.

Thanks again!

[si458]

glad it works!
in theory the is another option called run with does a console agent connect
the different being listed below

Mesh Agent available switches:
  run               Start as a console agent.
  connect           Start as a temporary console agent.
  start             Start the service.
  restart           Restart the service.
  stop              Stop the service.
  state             Display the running state of the service.
  -signcheck        Perform self - check.
  -install          Install the service from this location.
  -uninstall        Remove the service from this location.
  -nodeid           Return the current agent identifier.
  -info             Return agent version information.
  -resetnodeid      Reset the NodeID next time the service is started.
  -fulluninstall    Stop agent and clean up the program files location.
  -fullinstall      Copy agent into program files, install and launch.

                    The following switches can be specified after -fullinstall:

     --WebProxy="http://proxyhost:port"      Specify an HTTPS proxy.
     --agentName="alternate name"            Specify an alternate name to be provided by the agent.

and in theory the run is meant to be the same as running meshagent.exe without anything
but from my testing, it seems to do the same thing as connect and delete the agent afterwards,
so who knows haha

[shinomen]

So it appears that using just the 'connect' switch causes the device to lose remote desktop connection abilities if the network connection is disrupted. I manually ran the meshagent under windows pe using the 'run' command and it was able to maintain the ability to remote desktop to the machine even with network connection disruptions.
With 'connect' it was still seen in the meshcentral dashboard so the connectivity was there, but the remote feature disappeared when the connection on the windows pe machine was disrupted then restored.

[si458]

thanks for testing and verifying! so indeed the descriptions really are correct
run run all the time and if internet drops reconnect
connect run all the time BUT if internet drops, never reconnect!
so in a sense temporary for the connect is correct! nice!