Pulse Unified Agent

August 20, 2026 · View on GitHub

The unified agent (pulse-agent) is the single host-installed Pulse infrastructure agent binary. It combines host, Docker/Podman, Kubernetes, Proxmox-local, and other enabled node-local telemetry modules into one deployment and one service. Install it on standalone hosts and on machines where Pulse needs full node-local telemetry. For API-backed platforms, start with the platform connection first and add the agent only where local telemetry is needed.

For Proxmox, install the agent only where you need telemetry that the Proxmox API cannot provide, such as host SMART and temperature data, local ZFS/Ceph/mdadm detail, arbitrary host mount reads, or the full mounted filesystem breakdown for running LXCs. Docker containers inside LXCs can be reported by a Proxmox host agent when the server has explicitly enabled the privacy-bounded LXC inventory mode; Docker/Podman inside VMs still needs a guest-local agent or another explicit guest reporting path. Basic Proxmox inventory and utilization can use a read-only or narrowly scoped Proxmox API token instead. Settings uses that API inventory path as the default for new PVE/PBS setup. See Agent Security for the root-service trade-off, restricted-user expectations, and supply-chain verification guidance.

Note: For agent-based temperature monitoring, use pulse-agent --enable-proxmox or SSH-based collection. The legacy sensor proxy has been removed. See docs/TEMPERATURE_MONITORING.md.

Quick Start

Generate an installation command in the UI: Settings → Infrastructure → Install on a host

Choose a target profile in that screen when you want explicit install flags for Docker, Kubernetes, Proxmox VE, or Proxmox Backup Server.

The same generated command is also the supported v5-to-v6 agent upgrade path. Run it on the host that already has the v5 pulse-agent service to replace the binary and service configuration in place; do not uninstall the old service first unless you are intentionally removing that host from Pulse.

An installed agent has one primary Pulse URL and token. The primary is the only server allowed to supply remote configuration, commands, enrollment, or updates. The same collection can also be sent to explicitly configured, report-only observer instances; see Observer destinations. After an upgrade, check the relevant platform page or Machines view once the agent has reported, and confirm the host-local version with pulse-agent --version if the UI has not received a fresh report yet.

This is the agent installer served by your Pulse server. It is separate from the top-level GitHub install.sh, which installs or updates the Pulse server itself.

Linux (systemd)

curl -fsSL http://<pulse-ip>:7655/install.sh | \
  bash -s -- --url http://<pulse-ip>:7655 --token <api-token>

macOS

curl -fsSL http://<pulse-ip>:7655/install.sh | \
  bash -s -- --url http://<pulse-ip>:7655 --token <api-token>

Windows (PowerShell, run as Administrator)

irm http://<pulse-ip>:7655/install.ps1 | iex

With environment variables:

$env:PULSE_URL="http://<pulse-ip>:7655"
$env:PULSE_TOKEN="<api-token>"
irm http://<pulse-ip>:7655/install.ps1 | iex

Synology NAS

curl -fsSL http://<pulse-ip>:7655/install.sh | \
  bash -s -- --url http://<pulse-ip>:7655 --token <api-token>

TrueNAS SCALE/CORE

TrueNAS SCALE and TrueNAS CORE are both supported. The installer auto-detects the platform and configures the appropriate service manager (systemd for SCALE, rc.d for CORE).

curl -fsSL http://<pulse-ip>:7655/install.sh | \
  bash -s -- --url http://<pulse-ip>:7655 --token <api-token>

Features

Host Metrics: CPU, memory, disk, network I/O, temperatures
Docker Monitoring: Container metrics, health checks, Swarm support (when enabled)
Kubernetes Monitoring: Cluster, node, pod, and deployment health (when enabled)
Libvirt/KVM Monitoring: Read-only VM inventory, state, vCPU, memory, and disk/network rates when the Linux host exposes virsh
XCP-ng Monitoring: Read-only pool and VM inventory, power state, vCPU, and memory when an XCP-ng control domain exposes xe
External Probes (Pro): runs availability checks assigned to this agent from the Pulse server and reports the results back — see below
Auto-Update: Automatically updates when a new version is released
Multi-Platform: Linux, macOS, Windows support

On Linux, the host module automatically checks for virsh. When the agent can open the default libvirt connection read-only, defined domains appear as VM workloads under that host. Collection uses libvirt's bounded bulk statistics interface and does not grant Pulse VM start, stop, console, or configuration authority. If virsh is absent, the socket is inaccessible, or the driver does not support the requested statistics, normal host reporting continues without libvirt inventory.

Appliance packaging can still differ. In particular, a QNAP installation must make its Container Station libvirt client/socket available to the agent service; the presence of KVM processes alone is not enough to establish a readable libvirt connection.

On XCP-ng, the host module automatically checks for the local xe CLI. It uses only bounded pool-list, host-list, and vm-list queries: no XAPI credentials or VM lifecycle authority are added. The XCP-ng pool becomes the host's cluster grouping, and pool-wide VMs are de-duplicated by UUID and parented to the resident Pulse host when that node also reports. If several pool nodes run the Unified Agent, their identical pool views coalesce rather than creating duplicate workloads. A failed xe query preserves the last successful inventory while normal host metrics continue to report.

This local integration covers one XCP-ng pool. Multi-pool deployments that need a central Xen Orchestra connection remain a separate integration surface.

Windows CPU and motherboard temperatures

Windows does not expose dependable built-in CPU or motherboard temperature readings. The Unified Agent can import those readings from LibreHardwareMonitor, which supplies the required driver-backed hardware access:

Run LibreHardwareMonitor as Administrator on the Windows host.
Keep its HTTP port at the default 8085.
Select Options → Remote Web Server → Run.
Do not permit inbound network access to port 8085 in Windows Firewall. Pulse connects only to http://127.0.0.1:8085/data.json.

LibreHardwareMonitor's web authentication must remain disabled for this loopback-only integration. Pulse uses a fixed local URL, follows no redirects, and accepts only bounded, validated CPU and motherboard Celsius readings. If LibreHardwareMonitor is stopped, unavailable, or returns unsupported data, the rest of the Windows host report continues normally.

Native Windows Storage reliability counters remain the source for supported physical-disk temperatures. NVIDIA GPU telemetry continues to come directly from nvidia-smi; Pulse deliberately ignores LibreHardwareMonitor GPU and storage nodes to avoid duplicate or ambiguously correlated readings.

External Probes (Pro)

With the Pro external_probe entitlement, availability checks configured in Pulse can be assigned to run from a specific agent instead of the Pulse server (Settings -> Monitoring -> Availability checks -> "Run from"). This is how you monitor a site from the outside: deploy the agent on a machine elsewhere — a cloud VM, a Docker host at another location — and assign checks to it. Target failures are evaluated on the Pulse server through your normal alert routes.

There is nothing to configure on the agent itself. Assignments arrive through the agent's signed remote configuration, the agent runs each check on its configured interval, and results are delivered with its regular reports. Results survive temporary connectivity loss to the Pulse server in a bounded in-memory queue; if the agent cannot deliver for several check intervals the check shows as indeterminate in Pulse until reports resume. After the five-minute minimum grace window, Pulse raises one availability_probe_unavailable warning per disconnected probe, regardless of how many checks it owns. Pulse measures that reporting window from server receipt time rather than the agent's clock, so clock skew cannot create or conceal the disconnect. That warning uses the normal email, webhook, Apprise, and recovery-notification pipeline. When Pulse Mobile is paired through Relay, Pulse also sends a privacy-safe external_probe_offline push linked to the canonical mobile attention item without exposing target names or addresses. The alert identity belongs to the probe agent, so adding or removing an assigned check does not resolve and reopen it.

When the host heartbeat itself is offline, Pulse keeps the existing host-offline alert as the single canonical incident and suppresses the probe-results warning. Assigned probe hosts still receive the external-probe mobile push, but operators do not get two normal alerts for the same agent failure.

This has a complementary dark-site path: if the entire Pulse instance or its site goes offline, Pulse Relay independently sends its existing instance offline push after five minutes. Together, probe-loss alerts while Pulse is online and Relay's instance-loss alert while Pulse is dark ensure the outside-monitoring path cannot disappear silently. Relay does not evaluate individual target results while the Pulse server is offline.

The module appears as availability in the agent's module status when at least one check is assigned.

Note for ICMP (ping) checks: the probe uses the system ping binary. In containers or hardened service units without CAP_NET_RAW, ICMP checks fail; prefer TCP or HTTP checks there, or grant the capability. See "ICMP probe privileges" in docs/CONFIGURATION.md.

Custom metrics

The host module can report numeric, boolean, and timestamp metrics produced by local executables or HTTP(S) REST endpoints. This is intended for site-specific signals such as queue depth, UPS load, service status, DNS update age, or a backup timestamp that Pulse cannot collect natively.

Create a private YAML file:

version: 1
sensors:
  - id: queue_depth
    name: Queue depth
    command: /usr/local/libexec/pulse-queue-depth
    unit: items
    interval: 1m
    timeout: 2s
    warningAbove: 20
    criticalAbove: 50
    alertOnError: true

  - id: main_dns_update
    name: Main DNS update
    group: Main server
    subgroup: Domain
    kind: timestamp
    url: https://metrics.example.net/dns/main
    interval: 1m
    timeout: 2s
    staleAfter: 10m
    warningAbove: 3600
    criticalAbove: 7200

  - id: checkout_online
    name: Checkout service
    group: Main server
    subgroup: Service statuses
    kind: boolean
    url: http://monitoring.internal/checkout
    criticalBelow: 0.5

Then start or restart the agent with --custom-sensors-file /etc/pulse/custom-sensors.yaml, or set PULSE_CUSTOM_SENSORS_FILE to that absolute path. Each metric configures exactly one source:

command: an absolute executable path. It receives no arguments and writes one scalar to standard output.
url: an absolute HTTP(S) URL polled with GET. Redirects are not followed, non-2xx responses fail, and the response is limited to 4 KiB.

REST endpoints can return a plain scalar or a JSON object:

{"value": 42.5, "observedAt": "2026-07-30T20:00:00Z"}

value may be a number, string, or boolean. observedAt is optional RFC3339 source time. When staleAfter is configured, older source data becomes a stale error and follows alertOnError.

kind defaults to number. Boolean metrics accept true/false, 1/0, yes/no, on/off, up/down, and online/offline; Pulse stores true as 1 and false as 0, so criticalBelow: 0.5 alerts when a service is offline. Timestamp metrics accept RFC3339 or Unix seconds, display time since the event, and apply thresholds to the age in seconds. Optional group and subgroup values organize labels in the Custom Metrics card.

The agent evaluates optional warningAbove, criticalAbove, warningBelow, and criticalBelow thresholds locally. Pulse displays the typed value and unit under Custom Metrics and creates normal warning/critical alerts. A collection failure alerts by default; set alertOnError: false to make failures report-only. If a probe fails after a successful reading, the last good value is shown as stale with its original observation time.

Configuration is deliberately local-only. The Pulse server and remote agent configuration cannot supply commands, URLs, or arguments. The file is limited to 32 metrics; intervals must be between 10 seconds and 24 hours; timeouts must be between 100 milliseconds and 10 seconds and shorter than the interval. staleAfter must be between 10 seconds and 30 days. At most four probes run concurrently, output is bounded, HTTP credentials in URLs are rejected, and each executable is revalidated before use. Standard TLS certificate validation applies to HTTPS endpoints; use network policy to constrain destinations where required.

On POSIX systems, the YAML file must be a regular, non-symlink file owned by the agent service user with no group/other permissions (normally mode 0600). Commands and their immediate parent directories must also be regular, non-symlink, owned by the service user, and not group/other writable. Commands must have an executable bit. For example:

sudo chown root:root /etc/pulse/custom-sensors.yaml /usr/local/libexec/pulse-queue-depth
sudo chmod 0600 /etc/pulse/custom-sensors.yaml
sudo chmod 0700 /usr/local/libexec/pulse-queue-depth

Configuration

Flag	Env Var	Description	Default
`--url`	`PULSE_URL`	Pulse server URL	`http://localhost:7655`
`--token`	`PULSE_TOKEN`	API token	(required)
`--observers-file`	`PULSE_OBSERVERS_FILE`	Private JSON file defining report-only destinations	(none)
`--custom-sensors-file`	`PULSE_CUSTOM_SENSORS_FILE`	Private YAML file defining command/REST custom metrics and thresholds	(none)
`--token-file`	-	Read API token from file	(unset)
`--interval`	`PULSE_INTERVAL`	Reporting interval	`30s`
`--enable-host`	`PULSE_ENABLE_HOST`	Enable host metrics	`true`
`--enable-docker`	`PULSE_ENABLE_DOCKER`	Enable Docker / Podman metrics	`false` (auto-detect if not configured)
`--docker-runtime`	`PULSE_DOCKER_RUNTIME`	Force Docker / Podman runtime: `auto`, `docker`, or `podman`	`auto`
`--enable-kubernetes`	`PULSE_ENABLE_KUBERNETES`	Enable Kubernetes metrics	`false` (installer auto-detect if not configured)
`--enable-proxmox`	`PULSE_ENABLE_PROXMOX`	Enable Proxmox integration	`false`
`--proxmox-type`	`PULSE_PROXMOX_TYPE`	Proxmox type: `pve` or `pbs`	(auto-detect)
`--enable-commands`	`PULSE_ENABLE_COMMANDS`	Enable Pulse command execution: Docker / Podman container actions from the UI (start/stop/restart/update), Patrol actions, and Proxmox LXC Docker inventory (disabled by default)	`false`
`--disable-commands`	`PULSE_DISABLE_COMMANDS`	Deprecated (commands are disabled by default)	-
`--disk-exclude`	`PULSE_DISK_EXCLUDE`	Device name/path or mount point patterns to exclude from disk and S.M.A.R.T. monitoring (repeatable or CSV)	(none)
`--disk-include`	`PULSE_DISK_INCLUDE`	Device name/path or mount point patterns to include despite automatic filesystem filtering (repeatable or CSV)	(none)
`--kubeconfig`	`PULSE_KUBECONFIG`	Kubeconfig path (optional)	(auto)
`--kube-context`	`PULSE_KUBE_CONTEXT`	Kubeconfig context (optional)	(auto)
`--kube-include-namespace`	`PULSE_KUBE_INCLUDE_NAMESPACES`	Limit namespaces (repeatable or CSV, wildcards supported)	(all)
`--kube-exclude-namespace`	`PULSE_KUBE_EXCLUDE_NAMESPACES`	Exclude namespaces (repeatable or CSV, wildcards supported)	(none)
`--kube-include-all-pods`	`PULSE_KUBE_INCLUDE_ALL_PODS`	Include all non-succeeded pods	`false`
`--kube-include-all-deployments`	`PULSE_KUBE_INCLUDE_ALL_DEPLOYMENTS`	Include all deployments, not just problems	`false`
`--kube-max-pods`	`PULSE_KUBE_MAX_PODS`	Max pods per report	`200`
`--disable-auto-update`	`PULSE_DISABLE_AUTO_UPDATE`	Disable auto-updates	`false`
`--disable-docker-update-checks`	`PULSE_DISABLE_DOCKER_UPDATE_CHECKS`	Disable Docker image update detection	`false`
`--disable-registry-credentials`	`PULSE_DISABLE_REGISTRY_CREDENTIALS`	Do not read host Docker credentials (config.json / credential helpers) for registry update checks	`false`
`--insecure`	`PULSE_INSECURE_SKIP_VERIFY`	Skip TLS verification	`false`
`--allow-plaintext-http`	`PULSE_AGENT_ALLOW_PLAINTEXT_HTTP`	Allow plain HTTP to a Pulse server that does not look local (private IP, single-label, `.local`/`.lan`/`.home`/`.home.arpa`/`.internal`, or resolves to private addresses). Sends the API token in cleartext; only for networks you fully control, e.g. internal networks numbered from public IP space	`false`
`--hostname`	`PULSE_HOSTNAME`	Override hostname	(OS hostname)
`--agent-id`	`PULSE_AGENT_ID`	Unique agent identifier	(machine-id)
`--report-ip`	`PULSE_REPORT_IP`	Override reported IP (multi-NIC)	(auto)
`--disable-ceph`	`PULSE_DISABLE_CEPH`	Disable local Ceph status polling	`false`
`--tag`	`PULSE_TAGS`	Apply tags (repeatable or CSV)	(none)
`--log-level`	`LOG_LEVEL`	Log verbosity (`debug`, `info`, `warn`, `error`)	`info`
`--health-addr`	`PULSE_HEALTH_ADDR`	Health/metrics server address	`127.0.0.1:9191`

Use --health-addr :9191 only when another host must scrape the health/metrics endpoint over the network. Use --health-addr "" or PULSE_HEALTH_ADDR=off to disable that listener.

Token resolution order: --token → --token-file → PULSE_TOKEN → /var/lib/pulse-agent/token.

Observer destinations

Observer destinations receive the same already-collected host, Docker/Podman, and Kubernetes reports. Collection runs once per interval. Delivery, retries, and persisted host-report buffers are isolated per destination, so an observer outage does not replay or block the primary stream. Observer responses cannot change configuration, execute commands, enroll the agent, or select updates.

Create a separate API token on each observer and store every token in its own absolute-path file. On Unix, both the JSON file and token files must be regular, non-symlink files with no group or other permissions (for example mode 0600).

{
  "version": 1,
  "observers": [
    {
      "name": "dev",
      "url": "https://pulse-dev.example.test",
      "tokenFile": "/etc/pulse-agent/dev-observer.token",
      "serverFingerprint": "0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef",
      "provisionProxmox": true
    }
  ]
}

Start or install the service with --observers-file /etc/pulse-agent/observers.json. Plaintext remote HTTP is rejected unless that observer explicitly sets "allowPlaintextHTTP": true. insecureSkipVerify is available per observer but should be replaced with a CA file or certificate fingerprint wherever possible.

When Proxmox integration is enabled, each observer gets a distinct destination-scoped PVE/PBS API token and registration-state directory. Pulse must answer the registration check before the agent creates or rotates any Proxmox token; an unavailable destination therefore leaves existing credentials unchanged. Set "provisionProxmox": false when an observer should receive only Unified Agent telemetry and no separately registered PVE/PBS source.

Per-destination delivery status is exported on the health listener as pulse_agent_destination_configured and pulse_agent_destination_delivery_up, labelled by module, destination, and role.

Advanced Flags

--version: Print the agent version and exit.
--self-test: Perform a self-test and exit (used during auto-update).

Auto-Detection

Auto-detection behavior:

Host metrics: Enabled by default.
Docker/Podman: Enabled automatically by the agent if Docker/Podman is detected and PULSE_ENABLE_DOCKER was not explicitly set. A local --enable-docker=false or PULSE_ENABLE_DOCKER=false is a hard opt-out and is not re-enabled by auto-detection or remote profile config.
Kubernetes: Enabled automatically by the installer when a kubeconfig is detected and PULSE_ENABLE_KUBERNETES was not explicitly set.
Proxmox: Enabled automatically by the installer when Proxmox is detected. Type auto-detects pve vs pbs if not specified.

To disable auto-detection, explicitly set the relevant flags or env vars, for example:

--enable-docker=false or PULSE_ENABLE_DOCKER=false
--enable-kubernetes=false or PULSE_ENABLE_KUBERNETES=false
--enable-proxmox=false or PULSE_ENABLE_PROXMOX=false

Inside-Guest Runtime Boundaries

Docker/Podman inside a VM or LXC is monitored from inside that guest. Install the Unified Agent in the guest when you want full Docker host, container, service, and task inventory on the Docker page.

Pulse does not use a Proxmox node agent to look inside LXCs by default. The node agent does automatically collect filesystem capacity for running LXCs when the local pct tool is available. It uses bounded pct list and pct df <vmid> calls and reports only mount keys, volume labels, mount paths, and capacity/usage values; it does not run commands inside a guest or read guest files. Stopped LXCs retain the normal API-derived disk view.

The optional Proxmox-side LXC Docker hint is off unless the Pulse server is started with PULSE_ENABLE_PROXMOX_GUEST_DOCKER_DETECTION=true. That hint uses pct exec only to check whether /var/run/docker.sock exists in a running LXC; it does not enumerate containers, images, environment variables, files, or processes. The stronger Proxmox-side LXC Docker inventory path is separately disabled by default. An admin can turn it on with the Discover Docker in LXC guests toggle in Settings → System → General, or the server can be started with PULSE_ENABLE_PROXMOX_GUEST_DOCKER_INVENTORY=true, which locks the toggle to the environment value. Use either path only when operators are comfortable with Proxmox-side guest probing.

Installation Options

Simple Install (host + Docker auto-detect)

curl -fsSL http://<pulse-ip>:7655/install.sh | \
  bash -s -- --url http://<pulse-ip>:7655 --token <token>

Proxmox VE Node (explicit profile)

curl -fsSL http://<pulse-ip>:7655/install.sh | \
  bash -s -- --url http://<pulse-ip>:7655 --token <token> --enable-proxmox --proxmox-type pve

Proxmox Backup Server Node (explicit profile)

curl -fsSL http://<pulse-ip>:7655/install.sh | \
  bash -s -- --url http://<pulse-ip>:7655 --token <token> --enable-proxmox --proxmox-type pbs

Force Enable Docker (if auto-detection fails)

curl -fsSL http://<pulse-ip>:7655/install.sh | \
  bash -s -- --url http://<pulse-ip>:7655 --token <token> --enable-docker

Disable Docker (even if detected)

curl -fsSL http://<pulse-ip>:7655/install.sh | \
  bash -s -- --url http://<pulse-ip>:7655 --token <token> --enable-docker=false

Host + Kubernetes Monitoring

curl -fsSL http://<pulse-ip>:7655/install.sh | \
  bash -s -- --url http://<pulse-ip>:7655 --token <token> --enable-kubernetes

Docker Monitoring Only

curl -fsSL http://<pulse-ip>:7655/install.sh | \
  bash -s -- --url http://<pulse-ip>:7655 --token <token> --enable-host=false --enable-docker

Exclude Specific Disks from Monitoring

# Exclude whole block devices by name or path
pulse-agent --disk-exclude sda --disk-exclude /dev/sdb

# Exclude specific mount points
pulse-agent --disk-exclude /mnt/backup --disk-exclude /var/run/samba/fd

# Exclude using patterns (prefix match)
pulse-agent --disk-exclude '/mnt/pbs*'  # Matches /mnt/pbs-data, /mnt/pbs-backup, etc.

# Exclude using patterns (contains match)
pulse-agent --disk-exclude '*pbs*'  # Matches any path containing 'pbs'

# Via environment variable (comma-separated)
PULSE_DISK_EXCLUDE=/dev/sda,*pbs*,/var/run/samba/fd

Pattern types:

Exact: /dev/sda, sda, or /mnt/backup - matches that device path, device name, or mount point
Prefix: /dev/nvme* or /mnt/ext* - matches device paths or mount points with that prefix
Contains: *cache* or *pbs* - matches device paths, device names, or mount points containing that text

Exclusions are applied before filesystem usage, disk I/O, and S.M.A.R.T. collection. On linked Proxmox hosts, matching physical-disk health and SSD wear alerts are also suppressed.

Include an Automatically Filtered Filesystem

Pulse normally filters pseudo-filesystems such as tmpfs to keep system mounts out of disk monitoring. A specific mount can be opted back in when its capacity matters, such as a log2ram volume mounted at /var/log.

pulse-agent --disk-include /var/log

# Via environment variable
PULSE_DISK_INCLUDE=/var/log

Include patterns use the same exact, prefix, and contains matching rules as exclusions. They only override automatic filesystem filtering. An explicit --disk-exclude match still wins.

S.M.A.R.T. Disk Health

The agent can report S.M.A.R.T. disk temperatures, health status, identity, and normalized health counters when running in Agent mode. This requires:

smartmontools installed on the host:

# Debian/Ubuntu
apt install smartmontools

# RHEL/CentOS
yum install smartmontools

# Alpine
apk add smartmontools

The agent must have permission to run smartctl (typically requires root)

Notes:

Disks in standby mode are reported as such (no temperature) to avoid waking them
S.M.A.R.T. data is collected alongside other host metrics and can enrich the Physical Disks view with temperature, stable disk identity, power-on hours, SSD life, pending sectors, media errors, and related counters
If smartctl is not available, S.M.A.R.T. monitoring is silently skipped
Disk exclusions (--disk-exclude / PULSE_DISK_EXCLUDE) also apply to S.M.A.R.T. monitoring. Use patterns like sda, /dev/sdb, nvme*, or *cache* to exclude specific block devices.

Auto-Update

Eligible v6 agents automatically check the Pulse server for updates every hour. The check is asynchronous: updating the Pulse server changes the target version, but does not prove every agent is online, eligible, or already current. When a new version is available:

Agent downloads the new binary from the Pulse server
Verifies the checksum
Verifies the release signature when trusted update keys are embedded
Runs the downloaded binary with --self-test
Replaces itself atomically (with backup)
Restarts with the same configuration

Use the manual update path for v5 agents, PVE host agents, agents with auto-update disabled, and agents blocked by authentication, missing connection state, download, trust, or self-test failures. Open an outdated-agent notice or /settings/infrastructure?agentDoctor=1 to open Agent Doctor and copy the command for each reported host. Pulse does not remotely execute those commands.

If an already-installed v5 pulse-agent follows its legacy automatic updater path instead of the supported manual installer path, the first hop is performed by the v5 updater. That hop verifies TLS by default, the SHA-256 checksum, executable magic, size limits, and atomic replacement, but the newer v6 signature and --self-test checks apply only after the agent has landed on v6. Use HTTPS or a trusted local network for that legacy migration. For high-assurance environments, install the v6 pulse-agent through the signed installer path instead of relying on a plain-HTTP first hop.

To disable auto-updates:

# During installation
curl -fsSL http://<pulse-ip>:7655/install.sh | \
  bash -s -- --url http://<pulse-ip>:7655 --token <token> --disable-auto-update

# Or set environment variable
PULSE_DISABLE_AUTO_UPDATE=true

Remote Configuration (Agent Profiles, Pro/legacy Pro+/Cloud)

Pro, legacy Pro+, and Cloud can push centralized settings to agents via Agent Profiles.

Behavior:

The agent fetches remote config on startup from /api/agents/agent/{agent_id}/config.
Profile settings override local flags/env for supported keys.
Profile changes take effect on the next agent restart.
Command execution (commandsEnabled) is controlled per agent from the Infrastructure agent controls and can change live.
Remote config responses can be signed with PULSE_AGENT_CONFIG_SIGNING_KEY (base64 Ed25519 private key).
To require signed payloads, set PULSE_AGENT_CONFIG_SIGNATURE_REQUIRED=true on Pulse and agents.
If you use a custom signing key, set PULSE_AGENT_CONFIG_PUBLIC_KEYS on agents to trust the matching public key.

See Centralized Agent Management for supported keys and profile setup.

Uninstall

curl -fsSL http://<pulse-ip>:7655/install.sh | bash -s -- --uninstall

This removes:

The agent binary
The systemd/launchd service

Migration Notes

Use the unified installer (install.sh) for all new and existing deployments.

Health Checks & Metrics

The agent exposes HTTP endpoints for health checks and Prometheus metrics on port 9191 by default.

Endpoints

Endpoint	Description
`/healthz`	Liveness probe - returns 200 if agent is running
`/readyz`	Readiness probe - returns 200 when agents are initialized
`/metrics`	Prometheus metrics

Prometheus Metrics

Metric	Type	Description
`pulse_agent_info`	Gauge	Agent info with version, host_enabled, docker_enabled labels
`pulse_agent_up`	Gauge	1 when running, 0 when shutting down

Kubernetes Probes

livenessProbe:
  httpGet:
    path: /healthz
    port: 9191
  initialDelaySeconds: 5
  periodSeconds: 10

readinessProbe:
  httpGet:
    path: /readyz
    port: 9191
  initialDelaySeconds: 5
  periodSeconds: 5

Disable Health Server

Set --health-addr="" or PULSE_HEALTH_ADDR=off to disable the health/metrics server. Set --health-addr :9191 when network Prometheus scraping is intentional.

Troubleshooting

Installer Fails With "Not enough free disk space"

The installer stages the agent binary (~34 MiB) in a temporary directory before moving it to the install directory, and checks free space in both before downloading. On appliances whose root filesystem is a small RAM disk (QNAP QTS, Unraid), /tmp and /usr/local/bin share that filesystem, so both the staged and installed copy must fit at once.

If the check fails because /tmp is on a constrained root, point TMPDIR at a directory on a data volume and re-run the installer:

TMPDIR=/share/CACHEDEV1_DATA/tmp bash install.sh --url http://pulse --token <token>

(mktemp honours TMPDIR, so this moves the staging copy off the RAM root. Create the directory first if it does not exist.)

On QNAP the agent's rotating log is written to the data volume (<data-volume>/.pulse-agent/logs/pulse-agent.log); on Unraid it is written to /var/log/pulse-agent/pulse-agent.log with size-capped rotation. If an older install filled /var/log/pulse-agent.log on the root filesystem, delete that file and re-run the installer to pick up the rotating configuration.

Agent Not Updating

Check logs: journalctl -u pulse-agent -f
Verify network connectivity to Pulse server
Ensure auto-update is not disabled
Confirm the agent can authenticate and that its saved connection state still identifies the Pulse URL and token.
Open Agent Doctor from an outdated-agent notice or /settings/infrastructure?agentDoctor=1 and use the command for that reported host. Do not substitute the public GitHub server installer.
Administrators can query the read-only Agent Fleet Doctor endpoint, GET /api/agents/diagnostics, for liveness, version, profile, telemetry, and identity evidence. The endpoint reports repair handoffs but does not run them.

Duplicate Agents

If cloned VMs appear as the same agent:

sudo rm /etc/machine-id && sudo systemd-machine-id-setup

Or set a unique agent ID:

--agent-id my-unique-agent-id

The displayed or reported IP is not the durable agent identity. Pulse normally uses the machine ID (or an explicit --agent-id), so cloned systems must have unique machine and agent IDs even when their hostnames, MAC addresses, and IPs differ.

Permission Denied (Docker)

Ensure the agent can access the Docker socket:

sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

Check Status

# Linux
systemctl status pulse-agent

# macOS
launchctl list | grep pulse

Docker Swarm Not Detected

If your Docker Swarm cluster isn't being detected:

Check runtime detection: Pulse disables Swarm for Podman. Look for "Podman runtime detected" in logs:
```
journalctl -u pulse-agent | grep -i podman
```

Force Docker runtime: If auto-detection is incorrect:

--docker-runtime docker
# Or set environment variable
PULSE_DOCKER_RUNTIME=docker

Check Docker info: Verify Swarm is active on the host:

docker info | grep -i swarm
# Should show "Swarm: active"

Check socket permissions: The agent needs access to the Docker socket:
```
ls -la /var/run/docker.sock
```

Enable debug logging: For more detail:

LOG_LEVEL=debug journalctl -u pulse-agent -f

PVE Backups Not Showing (Recovery)

If local PVE backups aren't appearing in Pulse after setting up via --enable-proxmox:

Check permissions: The API token needs PVEDatastoreAdmin on /storage:
```
pveum aclmod /storage -user pulse-monitor@pve -role PVEDatastoreAdmin
pveum aclmod /storage -token 'pulse-monitor@pve!<token-name>' -role PVEDatastoreAdmin
```
Replace pulse-monitor@pve!<token-name> with the full token ID shown in Pulse. Privilege-separated PVE tokens need the storage ACL on the token as well as the service user.
Re-run setup: Delete the node in Pulse Settings and re-run the agent with --enable-proxmox. Recent versions grant this permission automatically.
Check state file: If re-running doesn't trigger setup, remove the state file:
```
rm /var/lib/pulse-agent/proxmox-pve-registered
```
Then restart the agent.