During installation, you have the option to install the Adaptec Storage Manager GUI, Agent, or both.
The GUI (or graphical user interface) is the window that opens when you run Adaptec Storage Manager. You build, monitor, and modify your storage space from the GUI.
The Adaptec Storage ManagerAgent is a software component that runs in the background and communicates status and other information about any direct attached storage on a system. The Agent requires no user intervention and includes no user interface.
The GUI and the Agent must be installed on at least one system in your storage space.
When Adaptec Storage Manager is installed on a system, the Adaptec Storage ManagerAgent is also installed automatically. The Agent is like a service that keeps your storage space running. It is designed to run in the background, without user intervention, and its job is to monitor and manage system health, event notifications, tasks schedules, and other on-going processes on that system. It sends notices when tasks are completed successfully, and sounds an alarm when errors or failures occur on that system.
The Agent uses less memory than the full application. If your storage space includes systems that will not be connected to monitors (and therefore won’t require the graphical user interface), you can choose to run the Agent only on those systems instead of the full application. You may want to do this if system resources are limited, or if you want more system resources available for other tasks.
You can manage and monitor systems running just the Agent by logging into them as remote systems.
You can also customize the Agent settings to suit your storage space requirements.