How does the backup agent detect away and present settings?

Overview

The backup agent adjusts settings, such as CPU and bandwidth usage, based on if a user is using the device or if a user is away from the device. This article explains how the backup agent detects when a user is present or away.

The method to detect away/present status depends on your operating system and your version of the backup agent, as described below.

Windows

The backup agent evaluates several factors to determine if you are using your device:

• Mouse and keyboard activity
• If media is playing, including streaming video in web browsers and video conference applications

Considerations

• Mouse and keyboard activity includes detection over remote desktop (RDP) connections.
• Media detection is not supported for per user installations.
• The backup agent does not access the camera and does not require any extra permissions to determine if video is active.
• It may take up to 30 seconds to detect a change in status.

Mac

The backup agent evaluates mouse and keyboard activity to determine if you are using your device.

Considerations

• Mouse and keyboard activity is not detected over remote connections.
• It may take up to 30 seconds to detect a change in status.

Linux

The backup agent for Linux relies on mouse and keyboard activity to determine if you are using your device.

Considerations

• Keyboard and mouse activity is not detected over remote connections.
• It may take up to 30 seconds to detect a change in status.
• Activity detection requires these packages:
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7: libXScrnSaver
  • RHEL 8: libXScrnSaver and libnsl
  • Ubuntu: libgconf-2-4

Related topics

• Create backup sets
• Manage network bandwidth options
• Considerations for defining your backup policies
• Organizations - Device Backup Defaults - Backup settings reference