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Step 3: Deploy

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Once you have prepared for the deployment, it's important to begin to building, executing, and reviewing the roll out plan.

  • Build Deployment Plan

When the Stairwell forwarder is first installed on a system, it attempts to forward all executables and related files, based on the defined policy. This is more resource-intensive if the files have not yet been seen in your environment. For this reason we recommend you identify machines that will not impact critical business operations and that will represent different operating systems in your environment down to the build if possible (e.g. Windows 11 22631.3737, Windows 11 22621.3737, or Mac M3 Pro running Sequoia). This could look like gold images/fresh builds first, then labs, then Security team, then IT team, etc.

The initial backscan may take a few hours, depending on available bandwidth, but will speed up on subsequent systems.

  • Download Forwarder Packages

Once a deployment plan is established, it's time to download the necessary packages to begin the deployment. The following versions are our recommended versions for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

It is strongly recommended that you build a phased rollout plan similar to what is outlined below:

  • Day 1: Roll out to a single Windows 10 machine and begin the backscan. Once that completes, rollout to 50 additional Windows 10 machines and begin those backscans (should finish quicker).

  • Day 2: Repeat the above with the Windows 11 machines.

  • Day 3: Repeat the above with RHEL8 machines.

  • Day 4: Final step, going in tranches of 1000 machines at a time.

  • Verify Deployment Plan

After deployment has begun, it’s a good practice to track the status of the assets by logging into the Stairwell portal at app.stairwell.com/assets. When reviewing the asset health, we recommend looking at the following columns.

  • Registration time - indicates when the asset was registered. This is a good reference to understand when an asset first connected to receive its policy. Review the XXX log for XXX data.
  • Last seen - indicates when the last time an object was seen from this asset. This should be regularly updating, so if it’s more than a few days stale, troubleshooting is needed. Review the XXX log for XXX data.
  • Backscan status - indicates what state the backscan is in on that asset. This should eventually show as completed, so if this says in progress or failed, troubleshooting is needed. Review the XXX log for XXX data.
  • Backscan start - indicates when the backscan began. This should eventually show a date and time, so if this is empty, troubleshooting is needed. Review the XXX log for XXX data.
  • Backscan end - indicates when the backscan ended. This should eventually show a date and time, so if this is empty, troubleshooting is needed. Review the XXX log for XXX data.

You can also request an export of assets from Customer Success, who can provide a comprehensive list with these details for you.

Updated about 6 hours ago

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