Getting Started > Installing Gremlin on Windows

Installing Gremlin on Windows

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Note for Reliability Management (RM) users

Windows is not supported for Reliability Management.

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Note for Azure users

If you're installing Gremlin on an Azure Windows instance, be aware that Azure may throttle disk I/O such that large disk experiments will take an excessive amount of time to complete.

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General steps for deploying the Gremlin Agent on Windows:

Gather your credentials

All Gremlin integration installations require authentication with the Gremlin Control Plane. We recommend using the Client Configuration File method, as it contains everything needed to authenticate and configure the Gremlin Agent in one file. To create and download a client configuration file:

Access the Team Settings page in the Gremlin web app.
Click the Configuration tab.
On the Client Configuration File line, click Download to download the file. You'll receive a file named config.yaml.
Optionally, make any additional configurations to the config.yaml file.

If you wish to use another method of authenticating, see the Authentication docs.

Install the Gremlin Agent

Run the following from an elevated command prompt and continue through the installation wizard:

POWERSHELL


msiexec /package https://windows.gremlin.com/installer/latest/gremlin_installer.msi

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To automate the installation (e.g. for auto-deploying Gremlin onto new instances), use the following command:

POWERSHELL


msiexec /quiet /package https://windows.gremlin.com/installer/latest/gremlin_installer.msi

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Configure Gremlin

The minimum configuration required to authenticate the Gremlin Agent is:

Team ID
Secret or certificate

If you downloaded a client configuration file, you already have everything needed to register the Agent. Just follow these instructions:

Copy the configuration file (named config.yaml) to the C:\ProgramData\Gremlin\Agent directory. The final path should be C:\ProgramData\Gremlin\Agent\config.yaml.
POWERSHELL
```
Copy-Item "config.yaml" -Destination "C:\ProgramData\Gremlin\Agent\config.yaml"
```
Restart the gremlind service:
POWERSHELL
```
Restart-Service -Name gremlind
```

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Validate the installation

There are two ways to ensure your installation was successful and your Agents authenticated successfully:

Check the Gremlin web app

The easiest way to verify connectivity is to open the Agents list in the Gremlin web app. Check for your newly installed Agent by name or by tag. You can also use the search box to search by name or tag, Agent version, operating system (OS), or region. If your Agent does not appear in this list, it may not have been installed or configured correctly, or it might not be able to reach Gremlin's servers.

Check the Gremlin Agent

First, verify that the Gremlin Agent is running on the target system:

POWERSHELL


Get-Service gremlind

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This should return the following:

Status   Name               DisplayName
------   ----               -----------
Running  gremlind           Gremlin Daemon

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If the service is instead reporting as inactive or failed, try restarting the service using:

POWERSHELL


Restart-Service -Name gremlind

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After verifying that the Gremlin Agent is running, use gremlin check auth to check the Gremlin Agent's authentication status:

SHELL


& 'C:\Program Files\Gremlin\Agent\gremlin.exe' check auth

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If the Gremlin Agent authenticated successfully, the output will be similar to the following:

auth
====================================================
Auth Input Type                      : Certificate
API Response                         : OK

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If not, the output will explain why the Gremlin Agent was unable to authenticate:

auth
====================================================
Auth Input Type                      : No valid auth found
========= Identification ============:
Team ID Source                       : Team ID not found
Gremlin Identifier                   : [Host identifier]
Gremlin Identifier Source            : Not supplied explicitly, using the default
========= Secret/Token Info =========:
Team Secret Source                   : Team Secret not found
.credentials valid                   : /var/lib/gremlin/.credentials file not found
========= Certificate Info ==========:
Team Certificate Source              : Team Certificate not found
========= Private Key Info ==========:
Team Private Key Source              : Team Private Key not found

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Troubleshooting

If the Agent is connected but is reporting as unhealthy, see Troubleshooting Unhealthy State in the Gremlin Knowledge Base. If you're having trouble authenticating, see the Authentication FAQ in the Gremlin Knowledge Base for possible causes and solutions.

Uninstalling Gremlin from Windows

To uninstall the Gremlin Windows agent, run the following PowerShell command from an elevated command prompt:

POWERSHELL


Uninstall-Package -Name 'Gremlin Agent'

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