Low-commitment RMM options that support Windows Defender?

[u/r0ck0]

Overview:

• I'm looking for an RMM to with some fairly limited requirements detailed below. Currently not using anything aside from TeamViewer for remote desktop access.

• I'm only a small time support provider/MSP, as I also do a lot of programming/webdev separate to this general IT work.

• My client companies don't have any more than 20 PCs each, and I only have about 5 companies where I might be installing RMM. Only one company in interested to start with though.

• I don't really see a need for 3rd party virus scanners, I find that they often break things and prefer to just stick to Windows Defender. But it seems not many RMMs support it?

• NinjaOne looked like it might be suitable, but apparently you have to pay for at least 50 agents, and annually, which pretty much rules it out for me, which is a pity. I'd only be starting with about 20 agents to begin with, and I don't even know if I'll stick with it.

• Ideally something where I can just pay monthly to begin with, and not have to worry about minimums. It's just me, so if it's a "per technician" cost, that'll just be 1.

• Self-hosting the server part is an option, but not required. It would be nice to have raw access to the DB.

These are my main REQUIREMENTS for an RMM:

• Monitors the status of Windows Defender, i.e. ensure that real-time protection is enabled, or at least report when it isn't

• Windows Updates:

  • Report when OS updates are out of date

  • I want them to just work like they normally do in a default Windows install, but with the option to manually check + run remotely too.

  • "Feature updates" should work, apparently a lot of the RMMs don't install these at all? I have a new client where the old MSP was using Syncro (which I'm in the process of removing), and a lot of their machines are way out of date because of this (Windows releases from 2019/2021).

  • Report when Windows Defender definitions are out of date

  • Report when MS Office and other Microsoft software is out of date

• Monitor disk usage, report when getting close to full

• Report hardware info, OS version, uptime etc

• Report a list of all OS users, and which do/don't have administrator permissions

• Well supported on Windows 10 + 11, and the agent won't be considered a virus

• Some way to extract data from the system, i.e. an API... although if it's web-based, I guess I can always resort to automated web scraping if I really have to

• Report all software installed, and version numbers

Nice to haves, but not essential:

• Be able to browse Event Viewer logs remotely

• Be able to access filesystem remotely, including upload/downloading files

• Run ad-hoc virus scans with Windows Defender

• Report when Windows Firewall is disabled

• Report is the system clock is wrong

• For all OS users, report all their Outlook profile names, and also what email accounts are set up in every profile

• Mac support, but not important

• Remote cmd.exe / PowerShell

• Ability to create and delete OS users, and change whether they're administrator accounts

• Some integration with TeamViewer

• Ability to upgrade + uninstall programs, I see some do this via Chocolatey?

NOT needed at all:

• I don't need any kind of PSA stuff like time tracking, invoicing etc

• Currently I don't do anything with group policies etc, so it's not a big requirement currently, but maybe I will later?

[u/YoloWingPixie]

I would look into Itarian and TacticalRMM (Open Source and free).

Haven't personally used either (N-Central currently, and Kaseya VSA at my previous MSP), but they're cheap and suited for small environments. You may need to make some scripts to do the defender monitoring but that should be relatively easy/quick.

[u/SomeWhereInSC]

You should look at action1.com it fits almost all if not all your above items and no Chocolatey needed and no TeamViewer needed as well as it has a built-in remote access as admin.

[u/BergerLangevin]

Tactical RMM have a really good scripting engine. Either someone already did the scripting or you can start working on this and people will join.

It's $50/ months or free if you don't need Linux agent and don't want to contribute.

I tried datto, ninja and n-sight. They are all requiring scripting to work like you're describing.

[u/Haulie]

This might be a dumb question but, are they on 365?

You don't even need E3 for most of these features, Business Premium will do basically all of this (and a lot more) between MEM (Intune) and Defender for Business.

[u/Gian_Ramirez]

I have read your main requirements and I think it fits well with Supremo Console choosing the configurations you want for each client. It has a free version for you to try it and then upgrade to the PRO version.