A system and method for managing a plurality of agents in a plurality networked computing hosts. In various embodiments, a repository is provided with references to installation code for installing the agents. Boot stubs are executable on the hosts. The boot stubs retrieve references to the installation code and load the installation code on the hosts. A directory contains topology data that indicate the hosts on which boot stubs and agents are installed, and an initiator retrieves the topology data and initiate execution of the boot stubs.