diff --git a/bin/netsvc.py b/bin/netsvc.py
index d29aebd92b5..ce9b35d2a5b 100644
--- a/bin/netsvc.py
+++ b/bin/netsvc.py
@@ -352,7 +352,12 @@ class Agent(object):
                 time.sleep(1)
             time.sleep(60)
 
-threading.Thread(target=Agent.runner).start()
+agent_runner = threading.Thread(target=Agent.runner, name="netsvc.Agent.runner")
+# the agent runner is a typical daemon thread, that will never quit and must be
+# terminated when the main process exits - with no consequence (the processing
+# threads it spawns are not marked daemon)
+agent_runner.daemon = True
+agent_runner.start()
 
 
 import traceback