Client Management Suite

So there is a new version of ITMS, CMS, SMS, etc out this week.  Yet my SIM isn't showing any updates available.  Am I missing something, or is my SIM broken?

The new version, ITMS 7.1, is only installable on Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit.  You'll need to visit a trialware link to get a 64-bit SIM (7.1.55) and install on the above OS.  If you run the SIM, you'll see them as installable products.

JMart has posted a ton of documents on the topic:
http://www.symantec.com/connect/node/1525181

I'd suggest starting with the ITMS Implementation Guide or perhaps the ITMS 7.0 Migration guide (that's if you're more curious about how to get from 7.0 to 7.1).

Thanks Mclemson.

I'll spend some time reading up.  Not happy to hear this though.

After months of working on this system, my boss is going to be even less happy with this "upgrade" path.  Especially for a POINT release.  I mean, a full version jump, 6 - 7 or 7 - 8 I could understand it.  But 7.0 to 7.1 requiring a rebuild onto a 64 bit platform?  What, is 7.2 going to require Deep Blue to run it?

You know what really kills me?  I was going to build my 7.0 system on server 2008 64 bit.  But 7.0 didn't support it!  So it's Symantec's fault that I'm having to go through all this in the first place!  Argh!  If I had any hair left I'd be pulling it in frustration right now.

I guess that leaves me off the upgrade path for a while.  I wonder how little support Symantec is planning on giving us?

I guess that frustration is understandable since you didn't know 7.1 was 64-bit only.  Certainly the 64-bit platform offers significant performance increases that couldn't have been obtained if they restricted this to 32-bit.  And it's definitely here faster since they didn't need to worry about developing the 7.1 features for 32-bit servers.  So those are bonuses.  I tend to agree with you that 64-bit "should have" been here in 7.0.

That being said, your migration process should be relatively painless.  Obviously it's still early to tell how that might go, and every environment is different, but it's pretty straightforward.  Install 7.1, configure using existing database, install the same solution sets, run both servers side by side, upgrade your site servers in batches (if you have them), upgrade your clients (along with your site servers).  Nearly everything is stored in the database, and the Migration Wizard covers a lot of what isn't in the database.

Licenses for the Altiris products must be saved or re-downloaded from licensing.symantec.com and then re-entered into SIM after installation on the 7.1 platform.  The only other thing to watch out for is that if you modified default policies (not exactly best practice) instead of cloning them, the policies are reset to their default settings again.  That's because it turns off Upgrade policies for you and things like that.  You can avoid any pain (such as losing changes made to default monitor pack policies) by cloning them ahead of the upgrade.

In fact, avoid a lot of pain and read through the entire guide.  That goes for everyone.

I know where you are coming from and wouldn’t necessarily disagree with anything you have said, however it’s been relatively well discussed that SMP 7.1/ITMS 7.1 would be 64 bit only, since around last summer onwards and during the public beta .  Could have it been better advertised, yeah probably, you shouldn’t have to monitor the forums to get details like that perhaps but the information was out there.

It's all on how you present it to your manager.  You've got an opportunity to get him or her excited about the new release (perhaps you'd like to wait until SP1 is released in 3-6 months as you allow your 7.0 environment to mature).  If you present it well, they won't mind that you're setting up a new server and connecting it to the old database.  (As I mentioned, be sure to read all of the release notes for SMP and all solutions for a list of known issues related to the migration.)

So does anyone have all the pre-reqs/server requirements in one place instead of having to page through hundreds upon hundreds of useless pages?

Fine the NS requires Windws 2008 R2 64 bit but what about any additional pre-reqs before you start installing 7.1?  How about what version of IIS, Adobe Flash, SilverLight, etc.

And what about the SS, can they also be Windows 2008 R2 64 bit or not?  What are the pre-reqs before you can make a server a site server?

Anyone????