Endpoint Protection

HI Everyone,

I am seeking some advice on relocationg SEPM 12.1 to another server. The current SEPM is installed on a windows 2008 server. The licence has expired and we are currently unable to access manager. The server that hosts SEPM now is to be retired so we would like to relocate the manager to another existing 2008 server. Please note that the hostname and Ip address will be different on the new server.

Please advise how this can be as we will not be able to access the current SEPM and we do not want to lose connection to the existing clients. 

I would suggest fixing the existing SEPM first so that you can then backup the necessary files and dtabase for the smoother migration. Else, you almost need to start a fresh manager, deploy sylink.xml file to all the managed clients to make them report to the new SEPM. 

If you would like to fi the existing SEPM, please elaborate on what happens when you try to open/login to SEPM.

Thanks Brian but there's one question that I have. I cannot access the current SEPM which would be SEPM1 in that article. Can I make a MSL on just the newly installed SEPM (SEPM2) and then add the SEPM1?

How will clients connect to the new SEPM server if I can't add this on the Original SEPM server.

I am not sure how many clients you have in total. if the total count is less and if your are ready to spend some time in setting up the new server rather than spending time in fixing the old server. please refer to the below article its one of the simplest way to migrate the clients to the new SEPM server.

Restoring client-server communications with Communication Update Package Deployment

the IP/hostname of the new SEPM need to be added to the MSL of the old SEPM. Only then the client will connect to the new SEPM. So the old SEPM need to be fixed first. Else, you will need to deploy sylink.xml file to all the clients to make them report to the new SEPM.

Thanks for the answers so far. I have just one more question. I have a backup of the database of the original SEPM server can that be restored to the new installation especially since the hostname and IP will be different?

Yes, see here:

Disaster recovery best practices for Symantec Endpoint Protection 12.1

Yes. Restoring the backup will give you all group structures and policies that you had in the old SEPM. But, make sure that you also use the correct/latest recovery file from the old SEPM during the management server reconfiguration after restoring the database backup.

if the wrong recovery file is imported in to the new SEPM, that might make the process of moving the client from old SEPM to the new SEPM very difficult.

Thanks Guys. I have one more question( this will be the last I hope). Since the new server will have a different hostname and IP from the original server I take it we would not use the restore key on the new server?

Yes you can use the recovery file

Though you can use restore key, SEPM won't be able to process it.

To perform disaster recovery I would suggest to install the same version of SEPM to avoid any kind of database corruption.

I am assuming SEPM is not on the latest version, after successfully database restore, I would recommend to upgrade the SEPM to the latest version i.e SEP 12.1 RU6 & then push out new package.

By doing this SEPM & SEP clients both will be upgraded to the latest version.