Endpoint Protection

I found HOWTO80780 that describes the AutoUpgrade feature in SEPM 12.1.5 which would be fine to upgrade a group from SEP 11 to 12 for testing purposes.  However, assuming I have my Client Install Feature Set and Client Install Settings configured the way I want them, I was wondering the effect of deleting the existing SEP 11 packages from the "Install Packages" tab of a group then adding the SEP 12 packages?  Guess I'm confused as to the purpose of the Install Packages tab for a group and the different options I have to upgrade my SEP 11 clients to 12.1.5.

When you add an autoupgrade package, you can select the install feature set and install settings that you've already created. Once you do that you just assign to whichever groups you want upgraded.

At this point there is no point in keeping the 11.x package since the version is end of support life.

This article outlines the options:

Upgrade Symantec Endpoint Protection 12.1 clients using AutoUpgrade

Hello,

The AutoUpgrade process lets you automatically upgrade the Symantec Endpoint Protection client software for all the clients that are contained in a group. For example, you can use AutoUpgrade to upgrade clients to a new maintenance release or product version.

You must test the AutoUpgrade process before you attempt to upgrade a large number of clients in your production network. If you do not have a test network, you can create a test group within your production network. For this kind of test, you add a few non-critical clients to the test group and then upgrade them by using AutoUpgrade. You confirm that the upgrade completed successfully by verifying the version number of the client software. The version number is displayed in the client's Help >About panel.

When creating a custom packages for the Auto-Upgrade, you may like to check this below article:

Creating custom client installation packages in the Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager console version 12.1

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH165801

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/articles/how-do-i-create-and-configure-custom-symantec-endpoint-protection-installation-package-vers

How to export Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) client install packages without any definitions or package with Basic Content.

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH178698

Upgrade clients to SEP 12.1 by Auto upgrade feature

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/articles/upgrade-clients-sep-121-auto-upgrade-feature

Hope that helps!!

Regards,

Once I've initiated an AutoUpgrade for a group which in turn upgrades the Installed Packages, should simply moving SEP 11 clients from other groups into this one automatically upgrade them to SEP 12 as well?  I assume so but thought I'd ask just to be sure.

This should be the case.

When upgrading your SEP 11 clients to version 12, did anyone else notice that the Restart Settings don't seem to work?  I set my "Delayed restart" to occur 12 hours later, +/- 2 hours, but had a Win7 workstation rebooting beyond 14 hours and an XP Pro system a couple hours later.

Ultimately this discrepancy isn't too critical for workstations but I have yet to test upgrading our servers where I hope the "No restart" option actually works or else I'll hear it from our server admins.  Perhaps the Restart Settings tab is only applicable when going from one SEP 12 version to another?

It doesn't apply for 11.x. So because you wer on 11.x you would've needed to manually reboot to get off of 11.x and over to 12.1. Now if upgrading from 12.1 to 12.1.x it would've worked.
 

I expected this might've been the case.  Thought in general the SEP 11 to 12 upgrade might've wanted an almost immediate reboot but still don't understand why the automatic restart times are all over the map.  Oh well...another mystery, I guess.  Thanks for the info!

So if the restart settings don't apply to SEP 11, how are you guys handling upgrading your servers?  Perhaps the installation option to suppress the reboot works even though it's a SEP 11 client going to 12?

All handled via sccm...push the package and reboot (during maintenance windows)

At least on my test Windows 2008 R2 VM (still waiting for my 2003 server to upgrade), SEP did upgrade but didn't force a reboot.  Noticed that a SEP install had occurred in Windows' Application event log although opening the GUI still looked like SEP 11.  I manually restarted Windows after which opening up the GUI now looks like version 12.  Guess I'll have to press Symantec Support on this one to really be sure.

I'll have to wait if my 2k3 server exhibits the same behavior but this leads me to another question.  Is there an easier way to tell that the upgrade has occurred instead of checking the event logs?  Assuming suppressing the reboot actually works for a SEP 11 to 12 upgrade, trying to figure out what to tell our server admins on when it's safe to restart Windows after a silent upgrade.

Anyone have issues with Windows 2003 servers not upgrading?  In my test group with the SEP 12 packages applied, my 2008 R2 server upgraded within a reasonable amount of time but my 2k3 server's just been sitting there.

I see nothing in Windows' event log to indicate it's even trying the upgrade from SEP 11 to 12.  Also, the SEP 11 client on the 2k3 server is still getting updated virus defs from my SEPM.  Any ideas why the automatic upgrade isn't working like it should?