Endpoint Protection

Looking through the forum, the estimated release for MR5 is some time in September, 2009. Are there pre-release documentations anywhere? I would like official answers to the following questions:

1. Is MR5 going to finally be supporting SEPM installation on SQL 2008? My workplace will not authorize a installation of SQL 2005. I want to upgrade the Symantec Embedded Database to SQL 2008 so I can leverage the failover server and replicated SQL database at my DR location.

2. Is MR5 going to support Windows 7?

Some answers. The answer to your first question is not "official", it is just the last I have heard through documentation. The answer to your second is "official".

1. Of course you know that currently SQL 2008 is not technically supported, but can still be used during the SEPM installation. I can't find anywhere that specifically says that SQL 2008 will be supported in MR5, but my guess is that it would be. The last I heard it was still in testing to make sure it was set for a final release, but this is speculation on my part and in no way an official statement. Hopefully someone else will be able to find an official statement that backs this up.

2. Regardless of version MR4 or MR5 Symantec will support Windows 7 officially 1 month after Windows 7 is released. So even if it is not supported the day MR5 is released it will be very soon after that, because from what I understand Windows 7 will be released Oct 2009 so that gives a small window where it might not be officially supported.

Cheers
Grant

Is this still the stand for Seven support - wait a month?

I will need something before the release so I can get it installed when Seven is installed. 


If this is the stand on it, still after months of looking, waiting, checking I will have to go with Avast.

Windows 7 will be available in early August (8th, IIRC) to enterprises with Microsoft SA. Those enterprises comprise nearly 100% of SEP's customers. While, admittedly, most enterprises will not be deploying W7 upon its release or for some time thereafter, some will, likely including one small, technology-aggressive company I support that really wants it. For those, November support from Symantec will be far too late.

Pardon me saying so, but the official release, which it's build was set and signed and sealed on July 13th, will be the first official release to Microsoft SA.  Will you really be rolling out a new OS that soon/fast after release?

My benchmarks and those conducted, give Windows 7 a 5% gain in performance on Vista, still far far behind Windows XP.  Whom's official support has ended in April of this year, however patching and security will live on to 2014.  The threading and performance of Win 7 is still undesirable, depending on the industry, I suppose.  The mere fact that they incorporated (as an add-on download) Microsoft Virtual PC and a copy of Windows XP to run in said Virtual PC with full driver support, shows that M$ is not 100% confident that everything will be in place for the "Official release" on August 8th. 

I mean, overall, the choice is yours to make.  But, making an issue about going to Avast or any other vendor, on the basis, that the support for Win 7 will not be available for a month after the release of the operating system is well...  What about support for Windows 2008 Server RC2?  There are some hefty overhauls done...  Does Symantec have an ETA for supprt on this?  Anyhow, what about the rest of us that have been waiting for nearly 2 years, let alone a whole month, to have FULL 64 bit support from SEPM? 

That takes REAL GUTS (not logic) to jump on such a new OS so QUICKLY.
Wow, either a brilliant move or you'll be fighting drivers, applications and constant headaches for a couple of months.
(you'd think folks would learn after the Vista fiasco............)
Sorry, I don't think it's wise to jump into the unknown (seven keeps falling apart on us!) and with such massive changes, those of us who have lived through Windows since the days of Windows 286 and 386, 3.0 and so on may recall - vendors can't easily keep up, esp with MS will actually change the code you buy - it's not always what we see in the final RC............ last minute changes and patches have been known to creep into the code burned to the CD for purchase. Been there, done that.
We have simply had way to many things break with Windows upgrades, updates and patches - incompatability with things like ACS, print drivers, firewalls and so on make us sit back and watch for a few weeks, even months, before anything gets to production.
Symantec is VERY right to wait a bit after the final release, IMO. They've been burned before.

Sorry to hear of your experience. No "Vista fiascos" here. Nor WS2008 fiascos--except, for sure, with SEP, until the WS2008 x64 fix was released--now THERE was a fiasco. Nor W7 fiascos, for that matter. Just lucky, I guess.

But the point remains that describing October as "one month after release" of W7 is ingenuous. Release to enterprise, SEP's target audience, is 6 Aug, and one month therafter would be 6 Sep. So if they want to claim one month, that's the date they should be giving out. For Norton customers, October would be one month. Oh...wait...Norton already supports W7!

I believe OEMs have the final bits now. Don't know about ISVs but Symantec will certainly have them no later than 6 Aug.

Don't get me wrong; I'm a SEP believer. But SEP/SAV lags in a lot of key areas. Some have held us back, some have held others back. SAV never did support VDT with x64, at least while I was using SAV. The point about full x64 SEP feature support still missing is valid. As is the point about 2008 R2. And we can't forget current JRE's! SEPM on WS2008 was not possible until recently.

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https://symbeta.symantec.com/signup/default.html

- Jukka