Endpoint Protection

Hi,

I have just received 2 new 2008 servers and I would like to deploy and test SEPM 12.1 on one of them and add that SEPM 12.1 server to my current SEP environment currently managed by 1 SEPM 11.6.(11.0.6005.562) as additional SEPM for failover or load balancing.
SEP database is sitting on separate SQL server.
70% my current SEP clients running SEP 11.6 will get upgraded to 12.1 in the future but 30% will need to stay on 11.6 as we are still running a lot of servers/desktop on Win 2000 and as far as I know 12.1 is not supporting Win 2000.
What will be the best and easiest way to achieve this task without affecting any currently installed SEP 11.6 clients?
Can I just install and add additional 12.1 SEPM, connect it to current SQL database and setup server priorities?
Or I will need to install another SEPM 11.6, add it to my current environment and then upgrade it to SEPM 12.1?

Thanks.

 Ihave just received 2 new 2008 servers and I would like to deploy and test SEPM 12.1 on one of them and add that SEPM 12.1 server to my current SEP environment currently managed by 1 SEPM 11.6.(11.0.6005.562) as additional SEPM for failover or load balancing.

since both are different version, you cannot have different version on loadbalance/replication.

Two different infrastructure with different version can exist at same location.

70% my current SEP clients running SEP 11.6 will get upgraded to 12.1 in the future but 30% will need to stay on 11.6 as we are still running a lot of servers/desktop on Win 2000 and as far as I know 12.1 is not supporting Win 2000.
What will be the best and easiest way to achieve this task without affecting any currently installed SEP 11.6 clients?

 

Windows 2000 is already EOL, you need to plan to plan upgrade to the supported version of OS.

Or I will need to install another SEPM 11.6, add it to my current environment and then upgrade it to SEPM 12.1?

you can have SEP 12.1 in the environment and SEP 11 clients reporting to it.

Hello,

Due to Different versions and different schema's Failover could not happen between SEP 11.x and SEP 12.1.

In your case,  you would need to install another SEPM 11.6, add it to my current environment and then upgrade it to SEPM 12.1 or vice versa.

In reference, to the SEP 11.x clients on windows 2000, these could be easily managed by SEPM 12.1.

Hope that helps!!

Thumps up to Pete's comment.

What will be the best and easiest way to achieve this task without affecting any currently installed SEP 11.6 clients?

Add the new 2008 server to the existing local site

Can I just install and add additional 12.1 SEPM, connect it to current SQL database and setup server priorities?

yes.

Or I will need to install another SEPM 11.6, add it to my current environment and then upgrade it to SEPM 12.1?

Not required.

 

The foll. link may help.

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH163580

 

 

"Windows 2000 is already EOL, you need to plan to plan upgrade to the supported version of OS".

Thanks for suggestion but if that was my decision all those servers/pc's will be upgraded long time ago and in meantime I am tasked to find working solution.

So if I understand correctly what you say, I can add new SEP 12.1 server to my current environment but load balancing/failover will not be supported due to different versions of SEPM?
Current 11.6 SEP clients will also be manageable from new SEP 12.1 Server?
I assume procedure for that will be exactly the same as adding additional 11.6 SEPM?

Thanks.

So if I understand correctly what you say, I can add new SEP 12.1 server to my current environment but load balancing/failover will not be supported due to different versions of SEPM?
yes, loadbalancing and replication will not be supported. However you can have different setup for 12.1 at yourplace.

Current 11.6 SEP clients will also be manageable from new SEP 12.1 Server?

yes, SEP 12.1 can manage SEP 11 client.

I assume procedure for that will be exactly the same as adding additional 11.6 SEPM?

i'm not clear on your question, do you mean adding SEPM 11 RU 6 on new hardware and add as failover, if yes then it is possible.

"I assume procedure for that will be exactly the same as adding additional 11.6 SEPM?

i'm not clear on your question, do you mean adding SEPM 11 RU 6 on new hardware and add as failover, if yes then it is possible."

I was reffering to add additional 12.1 SEPM not 11 RU6 as we will eventually migrate everything from version 11 to version 12 in next 6-12 months.

 

I was reffering to add additional 12.1 SEPM not 11 RU6 as we will eventually migrate everything from version 11 to version 12 in next 6-12 months.

the SEPM 12.1 would be in different architecture, it will not be anyway related to old architecture (SEPM 11 RU 6). for client migration you should be copying the sylink from 12 onto client reporting to SEP 11 ru6.

 

Is there any way I can avoid copying sylink to the clients during upgrade to SEPM 12?
What if I install another SEPM 11RU6 on the new server, setup load balancing/failover and then upgrade both servers to version 12? Can I preserve all current settings and clients this way?
From my talking to Symantec's support previously, my entire SEP configuration is supposed to stay intact during upgrade or I am missing something?

It would be great if maybe know or you can point me to some links where I can find some useful documentation regarding my queries. 

Thanks.

What if I install another SEPM 11RU6 on the new server, setup load balancing/failover and then upgrade both servers to version 12? Can I preserve all current settings and clients this way?

yes, that way you can achieve it. SInce it is loadbalancing both the servers will talk to same DB, hence the configurations will stay intact. However follow DR plan before upgrade/migrate.
 

What Pete is saying is that if you wanted to have both SEP11.* and SEP12.* Management Servers active and running at the same time, then they will need to be completely indepedent of each other (different servers, different databases and no replication).  It if in this situation that would see you moving clients across from one server to the other by replcaing the SyLink file.

The alternative, as you've discussed with Symantec, is to add this new server of yours to your current SEP site (i.e. link it to the current SEP database).  This must have the same version of SEP as the other server.  You can then perform an inplace upgrade on both servers to SEP12.1.  The upgrades must be performed on both server (remember the versions must be the same) and you need to make sure the "Management Server Service" remains stopped on both servers until the upgrade is complete on both boxes (all part of the upgrade documentation).

Doing it this way will mean you won't have to change the SyLink files on your client machines, and your policies will remain the same (as far as SEP11 clients go).  The upgrade does add extra bits for configuration in various areas of the console, but for the most part these will apply to SEP12.* clients (couple of things to look for are to make sure you've removed all auto-upgrade packages prior to the server upgrades, and that your Tamper Protection settings may switch to "Log" instead of "Block")

bingo!

SMLatCST got it right :-), thumbs up!

 

Okay, so the bottom line is that I have 2 ways doing this while preserving my current configuration:

1)     To upgrade current main SEPM 11RU6 server to SEPM 12.1, once upgrade is successful add additional (new) SEP 12.1 SEPM server to the same site, link that new SEPM to same SQL database and then configure both main and new server for failover/load balancing

2)      Add additional (new) 11RU6 SEPM server to current site, configure failover/load balancing and then upgrade both to 12.1.
 

I couldn’t find any white papers regarding upgrade except these links:

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH163602
http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH102333

and small info in section 5.a of official “Implementation Guide for SEP12.1” .

Any other useful info/links I missed?

Thanks.

Finally found detailed upgrade info (white paper) on external 3rd party website - not made by Symantec.
Hopefully all will go well...

Thanks for assitance SMLatCST. 

 

And one more thing it might be handy to anyone trying to do similar thing I am going to perform, is this article showing all known issues for SEPM 12.1 after upgrade/migration:

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH163700&key=54619

It is sometimes funny how you need to struggle or dig really deep to get some crucial and important info regarding Symantec products.

Does anyone knows why the LUA server fails to download or distribute updates? see logs Total size of files in request: 58 MB. Elapsed: 0 hour(s),0 minute(s) 36 seconds. Started: 4/26/12 11:34:21 AM EDT Ended: 4/26/12 11:34:57 AM EDT Further details are provided below. ________________________________________ Server Location: Default Production Distribution Center. Server Location: Internal. Server Location: External. Total files in Request: 555. Total files distributed: 282. Total files Skipped: 273. ________________________________________ Total size of files in request: 5 MB. Percentage Complete: 64%. Elapsed: 0 hour(s),0 minute(s) 4 seconds. Started: 4/25/12 11:05:31 AM EDT Ended: 4/25/12 11:05:36 AM EDT Further detail on the failures is provided below. ________________________________________ Server Location: Symantec LiveUpdate. Failed file transfers: 62 Successful file transfers: 104 Reason for failure: File(s) not found ________________________________________