ADNM conversion to new product

[scythe944]

Hi everyone.  Sorry, I haven't been around a lot lately and I just now noticed that the Avast business protection products have been released.

I currently have about 5 different clients that all have Avast 4.8 professional licenses or SBS Suite Licenses and are managed with ADNM consoles.

What would I have to do to start getting the actual clients on the new Avast 6 Pro version, and replace ADNM for them?

Do I apply for a new license file for each customer, use the same license after I remove ADNM and install Avast Business Console or what exactly?

[wpn]

welcome back...

the info you want is kinda spread over the place here... maybe we could make a thread (sticky)for FAQ....

you have to request a new license file, in some cases i believe you have to pay some extra upgrade costs....

you have to install the SBC software, but it wont replace ADNM
  make sure that the user that you start deploying clients with has LOGON AS SERVICE assigned to it on the clients (easiest via GPO)

[scythe944]

welcome back...

the info you want is kinda spread over the place here... maybe we could make a thread (sticky)for FAQ....

you have to request a new license file, in some cases i believe you have to pay some extra upgrade costs....

you have to install the SBC software, but it wont replace ADNM
  make sure that the user that you start deploying clients with has LOGON AS SERVICE assigned to it on the clients (easiest via GPO)

Thanks!  Yeah, I was hoping to get something official stickied so we'd have something to go off of.

Ok, so on to the payment and licensing questions (and it would be nice to have an official avast team member here to respond).  I only saw a purchase section on the business product page.  Will there be an "upgrade" or some other sort of section so that current users of ADNM and 4.8 can go and put their license information in, pay for whatever upgrade they need or want, and have a new  license sent to them?

If we don't have to pay more to upgrade (which was how it was supposed to be, wasn't it?) can there be an easy way to input our current license (like a web form or something) and then have it email us a new license key for the new product?


Last question, if it doesn't replace ADNM, do we use it in conjunction with it or not use it at all?  If we don't use it at all, do we need something to allow ADNM to manage the settings of version 6 clients?

I'd really like to have all this basic info listed in one thread, or an FAQ on the website.  I don't think it's fair to the customers that have been using Avast for years to have to peck through many threads on the support forum to get all of their questions answered.

[OsirisX]

I would Like to know this as well, I have 25 users under license that were purchased for 3 years less than a month ago. This was with the understanding that we would be able to move to the new release when it came out (at least that is what I got from reading the forums). What do I have to do or who do I contact to find out what to do? It's not going to be good for me to go to the boss saying "oh yeah, we have to upgrade, yeah I know we just bought it for 3 years"   I also just plugged the number of seats into the calculator and we paid more for the old Pro Suite than we would pay for the BP, so i really hope we can just get a new license and I can install the new SBC

[Yanto.Chiang]

Hi Ryan and Osiris,

Ok let me describe it for all of you according to AVAST Software information :

Migration Path

v4 Managed Products : avast! 4 Professional Edition, avast! 4 Standard Suite PACKS, avast1 4 Standard Suite, avast! 4 Advanced Suite, avast! 4 Enterprise Suite, avast! 4 SBS Standard Suite, avast! 4 SBS Premium Suite, avast! 4 Server Edition, avast! 4 Exchange Plug-In, avast! 4 Sharepoint Plug-In.

Free Upgrade Path : Business Protection, Business Protection, Business Protection, Business Protection Plus, Business Protection Plus, Business Protection Plus, Business Protection Plus, File Server Security, Email Server Security, File Server Security

Paid Upgrade Path : Business Protection Plus, Business Protection Plus, Business Protection Plus

You may sequences above information and match from v4 Managed products with the new one.

According to our experiences for each upgrade, we should back to see how many licenses that we already using. As i know SBC only maximum for 200 user licenses, and above that each user should asking to their vendor to earn their new license file for SBC.

User only pay if they would like from avast professional edition v4.8 (ADNM) become avast Internet Security (Business Protection Plus)and the discount you may asking to the local vendor.

ADNM can't conjunction with SBC, it was a different solutions since ADNM required 3rd party application and then SBC not need and can manage thru web console.

avast managed products for version 4.8 will only can purchased until this last August 2011.

[scythe944]

I just installed SBC on one of my client's servers.  It still has ADNM installed, I'm just getting everything setup before I remove the old software.

During installation, I just downloaded SQL Express 2008 R2 and created a new Avast Instance (Servername\AVASTSBC) and made it use the windows domain credentials.

When it asked for a license file, I just pointed it to my old license and it "seems" to have pulled in properly.  It has my email address, the customer number and the correct expiration date.  Of course, my old license file was a .dat, and the new SBC looks for .avastlic, so you have to change the file type in order for it to find it.

Now I'm waiting for the mirror to synchronize.  I'm glad it didn't download the client yet, otherwise it would have tried to push out to all of my computers and it was setup to reboot them without asking by default (which could be a problem?!?).

Anyway, I'm still unsure as to whether or not I can just let Avast 6 be pushed out on top of 4.8 or if I should remove the 4.8 clients, remove ADNM, then push out the new version.  I hope I don't have to run around and do aswclear's on every machine as well.

[avadas.de]

Hi scythe944,

I talked with wpn about the removal process of old avast! 4.8 protection a few days ago. Basically avast! Business Protection should support some kind of upgrade for that, but since that is not supported (yet), you might try a half-automatic way.

1) Deploy avast! Business Protection clients.
2) Remove password protection from the clients by deploying this setting to the existing ADNM-connected clients using the ADNM computer catalogue.
3) Remove the old 4.8 net client using msiexec (check uninstall string of the registry) silently by deploying this command by the domain group policies.

As far as I understood from wpn, both clients should work together on the same machine (haven't tested that yet). At the moment I see the above steps as the only option available at the moment. Another way might be to have a more sophisticated batch script, which first uninstalls the old version and then installs the new version.

[wpn]

@avast.de  i deployed a v6 over a v4 client without functional problems.

The problem you refer to was my complained about the crap that got left behind  i.e. the directory of the v4 client is not completely removed from the system which i find to be nasty polution.

[avadas.de]

Hi wpn,

since I didn't try myself yet...is it just the install dir or also other stuff, like drivers and services?

[wpn]

as far as i could see it was the installation directory, i didnt look inside tho since i saw it and hit delete, tho it was not completely empty judged on the size it deleted....

[avadas.de]

Well that seems OK for me. I mean of course you could improve the "upgrade" process by also deleting the leftovers, but on the other hand many silent software uninstallers leave the original installation dir empty and right now there are some bigger problems...like the debug log in the installer

Thanks for sharing your experience!

[scythe944]

@avast.de  i deployed a v6 over a v4 client without functional problems.

The problem you refer to was my complained about the crap that got left behind  i.e. the directory of the v4 client is not completely removed from the system which i find to be nasty polution.

I see that, but luckily the only file left behind it seems is the avast4.ini file and the folder structure.  Everything else seems to have been removed, which isn't too bad.

I haven't checked the registry, but I don't foresee there being any problems with just installing over the old.  I guess I could do a removal task in ADNM first, then deploy with SBC.

I didn't have to remove password protection on my clients though, it simply pushed the new product and rebooted.


One question though, I don't see a specific "server" package in the deploy options.  Will the standard client install automatically see it as a server and install the appropriate package or is my mirror missing something?

[avadas.de]

Hi,

forget my steps above. I was thinking the former net client (ADNM) is not properly upgraded/removed first, but since it is of course my suggestion doesn't apply anymore. Basically this was my experience when upgraded from a competitors product to avast!, there I thought it might also apply, if there is no upgrade procedure available.

[wpn]

@scythe

I have deployed the v6 to a test server and it deployed itself without specifically saying it was a server. Earlier i used the same job to deploy to a test client.


@avast.de  when running a competitors product and moving to avast then ALWAYS uninstall the other product first   Avast installers do not remove any product that is not from Avast itself.

[avadas.de]

Hi wpn,

yes of course. You might have misunderstood me. That was going with the assumption the old avast! client from the ADNM would not be upgraded/replaced by the new client (misunderstood you in the first place in one of the other posts). In that case the above mentioned steps, which I use for those kind of migrations from competive solutions, would have been some logical steps to perform. But since it is working like expected (maybe some leftovers, but that's ok), it's perfect. Just like I said: Forget my suggestions, doesn't apply here