Migration of Safeguard Easy 7 to Enterprise 8.1

Hi Robin Ganter

Are you using the standalone version of Safeguard Easy 7.0? If you are using the standalone version I don't see any trouble migrating to SGN 8. Please refer to the product cross compatibility chart. In the meantime I will check and update you if it is possible to install the managed clients.

Hi Haridoss,

thanks for your answer. Does that mean there is no migration way from Safeguard Easy 7.0 to Safeguard Enterprise 8.1 at all? So we have to unencrypt every endpoint, uninstall Safeguard Easy 7, install Safeguard Enterprise 8.1 and encrypt again? 

TIA,

Robin

Hi Robin,

actually it should be possible without an uninstallation.
According to https://community.sophos.com/kb/en-us/119020 the migration should at least work from SGE 7 to SGN8.0.

Have you perhaps used a client config from another SGN instance (meaning a different company certificate which would then cause issues with the client config installation).

As long as you don't need to change the policies of the client you should anyway be good without a new config package.

Cheers

F.

Hi Funkey,

>> Have you perhaps used a client config from another SGN instance (meaning a different company certificate which would then cause issues with the client config installation).

Uhm, well... I think... yes we did :D

Our Customer did a fresh installation of SG Enterprise 8.1 in a fresh installed virtual machine. He did not upgrade the old SG Easy 7 installation on the server. Could that be the cause?

Or did I misunderstood your question? 

Let me explain gain:

• SGE 7.0 is installed on a virtual machine "VM01"
• The endpoints run in stand alone mode
• Customer installed a new virtual machine "VM02"
• Customer installed SGN 8.1
• Customer configured everything (AD-Sync, Policies, Groups and so on) from scratch
• We installed the pre-installation package and encryption-software package from 8.1 on the endpoint (which has already installed the SGE 7.0 packages) without problems
• We created the configuration-package in SGN 8.1 
• Installation of this config-package failed

So, I think you are right and we are using with this method a different company certificate. 

Hi Robin,

yep that sounds like it.

When you install a fresh SGN8.1 without taking over the old Company Certificate (can be exported in the Local Policy Editor) or the complete Database, this will lead to a client that does not 'digest' the new client config as it is not based on the correct certificate.

Cheers
F.

Hi Funkey,

thank you for your help. 

This makes sense and would be an explanation for our problem.
Just to be sure: Can I follow the steps described in KB 116791 (Replacing the company certificate) to export the certificate from the old SGE and import them to our new SGN installation?

https://community.sophos.com/kb/en-us/116791

cheers,

Robin

Hi Robin,

the KBA you mentioned describes a few scenarios around the company cert but is not really required for what you want to do.

In the SGE LPE you can simply export the company certificate under Tools | Option | Certificates - Company Cert -> export.

The resulting p12 file (with the password you´ve chosen) can then be used in the Management Center Wizard, which comes up when you start the MC the first time.

Just choose to create a new database and after the creation of the MSO, you´ll get a dialog where you can create a new Company Cert or import an existing.

Select Import, browse to the p12 that you exported, enter the correct password and you should be good to go.

Client Configuration packages that you create in this MC will then be fine for the migrated SGE clients.

Hope that helps.

F.

Hi Robin,

the KBA you mentioned describes a few scenarios around the company cert but is not really required for what you want to do.

In the SGE LPE you can simply export the company certificate under Tools | Option | Certificates - Company Cert -> export.

The resulting p12 file (with the password you´ve chosen) can then be used in the Management Center Wizard, which comes up when you start the MC the first time.

Just choose to create a new database and after the creation of the MSO, you´ll get a dialog where you can create a new Company Cert or import an existing.

Select Import, browse to the p12 that you exported, enter the correct password and you should be good to go.

Client Configuration packages that you create in this MC will then be fine for the migrated SGE clients.

Hope that helps.

F.

Hi Funkey,

thank you very much for your help. I'll give it a try.

regards,

Robin

Hi Funkey,

I was able to test your advice today. After I imported the old Company Cert and created a new Client Config Package the installation was successfull. Everything works as expected now. Thanks again for your help.

cheers,

Robin

Hi Robin,

thanks for your feedback. I´m glad everything worked as expected.

Cheers

F.