SEC 5.2.1 and Sophos for MAC OS X Preview (9.0.3)

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bobcook wrote:

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Nutz wrote:

I would like to configure the autoupdate options as well (change update interval and update on connection) for the unmanaged client.

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To create a standalone installer that contains pre-configured updating preferences please follow this article:
http://www.sophos.com/en-us/support/knowledgebase/119744.aspx

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I think he's looking for the same kind of things I am though which are not available yet.  I'm just not sure how this isn't more of a priority for Sophos when the abilities were there, taken away and people want them.

With the demise of SUM (bad, bad decision), I am following the instructions in http://www.sophos.com/en-us/support/knowledgebase/119744.aspxto create a standalone installer with built-in updating credentials, I am confident that will work as far as it goes.

As others have commented here, it does not (yet) allow setting other settings such as don't/do scan network volumes, zips, etc. It would seem the easiest solution to achieve this would be if Sophos allowed using the defaults write command to customise various plist stored settings on the client. This in fact may well already be possible but Sophos should provide some documentation and examples for this if so. There are plenty of Mac management tools to allow managing plist stored settings on clients some of which are free (or almost so), so this approach would be a good compromise.

However what Sophos should have done a long time ago, is make their Sophos Enterprise Console platform independent. There is absolutely no need for it to be tied solely to (ugh!) Windows Servers. After all you provide clients for all the major operating systems. If it had been written as a web-app with an open-source database backend e.g. MySQL then it would be easy to run on Linux, Unix, or of course Mac OS X. It probably would have even been easier and cheaper to maintain on Windows both for Sophos themselves and their clients.

I would still prefer at a minimum an updated Sophos Update Manager for Mac (if Sophos will not make Sophos Enterprise Console platform independent). Sophos Cloud does not do what I want even if it eventually turns out to be free which is not yet clear, it looks like an extra cost which is therefore penalising your non-Windows customers. If there is no replacement for SUM then I shall at least be looking for a replacement for Sophos which has a Mac tool like SUM, whether I will find one and eventually drop Sophos is at this point unknown.

Note: You are making life much harder for non-Windows server customers. Even though it is possible to pre-configure your SAV9 installer (as per the above article), this installer is an 'Application' it is not an installer package, therefore deploying it is not a straight forward process of using a Mac management tool to deploy and run the installer since these tools either expect a package (to run), or an Application which simply gets copied to the Applications folder. We have enough of this hassle with Adobe and even they have seen the error of their ways and produced a tool for making package installers for Enterprise customers. The silly thing is that for a copy of SAV managed by SUM or Enterprise Console you do give a package file, it is the standalone installer (or the home edition which is not relevant) that is the exception. :smileymad:

I understand what you are saying and trust me I feel your pain. But when you say you can customize the sav installer you mean just the update locations, correct? As Far as I am able to find out, there is no way to customize the manged installer from the CID

Hi, Bob.

Can you tell me what the latest is on this?  Is there any kind of timeframe yet on when we can expect this tool?  I keep getting asked by people at our institute when there will be an installer available for the Macs and all I can tell them is that we are waiting for Sophos.  Our support for the product has not been the greatest this past year and I'd hate for this to be another thorn in the foot come possible renewal time.

Thanks!

We too have been using Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac with the Sophos Update Manager for a number of years and were unaware that the latter was being discontinued/wouldn't support version 9 (in fact, only found out today that version 9 was available!!). Our site uses many (~1000) Macs that currently update via SUM as the same functionality is unavailable with SEC (e.g. e-mail reporting, restricting scanning on network volumes, etc) and/or updates never worked reliably. We have successfully created a custom installer using the standalone installer/CreateUpdatePreconfig method and updates seem to work OK at the moment from the CID hosted by SEC, however this method does not provide the level of customisation we require.

As we were unaware that Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac 8 had been discontinued in June 2013, we are now fairly anxious as to how/when we can now deploy a controlled 'unmanaged' installation of Sophos (as reading this thread seems to indicate that Mac users' technical issues are not a priority to Sophos - either due to market share or other considerations) and have started to wonder whether we should be looking at an alternative anti-virus solution.

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Carob wrote:

Hi, Bob.

Can you tell me what the latest is on this?  Is there any kind of timeframe yet on when we can expect this tool?  I keep getting asked by people at our institute when there will be an installer available for the Macs and all I can tell them is that we are waiting for Sophos.  Our support for the product has not been the greatest this past year and I'd hate for this to be another thorn in the foot come possible renewal time.

Thanks!

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Hi Carob,

There is no timeline that I can commit to. Not trying to create problems for your organization, and definitely interested in keeping you a valued customer. I'm not familiar with any specific support cases affecting you beyond your customization needs, but obviously would encourage you to speak out through the support org and sales channels.

BTW I'm currently away from the office, at the MacIT conference. Sorry for the slow response.

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CheltCollege wrote:

We too have been using Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac with the Sophos Update Manager for a number of years and were unaware that the latter was being discontinued/wouldn't support version 9 (in fact, only found out today that version 9 was available!!).

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Apologies that you were caught off guard, it certainly was not intended to be a surprise. We have, on a number of occasions, tried to notify customers well in advance of this event. You might want to check in with the support team to ensure we have correct contact information.

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CheltCollege wrote:

As we were unaware that Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac 8 had been discontinued in June 2013, we are now fairly anxious as to how/when we can now deploy a controlled 'unmanaged' installation of Sophos.

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We continue to offer (and support!) the unmanaged "stand alone" installation, and offer the pre-configuration feature for updating details. Not sure what other features you are looking for (so add your voice, with some specifics and also help understand why its important to you).

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CheltCollege wrote:

as reading this thread seems to indicate that Mac users' technical issues are not a priority to Sophos - either due to market share or other considerations) and have started to wonder whether we should be looking at an alternative anti-virus solution.

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SAV for Mac OS X is getting more investment at Sophos now than in the history of the product. And by investment, I mean the number of employees dedicated to ongoing software development and quality assurance in the engineering group. Its an important product for us. I can't say that our investments are happening in ways that benefit you, although I admit to not yet hearing about your needs. But I would say that you'd be pleasantly surprised how much effort is going into transforming the product into a modern security product, beyond the simple anti-virus technology of the past.

We made a decision to retire Update Manager for OS X because it was not aligned with our long-term endpoint management plans. If you look at our website, you'll see a lot of content talking about Sophos Cloud. We think that is an important step in the evolving needs of many IT organizations. We also continue to invest in the Enterprise Console management tools, and will do so for many years to come. But the reality is that we cannot invest in everything at the same time. Like everyone, we have to make choices and sometimes that dissapoints people.

I'm keen to continue this dialog, either in the forum here or feel free to email me directly.

Just wanted to echo Bob's message, I am the product manager for the Mac product and we are certainly seeing more investment in the product as it gains popularity with our customers (and generally of course!).

As Bob says, we took a decision to retire SUM based on future plans, and I hope that over time we can address some of the concerns raised here. We are actively looking at ways to improve deployement of the Mac product but right now there are no form plans or dates that we can commit to, or share with you.

Darren.

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DarrenTeagles wrote:

Just wanted to echo Bob's message, I am the product manager for the Mac product and we are certainly seeing more investment in the product as it gains popularity with our customers (and generally of course!).

As Bob says, we took a decision to retire SUM based on future plans, and I hope that over time we can address some of the concerns raised here. We are actively looking at ways to improve deployement of the Mac product but right now there are no form plans or dates that we can commit to, or share with you.

Darren.

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So now it's "you hope you can address them"?  In an earlier post Bob had said this stuff was going to be done.  There was just no time frame.  I, along with the rest of my colleagues, have been waiting for this for about at least a year.  I would like to know what I am supposed to tell our clients.  As of now we don't have a truely viable option to supply to them.  Needless to say, those above me are concerned that our contract will not be renewed when the time comes.  Not only because of this situation but another open case that I have that has gone unresolved for 5 months and counting.

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bobcook wrote:

We continue to offer (and support!) the unmanaged "stand alone" installation, and offer the pre-configuration feature for updating details. Not sure what other features you are looking for (so add your voice, with some specifics and also help understand why its important to you).

Firstly, thank you for your reply, Bob. We currently use Sophos Update Manager to manage/deploy the following custom settings:

• Update server addresses (which is addressed in the latest version, sans proxy settings)
• Manage on access scanning (in archives/compressed files, but not network volumes)
• Manage cleanup of infected files (delete infected files)
• Display a custom desktop alert warning when a threat has been detected (explanation below)
• E-mail a specified address when threats are detected for logging/tracking purposes.

While many of these features could be deployed using Sophos Enterprise Console,  the majority of our users' computers are their own and are often offsite (we are an educational estasblishment with both boarding and day pupils/staff) and as such the majority of these computers are not managed/controlled by the IT department/Active Directory, which is why we use SUM. The custom settings we use, particularly those such as configuring clean up/warning the user, are particularly useful to preconfigure as the end user will prompted to bring their computer to us if there is an issue with it/clean up is not successful.

Having tested further. the new version 9 installer seems to work OK so far with the preconfigured update settings and SAV updates correctly from the OS X .mpkg hosted on our SEC server, but it would be extremely useful to preset these other settings in the initial install in addition to the update server settings.

Again thank you for your quick response in assisting us with this issue and for clarifying the situation regarding the Mac product.