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Not happy with ERA 6


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If your customers like a feature in your previous version and telling you about it directly, why don't you listen to them and give them at least choice how they want to handle updates in their networks? It is OUR network and we want to handle updates delivery according OUR rules and regulations (sometimes created not even by us). Your product is doing a great job! But it is just part of OUR network. And if I, personally wouldn't be able to find the way how to use your product in my network, you will lose a customer with 100 licenses, which is really sad, because I do like your software

 

As I wrote, it is still possible to create a local mirror using ESET's products (Endpoint, File Security, etc.). It's just that it's not a part of ERA. In the future, there should be a tool available that will download update files and store them in your http server's root folder for access via htttp from other clients.

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If your customers like a feature in your previous version and telling you about it directly, why don't you listen to them and give them at least choice how they want to handle updates in their networks? It is OUR network and we want to handle updates delivery according OUR rules and regulations (sometimes created not even by us). Your product is doing a great job! But it is just part of OUR network. And if I, personally wouldn't be able to find the way how to use your product in my network, you will lose a customer with 100 licenses, which is really sad, because I do like your software

 

As I wrote, it is still possible to create a local mirror using ESET's products (Endpoint, File Security, etc.). It's just that it's not a part of ERA. In the future, there should be a tool available that will download update files and store them in your http server's root folder for access via htttp from other clients.

 

It is just workaround. As I understand I will have to install ESET software on another computer diirectly connected to internet (which is against our network policy) and have other computers in the network synchronise updates from this computer. In another words I have to setup another "server" which will manage updates. I dont think my boss will be happy to buy extra computer just for that

Alex

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It is just workaround. As I understand I will have to install ESET software on another computer diirectly connected to internet (which is against our network policy) and have other computers in the network synchronise updates from this computer. In another words I have to setup another "server" which will manage updates. I dont think my boss will be happy to buy extra computer just for that.

 

We first need to understand the scenario you use so that we can provide you with a solution that fits you best. A few questions:

1, Is the computer with ERAS installed connected to the Internet?

2, Is it against your company's policy to install antivirus on that server? If not, what's the reason for not installing ESET there and configuring it to create a local mirror?

3, If you don't use an http server in your company, would it be a problem to install one (e.g. Apache) on the same server where ERAS is installed?

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We first need to understand the scenario you use so that we can provide you with a solution that fits you best. A few questions:

1, Is the computer with ERAS installed connected to the Internet?

2, Is it against your company's policy to install antivirus on that server? If not, what's the reason for not installing ESET there and configuring it to create a local mirror?

3, If you don't use an http server in your company, would it be a problem to install one (e.g. Apache) on the same server where ERAS is installed?

Yes, it is possible, but I will not try it right now. I spent enough unproductive time to make ERA work fo me. If new version is coming in two weeks I'd rather wait and start all over again after then. I can tell you another story about my bed experience installing ERA on Centos 7, but not today. I will wait...

Alex

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I'm not trying to pick a fight, just add some balance.

 

For me, I've replaced eight or nine "custom install tasks" in V5 with one install task in V6. What can be better than that? One install, the client goes to the right group, and all the appropriate settings get applied. Need to change a setting? Simple, change it in the group, and all clients in that group get the new setting within a few minutes.

 

*So* much better than having to create and maintain separate installers.

 

 

Jim

 

This is pretty basic thing in most alternative products and it's welcome addition to ESET Business security. However, taking out completely functionality like mirror server is something that is not popular and in my opinion very questionable decision that makes me want to talk to people inside ESET for clear explanation. For example, Microsoft has WSUS, and here is clear explanation from Wiki what WSUS is: "Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), previously known as Software Update Services (SUS), is a computer program developed by Microsoft Corporation that enables administrators to manage the distribution of updates and hotfixes released for Microsoft products to computers in a corporate environment.". Was it so hard to upgrade mirror server functionality to even more manage AV updates? I really don't understand.

 

And comments on this forum for not understanding ERA v6 concept are really not necessary. If you took time to update documentation, e.g. diagrams in Chapter 1 of "ESET REMOTE ADMINISTRATOR 6 Installation Manual and User Guide", maybe things would be clear. Until then, you will get newly registered sys admins that will complain about weard product you released.

Edited by bbahes
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This will be fixed in new version. Apache HTTP Proxy will be installed, but configured access to ESET servers only.

 

Will this be true for Linux version?

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This is pretty basic thing in most alternative products and it's welcome addition to ESET Business security. However, taking out completely functionality like mirror server is something that is not popular and in my opinion very questionable decision that makes me want to talk to people inside ESET for clear explanation. For example, Microsoft has WSUS, and here is clear explanation from Wiki what WSUS is: "Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), previously known as Software Update Services (SUS), is a computer program developed by Microsoft Corporation that enables administrators to manage the distribution of updates and hotfixes released for Microsoft products to computers in a corporate environment.". Was it so hard to upgrade mirror server functionality to even more manage AV updates? I really don't understand.

 

And comments on this forum for not understanding ERA v6 concept are really not necessary. If you took time to update documentation, e.g. diagrams in Chapter 1 of "ESET REMOTE ADMINISTRATOR 6 Installation Manual and User Guide", maybe things would be clear. Until then, you will get newly registered sys admins that will complain about weard product you released.

Thank you Bbahes.

And If you are going to talk it would be great if you can clear some additional questions. There may be very different set ups in our networks, which may conflict with what ESET offered. How to resolve them? I would like to see this section in their documentation. For example:

- if I already have proxy running on the computer, what modifications should I made for ESET?

- if I already have Apache web server, do I need install in addition Tomcat server? And how to make them work together to accept SSL connections?

- default database for many Linux installations is Mariadb (not MySQL). There several reasons for that. How to configure ERA to make it work with Mariadb? (I made it work)

 

We are living not in ideal world and sometimes we can give to eset just some resources on production server (not clean brand new installation of OS on separate computer) I understand that answers on questions like that requires more work to resolve and write several additional articles in your documentation, but people like me will appreciate this and you will have less problems in support.

 

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This is pretty basic thing in most alternative products and it's welcome addition to ESET Business security. However, taking out completely functionality like mirror server is something that is not popular and in my opinion very questionable decision that makes me want to talk to people inside ESET for clear explanation. For example, Microsoft has WSUS, and here is clear explanation from Wiki what WSUS is: "Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), previously known as Software Update Services (SUS), is a computer program developed by Microsoft Corporation that enables administrators to manage the distribution of updates and hotfixes released for Microsoft products to computers in a corporate environment.". Was it so hard to upgrade mirror server functionality to even more manage AV updates? I really don't understand.

 

And comments on this forum for not understanding ERA v6 concept are really not necessary. If you took time to update documentation, e.g. diagrams in Chapter 1 of "ESET REMOTE ADMINISTRATOR 6 Installation Manual and User Guide", maybe things would be clear. Until then, you will get newly registered sys admins that will complain about weard product you released.

Thank you Bbahes.

And If you are going to talk it would be great if you can clear some additional questions. There may be very different set ups in our networks, which may conflict with what ESET offered. How to resolve them? I would like to see this section in their documentation. For example:

- if I already have proxy running on the computer, what modifications should I made for ESET?

 

hxxp://kb.eset.com/esetkb/index?page=content&id=SOLN3637

 

- if I already have Apache web server, do I need install in addition Tomcat server? And how to make them work together to accept SSL connections?

 

hxxp://kb.eset.com/esetkb/index?page=content&id=SOLN3724

(I have not seen guide for linux distributions, however, these can be found elsewhere on the internet.)

 

- default database for many Linux installations is Mariadb (not MySQL). There several reasons for that. How to configure ERA to make it work with Mariadb? (I made it work)

 

It's really not problem for me to install any supported database on linux distribution. I have not seen in documentation mentioning any other database.

 

We are living not in ideal world and sometimes we can give to eset just some resources on production server (not clean brand new installation of OS on separate computer) I understand that answers on questions like that requires more work to resolve and write several additional articles in your documentation, but people like me will appreciate this and you will have less problems in support.

 

They should listen to their customers more. Which they say they do in this webcast hxxp://www.eset.com/us/webcasts/endpoint-security-just-got-simpler/.

Give the quality of ERA V6 and people complain about it I find it hard to belive in these numbers.

 

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For example:

- if I already have proxy running on the computer, what modifications should I made for ESET?

hxxp://kb.eset.com/esetkb/index?page=content&id=SOLN3637

- if I already have Apache web server, do I need install in addition Tomcat server? And how to make them work together to accept SSL connections?

hxxp://kb.eset.com/esetkb/index?page=content&id=SOLN3724

(I have not seen guide for linux distributions, however, these can be found elsewhere on the internet.)

- default database for many Linux installations is Mariadb (not MySQL). There several reasons for that. How to configure ERA to make it work with Mariadb? (I made it work)

It's really not problem for me to install any supported database on linux distribution. I have not seen in documentation mentioning any other database.

We are living not in ideal world and sometimes we can give to eset just some resources on production server (not clean brand new installation of OS on separate computer) I understand that answers on questions like that requires more work to resolve and write several additional articles in your documentation, but people like me will appreciate this and you will have less problems in support.

They should listen to their customers more. Which they say they do in this webcast hxxp://www.eset.com/us/webcasts/endpoint-security-just-got-simpler/.

Give the quality of ERA V6 and people complain about it I find it hard to belive in these numbers.

I haven't expected your answer but just want to note: there nothing in official documentation describing potential problems and ways to resolve them. Your links not resolving any of my questions. I have squid proxy working on my Linux gateway to my network. Can it be used and tuned up to work with ERA6? Apache web server and Apache Tomcat web server are two different products. How to make them work together on one server without issues and use ssl?

Don't answer on that. My point is: documentation isn't good enough, I cannot give dedicated server running just ERA, and ESET is using too many technologies that may conflict with services already installed and working in production.

Mariadb is not officially supported so there are no instructions how to make ERAS work with it.

The reason why I asked about Mariadb: oracle's MySQL isn't optimal (ESET have it in their documentation), because Oracle don't want to make it optimal. Oracle need to sale their commercial products. Mariadb is open source fork of MySQL which works more reliable and faster. And this is just example. Of course it is not critical. Don't bother to answer me. Better concentrate on new documentation to new version and try to look from customer's side

Alex

Edited by Alex-Iv
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I haven't expected your answer but just want to note: there nothing in official documentation describing potential problems and ways to resolve them. Your links not resolving any of my questions. I have squid proxy working on my Linux gateway to my network. Can it be used and tuned up to work with ERA6? Apache web server and Apache Tomcat web server are two different products. How to make them work together on one server without issues and use ssl?

Don't answer on that. My point is: documentation isn't good enough, I cannot give dedicated server running just ERA, and ESET is using too many technologies that may conflict with services already installed and working in production.

 

Agree, but it does not look like they are going to change approach to this new concept of ERA V6.

Edited by bbahes
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I haven't expected your answer but just want to note: there nothing in official documentation describing potential problems and ways to resolve them. Your links not resolving any of my questions. I have squid proxy working on my Linux gateway to my network. Can it be used and tuned up to work with ERA6? Apache web server and Apache Tomcat web server are two different products. How to make them work together on one server without issues and use ssl?

Don't answer on that. My point is: documentation isn't good enough, I cannot give dedicated server running just ERA, and ESET is using too many technologies that may conflict with services already installed and working in production.

Agree, but it does not look like they are going to change approach to this new concept of ERA V6.

That's why I'm looking for an alternative solution... I need a plan "B" if I wouldn't be able to acomodate ESET Edited by Alex-Iv
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That's why I'm looking for an alternative solution... I need a plan "B" if I wouldn't be able to acomodate ESET

 

 

Trust me, I have tested many alternatives (Symantec, BifDefender, Avira, Avast, Sopohos, Panda, Comodo, Trend Micro, Kaspersky), none of them compares to ERA V5, some are closer to ERA V6 like Comodo and some are very CPU intensive(Symantec, Kaspersky, BitDefender, Avast...). Symantec and Kaspersky have best documentation I have ever seen in security world but they have product that are so CPU intensive and nature of our business does not allow CPU waste.

 

Seems to me we will stay on V5 line of product until license expires next year, and then decide which direction to take. Until then they said they will release two major updates to V6 so I wait, but there are no news on features and fixes yet.

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Trust me, I have tested many alternatives (Symantec, BifDefender, Avira, Avast, Sopohos, Panda, Comodo, Trend Micro, Kaspersky), none of them compares to ERA V5, some are closer to ERA V6 like Comodo and some are very CPU intensive(Symantec, Kaspersky, BitDefender, Avast...). Symantec and Kaspersky have best documentation I have ever seen in security world but they have product that are so CPU intensive and nature of our business does not allow CPU waste.

 

Seems to me we will stay on V5 line of product until license expires next year, and then decide which direction to take. Until then they said they will release two major updates to V6 so I wait, but there are no news on features and fixes yet.

It is hard to disagree. I'm in the same boat on v5. But I have a strong feeling that v5 won't last for long. I haven't tested a virtual appliance. Maybe it is the way I should take a look at? Waiting for new update.
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It is hard to disagree. I'm in the same boat on v5. But I have a strong feeling that v5 won't last for long. I haven't tested a virtual appliance. Maybe it is the way I should take a look at? Waiting for new update.

 

 

Virtual appliance is a best way to go with new ERA V6 in my opinion. I might argue their choise of distribution, but since they have support for Ubuntu I don't mind doing it all on Ubuntu distribution manually. However, here we get to part where they have poor documentation and you have to be really confident in your Linux skills to know what to put where.

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The main thing I'm not happy with in the current release is the way it serves up alerts to historic errors that have gone away.

 

Here is an example:

We have a lot of laptops that get carried around. When they are on site, the are on our LAN and the agent talks to the ERA -  and when off site they do not.

 

As soon as they get on the LAN after a trip outside, the ERA starts showing 'could not connect to server' errors. Obviously they could not connect to our server when they were off site and the time of the 'errror' reflects this. But as soon as they are back on site they connect and the 'last connected' time reflects this. So they seem to cache up the 'could not connect' error and report it to the ERA only when they CAN connect!

 

The problem is this throws up a big red 'critical error' section in the doughnut chart when in fact there is no real current error at all. To tell if this is a real error, e.g.some horrible malware picked up on a customer site, I have click the chart, click 'detailed information', click the line, click 'click here to see the list' and only then can I see from the connect time that this is not a real error at all. That is four clicks mulriplied by the number of laptops and I have COMPLETELY WASTED MY TIME.

 

I'm sure a lot of overworked people in IT will agree with me that time is the most important resource we have. I really don't need ESET taking it away from me.

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But why?

 

We have ours communicating to an ERA server with a name eset.ourdomain.com. We have that as an entry in our public DNS, and the port open on our firewall, and we have an entry in our local DNS also, pointing to the ERA.

 

That way, they communicate whether inside or out.

 

A two minute solution surely?

 

 

 

Jim

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But why?

 

We have ours communicating to an ERA server with a name eset.ourdomain.com. We have that as an entry in our public DNS, and the port open on our firewall, and we have an entry in our local DNS also, pointing to the ERA.

 

That way, they communicate whether inside or out.

 

A two minute solution surely?

 

 

 

Jim

 

Opening ports on public IP just for agents to report...really?

It would be better for ESET to sort this out within product and fix reporting.

Edited by bbahes
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Absolutely. Because they are not merely reporting, they are also downloading configuration information from ERA. It's a full two-way communication channel.

 

If you don't open the port, and you change a configurations etting in ERA, how are the remote computers going to get the new configuration?

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Absolutely. Because they are not merely reporting, they are also downloading configuration information from ERA. It's a full two-way communication channel.

 

If you don't open the port, and you change a configurations etting in ERA, how are the remote computers going to get the new configuration?

 

VPN?

 

My guess in future ESET will offer cloud services and this problem will be gone...

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I migrated from McAfee EPO about 18 months ago to ERA v5. I was very impressed, everything semed intuitive, after a quick read of the very comprehensive documentation I was able to achieve everything I wanted to very easily.

 

I upgraded to ERA v6 in April.

 

The documentation was sparse to say the least.

I was no longer presented with an intuitive interface, trying to achieve even the most simple task required parsing through incomplete documentation and user forums. It was like a really unpopular opensource project.

 

The default reporting is simply not good enough. If something fails I want to be able to pull up a report on why it failed very quiclkly. This should contain sufficient information to at least give me a chance of working out what went wrong. I certainly don't want to have to create a custom report template with adjusted verbosity for my specific issue then run the task again waiting for it to fail before running the custom report.

 

Some very odd default behaviour choices have been made such as the "warn about all problems ever" as opposed to just current issues. Another one is when checking computer details to see which policies have been applied to a client I would expect the delete policy option to remove it from the client not delete the entire policy. There are lots of little "quirks" like this, they are not helpful.

 

Whilst I appreciate the convenience of a web interface I have found that it is very slow in comparison to the ERA v5 application. This makes it feel like a step backwards.

 

UI aesthetics are subjective and I appreciate that some people may find it attractive, I don't, it looks awful. If it was responsive and intuitive I could excuse this but sadly this is not the case.

 

When I need to accomplish something in ERA v6 I get the same sense of dread I used to get when dealing with EPO and McAfee.

 

ESET my license is up in April, you have until then to convince me to stay. Actions speak louder then words so please consider whether your time would be better spent writing a contrived response to my rant or assisting in making ERA v6 something less abhorrent.

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I would strongly urge you to consider continuing with v5. I have tried to make v6 work on a simple network of machines and remain frustrated at its inconsistency and lack of access to configuration that I took for granted with v5

 

With the small network I have used the inbuilt update server on endpoint security and it may be this that is causing issues such as, right click scan menu intermittently not working, eset icon disappearing from hidden icons, unable to start eset display from the menus as it runs but never appears on the screen. A new version should at least be understandable to people that are experienced with the previous version but the increased security mandates at least 5 username and password combinations to implement it with remote admin and I do not understand the logic of requiring an apache install on pure windows installations. I see little benefit in pure browser based administration on a local network and presume that "someone" thought it would be a nice idea

 

I had one area where v6 was better than v5 and that is the handling of secure web pages with insecure items on them. v5 on win 8.1 always gave eset certificate errors whereas v6 simply displayed an error message in that area of the page

 

After trying v6, reverting to v5 and then trying v6 again I have now reverted to v5 and will remain there until I have some reason to believe that v6 will work more reliably/easily

 

My biggest concern is whether to offer the product to any more clients as if v5 has a limited life then it would wrong to install them with this

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I would strongly urge you to consider continuing with v5.

 

There will be one more build of ERA v5 (specifically 5.3).

 

I have tried to make v6 work on a simple network of machines and remain frustrated at its inconsistency and lack of access to configuration that I took for granted with v5.

 

As of v6, ERA enables you to see the configuration tree in the very same way as it appears on clients. In older versions of ERA, there was a configuration tree which didn't 100% match the appearance of the product settings on clients and caused a lot of confusion to users.

It'd be good if you could clarify what you mean so that we understand what exactly you want to achieve.

 

With the small network I have used the inbuilt update server on endpoint security and it may be this that is causing issues such as, right click scan menu intermittently not working,

 

The built-in mirror has never been as efficient as dedicated http servers, such as Apache or IIS and not many clients could be served at a time. Still, if you want to create a local mirror with v6, you can do so by means of an Endpoint v6 product which also supports distribution of updates via the internal http server. Also there should be a tool available soon that will download updates files that can be subsequently distributed to clients by a 3rd party http server or via a local share. The problem with right-click scan is not related to this at all. Honestly, I've never heard about such issue with Endpoint v6 so I'd strongly recommend troubleshooting it further with customer care.

 

eset icon disappearing from hidden icons

 

I've never had this problem and haven't seen it reported from customers nor from users in this forum specifically for Endpoint v6. A similar issue was reported for older versions but it wasn't specific to ESET and other application icons exhibited the same behavior.

 

unable to start eset display from the menus as it runs but never appears on the screen.

 

Never heard of this issue, further information about the system will be needed. It's not clear if the issue exhibits on all of your systems, what OS is installed, if more users are logged on at a time, etc. Strongly recommend to contact Customer care for further assistance.

 

the increased security mandates at least 5 username and password combinations to implement it with remote admin

I use only username and password to log in to the console and U/P for ELA portal. What usernames/passwords are you referring to?

 

and I do not understand the logic of requiring an apache install on pure windows installations.

 

Apache HTTP proxy replaces the former mirror feature with a more efficient and reliable way of caching downloaded files.

 

I see little benefit in pure browser based administration on a local network and presume that "someone" thought it would be a nice idea

 

Administration via the web console was requested by many administrators as it enables them to access ERA from any operating system and are not limited to Windows like it was with ERA v5 and earlier.

 

Please create a separate topic for each issue so that we don't mix different things in one topic.

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and I do not understand the logic of requiring an apache install on pure windows installations.

 

Apache HTTP proxy replaces the former mirror feature with a more efficient and reliable way of caching downloaded files.

 

I see little benefit in pure browser based administration on a local network and presume that "someone" thought it would be a nice idea

 

Administration via the web console was requested by many administrators as it enables them to access ERA from any operating system and are not limited to Windows like it was with ERA v5 and earlier.

 

Please create a separate topic for each issue so that we don't mix different things in one topic.

 

 

Replacing would imply that it takes features from previous version and enhances them. You have completely removed functionality from ERA and just redirected clients to http proxy. Relying on clients to verify database integrity and authenticity?

 

Web console should have been option, for those that want to administer security from mobile devices. For true administrators you should have left desktop application. Instead you have "moved functionality" from desktop application to web interface forcing many people to use this slow and non intuitive interface.

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Web console should have been option, for those that want to administer security from mobile devices. For true administrators you should have left desktop application. Instead you have "moved functionality" from desktop application to web interface forcing many people to use this slow and non intuitive interface.

 

Amen to that

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