Next Remote Adminstrator Console release ETA?

[mackintire 3]

When should we expect 6.3?

 

February?

Edited January 5, 2016 by mackintire

[jimwillsher 65]

When it's ready?

[Marcos 5,070]

It all depends on how the pre-release QA tests go.

[ronmanp 2]

Is it possible to share which new features and bug fixes we can expect from 6.3?

Edited January 6, 2016 by ronmanp

[mackintire 3]

as I understand it.....  6.3 should be production usable with import and exportable policy controls in place, as opposed to 6.2 where some bits/functions are just missing...? 

[mackintire 3]

It all depends on how the pre-release QA tests go.

 

 

Unless you want me to create a new topic......asking the next question.

 

How has the pre-release QA testing been going compared to your expectations (with the mindset that today is 1/6/2016)? 

[bbraunstein 27]

I understand the desire to push out a production ready release, especially when the previous versions haven't received a lot of positive feedback, but there are a number of issues that should be addressed. Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I feel like these major releases involve way too many features at once. They draw attention away from the preexisting issues in the earlier versions by drowning them out with a massive, shiny changelog. 

 

Unless their QA game has been stepped up, there's too much fluff added in which makes the major releases bigger, postponed further back, and at risk for yet more bugs that would be harder to localize and resolve. What I want, as an ESET consumer, getting this product back on track on a level where it functions as it should be. Then, once that's completed, let's add the cool and fun stuff.

 

ERA 6 has completely overhauled how the entire system works and there are a number of outstanding issues that have yet to be resolved. First we heard beginning of December, then we are told mid-January, and now this response:

 

It all depends on how the pre-release QA tests go.

 

tells me that there's no nearby foreseeable release date.

 

I'm not trying to kick and scream here, if that's how you're reading this, just venting some thoughts and frustrations. I work alongside Developers and Project Managers and I know what the divide of 'what can be done vs. what is wanted to get done' is like. Plus, there are a large number of us who feel the Support team (both forum and business support) is distant and unhelpful, which doesn't help our perspective of the company either. Not answering gives the impression that ESET doesn't know or doesn't care or both.

 

With the previous releases, there are long periods of months that went by with no talk or information of upcoming releases. I've felt in the past that issues that came about in the product were sometimes met with a response, "it will get fixed in the next update" and then nothing more is said.

 

You know what would be cool? Transparency. I think it would be really awesome if there was more communication to the consumers about upcoming updates and features. Many big software companies usually host a blog of some sort where they post their updates there. Anyone hear of the video game Kerbal Space Program by the Dev team Squad? They host a 'Dev Note Tuesday' on their blog where each developer posts about the project their working on. If I could see (and interact) more directly on the the issues and features they're working on, I'd be a lot less anxious and bitchy for an update. Let us know what's being fixed, what's being added, and what sort of timeline is being looked at, it would be a lot more informative for the public.

 

I digress and this is extremely long winded, so I'll end it here.

 

TL;DR: (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻, more info is cool, m'kay?

[mackintire 3]

I know why 6.x ended up the way it is. But I would like to see steady progression, like quarterly releases.     I'll agree with bbraunstein that no disclosure on any (in-progress) software product sold in retail makes for angry customers.  

[MichalJ 434]

Hello,

 

First of all, I feel very sorry, that you feel that you are being forgotten about. All of us, at ESET Support & Product Management departments are carefully monitoring all feedback channels, monitoring the problems reported from the market and constantly prioritizing the work of development & other teams to make our products better. It´s however pretty difficult to anticipate the specific release dates for products, including the specific fixes to be included, as there are many external factors, that might influence the final date. So every date published on this forum, except official ESET Release Announcements, and every feature-related promise should be taken in a way, that it is possibly a subject of change.

 

However, as we are pretty close now, we do anticipate to release ESET Remote Administrator 6.3 in the second half of January - to be more specific, on January 21, 2016 (however, actual release date might differ from country to country, but we will update the download links, download page contents and ERA repository to version 6.3 on this date, if everything works OK).

 

Concerning the future plans, for the year 2016, we do plan to keep the release pace of two releases per year, one towards the end/beginning, and one towards the mid-year (summer & fall). However, detailed road-map is still a subject of negotiations (and therefore a change), despite the fact, that we are already working on the next version. We will work on improving the way we communicate the progress with you, our customers, as we really appreciate every feedback we receive, either positive, but also the negative one.

[BDeep 7]

In cases in which large numbers of people or assets can be affected, production release for us usually involves two minor or one major release behind the actual "production" release from the vendor.

Edited January 13, 2016 by BDeep

[mackintire 3]

Fortunately we're an SMB with 200 users.

 

Assuming that 6.3 has enough broken and missing bits fixed and present.....   

 

My deployment roll out usually goes as follows:

1. Day 1, Update the remote Adminstration server [wait 24 hours w/no issues]
2. 2-3 test machine [wait 48 hours w/no issues]
3. Myself  [a week min]
4. My supervisor [a week min]
5. Deploy out to all new clients or those clients whom have had problems with ESET 5
6. Official Alpha "The cranky ones" (5 of my most easily agitated software developers) [a week min]
7. 5 users in "Hardware R&D, have a different tool set and use case than the cranky ones...often cranky in a totally different way" [a week min] 
8. Official Beta [15 additional Developers] a week min
9. Deploy out to a different department every 2-3 days if no issues are detected (8 departments)
10. After all departments have been updated, update Senior Management machines

The fastest full company deploy possible on the above schedule is 2 months.  If any issues arise all deployments stop until the issue has been resolved.

 

 

With 6.2 I never made it into alpha deployment.  I think we have 6 machines in the console. 

[bbraunstein 27]

However, as we are pretty close now, we do anticipate to release ESET Remote Administrator 6.3 in the second half of January - to be more specific, on January 21, 2016 (however, actual release date might differ from country to country, but we will update the download links, download page contents and ERA repository to version 6.3 on this date, if everything works OK).

 

Concerning the future plans, for the year 2016, we do plan to keep the release pace of two releases per year, one towards the end/beginning, and one towards the mid-year (summer & fall). However, detailed road-map is still a subject of negotiations (and therefore a change), despite the fact, that we are already working on the next version. We will work on improving the way we communicate the progress with you, our customers, as we really appreciate every feedback we receive, either positive, but also the negative one.

 

Thanks for the information at least. It's more comforting to have a general idea, rather that no information at all. I'll take it with a grain of salt, but I look forward to release.

[bbraunstein 27]

Fortunately we're an SMB with 200 users.

 

Assuming that 6.3 has enough broken and missing bits fixed and present.....   

 

My deployment roll out usually goes as follows:

1. Day 1, Update the remote Adminstration server [wait 24 hours w/no issues]
2. 2-3 test machine [wait 48 hours w/no issues]
3. Myself  [a week min]
4. My supervisor [a week min]
5. Deploy out to all new clients or those clients whom have had problems with ESET 5
6. Official Alpha "The cranky ones" (5 of my most easily agitated software developers) [a week min]
7. 5 users in "Hardware R&D, have a different tool set and use case than the cranky ones...often cranky in a totally different way" [a week min] 
8. Official Beta [15 additional Developers] a week min
9. Deploy out to a different department every 2-3 days if no issues are detected (8 departments)
10. After all departments have been updated, update Senior Management machines

The fastest full company deploy possible on the above schedule is 2 months.  If any issues arise all deployments stop until the issue has been resolved.

 

 

With 6.2 I never made it into alpha deployment.  I think we have 6 machines in the console. 

 

Usually I like to wait about a week or two before diving into a new release. I was just getting ready to upgrade to 6.2 but then people starting complaining about performance issues. It was some time before WFP was located as the issue. My last upgrade was 6.1.350.0, which I believe was April or May, last year? I've long been awaiting a more polished version of ESET to move up to. 

[mackintire 3]

The install wizard in 6.2 gets you in 5 minutes where you would normally be on a 6.1 install after 45 without the guesswork.

[Marcos 5,070]

Usually I like to wait about a week or two before diving into a new release. I was just getting ready to upgrade to 6.2 but then people starting complaining about performance issues. It was some time before WFP was located as the issue. My last upgrade was 6.1.350.0, which I believe was April or May, last year? I've long been awaiting a more polished version of ESET to move up to.

 

Not sure if there were performance issues reported with ERA v6.2 but many users reported issues with system freezing. As long as you don't have the hotfix KB2664888 installed, you shouldn't run into such issues with ERA 6.2+. In fact, these were caused by a bug in Windows Filtering Platform due to performance optimizations in v6.2 which we didn't expect to happen. However, the same issue can occur also with other network-aware applications (including Endpoint) if the hotfix is not installed. Installing the hotfix is the only 100% solution to prevent the system from freezing.

[bbraunstein 27]

6.3 was released this afternoon. Check out the stickied post.