FHC computers - action items

[russellhltn]

Forwarding:

All,

Here are several issues that may need your attention:

· In the "LANDesk_FHC Support Tools" folder in the Start menu, there is a new tool called, "FHC_Inventory_Tool". Center staff may run this tool to download a current inventory list of their center computers that appear in the new LANDesk 9 database. The data is refreshed (on the server) every 2 hours. If the tool does not appear in the Start menu, simply run the “Application Finder” tool (from the Start menu) to obtain a policy update.

· We are almost finished migrating computer systems from the old LANDesk 8.8 core server to the new LANDesk 9 core server, however we still have about 1200 systems that are not migrating. Please use the “FHC_Inventory_Tool” to determine which of your systems are not migrating. Systems that do not appear in the report still need to be migrated. On those systems that are not in the report, please download and run the latest version of the LANDesk install (found at http://remote.familysearch.org/centers.html).

· If your computers still have Command Antivirus on them, please uninstall it and install Sophos 9 (available for download via the Application Finder).

· If your computers still have Symantec Antivirus on them, please uninstall it and install Sophos 9 (available for download via the Application Finder).

· Sophos EndPoint Security 9 is now available, and is being automatically deployed to all systems in the LANDesk 9 database that already have Sophos on them.

· For those of you running Deep Freeze, Cornerstone, EAZ-FIX, Win-U, etc, there is a new version of DPCustomCfg.exe (version 9.0.5.0) available. Your systems should automatically receive this update; however, if you have this executable located in a custom location, please take the time to manually update this tool. It is available at http://remote.familysearch.org/support.html. This new version has improved methods for testing the LANDesk connectivity, and removes the error message that appears at the next startup, when connectivity could not be established.

· New FamilySearch will soon no longer support Internet Explorer 5 and 6. If your systems still have these older versions of IE on them, please update to either IE 7 or 8.

· If you are building custom images of your systems and then cloning them onto other systems, there are some additional steps that need to be taken in regards to LANDesk. LANDesk stores an identifier and security certificate that should be unique for every system. So before you capture your image, or if you have already deployed multiple clones, please contact support for a tool to automatically remove and generate new credentials.

Thank you for your attention regarding these items.

Sincerely,

Lynn Shaw
LANDesk Administrator / Engineer
FamilySearch

[russellhltn]

More information:

All,

The Church no longer provides Symantec Antivirus, and it must be removed. The Church is doing an internal audit and there are still many hundreds of systems with Symantec still actively obtaining updates. Below is a list of computers that have the ‘Family History Centers’ policy and are still obtaining Symantec updates as of 10 November 2010. We have compared this list and only 292 of the 1008 unique public IP addresses are found to have matching entries in the LANDesk database. This means that either there are centers where LANDesk is no longer installed, not functioning; or Symantec Antivirus has been installed in locations other than at family history centers.

On the 30th of November, the Symantec servers will be taken down, and these systems will no longer be able to receive updates.

Please review your computer systems, and remove Symantec Antivirus from any computers you find it on.

On systems with Symantec installed, please accomplish the following:
1. Uninstall it from the Add or Remove Programs control panel. Use the password of “$ecur1ty” (without quotes), or “symantec" (without quotes; if the first password does not work). If uninstalling from the control panel fails, then run this tool http://remote.familysearch.org/NoNav2.49.exe to force an uninstall of Symantec.
2. On family history center computers, after removing Symantec, please install the latest version of LANDesk from http://remote.familysearch.org/centers.html (it is highly likely that LANDesk is either not installed or nonfunctional, or else Symantec would have already been removed).
3. After the LANDesk installation, install Sophos EndPoint Security from the Desktop Manager tool (found in the LANDesk Management folder in the Start menu).
If you need assistance with this request, please contact FamilySearch at support@familysearch.org, or support telephone numbers may be found online at: http://contact.familysearch.org/.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

FamilySearch
support@familysearch.org

Note, I left off quoting the list as I wasn't sure as it would do much good. All it has is the machine name and the public IP. No ward or stake information.

Also, this is ONLY for FHC computers. Administrative computers for Wards, Branches and Stakes should get their LANDesk and Sophos downloads from http://mls.lds.org

[JamesAnderson]

Some of these are actually balky computers that would not for whatever reason update even when LANDesk was working. I had one do just that.

How I cheated the computer into taking out Symantec and putting in Sophos at an FHC. I got into Administrator mode, then pulled up the menu for LANDesk in the start listing. Then I selected the security updates. Got whatever else the security updates said it needed, then it also took out Symantec while doing so, then installed Sophos. After Sophos was installed I ran the updater, that took an hour at a good DSL speed as for some reason Sophos does not roll over updates into the full version, which was at that time about nine months old.

Whatever I did it worked, all of my center's machinees are on Sophos now.

[russellhltn]

It seems that periodically I have to give LANDesk a swift kick to getting working again - it fails to update itself. But there's no outward appearance of failure. It isn't until you notice that an announced update fails to roll out or you get contacted by CHQ that some computers that are no longer reporting that you realize that you have a problem.