Mac Management Group

Symantec is pleased to announce the general availability of Symantec IT Management Suite 8.1.

IT Management Suite 8.1 introduces the following new features and improvements:

Streamlined process for updating Windows 10, Windows 7/8.1, and Office 365:

•   Ability to patch Office 365 Click-to-Run installations, Windows 7/8.1 monthly rollups and security updates, Windows 10 cumulative and delta updatesand Windows 10 feature updates, utilizing built-in and expanded functionality to better accommodate network bandwidth challenges.

Peer-to-peer content distribution:

•   Peer-to-peer downloading significantly reduces network and IT infrastructure load when downloading and distributing software delivery and patch packages to Windows computers. See DOC9473 for details.

Mac profile management:

•   Mac OS Profile Management lets you apply Mac configuration profiles and ensure they stay installed, allowing you to take control a wide range of endpoint settings such as email, network, and certificate configuration. Taking advantage of the powerful targeting capabilities of the platform ensures you can apply exactly the profiles you need, where you need them, no matter how complex your environment.
  See HOWTO125782 for details.

Integrations with Symantec Endpoint Protection:

•   Inventory Solution gathers information for the Symantec Endpoint Protection Windows and Mac clients (SEP) installed in your environment, enabling you to report on the health of the SEP agent. The information is displayed in the Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) Agent summary flipbook of the ITMS Management Views.

Added support for CentOS operating system family:

•   Client computers running the following CentOS operating systems can now be managed*:
  •        CentOS 6.0-6.8.
  •        CentOS 7.0-7.2.

*Patching CentOS-based client computers is still in development and will be added in an upcoming release.

Expanded list of supported platforms:

•   CMDB can now also be installed on the following versions of Microsoft® SQL Server®:
  •        SQL Server 2012 SP3.
  •        SQL Server 2014 SP2.
  •        SQL Server 2016.
•   Symantec Management Agent can now enabling you to report on the health of the SEP agent the following operating systems:
  •        CentOS 6.0-6.8 and 7.0-7.2.
  •        Windows 10 Anniversary Update 1 (Windows 10, version 1607).
  •        Windows Server 2016.
  •        OS X 10.12 Sierra.
  •        SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 SP1.
  •        RHEL 6.7, 6.8 and 7.2.
  •        Solaris 11.3.
  •        AIX 7.1 TL4.

Deployment Solution Enhancements:

•   Support for 4K drives as a storage location when taking images.
•   Support for XFS file system on RHEL 7.
•   Support for Thin Clients.
•   Enhanced Resource Import tool.
•   WinPE 10 (version 1511) support.
•   Enhanced image storage on site servers.
•   Deploy Image task is updated.
•   Office 2016 support added for PC Transplant.
•   Removal of Java dependency for uploading files and folders.

Patch Management Solution Enhancements:

•   Improved quality and reliability of Red Hat Linux and SUSE Linux computer patching, including enhanced dependency resolution. See DOC9722 for details.
•   Enhancement in the Check Software Update Package Integrity task.
•   Enhanced settings of the software update plug-in (Windows only).
•   Enhanced options for file download.

Data migration between different versions of IT Management Suite components:

•   Standalone replication and data export/import is now supported from IT Management Suite version 7.6 HF7 or version 8.0 HF6 to IT Management Suite 8.1. See DOC9586 for details.

Improved User Experience:

•   Improved usability of the Import Software wizard, including enhanced dependency resolution.
•   Improved usability of the Add or Edit Package dialog box.
•   Improved usability in Security Role Manager and on the Automation Policies page.
•   Improved usability of the task execution defer dialog box.
•   Improved usability for target management and target builder:
  •        Allows to easily define a set of targets for specific policy, using search and structured layout.
  •        Allows to re-use recent targets with just few clicks.
  •        Allows to easily define scoping as an area of visibility for a new target.
•   Added possibility to perform actions on multiple items in the search results list.
•   Added possibility to select multiple tasks when creating a job.
•   Added possibility to assign multiple packages to specific Package Servers.
•   Prerequisites displayed for Task Service and Package Service.

Other Enhancements:

•   Support for SLIC license format, enabling the use of a single license file for suites and eliminating the need to combine multiple license files for individual solutions.
•   Enhancement in gathering inventory using stand-alone packages. (Windows only).
•   Improved troubleshooting using Symantec Installation Manager (SIM):
  • Database configuration has been moved from Symantec Management Console to SIM. This helps to troubleshoot database issues even when the Console is inaccessible.
  • Performing full repair is implemented in SIM. Full repair verifies the connection to the CMDB, repairs the installation errors, and reconfigures the installed solutions and components.
  • Repairing MSI-s and reconfiguring installed solutions is moved to separate pages to simplify the user interface.
•   Reporting of the progress status of a Managed Software Delivery policy.
•   Possibility to prevent computer from going into sleep mode while task runs.
•   New configuration option is added to the Cleanup Task Data task.
•   Altiris Client Task Server Agent plug-in has been optimized.
•   Added possibility to generate bootstrap files using the custom configuration XML.
•   Enhanced ability to design Workflow forms.
•   KVM Viewer performance improvements.
•   Smart Card Authentication for Symantec Management Console.
•   Redirecting 8.0 Agents to 8.1 Notification Servers on Mac.
•   New reports on internal health and task status details are introduced.

New user documentation format:

•   The new format of mind maps is introduced to educate users about different aspects of product usage. See DOC9706 for details.

Symantec IT Management Suite 8.1 is available on Symantec website.   

Product specific documentation and help are available now at the following links:

•   Symantec Help Center
•   Product Documentation