SEPM in a VM

[justscott]

Is it possible to virtualize the SEPM server?  I've been running my on physical hardware with a remote SQL dB, but I've been asked to have it virtualized. 
I'm sure this has been mentioned before and is in the documentation, but I'm asking again...I'd like to know:
1.) is it possible?
2.) Is it supported by Symantec?
3.) how easy/difficult is it to move a primary SEPM to a virtual machine? 

Thank you,

[Thomas K]

It is supported -http://service1.symantec.com/support/ent-security.nsf/854fa02b4f5013678825731a007d06af/e70a1327ec910cc588256e430066ee26?OpenDocument

As for ease of moving, I have not done this myself, so I cannot say for sure.

[Migration User]

It is possible.  Just make sure you have the VM CPU, RAM, and Network capacity to do it.  I can't speak on if it will conflict with future hypervisor integration that Symantec may or may not be working on. :-)

If you're using VMware Server, ESX, or ESXi, I would use http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/ to convert the existing physical server into a virtual server. If you keep the IP and DNS the same, the clients will never know anything changed.  Otherwise you'll have to follow the same procedures to move SEPM from one server to another server.

[Mithun Sanghavi]

Hi,

1) It is possible to Virtualize the SEPM on a Virtual Machine

2) Supportability:

a) Support policy for Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition and Symantec Endpoint Protection on "virtual computers"

http://service1.symantec.com/support/ent-security.nsf/854fa02b4f5013678825731a007d06af/e70a1327ec910cc588256e430066ee26?OpenDocument

b) About Microsoft Virtual Server support

http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/330766.htm

c) Compatibility of Symantec Endpoint Protection with Microsoft Hyper-V

http://service1.symantec.com/support/ent-security.nsf/854fa02b4f5013678825731a007d06af/6788f0cd8d7db865ca2574e3007f8ed9?OpenDocument

d) Top 10 Symantec Best Practices - Deploying Symantec Endpoint Protection Architecture

http://service1.symantec.com/support/ent-security.nsf/854fa02b4f5013678825731a007d06af/ab6f6bdaeabbd882ca25754b0074a662?OpenDocument

3) It is very easy to move a primary SEPM to a virtual machine - check the KB articles provided below:

a) How to point Symantec Endpoint Protection(SEP) clients to a new Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager after you have either uninstalled, are going to decommission or replace the Existing Primary Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager (SEPM).

http://service1.symantec.com/support/ent-security.nsf/854fa02b4f5013678825731a007d06af/23d0a77b280a618988257567007caec1?OpenDocument

b) How do I move Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager from one server to another with a different IP address and host name?

http://service1.symantec.com/support/ent-security.nsf/854fa02b4f5013678825731a007d06af/9bb60351f8fa6d3f65257409007f5774?OpenDocument

c) Best Practices guide to moving the Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager SQL Server database from an existing SQL Server database to a new SQL Server database

http://service1.symantec.com/support/ent-security.nsf/854fa02b4f5013678825731a007d06af/09ef18132cca7d4f6525742c006ba05b?OpenDocument

[Migration User]

yup....I too would have taken the converter approach. Has worked very well for me in the past.....

[Migration User]

To be short

You can install it on Virtual Machines and support will be provided till they find that the issue is because of the virtual machine itself.

[Migration User]

yep and we have been running it that way from the start, been working perfectly.  Especially good as really the server sits ticking over most of the time.  We use remote SQL too.

But if you dont want the hasstle of moving everything like has been said use the convertor to P2V it.

[Migration User]

We have SEPM running on two VM's,
The one in production with a remote DB that supports about 3000 clients. This works very well. We have 2 CPU's and 2GB of RAM allocated to it which is (way) more than enough for the number of clients we have. 

The one in the lab has a local DB and supports only a few clients. This server seems to be a bit pokey with the local DB but works just fine as well.

[Migration User]

We've been running our SEPM in a WMware environment for over a year now.  Originally a physical machine that we P2V-ed.  Running on a SAN and have the machine replicated to our DR stie.  Haven't tested the actual failover process, but the VM has been beautiful.  It provides a nice confort level to snapshot the VM before upgrading the SEPM.

[Migration User]

We started our SEP system with the VM servers. Didn't move P to V, but that's not an issue.
We've not seen any issues related to the SEM servers being VM.
Any issues have apparently been unrelated.
I originally installed SEM to the VM servers August 2008, moved to production in September 2008, and have upgraded several times.
I do find it seems to take more memory and processor in the VM world, but that's just comparing notes with those who have physical installs with much less ram and processor. I had to up ours due to pegged useage during LU and such.
MAYBE wirh RU5 I can drop it back, dunno.

[Migration User]

When we made the move from SAV to SEP we were in a hardware refresh cycle and my SAV physical server was one of those slated to be replaced.  We were also moving everything that could be a VM to a VM.  We are using ESX for our VM environment and we have had no problems with running SEPM and we came on board just as MR1 released.

[Migration User]

Would like to use the existing physical server and P2V it to create a Virtual Machine to use as a failover server.  Single SQL server off box in a cluster.