Is it possible to configure ESM to send out an email to a nominated address whenever an error or critical notification occurs? Or is there any other way of being notified of a problem, other than checking the ESM console?
I agree… This would be a handy feature. Also with the ability to respond to requests via email. As a lot of admins these days have blackberries and other phones (such as the over rated iPhoney) this would be an efficient method when mobile and trying to initially provision machines.
“Tim S” - that’s exactly what we’re putting into ESM 2.0, an alerts notification system via email
“SinrG202” - I like where you’re going with this, we’ve been bouncing this around as a “console-less” way of managing ESM via email commands/responses, like to dismiss or remediate alerts. I’d like to hear more of your thoughts in terms of “provision machines”.
– Glen Marianko
Product Manager
Hi.
Good to see activity in the forums. I’m going to need to subscribe to some threads.
Re: Provisioning machines…
Currently I’ve found the ESM pretty cumbersome when setting up new machines. I’ve had major issues with pushing the agent out over a workgroup… Our environment currently is on a workgroup as the majority of our staff are Citrix remote workers. I have no real need for a domain, although I have a Domain Controller connected via VPN to Head Office for a select few machines belonging to power users.
Anyway, because of this problem with the ESM, I’ve had to either install the agent from the console one at a time due to workgroup problems. I found this problematic and it didn’t always install… So… I ended up walking about installing the agent machine-by-machine. This wasn’t a problem in our UK Head Office as it’s only 40 or so machines, but meant I had to remote in or visit our other depots about the UK as over VPN was a night mare. I therefore had to walk about with a laptop with a remote desktop session to the ESM console so I could authorise the connections and then apply policies. It was a pain in the rs to say the least. Being a blackberry user with email response, or better still an app I would’ve been more than happy, but as it was awful.
The only reason I put up with this is because I’ve enjoyed using the comodo AV and Firewall at home, and I know it’s rarely beaten without user error… That and the fact I see a lot of potential, if you guys commit to it and stop flitting between projects. Finish one, especially one you charge for.
The ESM console is ugly so it’s relieving to hear a fresh release on it’s way. I’ve signed up to trial it out on a few machines and will bug report as I can. I’ve not reported so much on this as there has been so many niggling issues and for a product in a business environment that you actually pay for, it’s not good enough and I don’t have the time to report all my issues back.
OK, got it. Well, ESM 2.0 console is web-based, so that will eliminate the laptop/RDP issue. However, the deploy functionality in ESM is where my question lies: were you able to specify, at the console, an IP or range to find remote workstations via the VPN (i.e. do you have IP visibility to your endpoints over the VPN). On that IP, are you able to log into the workstation’s admin share? Because that’s still a requirement for automated deployment, unless you can get an ESM Agent on the workstation in some other way. We’ve beefed up the command line parameters for installing the MSI outside of ESM itself (e.g. using active directory group policy/login script), and we’re planning to add email invitation (i.e. you would enter the email addresses of your remote users asking them to click a link and install the software – assuming they have the permissions) in either the 2.0 or a follow-up release.
Point well taken. Comodo and the ESM dev team is committed to ESM for the long run; you can look forward to more great things from our team.
We just received your beta request, you should be all set to trial ESM – looking forward to more insights on the beta forum: https://forums.comodo.com/endpoint-security-manager-20-business-edition-beta-b260.0/.
Best,
–Glen Marianko
Product Line Manager, Comodo Business Security Solutions
Sorry, It’s been a while since I’ve checked this…
The VPN is irrelevant in this head office situation as they are basically just in a workgroup.
The problem I had was pushing the agents… The ESM would detect all the machines on the network, I’d tick all the boxes and it’d fail install to all of them… If I installed by ticking one at a time It would install… The permissions were all valid. Rather than installing one at a time from the console I would do one at a time locally as it was faster…
Anyway… I’ve just got the Beta running on a small 4 machine test bed so I’m going to hope this works well…
Going back to the original post though… I believe SysAid do a similar thing, whereby you get email notifications and you can approve/deny directly from there… I’m going to hold back from saying anymore until I’ve had a proper look at this beta…