ESET PROTECT VA upgrade/migration

Perform the following to upgrade or migrate your VA:

•Upgrade—Install a later version of ESET PROTECT components.

•Migration—Move the ESET PROTECT Virtual Appliance to another instance of the same version.

•Migration and upgrade—Move the ESET PROTECT Virtual Appliance to another instance of the later version.

There are two ways of upgrading your VA:

•Using the database pull—Upgrades the Appliance, including the underlying operating system, not just the ESET PROTECT Server. The process is complex and requires running two concurrent appliances during the transition period. We recommend using the database pull to upgrade to the major versions or for troubleshooting.

•Upgrading via Components Upgrade task in the Web Console—The process is simpler and does not require access to the appliance, only to the Web Console. We recommend this procedure for minor and hotfix upgrades. Components upgrade does not upgrade the underlying operating system or other packages needed for proper functioning of ESET PROTECT Server.

Migration and upgrade process (recommended way to upgrade)

Before the migration

Back up your database and export Certification Authority and Peer Certificates from your old ESET PROTECT VA before migrating or upgrading the ESET PROTECT Server.

If your old ESET PROTECT VA does not use advanced security and has SHA-1 certificates, follow these steps before the migration in your old ESET PROTECT VA to prevent the failed login in the new VA:

1.Enable the advanced security.

2.Create a new Certification Authority.

3.Create a new Server certificate and sign it using the new Certification Authority.

4.Wait until the public part of the Certification Authority replicates to all ESET Management Agents in the network.

ESET PROTECT On-Prem Mobile Device Management (MDM) reached the End of Life. We recommend that you migrate to cloud-based ESET PROTECT with Cloud MDM.

Follow these instructions to migrate from the earlier VA to the latest VA (including the migration from CentOS to Rocky Linux).

1.Download the latest protect_appliance.ova (or protect_appliance.vhdx.zip if you use Microsoft Hyper-V).

2.Deploy a new ESET PROTECT VA. See ESET PROTECT Virtual Appliance deployment process for instructions. Do not configure the new ESET PROTECT VA via its web interface.

3.Pull the database from your old VA.

Do not uninstall/decommission your old VA Server.

4.Configure ESET PROTECT Virtual Appliance via its web interface.

5.Verify the new ESET PROTECT VA behaves like the old one:

•If the new ESET PROTECT VA has a different IP address:

a)Create a policy on the old VA to set a new ESET PROTECT Server IP address and assign it to all computers.

We recommend that you test the policy by assigning it to one computer before assigning it to more targets.

To take full advantage of the advanced security, you can generate a new peer certificate for the ESET Management Agent and distribute it via a Policy to all computers.

b)Wait for the policy to be distributed to all ESET Management Agents.

c)Ensure all computers connect to the new ESET PROTECT VA.

d)Turn off and decommission the old VA.

We recommend that you do not uninstall the old ESET PROTECT VA Server using an uninstallation script. This uninstallation procedure will remove all licenses from the new ESET PROTECT VA Server database. To prevent this, delete the old ESET PROTECT VA Server database (DROP DATABASE) before the uninstallation.

•If the new ESET PROTECT VA has the same IP address:

Ensure the network configuration on your new ESET PROTECT Server (IP address, FQDN, Computer name, DNS SRV record) matches the old VA Server. You can use the hostname by changing the DNS record to the new server.

a)Turn off the old VA.

b)Turn on the new ESET PROTECT VA.

c)Ensure all computers are connecting to the new ESET PROTECT VA.

d)Decommission the old VA.

6.Upgrade a ESET Management Agents sample group using an ESET PROTECT Components Upgrade task.

Do not include the ESET Management Agent running on the ESET PROTECT VA in the sample because the Agent upgrade causes a temporary connection loss to ESET PROTECT, making the server appear corrupted.

7.If the sample upgrade is successful and Agents are still connecting, continue with the rest of the Agents.

Upgrade process (an alternative way to upgrade)

Upgrading to the latest ESET PROTECT On-Prem on the same VA does not upgrade other VA software (operating system, packages needed for proper functioning of ESET PROTECT Server). We recommend that you migrate the server after a clean upgrade.

Upgrade the VA using a Components Upgrade task:

1.Upgrade the ESET PROTECT Server first.

2.Upgrade a ESET Management Agents sample group.

3.If the sample upgrade is successful and Agents are still connecting, continue with the rest of the Agents.

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