Release Notes for McAfee Agent 4.5 Release Candidate

About this document

Thank you for using McAfee® Agent 4.5 Release Candidate. This document contains important information about this release. We strongly recommend that you read the entire document.

Installation instructions can be found in the McAfee Agent 4.5 Product Guide.

If you are installing McAfee Agent 4.5 for use with ePolicy Orchestrator 4.0, you must first apply ePO patch 4.

To obtain the patch, follow these instructions:
  1. Use your browser to access the McAfee Beta download site: http://www.mcafee.com/us/enterprise/downloads/beta/index.html
  2. Select My Products-Downloads.
  3. Type your Grant Number and click Submit.
  4. Select View Available Downloads.
  5. Under Management Solutions, select ePolicy Orchestrator v4.0.0.
  6. Click I Agree.
  7. Under ePolicy Orchestrator v4.0.0 - Ver 4.0.0 Patch 4 download ePO400P4.Zip.

New features

Update Now

The Update Now action provides the following new functionality:
  • Updating selected systems when troubleshooting.
  • Distributing new DATs or signatures to a large number of systems, or all systems immediately.
  • Updating selected point-products that have been deployed previously.
NOTE: This feature requires ePolicy Orchestrator 4.5

Policy Assignment Rules

Point-products that are designed to work with this feature can specify which policies to apply to the currently logged-in user. Machine-based policies remain in force.
NOTE: This feature requires ePolicy Orchestrator 4.5

Communication Security Enhancements

When used with ePolicy Orchestrator 4.5, all agent-server communications, including the following, are encrypted with Transport Layer Security (TLS), the of industry standard high-encryption protocol:
  • Agent-server communication
  • Event uploading
  • Update Now actions
  • Authentication and authorization
  • Bulk data transfers
All encryption is 128-bit strength and, except for Mac OS X , are FIPS 140-2 compliant.
NOTE: This feature requires ePolicy Orchestrator 4.5

Performance Improvement

Policy enforcement functions have been redesigned to reduce CPU consumption.

Improved methodology for identifying nearby subnets

The previous method of determining the closest repository sometimes identified very remote subnets. With this improved method, when you choose to connect with the nearest repository, the shortest distance is the one that involves the fewest hops, or portions of the route between source and destination.

Data Execution Prevention

The agent is compatible with Windows operating systems that provide Data Execution Prevention (DEP).

Custom Properties

Four custom properties can be included in the installation of the agent at the command-line. This feature allows custom properties to be reported back to the ePO server, and displayed in the system properties. This information can be used with ePolicy Orchestrators tagging feature as well.
  • In Windows environments, custom properties can also be specified directly in the editable registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Network Associates\ePolicy Orchestrator\Agent\CustomProps\
  • On Unix-based systems, custom properties can be specified in the editable file /McAfee/cma/scratch/ CustomProps.xml.

IPv6 compatibility

The agent is fully compatible with IPv6 in both native and mixed environments, including:
  • Native IPv4
  • Native IPv6
  • Mixed IPv4 and IPv6

System Tray Icon

The McAfee system tray icon has been re-designed and now includes:
  • Links to frequently-used menu items of point-products that are integrated with the tray icon.
  • Links to the administrative console of managed point-products.
  • Triggering of immediate updating all of the installed McAfee point-products, (if enabled).
  • Launching of scans by McAfee programs, such as VirusScan or McAfee Network Access Control.
  • Displaying the current system status of managed McAfee point-products, including current events and event history. This information can be copied and saved to the clipboard for inclusion in a text file.
  • Direct linking to the Agent Status Monitor as an alternative to the previous command line procedure. The Monitor includes buttons that trigger collection and transmission of properties; downloading and enforcing policies; and transmission of event information.

Known issues

Known issues in this release of the software are described below:

Managed product compatibility issues

  • McAfee Agent 4.5 is not currently supported by VirusScan for Mac and LinuxShield products. (456562, 456447)

Upgrade issues

  • When upgrading non-Windows systems to the McAfee Agent 4.5, you must use the ePolicy Orchestrator deployment task to perform the upgrade if HIPS 7.0 is installed. (481173)

Agent communication issues

  • Clicking Show Agent log for a managed system might not show the agent log file. If you are unable to view the agent log file verify that McAfee Agent policy settings are configured so that the Accept connections only from ePO server option is unchecked (McAfee Agent Policy Pages, General tab) and the Enable remote access to log option is checked (McAfee Agent Policy Pages, Logging tab). (447579)
  • In cluster environments with more than one cluster server managed by ePolicy Orchestrator, agent communications report the cluster IP address instead of the node IP address. This can cause a problem when one node fails over and a passive node becomes active. When this scenario occurs, the ePO server can no longer communicate with the passive node because it has the wrong IP address. The IP address is corrected automatically at the passive node's next agent-server communication. (360552)
  • If you downgrade from ePolicy Orchestrator version 4.5 to version 4.0, you must redeploy your agents." (487890)
  • When moving systems between Agent Handlers, systems become unresponsive until the next agent initiated agent-server communication. To workaround this issue, add the ePO server as the last entry on Agent Handler Assignment list. Doing so ensures you can maintain communication with the agent. (455083)

Product Update issues

  • The branch updating feature is only enabled for deployments of full product, full engines, and product content. For example, DATs and signatures. (487805)

Property collection issues

  • Agents installed on Solaris 8 systems do not report subnet address to the ePO server. (487428)

Proxy Authentication issues

  • If the primary proxy authentication fails when updating from an HTTP repository, the agent does not use the alternate proxy. (467784)
  • When upgrading the McAfee Agent to version 4.5 from version 4.0, you might receive an erroneous log message in the Agent log stating that "New MAC address was found...regenerating Agent ID." This message can be disregarded. No new MAC address was found and a new Agent ID was not generated. (486102)

Policy Assignment Rules issues

  • In order to use the Policy Assignment Rules feature in ePolicy Orchestrator 4.5 to create user based policies on systems running Windows Server 2003 64-bit or Windows XP 64-bit, you must install Windows Service Pack 2 and the Microsoft Hot Fix released in the following Microsoft KB article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/967587. (360552)

System Tray issues

  • When running 64-bit Operating Systems, some managed product icons might appear outside of the System Tray icon. (486449)
  • The System Tray icon might not appear on VMware systems running Windows 2008 Service Pack 2. (487483)

Documentation issues

  • If you are running McAfee Agent 4.5 with ePolicy Orchestrator 4.0, you will not have access to Help topics that are specific to McAfee Agent 4.5 for this pre-release software.
  • Context-sensitive help for the McAfee Agent Policy pages Proxy tab incorrectly states that both Do not use a proxy and Use Internet Explorer settings (Windows only) are default settings. Do not use a proxy is the default setting. (450041)

Resolved issues

Agent update issues

  • The agent now updates successfully even when the catalog.z file exceeds 4 KB. (477257)
  • The Update Now action now updates only the selected packages to specified systems. This action no longer pushes updates of all packages in the repository to the selected systems. (468694)

Where to find McAfee enterprise product information

The McAfee documentation is designed to provide you with the information you need during each phase of product implementation, from evaluating a new product to maintaining existing ones. Depending on the product, additional documents might be available. After a product is released additional information regarding the product is entered into the online Knowledgebase available on McAfee ServicePortal.

Evaluation Phase

Installation Phase

Setup Phase

Maintenance Phase

How can my company benefit from this product?

Evaluation Tutorial

  • Preparing for, installing and deploying software in a test environment.
  • Detailed instructions for common tasks.

Before, during, and after installation.

Release Notes

  • Known issues in the current release.
  • Issues resolved since the last release.
  • Last-minute changes to the product or its documentation.

Installation Guide

  • Preparing for, installing and deploying software in a production environment.

Getting up-and-running with the product.

Product Guide and Online Help

  • Setting up and customizing the software for your environment.

Online Help

  • Managing and deploying products through ePolicy Orchestrator.
  • Detailed information about options in the product.

Maintaining the software.

Online Help

  • Maintaining the software.
  • Reference information.
  • All information found in the product guide.

Quick Reference Card

  • Detailed instructions for common and infrequent important tasks.

Knowledgebase (knowledge.mcafee.com)

  • Release notes and documentation.
  • Supplemental product information.
  • Workarounds to known issues.

Finding release notes and documentation for McAfee enterprise products

Use this task to go to the release notes and other product documentation for McAfee enterprise products.

  1. Go to knowledge.mcafee.com and select Product Documentation under Useful links.
  2. Select <Product Name> | <Product Version> and select the required document from the list of documents.

COPYRIGHT

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2009 McAfee, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into any language in any form or by any means without the written permission of McAfee, Inc., or its suppliers or affiliate companies.

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LICENSE INFORMATION

LICENSE INFORMATION

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