Has anyone deployed WSA in a Windows Server 2012 environment?

  • 16 October 2013
  • 13 replies
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Userlevel 7
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  • Retired Webrooter
  • 831 replies
We have a potential customer who would like to know what other customers' experiences have been when deploying Webroot SecureAnywhere Endpoint protection in a Windows Server 2012 environment. If anyone has done so, we would love to hear from you.
 
Thanks!
 

13 replies

Userlevel 7
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Hello,
 
We have done internal testing with Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2 with no new issues to report from both. Please do let us know if you experience any.
 
Regards,
 
Matt - Webroot Enterprise Support Engineer
We are now trying to deploy in a 2012 environment. Can't get Webroot deployed by GPO. Not sure if it's a 2012 thing or general GPO thing (e.g. I'd have the same problem if was using 2008 R2.
 
Starting a separate thread on this problem.
Deploys fine to workstations via GPO that hadn't had Webroot before. The machines that I used in my evaluation period- where Webroot was installed, tested, then uninstalled- will not re-install via GPO. Maybe leftover stuff in the registry(?).
Userlevel 7
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Hi ehumphrey,
Out of curiosity what settings are you using in the GPO?
Thanks for your response. I've inserted a screen shot. Since this is a security forum, I'm being paranoid and obscuring host names.


 
 
This GPO works for all our workstations where it is a fresh install, but not for those that had it previously during our test period.
Userlevel 5
Hello ehumphrey,
I reported this issue back in about August and it was resolved in build 8.0.2.179. This was being caused by residual MSI keys being left behind after uninstallation.
 
I will perform some tests in my environment today and contact development if an issue is still present.
 
Thank you and I will update this thread as soon as I know more.
-Shawn
Userlevel 5
In addition...
 
Did you use the "ARPNOREMOVE=1" when deploying the first go around?
 
Thanks!
-Shawn
Shawn,
Thanks for your notes. The first go-around I just used the executable sent by email from webroot (my license key #.exe) and installed locally. So I didn't set the ARPNOREMOVE value.
 
A further note: on the workstations where I uninstalled Webroot, it does in fact show up in the list of programs if I go to Control Panel>Add/Remove Programs. In the list it shows the generic MSI icon instead of the green circle W icon. Yet even though it appears here, there is no trace of it elsewhere (not in Start>Programs, not in system tray, etc).
 
Userlevel 7
Badge +6
Just to note, the MSI installer is a wrapper around the EXE installer. It has some custom logic I don't have the skills to reverse engineer, but in the end it passes installation flags to the EXE. If something goes wrong it's possible for them to not match up.
If you have a tool to deploy WSA via EXE I would encourage you to go that route. I'm not saying MSI isn't a perfectly fine method, but in this case it's just a management layer to work with GPO rather than something that truly leverages it.
 
There is custom logic in the MSI for doing a repair operation, but I've never seen the WRSA.exe file itself get corrupted, it's the local client data in the WRData folder that can rarely get messed up. I've never heard anyone refer to it as a troubleshooting step.
 
You should contact Webroot support for the left-behind installation issue. My deployment experience was with the first MSI they ever introduced so i don't want to give you outdated info.
 
I could be completely wrong about all of this, another reason you should contact support 🙂
Userlevel 3
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We have deployed in a Server 2012 enviroment with GPO and had no issues.

I have a fairly new enviroment and Webroot was the only antivirus that was pushed out via GPO.  I used Trend Micro for a year but hand installed on the 13 computers.
I noticed within the supported Windows Server 2012r2 flavors there's no mention of Windows Server 2012r2 Enterprise. Is it supported and if not is there a roadmap to it being supported? I have two of these servers I would like to protect.
 
Thank you,
Jon
Userlevel 7
Windows Server 2012 Enterprise is not currently supported. Please reach out to our Support Team to share your feedback with them.
Userlevel 4
GPO applied to the local computer:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionGroup PolicyHistory
 
GPO applied to the currently logged on user:
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionGroup PolicyHistory
 
Check these to see if there is anything remaining. Once removed it should deploy easy. 

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