We’re pleased to let you know that the latest SolarWinds RMM release is in the process of rolling out to customers in all territories. In this week’s update we have several feature and performance enhancements heading your way:

• Patch Management policies: Use centralised Patch Management policies for greater oversight and configuration management.
• Web Protection updates: A number of performance improvements and customer bug fixes.
• New Windows RC Agent: We’re releasing a new Windows RC Agent (v10.7.9) with an update to the Antivirus Check for Trend AV.

In addition, there’s a nice usability enhancement that makes it easier to jump to a device’s Asset Tracking record, as well as several customer bug fixes. 

The release is currently live in the Asia Pacific region and we’re in the process of turning it on for customers in Europe, with the UK and the Americas to follow soon after. Here are all the details…

Patch Management Policies 

We’re very excited to announce that in the coming days we’ll be introducing new Patch Management Policies! Policy-based Patch Management allows you to create and manage a centralised list of Patch Management configurations (in the same way you do for Managed Antivirus or Web Protection for example), so you can more easily manage, update and propagate Patch Management settings to your devices, saving valuable management time and ensuring easy adoption of new patch features in the future.

We’ve taken care to ensure there’s a smooth transition from your current setup to the new Patch Management policies, with the timing of the switch entirely in your control. All current Patch Management settings will continue to work until you begin assigning policies to sites/clients, at which point they will switch over to use the new policies. It’s perfectly possible to have a mix or legacy settings and new policy settings alongside each other during this period.

We’re starting the gradual rollout of the feature, here’s how it looks…

• A new “Feature Policy” option in the Patch Management settings menu:

• Configure and maintain centralised policies for Patch Management, just like you do for other features such as Managed Antivirus and Web Protection:

• The new policies contain exactly the same settings that you currently have inline in the Settings tree:

• There’s a new opt-in checkbox on the Patch Management Settings dialog that you can select at your timing in order to switch over to the new Patch Management polices:

• When you’re ready, make the switch and select a Patch policy from your centrally managed list:

• New 3^rd Party Application Support Notice: Please note that we will soon begin support for patch updates for Keepass (https://keepass.info) within Patch Management’s ‘Other Vendors’ update settings.

Web Protection Updates

This release includes multiple agent updates to improve performance for end users, while making the management of Web Protection from the dashboard a more seamless experience.  We have updated multiple aspects of the packet processing and blacklist/whitelist handling, to improve the overall performance for end users, while ensuring that alerts and policy management bugs have been resolved.

Workflow improvement: Jump straight to the device in Asset Tracking 

There’s also a nice usability enhancement in this update: Now you can jump straight from a device’s assets detail on the Assets tab to its record in the main Asset Tracking section, via this new option:

It means you don’t have to manually look the device up again in the Asset Tracking section using the dropdown menus, saving you time and clicks!

Here are the release notes for this week’s update…

Please note that the features are rolling out in stages and will be enabled in customer accounts over the coming days.

Summary for Service Release
– NetPath enhancements, policy-managed Patch Management, Web Protection enhancements, customer bug fixes and asset tracking workflow improvement
– Dashboard Version 2018.08.13, 2018.08.20
– NetPath v1.9
– New Windows RC Agent v10.7.9, Web Protection Agent v5.8

Dashboard v2018.08.20, v2018.08.13
FEATURE: Introduction of centralised feature policies for Patch Management
UPDATE: Support for Keepass in Patch Management’s ‘Other Vendors’ update settings
UPDATE: Option to jump to a device’s record in Asset Tracking from its Assets tab
BUGFIX: Ensure the Price Breakdown Report does not show when the permission is denied in Roles & Permissions
BUGFIX: Update to the Backup & Recovery Selected Size Check to ensure it shows the correct percentage increase (sporadic issue)
BUGFIX: Resolve issue affecting the Event Logs Check when using “Edit Checks Like This” so that it applies the critical events exclusion list
BUGFIX: Removal of ‘Restore’ backup types from the Backup & Recovery Restorable Selection Report

Windows RC Agent v10.7.9
BUGFIX: Update to Trend AntiVirus in the Antivirus Update Check to handle the situation where the endpoint receives the latest definitions update prior to the publication of the update on the Trend website so it will correctly pass
BUGFIX: Additional Trend Antivirus update to improve accuracy of error message so that “Unable to get product version” is only displayed when this is indeed the issue

Web Protection Agent v5.8
UPDATE: Download BrightCloud local DB right after first run of WP service
UPDATE: Increased awareness of DNS
UPDATE: Refactor database model to match in all territories & environments
UPDATE: Updated driver logic to improve performance
UPDATE: Updated SSL cert on build.logicnow.us
UPDATE: Optimized Packet Logging
UPDATE: Optimized IP address handling
BUGFIX: Access violation received in Report Only mode, when extended packed logging is enabled
BUGFIX: Decouple agent updating to new version from new agent being provisioned
BUGFIX: Extended blacklist and whitelist URL decision expiration time
BUGFIX: Bandwidth alert is not generated
BUGFIX: Partial loss of DNS answers causing increased certificate errors with HTTPS
BUGFIX: API: CurrentAgentVersion: CurrentAgentReleaseVersion and CurrentAgentBuildVersion values don’t relate to CurrentAgentVersion value
BUGFIX: Echo Agent is not communicating over TLS 1.2. Error “Could not create SSL/TLS secure channel.”
BUGFIX: Unable to load DLL on win server 2008