Following our previous note regarding a digital certificate update, and the subsequent release of updated N-central binaries, we are planning to upgrade the hosted N-central On-Demand (NCOD) environment to HF5 for N-central 2020.1.
The upgrade schedule is available here: https://community.solarwindsmsp.com/Support/N-central-Hosted; please check it to confirm when your N-central instance will be upgraded as access to your N-central hosted server may be limited during that time. You can also refer to the https://uptime.solarwindsmsp.com website to view the status of the upgrades.
Action Required – N-central Server for New Devices, AV Defender
To onboard new devices into your N-central instance, you must leverage the new Windows Agent and Windows Probe installers, as those installers include the updated digital certificate. The macOS and Linux Agents are not affected by the updated digital certificate. If you are running AV Defender, you must upgrade your existing Windows Agents, or update to the latest version of AV Defender (6.6.20.296) to avoid any interruptions in communications between the Windows Agent and AV Defender. For more details, please see the AV Defender-specific note below.
No Action Required –All Other N-central Services, Existing Agents/Probes without AV Defender
We are also releasing updates to the following services: Automation Manager, AV Defender, Patch Management, MSP Backup, NetPath, and Take Control. Apart from AV Defender (see the service-specific note below), no action is required as those services upgrade automatically.
Existing installations of the Agents and Probes, which are not managing AV Defender, will continue to operate normally. However, the updated digital certificate will only be available in the latest version of the Windows Agent and Windows Probe.
Service-Specific Notes:
AV Defender
AV Defender 6.6.20.296 is available for Windows Modern Operating Systems, designed for Windows 7/Windows Server 2008 R2 and higher. This will be available as an update, upgrade and fresh install. The AV Defender update can be scheduled at an appropriate time by adding a maintenance window to your devices. Updating involves an incremental update of components or modules without the need to remove protection. A reboot may be required based on Installation Status. If you do not want updates or reboots to proceed automatically, you can disable them by removing the appropriate maintenance windows from the device or rule.
To determine what version of AV Defender has been installed on a device, refer to the Settings -> Security Manager tab of the device.
MSP Backup
Existing backup agents will be automatically updated to 20.11.0.20350 with a new digital certificate. However, based on your specific settings/policies/circumstances, the agent may not be automatically updated in time (for example, if the device is offline). In these cases, you may need to update to the new version manually to keep your backups running as expected. If that scenario applies to you, please complete the following steps:
• In N-Central, navigate to Configuration – Backup Manager – MSP Backup – Dashboard.
• In the MSP Backup dashboard, click on the Columns button and search for the Client Version column. Select it and it will be added in the complete right end of your view. Use the arrow to scroll to the right. Once you have identified any devices needing the update (less than 20.11.0.20350) uninstall the MSP Backup software and N-Central Windows Agent will install it back with the latest version, while maintaining your settings.
NetPath
NetPath agent applications updates are taking place; those updates are happening separately from the upgrade of your N-central server and its Windows Agents and Probes. NetPath is being updated to version 1.15.6.12, and you can check what version is installed on a device via the Asset -> Applications tab of the device.
Patch Management Engine (PME)
Patch Management Engine (PME) version 1.2.13 was also released with an up-to-date digital certificate. You can check what PME version is installed on a device via the Patch Status service or the Asset > Applications tab of the device.
The following PME bug fix was included:
• NCPM-4593, Patch installations are timing out after 60 minutes
Take Control
Take Control updates are happening separately from the upgrade of your N-central server. Take Control – both the Windows Agent and the Windows Viewer – are being updated to version 7.00.21, and you can check what version is installed on a device via the Asset -> Applications tab of the device.