Sentinel Agent Manager 8.0 Release Notes

January 2017

Sentinel Agent Manager 8.0 resolves several previous issues.

Many of these improvements were made in direct response to suggestions from our customers. We thank you for your time and valuable input. We hope you continue to help us ensure that our products meet all your needs. You can post feedback in the Sentinel forum on NetIQ Communities, our online community that also includes product information, blogs, and links to helpful resources.

The documentation for this product is available on the NetIQ website in HTML and PDF formats on a page that does not require you to log in. If you have suggestions for documentation improvements, click the Comment icon on any page in the HTML version of the documentation posted at the Sentinel NetIQ Documentation page. To download this product, see the NetIQ Patch Finder website.

For the latest version of this release notes, see Sentinel Agent Manager 8.0 Release Notes.

What’s New?

The following sections outline the key features and enhancements, and also the issues resolved in this release:

Sentinel Agent Manager Resolves Security Identifiers (SIDs) of Windows Events to Account Names

Sentinel Agent Manager now resolves SIDs of Windows Agent events to account names. Therefore, the InitiatorUserName and TargetUserName event fields in Sentinel display the appropriate account names instead of blank values. To get this enhancement, you must also upgrade the Microsoft Active Directory and Windows Collector to version 2011.1r8 or later. Until it is officially released, you can download the preview version of the Collector from the Previews section on the Sentinel Plug-ins website.

Updates to Data Collection from UNIX/Linux Devices

Agent Manager no longer supports receiving data from UNIX agents. NetIQ recommends that you configure the NetIQ Security Agent for UNIX to send data directly to Sentinel from UNIX/Linux devices.

Updates to Certified Operating System Versions

Agent Manager deprecates a few operating system versions for which Microsoft has ended the extended support. For the list of currently certified operating system versions, see the Technical Information for Sentinel page.

Software Fixes

Agent Manager 8.0 includes the following software fixes.

Devices Tag Values Lost When Agent Servers Are Restarted

Issue: The Agent Manager agent uses information from the server service to determine what type of computer the agent is, such as a Workstation, Server, or a Domain Controller. Sometimes, the Agent Manager service is loaded faster than the server service, resulting in the agent storing an empty value for the computer type and the computer to no longer match a Device Group. (Bug 934150)

Fix: The Windows Server service is loaded before the agent service, so it is available when the Agent Manager agent attempts to connect to it.

Incorrect Data in the ObserverEventTime Event Field

Issue: Agent Manager Connector displays incorrect data in the ObserverEventTime event field when Agent Manager is set to default system locale. Hence, the date and time values vary according to the system language. (Bug 929551)

Fix: Regardless of the system language in Agent Manager, the Agent Manager Connector now displays correct data in the ObserverEventTime event field.

Cannot Deploy Managed Agents

Issue: Deployment of managed agents fails, and Agent Manager displays the following error:

The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect.

(Bug 966290)

Fix: You can now deploy managed agents.

Silent Installation of Unmanaged Agents Fails

Issue: Silent installation of unmanaged agents fails because the Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Service Pack 1 Redistributable package is not installed as part of the installation process. This issue does not occur if the package is already present in the computer. (Bug 906426)

Fix: Silent installation of unmanaged agents now installs the Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Service Pack 1 Redistributable package.

Agent Manager Does Not Consider the RawDataTapFileSize Configuration

Issue: Agent Manager ignores the value specified in the RawDataTapFileSize attribute in the SMServiceHost.exe.config file for the raw data file size configuration, and stops writing to the raw data file when the file size reaches 10 MB. (Bug 867954)

Fix: Agent Manager now writes to the raw data file as per the value specified in the RawDataTapFileSize attribute in the SMServiceHost.exe.config file.

Database Installation Fails in Microsoft SQL Server 2012 SP2 with Some Cumulative Updates

Issue: While installing the Agent Manager database on computers that have Microsoft SQL Server 2012 SP2 installed with some cumulative updates such as CU7 and CU8, installer displays an error indicating that the Microsoft SQL Server version is not compatible, and installation fails. (Bug 948696)

Fix: Agent Manager database installation completes successfully on computers that have any of the supported Microsoft SQL Server versions.

System Requirements

For information about hardware requirements, supported operating systems, and browsers, see the Technical Information for Sentinel page.

Installing Agent Manager 8.0

For information about installing Agent Manager 8.0, see the NetIQ Agent Manager Installation Guide.

Upgrading to Agent Manager 8.0

You can upgrade to Agent Manager 8.0 from Agent Manager 7.0 or later.

Download the Agent Manager installer from the NetIQ Patch Finder website. For information about upgrading to Agent Manager 8.0, see Upgrading Sentinel Agent Manager in the NetIQ Agent Manager Installation Guide.

Migrating to Agent Manager 8.0 from NetIQ Security Manager

Sentinel Agent Manager 8.0 does not support direct migration from NetIQ Security Manager. You can migrate from Security Manager to Sentinel Agent Manager 7.3 and then upgrade to Sentinel Agent Manager 8.0. For more information about migration from Security Manager, please contact Technical Support.

Known Issues

NetIQ Corporation strives to ensure our products provide quality solutions for your enterprise software needs. The following issues are currently being researched. If you need further assistance with any issue, please contact Technical Support.

The Agent Manager Connector Does Not Set the Connection Mode Property in Events If the Associated Collector Supports Multiple Connection Modes

Issue: The Agent Manager Connector version 2011.1r3 does not set the CONNECTION_MODE property in the events if the Collector parsing the events supports multiple connection modes. (Bug 880564)

Workaround: The Agent Manager Connector version 2011.1r5 and later resolve this issue. Until it is officially released on the Sentinel Plug-ins website, you can download the Connector from the Previews section.

Agent Manager Requires SQL Authentication When FIPS 140-2 Mode is Enabled

Issue: When FIPS 140-2 mode is enabled in your Sentinel environment, using Windows authentication for Agent Manager causes synchronization with the Agent Manager database to fail. (Bug 814452)

Workaround: Use SQL authentication for Agent Manager when FIPS 140-2 mode is enabled in your Sentinel environment.

Agent Manager Cannot Communicate with iSeries Agent

Issue: Agent Manager 7.3 introduced security improvements that break communication with the iSeries agent. Agent Manager 7.3 and later cannot collect events from the iSeries Agent.

Workaround: Do not upgrade Agent Manager. Continue to use Agent Manager 7.2 to collect data from iSeries devices.

Contact Information

Our goal is to provide documentation that meets your needs. If you have suggestions for improvements, please email Documentation-Feedback@netiq.com. We value your input and look forward to hearing from you.

For detailed contact information, see the Support Contact Information website.

For general corporate and product information, see the NetIQ Corporate website.