Central management of Antivirus. McAfee AV 6.6?

Interesting, for the first time I have a client asking the same question. I'm currently investigating a solution.

Hi,

I'm also investigating this concept.
We're mainly a 10.5.5 environment, however we do run bootcamp on most machines.
Ideally I'd like to have a server based antivirus app on the xserve that can provide updates etc to our macs and their bootcamp partitions (all XP).
Does this make sense or is it possible?

Thanks,
nige

nige@dgs,

There appears to be no server solution for OS X server in regards to managing/supplying OS X clients anti-virus software. The best solution I've found is Sohpos Anit-virus, however, you need to install the management console on a Windows server 2000/2003/2008 box. My client is going to allow Windows Server 2003 to be virtualized on one of their XServe's for this purpose. Yes they are that concerned about running anti-virus software on their Mac's.

Thanks for the suggestion Mike,

I've had a brief look at the Sophos website, but not tried or investigated it much yet, although now I think I will.

So you think that it is possible for Sophos to be installed on a Windows server box and that it can serve both mac and pc versions of it's client software? For us it'd mean purchasing the windows server and the antivirus software, but like you said, it may be the best (if not only) solution.

Nige

Hi

The only instance I know of where McAfee is run on the Mac platform is via Kerio Mail Server. It uses it as one of its built-in filters. However it does not - as far as I know - directly scan/update/protect network clients?

As already mentioned Sophos may be the one and only option for many reasons? However I did find this:

http://www.intego.com/vbserver/

Might be applicable?

Tony

Thanks Tony,

I've emailed intego to see if their product will suite my needs. It does have a server app, as well as mac and pc client versions so it looks promising.

Will let you know how we go.
Nige

McAfee also only provides central management via a Windows server.

Technically, it's possible with Symantec AV but the corporate/enterprise version has a different number than the end-user/retail product (Norton AV For Mac v 11).

But you will probably have a hard time finding a rep that even knows the Mac enterprise product exists - seriously. Let alone is able to give you pertinent information about the details of/for the product.

See the product page here,
http://shop.symantecstore.com/store/symnasmb/en_US/DisplayProductDetailsSmbPage/ productID.53208600
and
http://www.afp548.com/article.php?story=20050809090918558

David,

Wow, I did not do enough research, it looks like this is exactly the solution I was looking for, however I'm yet to find documentation or a trial of the software to see how it really operates.

Tony, I have checked out Intego software before, however it looks to childish for enterprise customers. Also the link you provided is for a single install of OS X Server, for only that server, not management of OS X clients. Intego looks like they have a product called Remote Management Console, however I'm not sure if this will do everything it needs to do, mainly provide updates for the clients vs having the clients go out to the internet for their updates.

The big question here is what product/company provides the BEST solution? Which one will interfere the least with system resources? In the past Norton has been the answer, however how many times have you hated it for being a resource hog?

Hi again,

So Mike do you think that the symantec software will work using the afp584 guide to setting up a mac server, for both mac and pc environments?

I've heard back from intego, the sales guy has confirmed that their virusbarrier server app would run on the xserve and serve virus defs to each VB client (mac clients run VB and bootcamp clients run VB dual protection). This essentially does what I want it to (I think?).

With that all said I've got the feeling that intego is going to be more pricey than the others, and yes I'd agree Mike on this as well, it does look a bit childish.

Nige

@Mike: I'd be surprised if you had found that info on your own, it represents about 6 months (on and off) of effort on my part. Because, for the longest time, Symantec did not have that product page up for their Mac SAV product. There's mention of a v.11 release for it, but from what I'm told,
the existing product was updated to be both Intel-native (UB) and 10.5-compatible.

If you go that route, expect to have a struggle getting meaningful info or support. It seems to be that if you don't already have such a contact with them, you'll be hard pressed to find one.

//////

Now then, in my direct experience, Sophos actually has very little impact on system resources,
and in an instance at a small office (10 or so Macs) it also successfully found all Word docs that were infected with a (Windows PC) VB Macro virus, and successfully disinfected them all. It was quick about it, and the documents were still fully usable afterward.

I agree with Mike. I work at a K-8 school, 98% Mac and we use Sophos. Sophos is the way to go in my opinion. It's easy to trouble shoot and remove, tech support always seem to be knowledgeable and articulate. More importantly you can implement central management when installed on a Windows platform.

David, perfect answer. I've heard the same about Sophos through both a research company as well as another large customer. Its just tempting to go with Intego due to their management console running on an OS X Server, even if it looks like it was designed with Kid Pix.

I think in the end my client will go with Sophos, even if it means running another instance of Windows Server 2003.

Hi,

Sophos also got back to me, they've said that their management console would need either a windows xp or SBS server to manage the network.

They do apparently have a mac management console available, however that is only available in enterprise price lists, and would add on half of what it costs for 18 user licenses of the software to go to this level.

They're getting back to me with what the advantages are etc, however I think that if I can manage all mac and pcs from a xp box (not a server) I'd be in the clear.

Nige

Nige,

Thats some surprising news indeed. I guess their sales staff have zero clue whats going on. I specifically asked for a pure Mac environment and they said I could only run the management console on Windows Server 2003. I'll have to call them back and give them ****. The client I'm working for rite now is an enterprise and they are not afraid to spend money if its worth it.