Sophos Enterprise 5.0.1 and Ranger

Question

Why does the new Sophos 5.0.1 client fail to install or upgrade when the Ranger client is installed? Are they compatible?

Symptoms

Sophos have recently updated their Antivirus Software to version 5.0.1. Since the release a number of schools have reported to us that they have experienced installation or upgrade issues on computers that have the Ranger client installed.
 

They have also reported problems regarding the speed of the clients and server post upgrade to 5.0.1 however they are aware that these issues are not related to Ranger and that they have been reported to Sophos.
 

Note: We are aware of schools that have been able to successfully rollout the software with no installation issues on top of Ranger. Therefore despite some installation problems the products are compatible.

 

The installation issues reported on Ranger clients have been seen on both 9x and XP computers.

The error seen on 9x computers is:
Error 1606 'could not access network location "dir-defpath"
The error seen on XP computers is:
Drive x is invalid

 

Cause

The problem seems to relate to the profile of the user who is installing the software. If the users profile has been modified by Ranger policies then the Sophos installer fails to install or upgrade. The error message suggests the installer is is unable to find or confirm the locations defined in the users profile.

For example if the users home area has been redirected to the server i.e. H:my documents then the installer will try to verify this path. If however you have logged on as a user who's home area is no longer mapped then drive H: is invalid and therefore the software will fail.

Resolution

Try installing the software locally and remotely and try using different users accounts with different profile configurations. Below we have made a few suggestions hopefully one of them will allow you to install the Sophos client.

Note: If you are still unable to get the Sophos product installed please contact your Sophos vendor for additional support.

Instructions

Option 1 (with the Ranger client installed)

Try to logon with a domain admin level user account who has their home area on the server. Before running the installer check the home drive is mapped and the path specified for the Ranger Groups default open save path is valid (by default h:my documents)

Option 2 (with the Ranger client installed)

Try to logon with a domain admin level user account who does not have the home area redirected to the server. Before running the installer check the home drive is on the local computer and the path specified for the Ranger Groups default open save path is set to (c:)

Option 3 (with the Ranger client installed)

Try installing the software remotely through the Enterprise Console. Make sure there are no users logged onto the computer. Scan the domain for new computers, select the machines you wish to install the sophos client on and drag them into a group. You will need to have configured the group policy for this to work. This should initiate the new computer wizard. If a warning is displayed saying the client needs to be installed manually you will need to logon to the computer. After a short delay the client should start to install. After a few more minutes the client will be installed, this will establish connection with the console at which point the policies will be applied and then the client will become active.

Option 4 (without the Ranger client installed)

Logon as a user who has not had their profile manipulated by Ranger. The easiest way of achieving this is to create a network user account without setting up a roaming profile (no profile path) then logon to a pc without the Ranger client. Check the users my documents refers to the local users home folder (On a Windows XP the default path is c:documents and settingsusernamemy documents).

Then try to install the client by going to servernameinterchkesosmsi and running setup.exe. Supply a domain admin username and password. This should install the auto update client, which if successful will then download the rest of the program.

Note: It has been recommended that the pcs should have the latest Windows updates installed.

Testing

Once the Sophos client is installed check in the Enterprise console that the machine is visible and active.

If you had to remove the Ranger client to install the Sophos client try reinstalling the Ranger client and then check the machine is visible in both LAN Ranger and Sophos Enterprise Console.

Note: If you are still unable to get the Sophos product installed please contact your Sophos vendor for additional support.