Installation and configuration of Eset Nod 32 Anti Virus in a Server / Client environment

Initially, all PCs and Servers need to be cleaned of old antivirus products to avoid conflicts on the system. It is then necessary to install the server software – this allows the client software to be pushed out silently causing a minimum of disruption to end users.

Removal of old Anti Virus software:
Most antivirus applications have uninstallers which can be run from add/remove programs. However these can sometimes fail. In this scenario, most anti-virus solution providers supply a removal tool to clean up failed un-installations. Eset provide links to the most common ones at the following address: kb.eset.com/esetkb/index

Installation of Remote Administration Server:
In order to effectively manage and monitor the anti-virus software, the remote administration console needs to be installed on the server. This involves the following:

• Obtain license file and update parameters (username and password) from Eset
• Download Remote Admin Server, Remote Admin Console, and latest version of Nod32 AV
• Install Remote Administrator Server – license file path and update parameters need to be entered
• Install Remote Administrator Console
• Configure the server to host an update mirror which the clients use to check for updates

At this stage, the management software has been installed which means the anti-virus solution can be rolled out across the network.

Creation of Installation Packages:
The installation of Eset is fully customizable before it is pushed out to the client with the use of configuration files. The basic settings to customize in this file are as follows:

• Do not append tags to the bottom of scanned emails
• Update the virus signature database from the remote administrator server mirror
• Reporting to the remote administrator server
• For remote clients, the update parameters are changed to update directly from Eset so that updates can continue to be received even if there is no VPN open to the server
• Depending on the type of server, a variety of files and folders may need to be excluded such as those relating to Microsoft exchange, SQL server and shared folders

Pushing out the Installation Packages to Clients:
Once installation packages have been saved into the server, they can be pushed out from the remote administration console. During the install, a prompt asks you for administrator credentials for the network so that the services can be installed remotely. The installation is silent in that no interaction is required on the end users’ part and no restart of the computer is necessary.