We are looking for a way to AutoUpgrade our SEP clients to version 14.2 MP1 and truly maintain all of the existing client features.
We have been "AutoUpgrading" SEP clients since version 11. We have always used the "Maintain Existing Client Features When Updating" option during the AutoUpgrade. This has never been a problem for us before now.
Recenlty we upgraded our SEP Managers to SEP 14.2 and used the "AutoUpgrade" function with "Maintain Existing Features" and found that all the clients had a new feature installed called Application Hardening. This was totally unexpected. This change was not documented in the Release Notes
It seems that Symantec Endpoint Protection Hardening was introduced between the 14.0 and the 14.2 releases and as a result, you could not upgrade 14.0.x clients with SEP Hardening automatically.
NOTE that Application Hardening requires a separate license to use and then, it can only be enabled and managed via the Cloud management portal. We are not using the Cloud-based features and currently do not have any plans to.
So, in 14.2, when you upgrade all of your clients with AutoUpgrade and use the "Maintain Existing client features when updating" option, your clients will have the Application Hardening feature installed.
We do not want to have a component installed on our clients that we are not going to use and that we won't be purchasing a licnese for.
Does anybody know of a way for us to AutoUpgrade our clients and still Maintain the existing client features during the upgrade?
Was everybody even aware that this happens?