App Control: How to Upgrade Agents with 3rd party utilities (Major Upgrades)

[#1]

Environment

• App Control Agent: 7.2.3 P3 and Higher
• Microsoft Windows: All Supported Versions 

Objective

To perform a major upgrade of an App Control Agent using third-party tools such as GPO, SCCM. etc. 

If the product build's GUID changes, this article applies. 

App Control: Product Version GUIDs

Major upgrade examples:

• 7.2.3.3703 to 8.0.0.2621
• 8.0.0.2621 (8.0 P7) + 

Not a Major upgrade (use Patch to Patch Guide):

• 8.0.0.2562 to 8.0.0.2621
• 8.1.0.3546 (8.1 P2) to 8.1.5.5
• 8.1.5.5 to 8.1.6.212

Resolution

Have the third party utility run command:

msiexec /i https://<ServerName>/hostpkg/pkg.php?pkg=parityhostagent.msi B9_CONFIG=https://<ServerName>/hostpkg/pkg.php?pkg=configlist.xml /qb- /L*v+ <EnterFullPathHere>\AgentUpgrade.log

Additional Notes

• When the App Control Server is upgraded, a new version of ParityHostAgent.msi and configlist.xml is created in the hostpkg directory.
• To control which version of the agent is pushed out, they can be manually grabbed and distributed:
  1. Login to the App Control Server
  2. In Windows Explorer, navigate to C:\Program Files (x86)\Bit9\Parity Server\hostpkg
  3. Obtain a copy of ParityHostAgent.Msi and configlist.xml
  4. Distribute ParityHostAgent.Msi and configlist.xml to a location that is accessible to the agents being upgraded.
  5. Have the third party utility run command:

     msiexec /i <EnterFullPathHere>\ParityHostAgent.msi B9_CONFIG=<EnterFullPathHere>\configlist.xml /qb- /L*v+ <EnterFullPathHere>\AgentUpgrade.log

Related Content

• App Control: How to Upgrade Agents with 3rd party Utilities (Patch - Build to Build)