Installation was straightforward, with a browser-based menu on CD 2 listing the available components including the eTrust Antivirus Gateway and management components, configuration of the Remote Installation Utility, and installation options for different platforms, including NetWare, PDA, Unix, Linux and Mac OS.
We ticked the default install box to install a typical configuration, including Admin Server, Admin Client, Web GUI and integration plug-ins for Microsoft Exchange server and Lotus Notes Domino server. The typical installation takes up 15MB of the hard drive and loaded in a matter of seconds.
On firing up the application for the first time, our first impression was one of puzzlement. It appeared that we had only loaded the client software and not the server-side code. Selecting "Administrator View" from the view menu fixed this, however, by giving us access to management components.
Once loaded, the management server made deployment of the anti-virus client software a breeze. We used the network browser to locate remote target PCs and specified an installation control file. Installing to targets completed the process. This process can batch install to up to five remote clients.
For remote management, the eTrust Antivirus Admin Server initially performs a discovery of clients running the software in a network – it is by default configured to scan the local subnet.
A tree-based administration view is generated with a node in the tree for each local subnet. For security, clients can only be managed after they have been assigned a branch in this hierarchical tree.
Having organised the clients, it is now possible to apply policies to the top level, and then if necessary have them overridden with bespoke settings to individual machines in the sub-branches.
The Administration console supports policies including alert, real-time scanning, scheduled scan jobs, send for analysis policies and virus profile distribution. It also handles the vitally important tasks of updating the virus signatures and propagating them to remote network clients through eTrust's hierarchical distribution architecture.
