Windows 8, and compatibility with Kaseya

Hello everyone.  Looks like Microsoft is getting closer to releasing Windows 8 (October, I think). 

I was wondering if anyone in the Kaseya community (Kaseya inhouse staff, or one of us users/partners) has done any testing with Kaseya with the Windows 8 Preview? If so, did you run into any problems?

I'm a little behind on this myself, and plan to try some testing using virtual machines soon.

Thanks in advance.

Lloyd

i know some of my collegues already run there workstations on W8 (beta's) and they have no problems with applications and kaseya plugin's like KLC f thats the info you are loooking for

After some initial testing in our office, my findings are as follows. WOudl ike to hear about the experiences of others.

GOOD

- agent installed fine, yeah!

- hardware and software audits seem to be running okay

- Event log monitor seems to be running okay

- Agent Procedures seem to be running okay

- VNC remote control worked okay

Some problems or things that need attention:

- Live Connect thumbnail and graphs did not display

- Patch management just shows a dash for patches installed, missing approved patches and missing denied patches. Windows Update in Control Panel on the Windows 8 machine shows 7 important updates available

- Operating System shows as Windows 7 (all kinds of technical and political reasons this needs to work, I remember when Windows 7 first come out, Kaseya reported it as Vista, and a number of clients questioned the effectiveness of our fancy monitor software that couldn’t even correctly identify the OS)

- Need an option in Agent Procedures that can selectively run against Windows 8 OS

- Got a bunch of icons displayed on the Start screen on the Windows 8 machine for Enter VNC Server License, VNC Server, VNC Server User Mode)

Lloyd

just a friendly bump.... to get this thread to appear above all of the "A Happy Customer" posts related to the seeding of the Kaseya Support Rocks forum.

I didn't want this to get lost. I'd love to hear from others who are testing Windows 8

Lloyd

I had a bit of a looksie with the preview of Windows 8 and server 8 as well.. All seemed fine.

Audit detection is a bit off, but then it's off with SBS 2010 as well (for example, in SBS 2010, "Operating System" still shows as Server 2008) but had no significant operational issues that were deal-breakers. :-)

You mean Windows Small Business Server 2011? Its just a collection of standard Microsoft software (Server 2008 R2, Exchange 2010 etc) with some SBS wizards and panels. So Kaseya would show these components.

On Windows 8 RP x64:

- Live Connect doesn't work with IE10

- KAM doesnt work

- KAV doesnt work, don't think Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6 will ever support Windows 8?

- Scripting and agent credentials seems to be working

I'm also testing how monitoring and KSDU will work. My biggest worry is Anti-Virus and when there will be a Windows 8 compatible version available.

Yep sorry, SBS 2011.

Whilst it is simply as detailed above (no argument there) it's still a bit irritating. :) - as MS sort of imply SBS 2011 is 'the OS' as opposed to a bundle. Can't fault your argument though and technically of course it *is* simply Server 2008. :-)

We don't have a test domain, so I couldn't really easily test some of the other features you've mentioned, such as Kaseya in IE 10, KAV etc... I may spin up a machine at home and do some more investigations on that front...

KSDU seems to be working and I my basic system performance data collection for 7 seems to be working too in 8 (CPU, RAM, DISK etc).

I can verify that the current KAV and KAM will not work with Win8.

Trying to remember this from the K partner summit... but didn't Kaseya say that Win8 support would be in 6.3? Can any 6.3 testers out there check this?

hi David Bourgeois,

the roadmap was updated with informations for Windows 8 ...

Richard

Please scroll to the bottom of the Roadmap page to see the latest information on Windows 8 support.

community.kaseya.com/.../roadmap.aspx

Regards,

Ray Barber

Well look at that, the roadmap has been updated! I was correct that Win8 support will be in 6.3 and forward.

I checked in on this topic awhile back and was concerned that Kaseya wasn't saying much but figured they were waiting till they had their story ready and would let us all know just before Win8 GA. Since Win8 goes GA at the end of this week, I'm sort of concerned about the lack of details I'm able to gather and the feeling that Kaseya are taking the position of, wait till 6.3 of kaseya agent is released... Our clients aren't going to wait till 6.3 is released before they buy win8... What are Kaseya recommending that we do till then and do they already have a work around guide which I just haven't found yet which will get us by until 6.3 is released?

Below is a summary of everything I've been able to find out on the topic of Win8 vs Kaseya

-Official Kaseya KB article on their stance about Win8 and Server 2012 community.kaseya.com/.../926.aspx

-I've read that KAV and KAM don't work with Win8

-Kaseya support have instructed us in the past to disable UAC in order to get a variety of things working. This is no longer possible in Win8 since Win8 UI (metro tiles) don't work if UAC is turned off

-Win8 appears as Win7 in kaseya which is a problem especially if you are using Policy Manager based on the OS and have discovered that some policy's will cause issues in Win8 so you want to exclude Win8... Is there a simple solution/workaround for this which others have found or Kaseya would like to share?

-Win8 is only supported in kaseya 6.3 but 6.3 won't be released till early 2013...4mths away...

I have been testing Kaseya with Win8 for a few months now and haven't had any major issues, but I know my clients are a better test then I ever am and will come across issues I didn't since I work in a clean environment running only the latest software and doing everything by best practise :-) I guess my biggest concern though is with UAC and the amount of time before 6.3 is released which I get the feeling until 6.3 is released we won't be able to get help from Kaseya for Win8...

Any other links to information Kaseya has officially released in relation to Win8 which aren't already in this thread would be great!

+1 for your post Matt.

Am I now supposed to go to our CTO & sales director and advise we don't sell any copies of Windows 8 until early next year when our hugely expensive RMM system might get upgraded and be able to understand what the OS is?  Trust me he's not going to understand that, so that leaves our frontline support guys open to the barrage of questions from customers when they receive reports.  Perhaps Kaseya will accept a reduction in our maintenance fees for the time between the new OS's arriving and us being able to support them?  Not likely.

Kaseya support have got back to me to let me know that kaseya agent won't be supported on Windows 8 till next year and that at the moment KAM, KAV and KES aren't supported by Kaseya but that I should contact my sales rep to find out when the new versions for these products will be available since sales reps normally get this information. So I'll let you all know if my Sales Rep can let me in on any secrets

OK so far - to make a View for Win 8 is easy, nothing but putting *9200* in the "OS Version Filter" box :)

LiveConnect thumbnail and graphs are working fine.

LiveConnect remote control (VNC-type) works perfectly, even letting me get into the corners to do what needs doing there.

So - enough basic functionality that if a client calls us with a problem on a win8 machine, we can at least do *something* for them, and not just twiddle our thumbs and say "oops, not supported".

@Mbartels thanks for posting.  

As we've mentioned before, Windows 8 and Server 2012 are supported in 6.3.  That being said, 6.3 is currently in controlled release and if you would like to upgrade please submit a ticket via the portal (https://portal.kaseya.net) with subject line: "6.3 Upgrade" follow this link, complete the survey and we will do our best to accommodate you and help you get to 6.3.    Kaseya will make 6.3 generally available in January 2013.

If you are running KAV or KDB you cannot upgrade to Kaseya 6.3 at this time leaving us stuck at 6.2.  I think that many of us are finding ourselves in a bit of a pinch when it comes to supporting customers that have Server 2012.

Hi TIm,

What is it that you are trying to do on 2012 that's not working? If you have any screenshots or can describe the problem, perhaps we can suggest a work around?

Does KES and Patch Management for Windows 8 work in 6.2?   Even if it does not, am I correct in my understanding that Kaseya does not support it?

I have already had many people both inside and outside of my company comment on their disappointment that they cannot use Windows 8 because our RMM software does not support it.  

Is there an explanation as to why it was decided to wait so long after the release of the OS to support it?  I have had non-technical people ask me why so many other software packages they use support Windows 8.  They point out that other vendors tell them that the beta versions of Windows 8 have been out for months, allowing them prepare their software.  I just don't have a good answer as to why Kaseya is an exception.

Any chance of a hotfix or intermediate update before 6.3 that will allow us to support Windows 8?

Thanks in advance.

Hi, I just wanted to bump this discussion in regards to my last post.  Any answers?

Thanks.

I found it pretty funny the other day when @KaseyaCorp re-tweeted a tweet by Amazon Web Services that said AWS now has server 2012 support.........

@eperson - The goal was to have 6.3 with full Win8 support out a little sooner and rather than divert more resources from getting 6.3 out the door to build support into 6.2, the decision was made to focus on 6.3.  If you would like to be on 6.3 we can help you upgrade. Just submit a support ticket with the following subject: CRK263 - Win8/server2012 support.   6.3 includes full support for Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8.  We have customers successfully on 6.3 now.

Brendan,

What do you recommend for a MSP that has 300+ KAV endpoints, but needs Windows 8 ans 2012 support?

KAV is built on Kaspersky's Corporate AV engine.  We are waiting on Kaspersky to release v10 of their corporate engine that is to include Win8 and Server 2012 support.   You can still move to Kaseya 6.3 to get the systems management support for Win8 and 2012, but KAV will not support these new OS's until Kaspersky releases this latest build of their corporate engine.  

We have migrated to 6.3 and have @400 KAV/KAM clients.  There was a minor glitch with KAM after the migration which had a hot fix recently and now everything is working great.  Still waiting on KAV 1.x to support 8/12...