Tag Archives: Symantec Endpoint Protection

How to fix issue with Symantec Endpoint client not installing due to a required reboot.

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I had a Windows 2008 server that I was attempting to install the Symantec Endpoint client on, but the client would not install, and the following message was left in the event log:

Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) Installation fails with the following error “Symantec Endpoint Protection has detected that there are pending system changes that require a reboot. Please reboot the system and rerun the installation.”

I rebooted the server and then tried to install the client again, but the same error would appear.

I found that there was a registry entry that was giving me grief with the install, and here are the instructions that I used to fix the problem.

  1. Navigate to:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlSessionManagerPendingFileRenameOperations    

  2. Back up the registry key
  3. Delete the registry key
  4. Install the software without restarting the computer first (Restarting the computer may result in the registry key being placed back in the registry before installation.)
  5. Restore the registry key from the backup location.

 

NOTE: If you are running  Windows Vista look for this key -  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSet001ControlSessionManagerPendingFileRenameOperations     

* Thanks to Bill for this Windows Vista suggestion.

Cannot log into Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager Console after a fresh install

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I have had this problem from day one with Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager and am yet to find a satisfactory solution. When Symantec Endpoint Protection first came out I was very excited as I had heard a lot about it at Symantec vision, and they had worked hard to improve the product and make it less system intensive and with a smaller footprint than previous versions of Symantec corporate and enterprise antivirus products.

The first time I installed it was on a Windows 2003 server running Lotus Notes Domino server. After installing it, I had the issue with being unable to log into the console, so I checked the event logs and found the “The Java Virtual Machine has exited with a code of -1, the service is being stopped” error , and noticed that the SemSrv service would also stop.

I would restart the SemSrv service, but each time I tried to log in, it would stop the service again. I uninstalled the software, rebooted, re-installed and had the exact same problem. I installed it using the default database each time as we would only have less than 50 users which was well within the limits and chose all the default port settings.

After 3 hours of troubleshooting different install methods, I gave Symantec support a call. They went through all the same things as I had already done, changing ports, using a custom website, making registry changes and changes to IIS. After around 4 hours of troubleshooting over a few days, they told me that I should uninstall Lotus Notes and try it (not possible due to the fact that we need to get email!!). This was the end result for me, you can’t have Notes and SEPM software on the same server.

We also had a Sharepoint server available, so I tried to install it on that with no luck either. I also thought I would give it a go on a Server running WSUS, again a no go after lots of installs, and re-installs.The only way I got it to install was on a fresh, bare bones Windows 2003 install with nothing else installed. This is my recommendation, just get a fresh install of Windows 2003, or even Windows XP and put the console on that. You could easily virtualise it anyway, so you woudn’t need to buy a fresh server.