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Knowledge Center

Quick reference for migrating to McAfee Agent 5.5.1 and later
Technical Articles ID:   KB90642
Last Modified:  6/12/2018
Rated:

Environment

McAfee Agent (MA) 5.5.x, 5.0.x, 4.8.x, 4.6.x
McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator (ePO) 5.x

NOTE: McAfee Agent 4.8.x and 4.6.x have reached End of Life (EOL) for Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems.

Summary

This article is a reference for all resources needed by a McAfee customer to plan the upgrades from previous versions of MA to MA 5.5.1. Most of the following information is available in the product installation guides and Readme.txt files, but some of the information is available only in Product Management Statements published in the Knowledge Center.

NOTE: This information does not include details related to future releases.

Resources:
  • For the list of products that MA 5.5.1 supports, see KB90494.
  • To view the new features introduced in MA 5.5.1, see the MA 5.5.1 Release Notes PD27722.
The following information details the different aspects of MA 5.5.1 resources, which are helpful for planning the migrations or upgrades from previous versions.

Contents
Click to expand the section you want to view:

The table below outlines the features that are available in different versions of MA (4.x versus 5.x)
McAfee Agent Features MA
4.x		 MA
5.x
Agent-server communication via Proxy No Yes
Configure Automatic Update post deployment No Yes
Custom Properties 1 Yes Yes
Manifest Based Policy No Yes
McAfee Agent Smart Installer Yes Yes
McAfee Agent Support in Cloud No Yes
McTray – Automatic launch in remote desktop session Yes 5 Yes
Native 64-bit support No Yes
Peer to Peer No Yes
Relay 2 Yes Yes
Remote provisioning Yes 4 Yes
Run Client Task Now Yes 3 Yes
Self-Protection No Yes
SuperAgent Yes 3 Yes
Smart Scheduler No Yes
Third-party software authentication No Yes
 
1 MA 5.0.5 and later supports four additional custom properties. For details, see the McAfee Agent 5.0.5 Product Guide (PD26907).
2 MA 5.5.x supports predetermined RelayServer for clients to communicate with.
3 Supported only on Windows operating systems.
4 Supported only on non-Windows operating systems.
5 Supported on Windows workstation operating systems.
  Operating Systems
MA Versions Windows Linux macOS AIX HP-UX Solaris
4.6.x to 5.5.1 Yes Yes Yes No No No
4.8.x to 5.5.1 Yes Yes Yes No No No
5.0.x to 5.5.1 Yes Yes Yes No No No
5.5.x to 5.5.1 Yes Yes Yes No No No

For a list of operating systems that MA supports, see KB51573.

For methods of upgrading MA to 5.5.1 from previous versions, see the "Upgrading and restoring agents" section in PD27720.
During upgrading and restoring agents, if any failures are encountered due to environment or self-protection, we recommend using the following new MA removal option to remove MA from the client system:
 
FramePkg.exe /Ripper

NOTE: This command-line option must be run with administrator rights.

The removal option can be used on any version of MA, such 4.6.x or 4.8.x or 5.x.x (Windows only).

This removal functionality is to remove McAfee Agent only.

This feature is a failover mechanism in case you encounter failures in regular removal of agents.

IMPORTANT: The removal option is not recommended to be used if Drive Encryption is present in the system.

For additional options for removing MA, see "Removing McAfee Agent from Windows" section in PD27720.

After MA is uninstalled using any of the uninstall methods, reinstall MA. For details, see the "Installing McAfee Agent" section in PD27720.
  1. Check in the McAfee Agent package to McAfee ePO repository:
    1. Select Menu, Software, Master Repository.
    2. Click Check in Package, browse to the agent packages list, select the required package, and then click Next.
    3. Ensure Current is selected under Branch, and then click Save.
  2. Create an installation package:
    1. Select, Menu, Systems, System Tree, New Systems.
    2. Select Create and download agent installation package.
    3. Select the appropriate Agent version.
    4. Deselect Embed Credentials in Package to receive the default package. Otherwise, specify the required credentials.
    5. If you want the deployment to use a specific Agent Handler, select it from the drop-down list. If not, select All Agent Handlers.
    6. Click OK.
    7. Select FramePkg.exe and save it to the desktop.
    8. Export it to FramePkg.exe to the client node.
  3. To uninstall McAfee Agent, run FramePkg.exe /Ripper at the command prompt.

    NOTE: The above command must be run with administrator rights only.

Related Information

McAfee product software, upgrades, maintenance releases, and documentation are available from the Product Downloads site at: http://www.mcafee.com/us/downloads/downloads.aspx.

NOTE: You need a valid Grant Number for access. KB56057 provides additional information about the Product Downloads site, and alternate locations for some products.

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