Proactive IT Security
 

Unable to change settings in the local Norman Virus Control configuration on the distribution server

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Date published: 2008-10-24       Date updated: 2011-01-17

Product:
Endpoint Protection

Module(s):
Configuration

Operations System(s):
Windows XP 32 bits
Windows Vista 32 bits
Windows 2000
Windows XP 64 bits
Windows Vista 64 bits
Windows NT
Windows 2003 Server

Problem description

The local Norman Virus Control (NVC) configuration on the distribution server shows greyed-out settings, and/or some tabs are hidden, making it impossible to change any settings for the local NVC installation on the server.

Cause

The NVC configuration on the distribution server is configured as a client. Mostly this is caused by a push installation to clients from within NDesk where the user chose to push the installation to the server itself too. This will overwrite the local NVC configuration on the server with the default client configuration (which should normally only be done to clients). By default many options are hidden or greyed out for client installations.

Problem solution

Use the following procedure to correct this issue:

  1. Browse to the folder containing the local NVC configuration. This will typically be C:\Program Files\Norman\Config.
    Right click the Config.ndf and choose Copy.


     
  2. Browse to the folder containing the distributed configurations. This will typically be C:\Program Files\Norman\Distrib\NVC\Config.
    Paste the copied file in this folder (menu Edit, option Paste, or press CTRL+V). The config.ndf file will be placed in the folder. If there’s already one present you can choose to overwrite it.


     
  3. Double click the newly placed Config.ndf. The file will be opened in the Configuration editor, but all options should be accessible now. This is because the file is in the folder for distributed configurations, so the editor presumes it is a configuration for a client.
     
  4. Since this is a distribution server configuration, set the following options: 

    • Tab LAN/WAN: Select Never (update from CD or Internet).
      Reason: this is a distribution server itself, so it never needs to go to another distribution server for its updates. (There are some specific exceptions for this rule, namely in case of advanced cascaded distribution environments in very large networks. If you do not know whether you have such a situation then you probably have not.)


       
    • Tab Internet: Select On direct connection (presuming you have a direct connection available to retrieve updates). If you want you can further specify update retrieval times by clicking Specify.



      After you have finished configuring, click the Save and Close buttons at the bottom right of the editor to save the configuration and exit the editor.
       
  5. Right-click the Config.ndf and select Cut. (The file is removed from this location since we are going to put it back in the original folder, and is not necessary in the Distrib folder structure any more.) 
     
  6. Browse back to the original folder containing the local configuration. This is the same one as in step 1 above, so typically C:\Program Files\Norman\Config.
  7. Paste the file in this folder (menu Edit, option Paste, or press CTRL+V). The config.ndf file will be placed in the folder. If there is already one present you must confirm that you will overwrite it.

From this moment on, you can change the settings through the regular procedure, meaning opening the configuration editor locally on the distribution server.