topic Re: When Will SmartConsole Support In-Place Updates? in Firewall and Security Management

When Will SmartConsole Support In-Place Updates?

Mart_Pirita — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 08:20:01 GMT

Hi,

I have used CheckPoint since 2005 and I'm now pretty sure, that CheckPoint hates SmartConsole users, as in year 2019 it's impossible to upgrade CheckPoint SmartConsole, without uninstalling old CheckPoint SmartConsole. And in year 2019 this uninstalling does not give any option to save settings and fingerprints, like for example Juniper -s Pulse does.
Uninstalling CheckPoint console removes all settings and fingerprints but of course it does not remove installation folder C:\Program Files (x86)\CheckPoint\SmartConsole\R80.10 and later on new installer then gives error - "The installation directory provided is not empty and might contain previous installation files. To proceed with the installation, please clean this directory or select an empty folder".

Really? In year 2019 I must do it manually? What do you CP guys smoke? Investigated this a bit and it finally turned out, that folder C:\Program Files (x86)\CheckPoint\SmartConsole\R80.10 contained one empty folder "PROGRAM". After manually removing C:\Program Files (x86)\CheckPoint\SmartConsole\R80.10 folder, installer was happy.

But I'm not happy, as the console thinks I'm using it first time, so I must add all settings, again. Accept all servers fingerprints, again. Close the boring popup notifications, again. Etc. And as CheckPoint keeps constantly upgrade SmartConsole, I must deal with this installer issue quite often.

Conclusion - in year 2019 we are paying huge money to CheckPoint and in return we're getting lousy product and for comparision freeware tools can create better windows installer packages with better logic, but CheckPoint can't or won't.

Re: Does CheckPoint hate SmartConsole users?

_Val_ — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 08:39:42 GMT

Oh boy, you are definitely unhappy. Just to clarify, you had to reinstall R80.10 SmartConsole and could not do that? That was the reason to call Check Point products lousy?

Do you have this issue every time you reinstall R80.10 SmartConsole?

Re: Does CheckPoint hate SmartConsole users?

AlekseiShelepov — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 09:20:01 GMT

I believe, the main point here is that the installer of SmartConsole cannot just upgrade/replace the old version automatically, keeping all settings and server fingerprints from the old one.

Re: Does CheckPoint hate SmartConsole users?

Mart_Pirita — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 09:32:54 GMT

Yes, You are right.

Re: Does CheckPoint hate SmartConsole users?

_Val_ — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 09:39:57 GMT

Mart Pirita‌, I am not annoyed. Neither I remember that we ever annoyed me.

I am just trying to understand the point of your post. If you are looking for some assistance or need TAC and/or R&D to work on a particular issue, some more professional attitude would be nice. If you are here to rant, that is also fine, although value to the community in this case is not that great.

Re: Does CheckPoint hate SmartConsole users?

_Val_ — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 10:04:33 GMT

Yes, Aleksei Shelepov, and you have managed to do that in one sentence. Your statement is professional, simple to understand and nit offensive to others.

Re: Does CheckPoint hate SmartConsole users?

G_W_Albrecht — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 10:17:41 GMT

This definitely sounds like RFE to me !

Re: Does CheckPoint hate SmartConsole users?

Danny — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 10:21:38 GMT

Check Point loves SmartConsole users, that is why they are offering portable versions of SmartConsole (see sk116158).

Re: Does CheckPoint hate SmartConsole users?

ED — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 11:46:50 GMT

--- Gif removed. No offend meant to anyone. Cheers ---

Re: Does CheckPoint hate SmartConsole users?

Jerry — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 13:26:10 GMT

Interesting. Very unprofessional post indeed however, getting to the point without speculating about the politeness or even rudenes I'd only add one thing: SmartConsole was always like that just with R80.x the updates gets more often forcing users to uninstall/install that software again. That's annoying indeed but pointing out to your precise points Mart:

1. Fingerprints of SMS it's not a biggie I guess, that's just "one-more-click" frankly

2. Settings like what you lose? Colours? Columns in Security Policy? Oh my ... huge loss

3. What then is so so important that it annoys you so much? I just don't get it. I do understand it is a little bit "inconvinience" indeed but I solely believe ALL OF US KNOWS THAT since ... ever? Would that be a good point of such post on the forum where the whole R&D and CP Support Team watching?

I personally think this wasn't a good post at all and could have been phrased differently with simply sentence like this (I hope you agree):

"Is there any chance to improve update process of SmartConsole for Windows?" - wouldn't be that much easier in order to make it clear to ALL wha't's your pain?

Neverthenless we got it and we all sympthatize with you suffering so much every (at least) quarter doing that over and over again ... if not more frequent.

Best

Jerry

Re: Does CheckPoint hate SmartConsole users?

DennisJ — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 16:01:47 GMT

So your answer to an "unprofessional post" is... an unprofessional post? Fighting a less than helpful post (born out of obvious frustration) with a post that is equal parts condescending and dismissive? Well done. You must come from the "it takes one to know one" school of thought.

Can we be adults and recognize that SmartConsole has many faults? Check Point has not remedied these for years and apparently has no desire to. Starting with R80 SmartConsole has become bigger, slower, and less helpful in several areas. The fact that an upgrade requires a full uninstall is unusual. The fact that this comes from a $2 billion company with 3500 employees is ridiculous.

Belittling people is not the answer, despite your attempt.

Re: Does CheckPoint hate SmartConsole users?

HristoGrigorov — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 18:01:57 GMT

I don't mind to uninstall/install SmartConsole manually. It is not that often after all. But that I have to set it up every time is definitely usability issue I'd like to see addressed.

Re: Does CheckPoint hate SmartConsole users?

Maarten_Sjouw — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 19:31:33 GMT

Jerry, valid points for a single SMS, however when you work on large installation with hundreds of domains, therefore loosing all of their settings every time a new version of the SmartConsole needs to be deployed, is a completely different type of scenario as you depict. We have run into this "need to replace as we run into the issues solved in the next version" thing every time.

So do not mock if you do not know the rest of their situation or compare it to your own setup.

Re: Does CheckPoint hate SmartConsole users?

Tomer_Noy — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 20:47:04 GMT

Thank you for this feedback. Indeed, with R80.x versions we have increased the pace in which we release SmartConsole versions. The motivation is to periodically release important fixes to the field, many of them reported by our customers.

Following similar feedback from the field, we are already working on a solution for this, which we plan to release during 2019.

There are several requirements that we want to cover:

1) Make it easier to update to a later version, with less hassle and without losing preferences

2) Reduce the number of people using older versions and encountering issues that have already been fixed

3) Allow updating SmartConsole without Windows admin permissions (currently required to install / uninstall)

The solution will be an auto-updating SmartConsole. Upon launching, it will check our cloud for a newer version and will download it in the background. When complete, the user will get a notification and can choose to relaunch, or to continue working and start using the newer version upon the next application launch.

I hope that this solution will make the entire experience much better for our customers.

Re: Does CheckPoint hate SmartConsole users?

Vladimir — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 21:01:49 GMT

Danny, actually no, CP does not like us at all

"Before installing Portable SmartConsole, first install the relevant SmartConsole GUI client"

Re: Does CheckPoint hate SmartConsole users?

Pedro_Espindola — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 21:43:36 GMT

That's great news! Thank you, Tomer!

Re: Does CheckPoint hate SmartConsole users?

JozkoMrkvicka — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 22:03:44 GMT

2019 and still only 32bit version ...

Why do we need to install every single version of smartConsole ?

What about to create web-based console ? To be put on any linux based system and be accessed via web browser ?

html5 is the answer...

Re: Does CheckPoint hate SmartConsole users?

_Val_ — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 02:59:06 GMT

Tomer Noy‌ appreciated

Re: Does CheckPoint hate SmartConsole users?

Mart_Pirita — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 07:10:03 GMT

Thanks, please ping me when the beta is available.

P.S. I was specially being provocative in order to get the attention, which started this discussion. And as we all can see the subject was not new for the "old" CP users, however, according to this thread feedback, it seems that some are willing to suffer and some are not, some got my point and some didn't. But if we don't talk about the problem, nothing will ever change.

Re: Does CheckPoint hate SmartConsole users?

Jerry — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 08:27:43 GMT

completely ridiculous feedback

seems you've missed my points entirely

well done Mr. Unknown.

well done!