Prerequisites for installing failover server for Endpoint Protection Manager

Products

• Endpoint Protection

Issue/Introduction

For installing a failover server for the Endpoint Protection Manager, below are the requirements.

Symptoms
Installing a second site for failover and load balancing fails when using the embedded database.

 

Resolution

1) Use a Microsoft SQL Server database to enable the failover and load balancing feature. If you plan to set up additional management servers for replication you must use a SQL Server database for the management server. The embedded database does not support the load-balancing configuration.

2) Install Visual C++ 2017 Redistributable
File Name: Vc_redist.x64.exe
https://aka.ms/vs/15/release/vc_redist.x64.exe

3) Install ODBC Driver (17.x) for SQL Server
File Name: msodbcsql.exe
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/connect/odbc/download-odbc-driver-for-sql-server?view=sql-server-ver15#version-17
*Please note that at the time of writing this is version 17.10.5.1 which covers CVE-2023-29356.

4) Install Microsoft Command Line Utility (15.x) for SQL server.
File Name: MsSqlCmdLnUtils.exe
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/tools/sqlcmd/sqlcmd-utility?view=sql-server-ver15

5) Download and Install SQL Native Client
File Name: sqlncli.exe
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=50402

6) Install the SEPM as a load-balancing server

Technical Information
Note: When adding a SEPM for failover and load balancing, it must be installed using the same version installed on the first server. Installing a different version may appear to work, but the SEPM service will fail to start on the new SEPM.

Additional Information

Please note : ODBC driver 18.x is NOT supported by Microsoft with SQL command line 15.x.
As of this writing Microsoft only supports ODBC 17.x with the 15.x SQL command line tools