14.2 Mac clients fail to communicate or update policy from 14.2 MP1 Manager

Products

• Endpoint Protection

Issue/Introduction

14.2 Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) for Mac clients are unable to update their policy and show as disconnected/offline from a 14.2 MP1 SEP Manager when a Windows and macOS client install package is assigned to the group. Rebooting the system will allow the client to check in and update its status and policy. However, subsequent heartbeats, restarting client services or manually attempting to Update Policy do not work to update online status or the policy.

smc_debug.log when there is no package assigned (working):

2018-10-15 10:09:04.971 EDT DEBUG DownloadPackage [2018-Oct-15 10:09:04.971363] [DEBUG] GetClientVersion() - 
2018-10-15 10:09:04.971 EDT DEBUG DownloadPackage [2018-Oct-15 10:09:04.971393] [DEBUG] nAskingVersion - 3942861414334464, newVersion - 0
2018-10-15 10:09:04.971 EDT ERROR DownloadPackage [2018-Oct-15 10:09:04.971415] [ERROR] AutoUpgrade insufficient version information is provided.
2018-10-15 10:09:04.971 EDT INFO cve.sylinkcommunicator [2018-Oct-15 10:09:04.971490] [INFO ] Successful connection to server <SEPM>

 

smc_debug.log when there is a package assigned (not working):

2018-10-12 11:55:00.490 EDT DEBUG DownloadPackage [2018-Oct-12 11:55:00.490276] [DEBUG] GetClientVersion() - 14.2.1015.0100 2018-10-12 11:55:00.490 EDT DEBUG DownloadPackage [2018-Oct-12 11:55:00.490318] [DEBUG] nAskingVersion - 3942861414334464, newVersion - 3942865726078976

Note the missing connection to SEPM message.

Environment

macOS 10.13.6

Cause

The macOS SEP client experiences an XML parsing issue when there is both a Windows and Mac client install package assigned to the group.

Resolution

This issue is fixed in Symantec Endpoint Protection 14.2 RU1. For information on how to obtain the latest build of Symantec Endpoint Protection, see Download the latest version of Symantec Endpoint Protection.

As a work around, remove all Windows client install package(s) from the Install Packages tab for each affected group within the SEP Manager then reboot the affected Mac clients.