Migrating ITMS 8.5 Basic Computer Information to the latest ITMS release

Products

• IT Management Suite
• Client Management Suite

Issue/Introduction

You are currently utilizing the ITMS 8.5 product, which has been end of life since February 15, 2024. Symantec IT Management Platform (ITMS) End of Life Schedules. You want to migrate your managed computers to the latest version of ITMS.  You have created a new ITMS environment and have migrated your software releases and managed software delivery policies.  You want to make sure that the computers are currently running on 8.5; do not rerun any managed software delivery policies when they are redirected to your new ITMS infrastructure.

Environment

ITMS 8.5 to ITMS Current Release

Cause

Unfortunately, the standalone replication rules for sending data from one Symantec Management Platform server to another will not work for ITMS 8.5 to the current release.

Resolution

This process will create an unmanaged computer resource for the 8.5 computer on the latest ITMS release.  The GUID of the computer from 8.5 to the current release will remain the same.  This is very important for this process.

Once you have exported and imported the basic computer information, it will be imperative that you make sure the computer's targets and filters contain the same computers that exist in 8.5.  For example, if you have a target called MyTarget and a filter called MyFilter with three computers in the filter (Computer A, Computer B, and Computer C).  The targets and filters need to exist on your new ITMS environment, and after importing the 8.5 computers to the new environment, those computers should exist in those same targets and filters.

NOTE: Please do not confuse importing the computers to the new ITMS environment with redirecting those computers to the new environment.  Importing the computers to the new ITMS environment simply creates a record of the computer.  The computers are not yet being managed by the new ITMS infrastructure until you redirect them.

On 8.5, create a target including a few test machines that are not yet on the latest ITMS version.

Navigate to Settings\Notification Server\Connector:  Import/Export Rules and create a new bulk resource export rule. It should look like the following screenshot.  Note the test target called MigrationTest.  This contains a few computers that you would use to test this process in your environment.

You should also note that by default, this process offers a maximum of 500 computers per export task.  If you manage more than that, consider creating separate targets with varying amounts of computers and separate bulk resource export rules for each.  

Run the rule and it will produce an XML file in the output directory.  Copy this file to your new ITMS server and change the extension from .xml to .nse.

Paste this new file into C:\ProgramData\Symantec\SMP\EventQueue\EvtQFast. Yes, EvtQFast and not the EvtInbox. It will process almost immediately, so don't be concerned that you did not see the file paste in.

View the Console and verify that the computers now show up under All Computers.

This is where you would check to make sure these computers now show up in the targets/filters for the managed software delivery policies on the new SMP.

After this has been completed, you can then redirect the computers from 8.5 to the new ITMS environment.