Some big things are happening with Software Vulnerability Manager. We are both working to improve the admin console with an updated user interface while also working to eliminate the need for ActiveX to perform certain actions. A big effort, we are intending to iterate with continual improvements and enhancements with an eye on making the transition as smooth as possible. Here’s what to expect:
New User Interface
A new user interface is coming along nicely and is currently scheduled to be generally available in October. We’d love to show it to you and get feedback sooner, so please reach out to schedule a session if you are interested!
The new user interface is designed to work on all modern browsers and does away with the need for Internet Explorer and its ActiveX support. However, to do so means removing certain features from the admin console and supporting them instead in our SVM Patch Publisher tool.
Introducing SVM Patch Publisher
The Patch Daemon is taking on enough new responsibilities that we’ve decided to rebrand it as the SVM Patch Publisher. With an eye on backward compatibility, the transition should be pretty seamless but there are some early improvements to highlight and more planned in the months ahead.
The first thing you’ll notice is a completely revamped user interface. With the SVM Patch Publisher, you can specify connections to multiple distribution platforms and instances. For example, you could add a connection to both WSUS and Intune whereas previously such would have required two running instances of the Patch Daemon. When creating a connection, you can provide your own name and that name will appear in the web admin console as an option when publishing a patch.
Later this year we are planning to provide the ability to create and edit patches within the SVM Patch Publisher. Until then this and other ActiveX dependent functionality will continue to require the older admin console running Internet Explorer as has long been required.
We will continue to focus on improving the SVM Patch Publisher by adding additional functionality with the goal of eliminating the need for ActiveX so we can fully retire the older admin console user interface entirely. Note: Microsoft support for ActiveX remains via the Edge browser’s IE Mode feature.
On-Prem Customers
We will be supporting the new user interface and SVM Patch Publisher for not just cloud customers but for our on-premises customers as well. As usual, we will release updates for on-prem following our cloud release. For now, on-prem customers must continue using the existing Patch Daemon but plan to update on-prem to support it in December. During this transition period, we’ll be offering two SVM Toolkit downloads for on-prem and cloud to reduce any confusion over which should be used.
- Flexera Software Vulnerability Manager Cloud Toolkit – this installer provides offline utilities such as the Multi-partition Reporting Tool, WSUS Management Tool, and Client Data Tool which are provided as helpful tools to add value to your SVM investment.
- Flexera Software Vulnerability Manager On-prem Toolkit – this installer provides everything above as well as the Patch Daemon.
- Software Vulnerability Manager Patch Publisher – for cloud customers only, we are providing the SVM Patch Publisher as a stand-alone installer.
Note: Once on-prem supports the SVM Patch Publisher, we’ll drop the “On Prem” download for the SVM Toolkit and will again offer a single download for the Toolkit (and another for SVM Publisher).
Other updates include Windows environment variable support for scan paths and a new setting to control Java assessment. For details, please see Release Notes
