Thank you for your loyalty and for choosing the Newest Technology from Bitdefender.

As we understand that this is an important step for your business, this article shows you how to install your new GravityZone product and uninstalling your existing solution by following the steps below:

• Setting up the legacy console for upgrade
• Setting up the new console
• Preparing the workstations
• Upgrading the endpoints
• Decommissioning the legacy console

Setting up the legacy console for upgrade

The first step in the migration process is to make some adjustments to the current Bitdefender Management Console: disabling auto deployment and removing the Bitdefender uninstall password, if these two features are configured.

Disabling auto deployment:

This will prevent the management console from automatically deploying Bitdefender Endpoint protection on the workstations during the upgrade process.

- Open the management console and log-in using your password;
- Access the Tools section from the upper part and select Automatic Deployment;
- From the new window un-check Enable Automatic Deployment;
- When done, press OK to save the changes.

Removing the Bitdefender uninstall password:

Performing this step will allow the new endpoint to remove the current antivirus version during the deployment phase.

- Go to Policies, Current policies and edit the Advanced settings policy;
Note: If you do not have this policy configured, then it means the Bitdefender clients do not have an uninstall password.
- To edit this policy, first select it and click on Edit settings from the contextual menu;
- Expand the Password menu and select the Remove option;
- Save the changes when finished;
- The status column on the right side will show you, on how many endpoints the policy was applied. To make sure the password is removed from all workstations, you will need to wait for the policy to be applied on all of them.

Removing the Bitdefender Management Agent:

BEST automatically removes the Bitdefender Management Agent.

Setting up the new console

After making sure the current Bitdefender clients are ready to be remove and replaced with the new endpoint (BEST), the GravityZone Control Center needs to be setup.

The GravityZone images can be downloaded from here and instructions on how to install it, in the Installation Guide.

Checking the Migration Chart

The GravityZone Bitdefender Endpoint Security Tools (BEST) clientcan be deployed over most of the existing Bitdefender legacy solutions upgrading the antivirus software on the machine. Please see below a compatibility chart for your current Bitdefender solution.

Note: if you are using 2 Bitdefender products on the same machine please make sure you are checking both of them in the following list.

BEST is compatible with:

(BEST client can be installed/deployed over it automatically uninstalling current solution):

- Bitdefender Business Client (BBC) installed on the workstation;
- Endpoint Security (EPS) installed on the workstation;
- Bitdefender File Server (BDFS) installed on the server;
- Bitdefender Security for Exchange 2007/2010.

Bitdefender GravityZone Enterprise Security and Advanced Business Security provide both Antimalware protection as well as integration with Microsoft Exchange 2007, 2010 and 2013.

To perform this upgrade, you will need to create a BEST installation package with the Exchange Role enabled in order for the upgrade process to complete successfully.

In the end you will only have one client to protect both the physical/virtual machine as well as its Exchange role.

Bitdefender GravityZone Business Security does not include protection for Microsoft Exchange mail servers.

If you are interested in using our new GravityZone Exchange protection you can upgrade to Bitdefender Advance Business Security or GravityZone Enterprise Security. For more details on how to do this, please contact your partner/reseller/distributor or Bitdefender Sales Representative.
If you wish to keep the current protection for Exchange you will not be able to install BEST on that server. We recommend you to keep the current product that protects the Exchange role along with the Antimalware protection software of your choice.
On the other hand, if you no longer wish to protect the Exchange role with Bitdefender, you can install BEST to protect the physical/virtual server after removing all Bitdefender products from the machine.

BEST is not compatible with:

(BEST client cannot be installed/deployed on the machines where the following product is present):

- Bitdefender Security for Exchange 2003;
- Bitdefender Security for Mail Server (Windows);
- Bitdefender Security for SharePoint.

The new Bitdefender GravityZone portfolio does not offer protection for Exchange 2003, SMTP Mail Server and Microsoft SharePoint.

Thus, we recommend you to keep the current product that protects the Exchange, SharePoint or SMTP Mail Server along with the antimalware software of your choice (i.e. Bitdefender Security for File Servers). As a result, you should not decommission the Bitdefender Management Server (as instructed in the latest step of this article) so that you are still able to manage the legacy solutions until expiration.

Note: you can keep the legacy product with the same key until expiration. However, after that, if your product renewal consists in upgrading to GravityZone and you choose to keep the Security for Exchange, Mail Servers or SharePoint product as well, you will need a standalone key to register the product locally.

On the other hand, if you no longer wish to protect the Exchange role, SharePoint role or SMTP Mail traffic on the server with Bitdefender, you can install BEST to protect the physical/virtual server after removing all Bitdefender products from the machine.  

Preparing the workstations

Before starting the deployment process, we advise you to check that your network computers meet our deployment requirements. Click on this link in order to view these requirements.

Upgrading the endpoints

The remote deployment task can be executed on unmanaged systems that appear in the Network view under:

- Active Directory. When GravityZone Control Center integrates with Active Directory, it automatically imports and keeps updated the Computers tree existent in the Active Directory Users and Computers view. This allows the inventory to display all the computers present in the organization, as unmanaged systems until Bitdefender Endpoint Security Tools is installed
- Custom Groups. This inventory special group is designed to accommodate network stations that are not part of AD or are managed by a Domain Controller that has no trust relationship with the Domain Controller with which the GravityZone Control Center was integrated with. By default, the Custom Groups are not populated with any machines until an existing Bitdefender Endpoint Security Tools client present on the network segment is instructed to run a Network Discovery Task.

A remote deployment operation starts with selecting the Network inventory targets on which we want to execute the deployment task. 

- Open the GravityZone Control Center Network view and select the deployment targets (BEST will automatically remove the old security solution from the machine);
- In the upper-pane menu, expand the Tasks list and select the Install task (the deployment task configuration wizard is now opened);
- Automatically reboot (if needed) - when replacing the old security solution with BEST, it is mandatory for this option to be enabled;
- Credentials Manager - add the domain/network/local admin credentials;
- Deployer - choose between the GravityZone appliance and a Relay installed on the network. Should the roles be installed separately, you can select a custom Communication Server;
- Choose the installation package - default or one of the packages created in the Packages section. Selecting Customize, will allow the user to modify the package. Selecting Customize will bring up additional options.

More information can be found in the GravityZone Installation Guide.

Decommissioning the legacy console

The last step in the migration process, is to de-commission the former Bitdefender Management Console:

- Go to Start > All Programs > Bitdefender Management Server and select Modify Repair or Uninstall;
- Click on Next and then select Remove;
- Check the option to uninstall the SQL instance and then select Remove;
- Press Finish when the process is complete.