Hi, I have used CheckPoint since 2005 and I'm now pretty sure, that CheckPoint hates SmartConsole users, as in year 2019 it's impossible to upgrade CheckPoint SmartConsole, without uninstalling old CheckPoint SmartConsole. And in year 2019 this uninstalling does not give any option to save settings and fingerprints, like for example Juniper -s Pulse does.
To continue to User Center/PartnerMAP. User Name (Email) Password.
Uninstalling CheckPoint console removes all settings and fingerprints but of course it does not remove installation folder C: Program Files (x86) CheckPoint SmartConsole R80.10 and later on new installer then gives error - 'The installation directory provided is not empty and might contain previous installation files. To proceed with the installation, please clean this directory or select an empty folder'. In year 2019 I must do it manually? What do you CP guys smoke? Investigated this a bit and it finally turned out, that folder C: Program Files (x86) CheckPoint SmartConsole R80.10 contained one empty folder 'PROGRAM'. After manually removing C: Program Files (x86) CheckPoint SmartConsole R80.10 folder, installer was happy. But I'm not happy, as the console thinks I'm using it first time, so I must add all settings, again.
Accept all servers fingerprints, again. Close the boring popup notifications, again. And as CheckPoint keeps constantly upgrade SmartConsole, I must deal with this installer issue quite often.
Conclusion - in year 2019 we are paying huge money to CheckPoint and in return we're getting lousy product and for comparision freeware tools can create better windows installer packages with better logic, but CheckPoint can't or won't. Thank you for this feedback.
Indeed, with R80.x versions we have increased the pace in which we release SmartConsole versions. The motivation is to periodically release important fixes to the field, many of them reported by our customers. Following similar feedback from the field, we are already working on a solution for this, which we plan to release during 2019. There are several requirements that we want to cover: 1) Make it easier to update to a later version, with less hassle and without losing preferences 2) Reduce the number of people using older versions and encountering issues that have already been fixed 3) Allow updating SmartConsole without Windows admin permissions (currently required to install / uninstall) The solution will be an auto-updating SmartConsole. Upon launching, it will check our cloud for a newer version and will download it in the background. When complete, the user will get a notification and can choose to relaunch, or to continue working and start using the newer version upon the next application launch.
I hope that this solution will make the entire experience much better for our customers. Very unprofessional post indeed however, getting to the point without speculating about the politeness or even rudenes I'd only add one thing: SmartConsole was always like that just with R80.x the updates gets more often forcing users to uninstall/install that software again.
That's annoying indeed but pointing out to your precise points Mart: 1. Fingerprints of SMS it's not a biggie I guess, that's just 'one-more-click' frankly 2. Settings like what you lose?
Columns in Security Policy? What then is so so important that it annoys you so much? I just don't get it. I do understand it is a little bit 'inconvinience' indeed but I solely believe ALL OF US KNOWS THAT since.
Would that be a good point of such post on the forum where the whole R&D and CP Support Team watching? I personally think this wasn't a good post at all and could have been phrased differently with simply sentence like this (I hope you agree): 'Is there any chance to improve update process of SmartConsole for Windows?' - wouldn't be that much easier in order to make it clear to ALL wha't's your pain?
Neverthenless we got it and we all sympthatize with you suffering so much every (at least) quarter doing that over and over again. If not more frequent. So your answer to an 'unprofessional post' is. An unprofessional post? Fighting a less than helpful post (born out of obvious frustration) with a post that is equal parts condescending and dismissive?
You must come from the 'it takes one to know one' school of thought. Can we be adults and recognize that SmartConsole has many faults? Check Point has not remedied these for years and apparently has no desire to. Starting with R80 SmartConsole has become bigger, slower, and less helpful in several areas. The fact that an upgrade requires a full uninstall is unusual.
The fact that this comes from a $2 billion company with 3500 employees is ridiculous. Belittling people is not the answer, despite your attempt. I got it and I do appreciate where you coming from. In such 'massive' environment indeed it is a pain and you're right saying it is a purely waste of time of taking care of the SmartConsole software all the time being or not updated by the Vendor.
Sorry I didn't mean to be disrespectful Maarten, not to anyone within a topic or to the 'Author' but I just don't get it why we're just moaning about something everyone is fully aware of since long long time. I'd appreciate AutoUpdate for SC and it's component and as rightly pointed below by Tomer it is 'coming soon' - I hope. I for now we need to live that miserable life as we know it.
I just don't get it why ppl tend to judge the book by its cover. And what's worse even remain 'anonymous' on such forum like this. Have a lovely day everyone. Settings like what you lose? Columns in Security Policy? Huge loss You may find this issue miniscule, but if you have a well defined range of distinct colours that you can or cannot use, it is super annoying to look up/readd the correct colours after each reinstall.
![Checkpoint Checkpoint](/uploads/1/2/4/3/124344092/740937949.jpg)
And now you have like 15+ people that have to do that have to go through this process every time a new console gets released. Or people that not often work with the console get confused that their threat prevention blade shows any, while src/dst columns are again hidden. I was annoyed after the second reinstallation of the console to readd the colours.
You can probably automate the process for the colours or maybe use the portable console to 'fix' this. I'm still in the process of readding the colours, as it's faster for me than do any of the mentioned solutions. Wishlist: The colour range allowed should be a server side setting, which is offered to the client. Thank you for this feedback. Indeed, with R80.x versions we have increased the pace in which we release SmartConsole versions. The motivation is to periodically release important fixes to the field, many of them reported by our customers. Following similar feedback from the field, we are already working on a solution for this, which we plan to release during 2019.
There are several requirements that we want to cover: 1) Make it easier to update to a later version, with less hassle and without losing preferences 2) Reduce the number of people using older versions and encountering issues that have already been fixed 3) Allow updating SmartConsole without Windows admin permissions (currently required to install / uninstall) The solution will be an auto-updating SmartConsole. Upon launching, it will check our cloud for a newer version and will download it in the background. When complete, the user will get a notification and can choose to relaunch, or to continue working and start using the newer version upon the next application launch. I hope that this solution will make the entire experience much better for our customers. I actually like the fact that when I install a newer version it keeps the old. I have multiple customers that are running different versions at the minute (in between upgrades) so having both R80.10 and R80.20 consoles is great. I would find it annoying if my client was to be upgraded.
I would then need to run the portable versions (which isn't a problem) to be able to have multiple clients on my machines. This may be the reason why an update/upgrade isn't possible because there are different use cases for having multiple clients on a machine. @ - I do however completely agree that losing preferences is a pain.
An HTML5 version would be amazing though.:smileyhappy. Hi all, right when I was reading this interesting thread (unregarded the almost funny interchange above) I was actually thinking in customers we've to manage multiple and different versions. Happens to be in that place a few months ago, when in some installation have a R80.20 mgmt and R77.30 in another one.
It's a pain to my corporate laptop (which sadly is low-end) to have multiple SmartConsole installations. So I would like to invert the question: it some point have occurred to CP to do a revamp of the SmartConsole with the capability to manage multiple versions?
I'm not thinking like an 'universal console' for R7x/R8x, but it would be nice a console which could manage R80.x or R77.x or R75.x and such. And thinking in a HTML5 version, first I would do it to the SmartView web Cheers!
I recently had an annoying issue with my Smart Dashboard. Each time I connected to the Management with SmartConsole and editing the Security Management server object it causes an application crash. The crash would start with a UAC popup from the Windows registry: Followed by the Check Point SmartSashboard application crash itself with the following message: ————————— Check Point SmartDashboard ————————— Check Point SmartDashboard has experienced a serious problem and must close immediately. Technical information will be saved in ‘C: Program Files (x86) CheckPoint SmartConsole R77.30 PROGRAM data crashreport FwPolicy.exe9901652973.zip’. If problem persists contact technical support or consult to check whether solution exists. To correct this problem I attempted the following solutions Please note: The solution which worked is at the bottom of this blog post (skip away, if you wish). From: I attempted to resolve the problem, by cleaning the SmartConsole cache on the Security Management server. To do so, I had deleted the C: Program Files (x86) CheckPoint SmartConsole R7x.xx PROGRAM data CPMICache This did not work.
From: I followed the procedure for deleting the GUI cache from the management server itself via the following steps: Connect to the command line on Security Management server (over SSH, or console). Log in to the Expert mode. Stop Check Point services: Expert@HostName# cpstop. Backup and remove the current cache files: Expert@HostName# mkdir -v /var/log/GUIcachebkp Expert@HostName# mv $FWDIR/conf/applications.C. /var/log/GUIcachebkp/ Expert@HostName# mv $FWDIR/conf/CPMILinksMgr.db. /var/log/GUIcachebkp/.
Start Check Point services: Expert@HostName# cpstart. Wait for 5-10 minutes for the cache to rebuild. Connect with SmartDashboard to Security Management Server. This did not work. Finally a solution that did resolve this issue From – SmartConsole / SmartDashboard crashes when editing Management server object Symptoms: Connecting to Management R77.30 or R77.30.X with SmartConsole R77.30 and editing the Security Management server object causes an application crash. Resolution: By Using the GuiDBEdit Tool.
Close all SmartConsole windows. Connect to Security Management Server with GuiDBedit Tool. Navigate to Network Objects - networkobjects -portals. Right-click and reset the portals.
Save the changes: go to ‘File’ menu – click on ‘Save All’. Close the GuiDBedit Tool.
Connect to Security Management Server / Domain Management Server with SmartDashboard. This worked and problem now resolved.