Sophos Anti-Virus for Windows 2000+: how to prepare Sophos Anti-Virus for inclusion in a disk image

Issue
This article describes how to create a disk image or images for Sophos Anti-Virus, versions 6 and 7.

IMPORTANT: In all cases, you must ensure that Sophos AutoUpdate is up-to-date. It must never be more than 6 months old.

Sophos product and version
Sophos Anti-Virus for Windows 2000+

What to do

Note : Where the operating system is Windows Vista – substitute 'ProgramData' for 'Program Files' in the following instructions.

1. Install Sophos Anti-Virus to a client machine as if it was a fresh install.
2. After update has finished, stop the Sophos AutoUpdate service. (This prevents an update starting during the procedure, which would attempt to install the other components, breaking the image. The service will restart automatically at the end of the procedure.)
3. Go to the folder C:\Program Files\Sophos\Remote Management System, and make copies of the following files :
   • cac.pem
   • mrinit.conf
4. Go to 'Add/Remove Programs', and remove the following components :
   • Sophos Anti-Virus
   • Sophos Remote Management System
5. Delete the contents of the : C:\Program Files\Sophos\AutoUpdate\Cache  folder
6. Delete the : C:\Program Files\Sophos\AutoUpdate\data\status\status.xml  file
7. Re-create the : C:\Program Files\Sophos\Remote Management System  folder, and add (to it) the copies of cac.pem, and mrinit.conf you made (above)
8. Now take the image

After installing the image, once the new computer is booted up, AutoUpdate will try and update from the server (it will have kept the AutoUpdate configuration). The cache will be re-populated with the three packages, the installer will then run and re-install Sophos Anti-Virus and Remote Management System.

Note: An alternative way of creating an image, which requires changes to the registry, can be found in knowledgebase article 12561