What's new on SMA version 15.1 (4384117)

KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) is designed to automate device management, application deployment, patching, asset management, and Service Desk ticket management.
Download and release notes available here.

This release of the KACE Systems Management Appliance includes major UI features, as well as security features and fixes.

The minimum version for upgrade is 15.0. Please see the upgrade path if on an earlier version.

Minimum Hypervisors supported:

• ESXi version 8.0, more information here.
• Hyper-V needs to run on Windows Server 2019 as a minimum.
• Nutanix AOS 5.20.1.1 (LTS) or later

Note that it's possible to run earlier versions, these are only checked upon initial deployment of the Virtual Machine.

Note that upgrade changes are final, if in doubt, consider creating a Customer Testing Environment. For any feedback on this new release, feel free to contact support.

For Enhancement Requests, please submit them to the Quest Ideas Portal

Release highlights

• HTTPS-Only Appliance Enforcement: This release enforces HTTPS-only access, disabling unsecured HTTP connections to enhance security and protect administrative and user communications.
  • Customers must enable HTTPS before upgrading to KACE SMA 15.1. If HTTPS is not configured, the upgrade process stops and records an error indicating the required action.
  • The Initial Setup Wizard has been updated to require SSL certificate configuration during appliance setup.
  • Options to disable SSL or revert to unsecured HTTP access have been removed from appliance settings.
  • Option to restore to default certificate added via Netdiag. restore_default_ssl will reset the configuration if there are issues with the current certificate.
• Windows ARM64 Agent Support: This release introduces native agent support for Windows on ARM64 devices, enabling inventory, software distribution, scripting, and systems management capabilities on ARM based Windows endpoints.
  • GPO Tool updated to create policies for installing both ARM64 and 64-bit agent depending on the Architecture of the device. Download available here.
• Windows Feature Update Enhancements: This release introduces support for modern Windows Feature Updates beyond Windows 11 23H2, enabling deployment of Microsoft's UUP-based feature upgrades for Windows 11 24H2, 25H2 and future releases.
  • For troubleshooting, check the following KB Article.
• Online Shell Script Exit Code Handling: This release introduces optional exit code enforcement for online shell scripts, enabling script success and failure status to accurately reflect the script's returned exit code
  • When enabled, online shell scripts returning a non-zero exit code are reported as failed, while scripts returning 0 are reported as successful.
  • When disabled, online shell scripts continue to report successful execution regardless of the script's returned exit code, preserving legacy behavior.
• Added support for Microsoft 365 Modern Authentication (OAuth 2.0) for appliance system email delivery. This can be setup from Network Settings | Email | Enable Outbound Relay.
• Email Notifications for User Alerts: This release introduces email delivery for User Notifications, allowing administrators and stakeholders to receive important appliance alerts and updates without requiring access to the SMA console.
  • Added the ability to send User Notifications via email to designated recipients.
  • Administrators can enable or disable email delivery independently for each User Notification.
  • Supports multiple recipients using a comma-separated list of email addresses.
• FreeBSD OS 14.4-RELEASE-p7 and Security Updates: The release adds update to FreeBSD OS and several package and security updates to the appliance.

Resolved issues

• K1-35188: Dell Updates smart label performance optimization.
• K1-37146: Unable to Apply Label to Dell Updates.
• K1-33254: Unable to save OS selection in Dell Updates.
• K1-37026: Splashtop connection initiated when searching if a connection was recently initiated and the device page has not been refreshed. 
• K1-37017: User notifications retention not honored if notifications are not loaded in the UI, potentially causing a /var full situation.
• K1-37129: Network traffic to Google IP addresses observed after server upgrade to 15.0.
• K1-36998: Samba share file ownership and permissions could be incorrectly modified, preventing users from adding, modifying, or deleting files.
• K1A-4264: Inventory.xml locked by PowerShell process during inventory, results in upload failure. 
• K1A-4258: KInventory process crashes on non-Windows devices that have only IPv6 and no IPv4 addresses.