This document provides information about the KACE Systems Management Appliance version 13.0.
KACE Systems Management Appliance is designed to automate device management, application deployment, patching, asset management, and Service Desk ticket management. For more information about KACE Systems Management Appliance series, go to https://www.quest.com/products/kace-systems-management-appliance/. This release contains a number of new features, resolved issues, and security enhancements.
This release of the KACE Systems Management Appliance includes the following features.
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Actionable User Notifications: A wide range of predefined notification configurations are now included with the appliance. Several available categories focus on your environment's specific aspects, such as Security or Patching. When you review triggered notifications, background colors indicate the alert severity: info (blue), warning (yellow), warning (red). Some notifications include actionable links allowing you to drill down to the object associated with the notification. For example, if you see a license expiration notice, the link in the notification takes you directly to the license instance that is about to expire. |
NOTE: Information from the Alert section on the Dashboard Detail page moved to the Notification pane. A server upgrade is available alert still uses a dashboard summary alert and not the new user notification system. |
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Simplified Software Uninstallation: You can now quickly either add or remove a Software Catalog item from a Managed Installation using the Software Catalog Detail page. |
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Let's Encrypt Easy Certificate Management Integration: Let's Encrypt is a free, automated, open certificate authority (CA). When you get a certificate from Let's Encrypt, their servers validate that you control the domain names in that certificate using a challenge. You must have a Let's Encrypt account registered in the unlikely event the certificate expires. |
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Google Workspace Authentication Integration: The appliance can authenticate users using Google Workspace credentials starting in this release. This process is leveraged in Inventory, Distribution, Scripting, and Service Desk. The following appliance-managed components can be authenticated through Google API: |
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Google Workspace Device Discovery and Inventory: This includes both Chromebooks and mobile devices managed by a Google Workspace Domain (formerly G Suite). |
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Service Desk Queue Inbound Email: This includes email accounts that are part of a Google Workspace or a public Gmail account. |
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Service Desk Attachment Virus Scanning: The appliance now includes a malware scanning feature for Service Desk file attachments. This automated process ensures that the virus definition lists are updated regularly. All ticket attachments will be scanned before they are added to the tickets. Manage Quarantined files through the Antivirus Quarantine page. Use this page to review and manage quarantined Service Desk attachments. A notification appears when a threat is detected, with a link to the device associated with the file. You can also create notifications when specific kinds of threats are detected or based on their status change. |
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Service Desk Attachment Distribution through email: The appliance can now send files attached to the ticket instead of providing file links. You can also add file attachments to email templates when needed. |
The following is a list of enhancements implemented in this release.