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Understanding how Content Control monitors the Windows servers

This topic provides information on the Content Control module installed on Windows Server machines.

Important

Content Control on Windows servers requires Bitdefender Endpoint Security Tools 7.5.1.177 or later.

Recommendations and performance impact

Content Control only monitors the user session traffic on Windows Server endpoints, therefore non-user sessions such as services running on the server (“session 0”) are ignored.

For the servers with high end-user traffic, effects on performance exist. In this context, take into account the following considerations:

  • The actual performance level depends on usage patterns.

    You have to scale up the resources on virtual machines depending on the workload type and according to the Microsoft recommendations. You need to estimate the usage as close to reality as possible.

    For details and best practices, refer to Virtual machine sizing guidelines and to Remote Desktop workloads.

  • Test the feature in a controlled environment to understand the effect on your specific environment.

    Use simulation tools to test the deployment and make sure the system is responsive and resilient. Test different workloads to avoid surprises.

  • Expect performance reduction

    In general, you should expect to see around 60% performance reduction in multi-session environments, such as servers that are used by multiple users simultaneously by remote desktop services.

  • A Windows server has one active policy at any time.

    Avoid user-based assignment policies for users expected to operate the systems in multi-session environments.

Installing Content Control on Windows servers

The following procedures describe how to install the Content Control module on managed and unmanaged servers, using the options in GravityZoneControl Center.

Install Content Control on Managed Windows servers?

To install Content Control on managed Windows Server machines, use a Reconfigure agent task to add the module to the already installed Bitdefender Endpoint Security Tools (BEST) agent, by following the steps below:

  1. In GravityZoneControl Center, go to the Network page on the left-side menu.

  2. Select the target Windows servers you want to install Content Control .

  3. Select Tasks in the action toolbar, and then the Reconfigure agent option.

  4. In the configuration page, under Modules, select Add and Network Protection > Content Control.

  5. Under Scheduler, select when the installation to take place. The task will attempt to run at the specified intervals until it completes successfully.

  6. Click Save.

Note

You can view the task status on the Network > Tasks page.

Install Content Control on unmanaged Windows servers

To install Content Control on unmanaged Windows Server machines, you need to deploy a Bitdefender Endpoint Security Tools package that has this module included, by following the steps below:

  1. In GravityZoneControl Center, go to the Network > Installation Packages page on the left-side menu.

  2. In the action toolbar, click Create to configure a new installation package, or select an existing package and edit it.

  3. In the package configuration page, under Modules, select Network Protection > Content Control and any other module you want to include.

  4. Configure the other installations settings.

  5. Click Save.

  6. Choose one of these ways to deploy the package:

    • Download the kit from the Packages page and install it on the target systems manually.

    • Go to the Network page from the left side menu and use the Install agent task to deploy the package remotely.

For details on configuring and deploying the package, refer to the GravityZone documentation.

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