Hello Netskope Community,
Managing endpoint client software across an entire organization is a critical task. A key part of this is having a clear strategy for updates and, when necessary, rollbacks. This guide outlines Netskope's recommended best practices for managing client versions to ensure stability, minimize risk, and maintain business continuity.
Understanding the Netskope Client's Upgrade Behavior
A common question we see is, "How do I roll back the Netskope Client?"
It's important to know that the Netskope Client does not have a native, in-place "downgrade" feature. The installer is designed to prevent an older version from being installed over a newer one to maintain system and configuration integrity.
The Official Rollback Procedure:
If you need to revert to a previous client version, the required process is a full uninstall and reinstall, orchestrated by your endpoint management tool (e.g., Intune, Jamf, SCCM).
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Obtain the Installer: Download the specific client version you wish to deploy from the Netskope tenant.
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Execute Uninstallation: Use your management tool to run the uninstallation command on the target devices.
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Deploy the Older Version: Once the uninstall is complete, deploy the installation package for the desired older version.
While this process works, a reactive, large-scale rollback is a scenario every administrator wants to avoid. The best strategy is a proactive one.
Best Practice: The Iterative Deployment Strategy
We strongly recommend a proactive, phased rollout model. This approach minimizes risk by ensuring any potential issues are identified and contained within small, controlled groups before impacting your entire organization.
This is achieved by creating multiple Client Configurations in your Netskope tenant (Settings > Security Cloud Platform > Netskope Client > Configurations).
The Tiered Ring Model
Ring 0: InfoSec / IT Team
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Purpose: Your initial validation and testing group.
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Risk Tolerance: High
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Configuration: Set Upgrade Client Automatically to
Latest Golden Release. This ensures your technical team always gets the most recent stable version first, acting as an early warning system.
Ring 1: Early Adopters / Pilot Group
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Purpose: A representative sample of users from different business units to test the new version against various applications and workflows.
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Risk Tolerance: Medium
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Configuration: Also set to
Latest Golden Release. This group receives the new version after it has been validated by Ring 0 for a predefined period (e.g., one week).
Ring 2: General Population
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Purpose: The majority of your users, who require maximum stability.
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Risk Tolerance: Low
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Configuration: Set Upgrade Client Automatically to
Specific Golden Release. Manually select the version only after it has been successfully validated by both Ring 0 and Ring 1. Be sure to check the box to "Allow dot upgrades" to receive minor bug fixes for that specific release.
The Strategic Value: Learning from Industry Incidents
This iterative model is a fundamental strategy for ensuring business continuity. Its value is starkly highlighted by past high-profile IT outages caused by faulty endpoint agent updates.
Well-documented industry incidents have served as critical lessons. In these cases, a seemingly minor update was automatically deployed across entire fleets, leading to widespread, catastrophic issues like system failures and boot loops. These events underscore the immense risk of a monolithic, "big bang" approach to software deployment.
The iterative deployment model is the direct antidote to this risk. By using this strategy:
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Containment: A problematic update would only deploy to your small, internal Ring 0.
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Early Detection: System instability would be immediately identified by your most technical users.
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Halting the Rollout: The deployment would be paused, never reaching your pilot group or the general user population.
This strategy turns a potential company-wide disaster into a manageable, low-impact incident for your IT team to resolve.
References to Industry Incidents
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Major 2024 Security Agent Outage: A faulty content update to a widely-used endpoint security agent caused a kernel error on millions of Microsoft Windows devices globally. This resulted in the "Blue Screen of Death," crippling essential services across nearly every sector.
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Source: Wikipedia, "2024 CrowdStrike-related IT outages" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_CrowdStrike-related_IT_outages
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Source: Post Incident Report - https://www.crowdstrike.com/blog/falcon-content-update-preliminary-post-incident-report/
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2010 Antivirus Definition Failure: A faulty virus definition file from a major security vendor incorrectly identified a critical Windows system file (
svchost.exe) as a virus. The software's attempt to quarantine the file led to systems losing network connectivity and entering a continuous reboot loop.-
Source: The Guardian, "Thousands believed affected by faulty McAfee virus update" - https://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2010/apr/22/mcafee-update-fix
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Source: Krebs on Security, "McAfee False Detection Locks Up Windows XP" - https://krebsonsecurity.com/2010/04/mcafee-false-detection-locks-up-windows-xp/
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Summary and Key Links
By adopting a proactive, iterative deployment strategy, you place your organization in full control of client updates, ensuring new versions are thoroughly vetted before they reach your general user base. This is the most effective way to leverage the latest client features while protecting your organization from unforeseen issues.
Relevant Netskope Documentation:
We hope this guide helps you build a robust and resilient client management strategy. Feel free to share your own experiences or ask questions in the comments below!
