14 DAY TRIAL // The first major upgrade to Microsoft’s server solution designed for enterprise customers to offer secure remote access to corporate resources is nearing completion. Forefront Unified Access Gateway (UAG) Server Pack One (SP1) Release Candidate (RC) is now available for download, enabling early adopters to test drive the upcoming upgrade.
Recommended for testing scenarios, but not for deployment into production, Forefront UAG 2010 SP1 RC is now heading to the final development milestone, RTM.
SP1 introduces a number of new features compared to the RTM version of Forefront UAG 2010, with the software giant having worked to enable publishing ADFS 2.0; boost the Forefront UAG DirectAccess experience; and allow customers to take advantage of one-time password (OTP) authentication for DirectAccess clients.
At the same time, Forefront UAG 2010 SP1 includes Forefront UAG Update 1 and Update 2, which were delivered after the product’s General Availability deadline.
“SP1 is not only about features – it’s also about the user experience and the quality of the product. We addressed many customer requests and improved the stability and robustness of the system – not only for the new functionality but also for the existing scenarios.
“We also invested in completing the localization of the end-user experience. We are confident that you and your users will notice the improvement,” notes a member of the Forefront UAG team.
Customers can choose two installation methods to test the RC. Forefront UAG SP1 Update (SP1: UAGSP1_RC_UPGRADE_ENU.exe) is designed to install SP1 RC on top of existing Forefront UAG RTM servers.
Customers can upgrade from Forefront UAG with Update 1; Forefront UAG with Update 2; or Forefront UAG with private SP1 Beta in this scenario.
At the same time, Forefront UAG with SP1 (UAGSP1_RC_INTEGRATED_ENU.iso) is available for customers looking to perform clean installs of Forefront UAG and SP1 RC.
The member of the Forefront UAG team enumerated some of the new features in SP1:
“Among the new features for DirectAccess:
•One-time-password support for DirectAccess.
•Simplified DirectAccess deployment with an improved admin UI, which includes new functionality that previously required scripting and manual tweaking.
•Increased flexibility in creating and distributing DirectAccess Group Policy Objects (GPO)
•Support for DirectAccess deployments which enable only the “always managed” functionality, allowing remote management of the DirectAccess client machines from the Corporate network without also enabling corporate access for the DirectAccess clients
•Support for forced tunneling, which means that all of the traffic from DirectAccess clients is routed through the DirectAccess server to the corporate network, and from there, if needed, back to the Internet.
•Integration of the DirectAccess Connectivity Assistant (DCA) configuration and deployment into the admin process.
•Integrated NAP for simplified endpoint policy enforcement.
•Improved monitoring and troubleshooting by adding new DCA diagnostics and server-side reports.
The new AD FS 2.0 secure collaboration scenarios in SP1 enable the following:
•One-time-password support for DirectAccess.
•Claims-based authentication to the UAG portal
•Publishing of claims-aware applications
•Claims-based authorization
•SSO to legacy applications for users authenticated using claims
•Single Sign-out
•Publishing AD FS 2.0 server.”
Forefront Unified Access Gateway (UAG) 2010 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Release Candidate (RC) is available for download here.