Installing the legacy MV2 Monitor extension

Introduction

If you have identified by following this article that you have end-of-life Google ChromeOS devices (e.g. Chromebooks) that cannot update to a version of the Chrome browser later than 88, then you will need to deploy our legacy MV2 extension. 

This extension is hosted by us rather than through the Chrome Web Store, so requires some additional settings to deploy.  As part of this process you will block the deployment of the existing extension, and replace it with the legacy extension.

This will then allow these devices to continue to use Monitor, despite it running on end-of-life ChromeOS devices.  We will keep this extension operating for the foreseeable future, but as new features are developed they may only be released to the MV3 extension, not the legacy MV2 extension.

Once affected customers have moved their devices to the MV2 extension, the version of the extension in the Chrome Web Store will be updated to MV3 and will only be available to ChromeOS devices running v88 or higher.  All other devices that haven't been set up to use the legacy MV2 version will not be monitored.

Steps to take

To change your deployment from using the Chrome Web Store to our self hosted version, which will continue to support older Chromebooks:

1. Go to the Google Workspace Admin Console at https://admin.google.com and sign-in as an administrator
   
   
2. Find the Chrome settings in Devices > Chrome > Settings
   
   
3. Select your top level organizational unit on the left, which is typically your Google domain name
   
   
4. Search for settings with the word Manifest and set the Manifest V2 extension availability setting to 'Enable force-installed manifest V2 extensions'.  This will allow MV2 extensions to run on devices higher than Chrome version 88, which is helpful if you have a mix of older and newer devices.
   
   
   
   Then click Save at the bottom of the screen.
   
   
5. Find the Apps & Extensions settings in Devices > Chrome > Apps & Extensions
   
   
6. Click on the Users & Browsers tab, and ensure that your top-level domain organisational unit is selected on the left hand side.  Click the ADDITIONAL SETTINGS link at the top right:
   
   
   
   
   
7. Add the following to the App and extension install sources setting, pressing enter to add a new line if required.  This allows extensions to be installed from the Smoothwall self-hosting website:

   https://software-mv2.smoothwall.com/*

   
   
   Then click Save at the top right of the screen
   
   
8. Next click on Apps & extensions in the navigation tree on the left hand side of the page, and then look for deployments of either of these extensions:
   

   Smoothwall Safeguarding Client (Global) [donbapingkdboklmjcfmpagmdohkgphg]

   Visigo [mbdjjgkmchkphpboidoammililehkjin]

   It is highly unlikely that you will have both, but you should have one or the other.
   
   
   
   
   
9. Depending on your setup, there may be multiple organizational units where the extension is deployed.  You can see this by clicking on the extension in the list:
   
   
   
   In each of the identified locations, we will block the existing extension and add the new self-hosted extension.
   
   
   
   
10. In each of these locations (so for example in the image above, the 2021-entry organization unit)
    
    
    1. 1. 1. Click on the old extension, and set the installation policy to Block. This will prevent the old extension from running on any devices.  You will need to copy the Policy for extensions contents and keep this safe. 
             
             Note that the policy for extensions might be different for each organization unit depending on your setup.  This is also unique per customer, so do not use the information from the screenshots below.
             
             
             
             
             
             
             
          2. Click the plus icon at the bottom right of the screen and select Add Chrome app or extension by ID
             
             
             
             
          3. In the popup window that appears, enter the Extension ID:
             
             If the old extension you just set to block was "Smoothwall Safeguarding Client (Global)" (donbapingkdboklmjcfmpagmdohkgphg) then enter the following Extension ID:
             

             jncdlgefajjpampkpjhppnjdjbnfpnfm

             However, If the old extension you just set to block was "Visigo" (mbdjjgkmchkphpboidoammililehkjin) then enter the following Extension ID:

             deicabfnglamkcfaeacamjhgnhnegbda

             
             Then change the dropdown below it to From a custom URL and enter:

             https://software-mv2.smoothwall.com/monitor/update.xml

             
             
             
             
          4. Now click on the new extension and set the Installation policy to Force Install and paste the Policy for Extensions from the old extension.
             
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          5. Now press Save at the top right of the screen and repeat for any other organisational units with the old extension deployed.

Validating that the change was successful

Once all this is done, login to one of your Chrome devices and check in the extensions page that the new legacy MV2 extension is running and the previous extension is no longer installed.

You may also want to check the devices page in the Monitor portal to ensure that data is still being correctly sent from this device.  You can find more information on how to do this here.