NetIQ Cloud Manager 2.5 Release Notes

June 2016

NetIQ Cloud Manager 2.5 includes new functions, enhances performance, and resolves several new issues as well as previous issues resolved in prior patches to Cloud Manager 2.4.

Many of these improvements were made in direct response to suggestions from our customers. We thank you for your time and valuable input. We hope you continue to help us ensure our products meet all your needs. You can post feedback in the NetIQ Cloud Manager discussion on NetIQ Forums, our community website that also includes product notifications, blogs, and product user groups.

The documentation for this release of the product is available on the NetIQ website in HTML and PDF formats. If you have suggestions for documentation improvements, click comment on this topic at the bottom of any page in the HTML version of the documentation posted at the Cloud Manager 2.5 Documentation website.

Cloud Manage requires you to provide a license file during the installation of the Cloud Manager Orchestration Server. None of the Cloud Manager components functions properly without a licensed server installation. You can purchase a license from NetIQ Sales, or you can obtain an evaluation license for a free 90-day trial. The trial key controls the number of users and managed nodes you can configure, and sets an expiration date. After 90 days, you must purchase a license, or discontinue use of the product.

To purchase the product or to initiate a 90-day trial, contact an authorized NetIQ Sales representative at 888-323-6768, or go to the NetIQ Cloud Manager How to Buy web page. Your representative will send a purchased license key file or a trial key file for Cloud Manager to your account at the NetIQ Customer Center. (If you do not have an account for the Customer Center, click here to create one.) From the Customer Center, save the file to a location that you can access during the Cloud Manager Orchestration Server installation.

1.0 What’s New?

Cloud Manager 2.5 provides the following new functions, enhancements, and issues resolved in this release:

1.1 Software Features and Enhancements

  • Installation and Upgrade

    • Supports the installation of the Orchestration Server and the Application Server components on the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 11 SP 4 operating system.

    • Supports direct upgrade to Cloud Manager 2.5 from Cloud Manager 2.4, with or without patches and hotfixes applied.

  • VMware Environments

    • Adds support for the following VMware technologies:

      • VMware vSphere 6.0 Update 2

      • VMware ESXi 6.0 Update 2

  • Performance

    • Provides general performance improvements for large Cloud Manager installations

    • Provides performance improvements for loading workload lists

    For information about improving database access performance on the Cloud Manager Application Server, see Configuring Auto-Vacuum Settings for Tables in the PostgreSQL Database in the Cloud Manager Installation and Upgrade Guide.

  • Reliability

1.2 Orchestration Server Connection and Read Timeout Values

Cloud Manager 2.5 adds reliability for zone checking by adding the ability to specify a connection timeout value and a read timeout value in the /etc/com.novell.cm.core.service.cfg file on your Orchestration Server. The default timeout values are 30 seconds for Connection and 60 seconds for Read.

To edit the timeout values:

  1. On the Orchestration Server, open the /etc/com.novell.cm.core.service.cfg file in a text editor.

  2. In the file, modify the appropriate values in seconds for the timeout parameters:

    psoConnectionTimeoutSeconds=30 
    psoReadTimeoutSeconds=60 
  3. Save the file.

  4. Restart the Orchestration Server to apply the modified settings.

1.3 vSphereUpdater Read Timeout and Maximum Retry Attempts Values

Cloud Manager 2.5 adds reliability for vSphereUpdater by providing the read timeout and maximum retry attempts job arguments for vSphereUpdate Scheduled Jobs. These options enable vSphereUpdater to recover after a vCenter crash or reboot.

  • readTimeout: The readTimeout option specifies the number of seconds (as an integer value) for calls to the vSphere vCenter system to wait to read data before timing out. The default value is 0 (zero), which will wait infinitely for data.

    The readTimeout option is mainly used for the WaitForUpdates call, which opens a TCP pipe that waits infinitely until an event is available from the vSphere vCenter system. If the vCenter system goes down or reboots, this call blocks infinitely unless a readTimeout is set.

  • max.retry.attempts: The max.retry.attempts option specifies the number of consecutive times (as an integer value) to try to reconnect from the vSphereUpdater to the vSphere vCenter system if the connection goes down. It attempts to connect every 5 minutes. The default maximum is 3 retry attempts, for a total wait time of 15 minutes.

    If the connection goes down, vSphereUpdater tries to reconnect to the vSphere vCenter system every five minutes up to the maximum number of attempts. After the reconnection attempts have been exhausted, vSphereUpdater exits its process and logs an error for the connection failure.

If you modify the default values, vSphereUpdater uses the preferred values when the job is invoked. Lock the settings to override the default value for all future vSphereUpdate jobs. For additional job arguments for vSphereUpdater Scheduled Jobs, see Understanding vSphereUpdate Monitor Jobs in the Cloud Manager Installation and Upgrade Guide.

To set the values for vSphereUpdate scheduled jobs:

  1. In the Job Scheduler, select the vSphereUpdate schedule.

  2. Select the Job Arguments tab.

  3. Specify the readTimeout value (in seconds).

  4. Specify the max.retry.attempts value.

  5. (Optional) Lock the options by selecting their Lock check boxes to perpetuate your preferred settings.

1.4 Software Fixes

Cloud Manager 2.5 includes software fixes that resolve the following new issues as well as issues previously fixed in Cloud Manager 2.4 Patch 1, Patch 2, Patch 3, and Patch 4.

Scheduled Reboots Roll Over to the Following Month

Issue: When you try to schedule reboots in months with 30 calendar days, the scheduled date falls in the following month. (Bug 973644, SR 10999652601)

Fix: The scheduling function now properly handles calendar months with 30 days.

Adding or Removing Workloads for a Business Service That Is Waiting for a Scheduled Reboot

Issue: Any changes to a Business Service that is waiting for a scheduled reboot can cause unexpected behavior. You should not be able to modify a business service that is waiting for a scheduled reboot. (Bug 966203, SR 10991103061)

Fix: Users are not allowed to make changes in a Business Service if it is waiting for a scheduled reboot.

Install Script Makes the Minimum Heap Size 4 GB Larger than the Maximum Java Memory Settings

Issue: The Cloud Manager 2.4 Patch 3 install script inadvertently made the minimum heap size 4 GB larger than the maximum because the Java memory settings were set in the /opt/netiq/cloudmanager/bin/karaf file instead of the expected location /opt/netiq/cloudmanager/bin/setenv file. (Bug 952322)

Fix: The RPM will not overwrite the /opt/netiq/cloudmanager/bin/setenv file. Your custom Java memory settings in this file will not be lost when you apply patches or upgrades. See Increasing the Java Memory Heap Space on the Application Server in the Cloud Manager Procedures Guide.

Workload Level Events Visibility for the Business Service Owner Group

Issue: Expand the Events functionality to make workload level events visible to users in the Business Owners group in addition to the Business Service events. (Bug 952153)

Fix: More types of users can see the workload level event log action. The Event action button on the Edit Business Service form is active (enabled) for any user with View rights to the Business Service.

Email Notification Does Not Contain Updated Workload Details

Issue: After you request a workload change, the email notification message for the Business Service reports the details for the original workload instead of the updated workload. (Bug 941389)

Fix: The email notification is properly processed after the update has been applied to the Business Service. The notification contains the updated workload details for the Business Service.

Include Information about Who Requested and Approved the Deletion of a Business Service

Issue: The POST_BUSINESS_SERVICE_DELETE message does not contain information about who requested and approved the deletion of a Business Service. (Bug 934784)

Fix: Cloud Manager audits the Business Service Delete event to capture information about the requester and approver. The POST_BUSINESS_SERVICE_DELETE message identifies the user who requested the deletion and the user who approved the deletion of the Business Service.

All Repositories Are Deleted from a Resource Group If the List Is Filtered and One Repository Is Selected and Deleted

Issue: In a Resource Group with multiple repositories, if you filter the list and then select and delete one of the repositories, all repositories are deleted from the Resource Group, instead of deleting only the selected item. (Bug 979699, SR 101006019080)

Fix: You can delete a selected item from a filtered list of repositories for a Resource Group.

Request for Deletion of Servers Goes to Failure; Second Attempt for Request Is Needed

Issue: If you attempt to delete one or multiple workloads on a Business Service and the Check Status Job is still running, the Orchestration Server reports that the workload is busy. The Application Server cannot delete the workloads while they are busy, and the deletion request fails. (SR 101007387537)

Fix: If the Application Server receives a Busy or Not Able to Delete workload condition from the Orchestration Server, the Application Server waits, and then retries the deletion request until the workload is not busy and the request succeeds.

Automatic Rediscover on Storage vMotion Event

Issue: The Orchestration Server vSphereUpdater behavior is inconsistent for the discovery of events and changes made from VMware vCenter, such as adding and removing datastores, networks, and hosts. (SRs 101006019041 and 101008198535)

Fix: The Orchestration Server vSphereUpdater properly discovers events and changes made from VMware vCenter, and applies them to the affected objects in Orchestration Server.

Polling and Datastores Have Inconsistent vSphereUpdater Updates for Datastores in Clusters

Issue: The Orchestration Server vSphereUpdater behavior is inconsistent for the discovery of events and changes made for datastores in clusters from VMware vCenter. (SRs 101001367680 and 101008198535)

Fix: The Orchestration Server vSphereUpdater properly discovers events and changes made for datastores in clusters from VMware vCenter, and applies them to the affected polling and datastore objects in Orchestration Server.

Costs Values Do Not Match in the Business Service Details and Workload Details

Issue: When you request a workload change, the cost values might differ by a few cents in the Business Service Details and the workload details. The values should be calculated to display the same value. (SR 10990631252)

Fix: Costs are stored as absolute, full-precision numbers in the database. For display purposes, costs are half rounded up to the second decimal place.

Application Server Is Randomly Non-Responsive

Issue: Cloud Manager Application Server randomly becomes non-responsive because of caching and bottleneck issues. (SR 10979328961)

Fix: Database optimizations and performance tuning were applied for the Application Server database to improve performance for large-scale enterprise deployments.

vSphereUpdater Crashes Randomly

Issue: vSphereUpdater crashes randomly. (SRs 10979464311, 101001367583, and 101001367628)

Fix: Checks were added to detect offline host conditions, host power state messages, and other conditions that might cause vSphereUpdater to crash. See vSphereUpdater Read Timeout and Maximum Retry Attempts Values in this document.

Software Fix Resolved in Cloud Manager 2.5 Patch 4

Cloud Manager 2.5 includes the following software fix that was previously resolved in Cloud Manager 2.5 Patch 4:

Workload Details Report Is Missing NICs, Disks, and Service Level Information

Issue: After applying Cloud Manager 2.4 Patch 3, the Workload Details report omitted expected information about NICs, disks, and service levels. (Bug 962370)

Fix: The Workload Details report includes the appropriate NICs, disks, and service level information.

Software Fixes Resolved in Cloud Manager 2.5 Patch 3

Cloud Manager 2.5 includes the following software fixes that were previously resolved in Cloud Manager 2.5 Patch 3:

Issue with Time-Outs in Cloud Manager during High Load Periods

Issue: Orphaned tasks in the database caused time-outs in Cloud Manager during high load periods. (Bug 949937)

Fix: This release addresses the issue of orphaned tasks and makes other changes to improve the performance for data retrieval. These fixes should provide significant performance increases in the loading of several lists, including the deployed workloads list.

Deployed Workloads List Takes a While to Load

Issue: Slow data retrieval issues impacted the loading time for deployed workload lists. (Bug 929412)

Fix: This release addresses database and data retrieval issues. These fixes should provide significant performance increases for the loading of the deployed workloads list. See Issue with Time-Outs in Cloud Manager during High Load Periods.

Software Fixes Resolved in Cloud Manager 2.5 Patch 2

Cloud Manager 2.5 includes the following software fixes that were previously resolved in Cloud Manager 2.5 Patch 2:

Workload Status Is Stuck on a Canceling State

Issue: This condition occurs during a lifecycle start up of a workload if the Orchestration Server is unable to assign the workload to a host. The attempt times out, putting the workload into a never-ending Canceling state. (Bug 937695)

Fix: When a workload is put in Canceling state, the Cloud Manager Life Cycle operation returns the workload status to a Stopped state, and the startup request completes with failure.

A Force Workload Completion on a Business Service Not in an Active Workflow Causes Problems for the Business Service

Issue: A Force Workload Completion on a Business Service that is not in an Active Workflow caused the deployed Business Service to be moved into the Request list in a Defining state. Attempts to delete the Request would delete both the Request and Deployed Business Service. (Bug 937690)

Fix: The Force Workload Completion task is supported only for Business Services that are in the Active Workflows, and should never be attempted on a Business Service that is not in an Active Workflow. If this condition occurs now, a message is given that no workflow exists, and then exits without putting Business Service into the Request list.

Getting Stuck Jobs in the Active Workflows If the User Hits Submit Twice or Two Users Submit the Same Change Request at Same Time

Issue: Usually, Cloud Manager detects duplicate change requests for a Business Service, and the second submission returns an error. However, depending on the timing of the duplicate submission and the latency of the network, if duplicate requests arrive at the same time, the requests might be processed in separate threads. The duplicate job gets stuck in Active Workflows and cannot be easily removed. (Bug 937134)

Fix: Only a single thread is allowed at a time for a change request for a Business Service. Subsequent requests are blocked until the initial request is completed.

Some Business Services (for Windows Workloads) Have an Invalid Linux Host Name

Issue: In the Bulk Import spreadsheet, Cloud Manager expects the Computer Name field to contain the computer name setting (for Windows workloads) or the host name setting (for Linux workloads) for the workload, and not its fully qualified domain name (FQDN). For example, you specify myserver as the Computer Name value, and not myserver.example.com.

The Computer Name value was imported as-is to the database. If you specified the FQDN in the Computer Name field, the name value had an unexpected format and was interpreted as an invalid name, which prevented you from managing the Business Service. Because the Computer Name value was stored as both a Linux attribute and a Windows attribute regardless of the workload type, the error message might report the invalid name based on an attribute that did not match the actual workload type. (Bug 936538)

Fix: Both conditions are resolved. If you specify the FQDN in the Computer Name field of a Bulk Import spreadsheet, Cloud Manager imports only the expected part of the name in the database. Also, the Computer Name attribute is stored only for the Windows attribute or Linux attribute, as appropriate for the workload type.

If this issue occurs, please contact Technical Support for assistance. You will need to correct the Computer Name and Domain Name values in your Cloud Manager database before you can make change requests against the related Business Service.

For example, the following SQL query makes corrections for Linux attributes in your Cloud Manager database. These commands work properly only in PostgreSQL 9.1 and greater.

NOTE:If you are still using PostgreSQL 8.3, we recommends that you upgrade to version 9.1 or greater.

To correct Computer Name values in your Cloud Manager database:

  1. Ensure that your Cloud Manager database is running in PostgreSQL 9.1 or greater.

  2. Create a backup of the Cloud Manager database.

  3. Open the database in PgAdminIII.

  4. Run the following statement against the database to show what the current values are and what they will be changed to if you apply the update in the next step. Review the results to verify that the corrections will provide the appropriate results.

    SELECT id, name, lin_computer_name, lin_domain_name,
        SUBSTRING( lin_computer_name FROM '(.*?)\.' ) AS new_host_name, 
        SUBSTRING( lin_computer_name FROM '\.(.*)' ) AS new_domain_name
    FROM novell.workload 
    WHERE lin_computer_name LIKE '%.%';
  5. Run the following statement against the database to make the desired changes for the Linux computer name and domain name attributes:

    UPDATE novell.workload SET
        lin_computer_name = SUBSTRING( lin_computer_name FROM '(.*?)\.' ),
        lin_domain_name = SUBSTRING( lin_computer_name FROM '\.(.*)' )
    WHERE lin_computer_name LIKE '%.%';
  6. Log into karaf and run cm:flush-db-cache to refresh the database cache.

Changing Imported Workload's SLA Does Not Change Resource Group and Cannot Be Saved or Submitted

Issue: If you change the Service Level Agreement (SLA) for an imported workload, you receive an error message that the workload resource group is not available even though it is assigned to the SLA, and the SLA change failed. This task works for non-imported workloads. (Bug 935994)

Fix: This issue is resolved for imported workloads.

Software Fixes Resolved in Cloud Manager 2.5 Patch 1

Cloud Manager 2.5 includes the following software fixes that were previously resolved in Cloud Manager 2.5 Patch 1:

Issue with IPAM Communication during the Imports

Issue: During import and workload synchronization, timeout issues and excessive logging occurred in very large networks when Cloud Manager checked IP addresses of workloads. (Bug 932777)

Fix: Cloud Manager now searches the NIXU IPAM host only to check if a specified IP is registered in the network. Excessive logging by the NIXU API client is now disabled by default.

To enable NIXU API logging, you can enable the apilogging option in the /opt/netiq/cloudmanager/etc/cloudmanager-ipam-nixu.cfg file:

apilogging=true
Enabled Zone in Cloud Manager Is Offline

Issue: A Zone is enabled in Cloud Manager, but shows an Offline state. (Bug 931391)

Fix: If a Zone is enabled and shows an Offline state in Cloud Manager, disable the zone, and then re-enable it. This resets the Online/Offline function.

Domain Adding Does Not Work

Issue: Information about the Domain Administrator User ID and Domain was not applied during provisioning, and it had to be entered again during the approval. (Bug 929767)

Fix: The Domain Administrator User ID and Domain are properly applied during provisioning.

Adding a NIC or Changing RAM/CPU Intermittently Fails to Apply the Changes

Issue: Modifications to NICs or RAM/CPU are intermittently not properly applied. (Bug 929410)

Fix: The timing of events was modified to prevent the conditions that caused the failure.

Business Service Owner ID Issue for Bulk Import

Issue: When you import multiple workloads to a new business service, the initial workload validation of the business service owner succeeds, but subsequent workload validations of the user report the wrong ID. (Bug 928696)

Fix: Subsequent workload validations of the user now report the proper ID of the business service owner.

Cloud Manager 2.4 Translation Issues

Issue: Several translation issues caused text to run off the page or to be misaligned. (Bug 924329)

Fix: The layout issues were resolved to properly display translated text.

Time Display of Events Is Not Consistent and Should Match the Local Settings

The time format is now displayed consistently across the UI. The time will not be modified to display time for the local time zone.

Either 24 Hour or AM/PM, but Not 24 Hour in the Events and 12 Hours without AM/PM in the Event List

The time format is now displayed consistently across the UI.

Firefox Is Not Allowing Multiple Entries for DNS Servers

The Console was modified to work properly in a Firefox browser to allow multiple entries for DNS servers.

Display the Workload ID in the Workload Detail View

The Workload ID field is now available on the Workload Details page.

Hosts List Will Not Load If a Zone Is Offline

The Hosts list now loads if a Zone is online or offline. (SR 101001367628)

Sponsor Cannot Deny a Request

A sponsor now has the rights needed to deny a request.

When You Select View a Template from an Organization or Business Group, It Shows Retrieving Data, but Nothing Happens

The template is now properly retrieved.

2.0 System Requirements, Supported Technologies, and Installation

For information about the system requirements, platform support, and installation procedures for this product, see the Cloud Manager Installation and Upgrade Guide.

IMPORTANT:This release supports only the VMware vSphere hypervisor. Although workloads from other hypervisor technologies are discovered in Cloud Manager, only VMware VMs have been tested.

3.0 Upgrade

Cloud Manager 2.5 supports the direct upgrade from Cloud Manager 2.4, with or without patches and hotfixes applied. Other direct upgrade paths are not supported.

For information about the upgrade procedures for this product, seeUpgrading Cloud Manager in the Cloud Manager Installation and Upgrade Guide.

For information about upgrading prior versions to Cloud Manager 2.4, see the Cloud Manager 2.4 Installation and Upgrade Guide.

4.0 Known Issues

NetIQ Corporation strives to ensure our products provide quality solutions for your enterprise software needs. The following issues are currently being researched. If you need further assistance with any issue, please contact Technical Support.

NOTE:Issues not listed here might be addressed in the Orchestration Server and Provisioning Adapter Troubleshooting and the Application Server Troubleshooting sections of the Cloud Manager Administrator Reference. Most such issues are ongoing and will not be fixed in the product.

4.1 Installation Issue

You might encounter the following issue as you install Cloud Manager 2.5:

Orchestration Monitoring for RHEL Resources Is Not Included in the Installation Packages

The Cloud Manager Orchestration installation media does not include the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) monitoring packages.

If you want to monitor RHEL resources, we recommend that you download the latest version of Ganglia from the SourceForge website and install it on the resources to be monitored. Create a .conf file similar to one that exists on a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server machine, editing the node name in the file so that the monitoring metrics display for the resource in the Orchestration Console.

4.2 Do Not Use OpenVMTools

Issue: If you use OpenVMTools (open-vm-tools) on your workload VMs, the gateway data is not available because of a defect in the tools, which impacts discovery. OpenVMTools is aware of this issue, but the resolution date is unknown. (Bug 916077)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 includes (and recommends) the use of OpenVMTools instead of VMware tools. However, when you use OpenVMTools, Cloud Manager does not properly pick up IP address information from DHCP workloads. OpenVMTools is aware of the issue, but the resolution date is unknown.

Workaround: Ensure that you install the VMware-tools package on your workload VMs. Do not use OpenVMTools.

4.3 Cloud Manager Application Server Issue

You might encounter the following issues with the Cloud Manager Application components:

Network Configurations Are Not Applied Correctly for Ubuntu Workloads

Issue: If you configure the network configuration for an Ubuntu workload with a static IP address and then choose to use DHCP for DNS, or if you select DHCP for the network address and then you choose a static address for DNS servers, Cloud Manager does not apply these mixed configurations as expected. (Bug 847938)

Workaround: We recommend that you set both of the network configuration settings (that is, the network IP address and the name servers) to either static or DHCP.

4.4 Cloud Manager Orchestration Server Issue

You might encounter the following issue with the Cloud Manager Orchestration Server components:

A VM without VMware Tools Fails to Build for Change Request

Issue: Cloud Manager cannot properly shut down a VM for reconfiguration and rebuild if the VM does not include VMware Tools: the build fails and the VM crashes.

Workaround: You must install the VMware Tools software in the VMs. See also Do Not Use OpenVMTools in this document.

4.5 Cloud Manager Mobile Client Issue

The Cloud Manager Mobile Client for iPad and iPhone app is not supported for use with Cloud Manager 2.5.

5.0 Contact Information

Our goal is to provide documentation that meets your needs. If you have suggestions for improvements, please email Documentation-Feedback@netiq.com. We value your input and look forward to hearing from you.

For detailed contact information, see the Support Contact Information website.

For general corporate and product information, see the NetIQ Corporate website.

For interactive conversations with your peers and NetIQ experts, become an active member of NetIQ Communities, our community website that offers product forums, product notifications, blogs, and product user groups.

6.0 Legal Notice

For information about legal notices, trademarks, disclaimers, warranties, export and other use restrictions, U.S. Government rights, patent policy, and FIPS compliance, see https://www.netiq.com/company/legal/.

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