NetIQ PlateSpin Protect 11.1 includes new features, improves usability, and resolves several previous issues. It also resolves important performance and reliability issues.
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 PlateSpin Protect discussion on NetIQ Forums, our community website that also includes product notifications, blogs, and product user groups.
The documentation for this 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 PlateSpin Protect 11.1 Documentation website. For information about how to purchase and download this product, see the PlateSpin Protect website.
For Release Notes documents that accompanied previous PlateSpin Protect releases, visit the PlateSpin Protect 11.1 Documentation website and go to Previous Releases in the Table of Contents at the bottom of the main page.
This section contains information on documentation content changes that were made in this Release Notes document after the initial release of NetIQ PlateSpin Protect 11.1.
NOTE:This updated information does not appear in the help content accessible from the product’s user interface nor in localized versions of the Release Notes.
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CentOS 7 is now fully supported as a Linux workload. |
The following outline the key features and functions provided by this version, as well as issues resolved in this release:
PlateSpin Protect includes expanded operating systems support for the following components:
PlateSpin Protect includes support for the following virtualization host environments:
VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 2
VMware ESXi 5.1 Update 2
In addition, PlateSpin Protect supports multi-tenancy in VMware. Multiple Protect servers can share the same VMware cluster backend.
PlateSpin Protect adds support for the following operating platforms as workloads:
Microsoft Windows Server 2012 with a Hyper-V Role
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 (including the XFS file system)
CentOS 7
In addition, PlateSpin Protect provides support for the UEFI firmware interface, for GPT partitioning of disks for Linux workloads, and for the XFS file system on all supported Linux platforms.
This release deprecates support for Windows XP and Vista workstation class workloads.
For information about the workload configurations supported by PlateSpin Protect 11.1, see Supported Configurations
in the PlateSpin Protect User Guide.
PlateSpin Protect includes the following new and enhanced software components:
PlateSpin Protect provides a self-installable ProtectAgent for Microsoft Windows Server.
PlateSpin Protect provides updated blkwatch drivers for the various Linux kernel versions found in the Updates or Service Packs of the following:
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 (SP1, SP2, SP3)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 (SP2, SP3)
For a list of the non-debug Linux distributions for which PlateSpin Protect has a blkwatch driver, see Linux Distributions Supported by Protect
in the PlateSpin Protect User Guide.
PlateSpin Protect provides a single TakeControl ISO (LRD) that works for BIOS and UEFI firmware.
PlateSpin Protect provides information in Knowledgebase Article 7015818 about how to remove the vulnerability to potential POODLE (Padding Oracle On Downgraded Legacy Encryption) attacks from your PlateSpin Protect servers.
PlateSpin Protect provides the following key features and enhancements for usability and management:
New look and feel for the Protect Web Interface
Support for white-labeling of the PlateSpin Protect Web Interface
Ability to generate a report for planned resource allocation on fail-over
Ability to modify the volume snapshots directory
Ability to do IP address pinning for replication traffic
Ability to adjust MTU for replication traffic per workload
Ability to apply tags to workloads in the Workload Overview for ease of management
Ability to see PlateSpin Events in the Windows System Application Event Log
Ability to change the IP address of the Protect container
Ability to use Windows Authentication for access to the Microsoft SQL Server database
NOTE:Using Windows Authentication to log in to the SQL Server database is not supported for upgrade. This capability is supported only for new installations.
Ability to use a single SQL Server database for multiple Protect servers, using Windows Authentication
NOTE: Using a single SQL Server database for multiple Protect servers is not supported for upgrade. This capability is supported only for new installations.
This release addresses the following software issues:
902259 - Replication statistics report that the same data is being transferred repeatedly on subsequent incremental replications. Formerly, bitmap history files were not being deleted, which caused incremental transfers to include previously transferred data. After you update a PlateSpin Server to version 11.1, the duplicate data will be transferred one additional time during the next incremental replication. This behavior occurs because the bitmap history file(s) that need to be deleted on the source, which cause the issue, are not deleted until after the next incremental replication occurs.
NOTE:This behavior does not apply for PlateSpin Server hosts where you have previously applied an FTF file or hotfix file that resolved this issue.
The workaround to prevent the duplicate data transfer from occurring is to manually delete the bitmap history files from the source after you update the PlateSpin Server and prior to the next incremental replication. The bitmap history files are hidden files that reside on the root of each protected volume with the file naming format of platespin.bitmap.bbvt.pr.%date%. You can manually delete the bitmap history files if the last incremental replication was successful. However, if there is uncertainty that the last incremental replication was successful, then you should leave the bitmap history files on the source for the next incremental replication.
901292 - Workload has Stop error during failover. Formerly, a workload that was configured to convert on failover had a Stop error during the failover process because the registry required cleanup. This release adds the HostNamesForRegCleanup property to configuration services. The property allows you to specify whether a workload’s Registry requires cleanup by adding its hostname to the property. The Registry file will be updated only for workloads that are mentioned in this property.
899474 - FileTransferSendReceiveBufferSizeLinux parameter needs better description that helps customers. See FileTransferSendReceiveBufferSizeLinux in the PlateSpin Protect User Guide.
898294 - Server sync replication fails with volume serial number error. The SerialNumberUpdater will now automatically update the volume serial number in order to avoid this issue.
897361 - Windows 2003 The Target VM does not Boot “Volume with serial number 00000000 does not exist among these known serial numbers”. Formerly, during the first full replication, all of the data transfers without error, but the target VM fails to boot because it cannot be found. This issue is resolved to handle conditions that caused the error.
892206 - Incorrect link to Knowledgebase article with information about compiling a custom block-based driver. Formerly, an error message about building custom drivers for kernel-based workloads linked to an incorrect Knowledgebase article. The message now links to the correct Knowledgebase Article 7005873.
881197 - Unable to manage target VM settings with VIC; target created as VM version 10. The version for the target VM for failover was being incorrectly set. We added a configuration setting to control the maximum allowed hardware version when creating the failover VM. It now defaults the created target VM as version vmx-09.
873789 - When installing Protect on Windows 2012, the .NET framework is not correctly detected. New changes for .NET detection have been added to the product so that no warnings come from the validator.
869036 - The PlateSpin Server fails to install on Windows Server 2008 R2. The product now uses the .NET 4 framework for installation launcher prerequisites. As a result, the server installation on Windows Server 2008 R2 is now successful.
769439 - Windows BBT Incremental: Possible data loss when uninstalling and re-installing the driver. Each install method for the driver now creates a ServerSyncRequired flag in the registry. This flag tells the replication that one full or md5 sync must be completed before the block based data is valid.
701400 - When protecting onto cluster with NFS datastores, local datastores are exposed in Web UI. This issue is resolved so that the NFS datastores are not exposed.
For information about PlateSpin Protect 11.1 requirements, see the following sections in the PlateSpin Protect Installation and Upgrade Guide:
For information about installing PlateSpin Protect 11.1, see Installing PlateSpin Protect Software Components
in the PlateSpin Protect Installation and Upgrade Guide.
To update your PlateSpin Server to PlateSpin Protect 11.1, you must have an existing installation of any of the following versions of the product:
PlateSpin Protect 11.0
PlateSpin Protect 11.0.1
PlateSpin Protect 11.0.1 Hotfix 1
Other direct updates are not supported. For more information about how to update or upgrade your PlateSpin Server, see Upgrading PlateSpin Protect
in the PlateSpin Protect Installation and Upgrade Guide.
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.
No Windows 2012 Cluster support for Windows workloads. Support for Microsoft Windows 2012 Cluster support is blocked by a bug in the Microsoft product. An incident has been filed with Microsoft to resolve the issue.
No software RAID support for Linux workloads. PlateSpin Protect does not support Linux workloads with volumes on software RAID.
897843 - Volumes do not map correctly when doing incremental add of workload at Reprotect for MS Cluster workloads. During reprotect, the workload volumes might not map correctly between the source and the target after an incremental add of a Microsoft Cluster workload where the shared storage volumes on the Failback machine are not the same shared storage volumes that existed on the original source. The Windows System volumes map correctly from the source to the target, but the Quorum and Cluster Resource volume mappings show as not mapped on the Workload Configuration page in the Protect Web UI.
Workaround: When you configure the workload for first replication at reprotect, manually select the correct volume mapping for the shared storage volumes in the Replication Settings > Volume Mapping section for the workload.
886325 - Windows Server 2012 Workload's network configuration UI should not show up as DHCP enabled when it has a static ip address. The source workload and target workload have static IP network configurations. However, Windows network adapter properties report that the network configuration has DHCP enabled. The Powershell commands show that DHCP is disabled. No loss of network functionality is observed.
865570 - File Based Transfer breaks for Windows Server 2012 R2 UEFI workload. X2P File-based transfer of Windows 6.2 and above kernel versions fails during the sending and receiving files stage.
Workaround: To force file transfer to work in this X2P scenario, you need to disable the CPU advanced flags in the firmware: VT-d, VT-s, Execute Disable Bit. For more information, see Knowledgebase Article 7014698.
863173 - The X2P failback of Linux workloads causes failure of the X Server graphical interface. A protected Linux workload replicated to a target, failed over, and then failed back to a physical target loses functionality of its X Server interface.
Workaround: The issue is caused by a reconfiguration of the failed-over VM when VMware tools are installed. To correct this, use the following command to find the files with the string BeforeVMwareToolsInstall in the filename:
find / -iname '*BeforeVMwareToolsInstall'
After you identify all such files, move them back to their original locations, then reboot the workload to fix the workload's X Server interface.
860917 - Cannot prepare OES workload for incremental replication. If you create a VM or modify an existing VM in the VMware Virtual Infrastructure Client (VIC) and select Novell Enterprise Server as the Guest Operating System, the VM appears in the PlateSpin Browser (as an unknown OS type), but it is not listed at all in the Virtual Machine drop down list in the Prepare for Incremental Replication page of the Protect Web UI.
Workaround: To make this VM available as a target for X2V replication, in the VIC, change the operating system type to SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 (64-bit) and refresh the container. The VM is then listed in the Protect Web UI.
737715 - Unable to relocate failover VM using Storage vMotion. In some circumstances, where your protection container is a VMware DRS Cluster in vSphere 5 and the initial replica of the workload is created incrementally, Storage vMotion might be unable to relocate the failover VM’s disk files across shared storage locations.
Workaround: See Knowledgebase Article 7008494.
702152 - Protection over a WAN takes a long time if VM container has a large number of datastores. Under some circumstances the process of locating the appropriate ISO image required for booting the target might take longer than expected. This might happen when your PlateSpin Protect Server is connected to the VM container over a WAN and your VM container has a large number of datastores. This issue is under investigation.
698611 - Full cluster replication failure under certain circumstances. If a Windows Server 2008 R2 Cluster protection contract is set up through the sync to an existing VM method, and if the active cluster node “flips” prior to the full replication, the full replication job fails.
Workaround: See Knowledgebase Article 7008771.
638392 - ESX 4.1. Direct host discovery results in missing VM port groups if dvSwitch port groups share the same name.
Workaround: Ensure that port group names are unique.
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Licenses purchased for PlateSpin Protect 11 and later versions cannot be used for PlateSpin Protect 10.3 or prior versions.
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