PlateSpin Protect 11.3 Release Notes

August 2019

PlateSpin Protect 11.3 includes new enhancements and resolves several previous issues.

The documentation for this product is available in HTML and PDF formats at the PlateSpin Protect 11.3 Documentation website.

For information about how to purchase and download this product, see the PlateSpin Protect product website.

1.0 Documentation Updates

The following changes have been made to this document since the release of PlateSpin Protect 11.3 in April 2018.

1.1 August 2019

Location

Change

Section 3.0, Unsupported Platforms or Configurations

PlateSpin Protect does not support dynamic disks that contain multiple dynamic volumes (Simple, Striped, Mirrored, Spanned, or RAID). It supports dynamic disks that contain a single dynamic volume.

1.2 April 2019

Location

Change

Section 4.1, RHEL 6.10 Source Workloads Crash During Incremental Replication

This section is new.

2.0 What’s New

PlateSpin Protect 11.3 includes the following enhancements. See also Unsupported Platforms or Configurations.

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 PlateSpin Protect discussion on Micro Focus Forums, our community website that also includes product notifications, blogs, and product user groups.

2.1 Supported Configurations

Source Workloads

PlateSpin Protect 11.3 adds support for virtio devices on supported source Linux workloads:

  • Virtio Devices

    • Storage and network drivers for virtio devices

    • Signed drivers for Red Hat Enterprise Linux virtio devices

    • Drivers for RHEL KVM virtio devices

Target Platforms

PlateSpin Protect 11.3 adds support for the following VMware containers:

Target Virtual Host

Version

Remarks

VMware vCenter

6.5 (U1)

Supports VMware vSAN 6.6 on vCenter 6.5.

VMware ESXi

6.5 (U1)

 

2.2 Security

The PlateSpin Protect 11.3 upgrade of PlateSpin Server supports your custom password for the Microsoft SQL Server system administrator (sa) user of the PlateSpin Database.

If you install Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Express Edition on PlateSpin Protect 11.3, we recommend that you set a custom secure password for the PlateSpin database after the installation is complete and you have activated the product. See Modifying the Password for the SQL Server Express System Administrator User in the Installation and Upgrade Guide.

Micro Focus is aware of the side-channel analysis vulnerabilities described in CVEs 2017-5715, 2017-5753 and 2017-5754, known as Meltdown and Spectre. We strongly recommend that you apply security updates that address such threats as recommended by Microsoft for the Windows Server you use as the PlateSpin Server host. See Protect Your Windows Devices Against Spectre and Meltdown on the Microsoft Support website.

3.0 Unsupported Platforms or Configurations

PlateSpin Protect 11.3 no longer supports protection of Windows Servers with the Hyper-V Role.

PlateSpin Protect does not support dynamic disks that contain multiple dynamic volumes (Simple, Striped, Mirrored, Spanned, or RAID). It supports dynamic disks that contain a single dynamic volume.

4.0 Known Issues

Micro Focus strives to ensure that our products provide quality solutions for your enterprise software needs. The following issue is being researched for PlateSpin Protect 11.3.

If you need assistance with any issue, visit Micro Focus Support, then select PlateSpin Protect.

4.1 RHEL 6.10 Source Workloads Crash During Incremental Replication

Issue: During incremental replications, a system crash occurs for source Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6.10 workloads running Linux kernel 2.6.32-754.6.3.el6.x86_64. RHEL 6.10 is not a supported workload for this release. A precompiled blkwatch driver is not available. (Bug 1119323)

Workaround: The system crash is a known issue for RHEL 6.10 running Linux kernel version 2.6.32-754.6.3.el6.x86_64. See the following Red Hat Knowledgebase Articles:

To avoid this issue, do either of the following:

  • Follow the Red Hat Bug Advisory RHBA-2018:3763, which will apply Linux kernel 2.6.32-754.9.1.el6.x86_64 to the source workload.

    -OR-

  • Use Linux kernel version 2.6.32-754.3.5.el6.x86_64 or earlier on the source workload.

After the crash occurs, your custom blkwatch driver might cause a failure in the normal boot process on the source workload. Remove the blkwatch driver until you have resolved the Red Hat issue. See How to Disable the blkwatch Kernel Module on Source Linux Workloads (KB 7006279).

4.2 Blkwatch Drivers for RHEL 6.8 Workloads with LVM Volumes Fail at Incremental Replication

Issue: Precompiled blkwatch drivers for kernel version 2.6.32-642 on RHEL 6 U8 fail at incremental replication for workloads with LVM volumes. (Bug 1078055)

Workaround: For Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.8, Oracle Linux 6.8, and CentOS 6.8 workloads with LVM volumes, incremental replication is supported only for the latest available kernel (version 2.6.32-696.20.1) for the 6.8 distribution. Update the kernel, then use the following blkwatch drivers:

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 U8
  •   RHEL6-RHSA20180169-2.6.32-696.20.1.el6.i686-x86
  •   RHEL6-RHSA20180169-2.6.32-696.20.1.el6.x86_64-x86_64

5.0 Resolved Issues

PlateSpin Protect 11.3 resolves several software defects for Protect 11.2.1 that were reported by customers and partners. See PlateSpin Protect 11.3 Resolved Issues.

6.0 Installing or Upgrading PlateSpin Protect

Refer to the following information to plan your installation or upgrade of PlateSpin Protect 11.3.

6.1 System Requirements

For information about requirements for a new installation of PlateSpin Protect 11.3, see Preparing to Install PlateSpin Protectin the Installation and Upgrade Guide. See also Installation.

For upgrade, PlateSpin Protect 11.3 can be applied to a base installation of PlateSpin Protect 11.2.1, with or without hotfixes or patches applied. See also Upgrade.

6.2 Installation

For information about installing PlateSpin Protect 11.3, see Installing PlateSpin Protect in the Installation and Upgrade Guide.

6.3 Upgrade

To upgrade your PlateSpin Server to PlateSpin Protect 11.3, you must have an existing installation of PlateSpin Protect 11.2.1 on your PlateSpin Server host, with or without hotfixes or patches applied. Other direct updates are not supported. For earlier versions of PlateSpin Protect, you must first upgrade to version 11.2.1 before you can upgrade to PlateSpin Protect 11.3.

For information about how to upgrade your PlateSpin Server to version 11.3, see Upgrading PlateSpin Protect in the Installation and Upgrade Guide.

7.0 Licensing Information

For information about activating your PlateSpin Protect license, see Activating Your Product Licensein the User Guide.

8.0 Previous Releases

For Release Notes documents that accompanied previous PlateSpin Protect releases, visit the PlateSpin Protect 11.3 Documentation website, and go to Previous Releases at the bottom of the Table of Contents.

9.0 Contacting Micro Focus

Our goal is to provide documentation that meets your needs. If you have suggestions for documentation improvements, click comment on this topic at the bottom of any HTML page in the English version of the documentation. You can also email Documentation-Feedback@microfocus.com.

For specific product issues, contact Micro Focus Support at https://www.microfocus.com/support-and-services/.

Additional technical information or advice is available from several sources: