PlateSpin Protect 10.3 Release Notes

2012

1.0 About This Release

Version 10.3 provides new features, enhancements, and bug fixes.

For Release Notes documents that accompanied previous 10.x releases, visit the PlateSpin Protect 10 Documentation Web Site and go to Previous Releases at the bottom of the main TOC page.

<<English-language documentation and the integrated WebHelp system accompanying this release have been localized for the following languages: Chinese Simplified, Chinese Tranditional, Japanese, German, and French. Note that the English-language documentation at the PlateSpin Protect 10 Documentation Web site should be considered the most-up-to-date version.>>

2.0 New in This Release

  • Support for VMware vSphere 5.1: This release supports vSphere 5.1; you can now select a vSphere 5.1 DRS Cluster or an ESXi 5.1 Server as your protection container.

    See the full Supported Configurations section in your User Guide.

  • Support for New Workloads: Protection support for workloads running Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6.x and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 11 SP2.

    See the full Supported Configurations section in your User Guide.

3.0 Discontinued

  • <<anything discontinued, if applicable>>: Support has been discontinued for <<...>>.

4.0 Bug Fixes

This release addresses the following bugs:

  • <<bug#? Inaccurate UI Element: The minium value of the Recovery Points to Keep parameter of a protected workload, defined through its Protection Tier, was erroneously indicated as 0; a protected workload always has at least one Recovery Point and the impact of selecting 0 as the value of the Recovery Points to Keep was that no additional Recovery Points were being kept.

    On upgrade, any contract or Protection Tier that was previously configured with 0 as the value of the Recovery Points parameter, will now display the correct value of 1. This is done transparently and requires no intervention.

  • <<bug_# summary>>: <<>>

  • <<bug_# summary>>: <<>>

  • <<bug_# summary>>: <<>>

  • <<bug_# summary>>: <<>>

5.0 Known Issues

<<>>

  • 756454 (vSphere 5) Recovery points are stored in the same datastore as the target virtual machines’ VMDK files: When protecting a workload to a vSphere 5 DRS Cluster or ESXi Server container, indicating a Configuration File Datastore location only determines the storage location of the failover VMs’ .VMX file, but not the storage location of Recovery Point snapshots. This might result in inaccurate free space calculation, impacting validation.

    For further information, see KB Article 7005494.

  • 737715 Unable 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.

    Workarounds: To work around the issue, use one of the following:

    • Use the VMware vSphere Client to unregister and re-register the failover VM, then attempt to relocate the VM using Storage vMotion.

      - OR -

    • Apply the VMware ESXi 5.0 Patch ESXi500-201109401-BG, which addresses an underlying issue. Reboot the host (required), then attempt to relocate the VM using Storage vMotion.

      For further technical information about the issue, see VMware Knowledge Base article 2005740.

  • 737057, 736959 (vSphere 5 Storage DRS) Missing target datastore or inaccurate volume-to-datastore map: When viewing or editing a workload protection contract, the volume-to-datastore map might be inaccurate. The target datastore might be reported as missing in the PlateSpin Protect Web Interface, which might in turn report a validation error. In most cases this is the result of moving a VM to a different datastore in the vSphere 5 Storage DRS (Distributed Resource Scheduler) system of the vSphere 5 platform.

    Workaround: In most cases, the issue has no functional impact on the protection contract. However, manually renaming a datastore before the first successful replication might render the protection contract unusable. Avoid manipulating the failover VM or its underlying DRS structure to preserve the integrity of your protection contract.

  • 595490 Preserving boot partition on failback causes failback to stall: In some failback scenarios, the system improperly allows you to preserve an active (or boot) partition on the target, preventing the target from booting properly. This issue is under investigation.

    Workaround: In Failback Details, do not opt to preserve any boot partitions on the target.

  • 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 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.

    See KB Article 7008771.

  • 686911 Problems with file downloads from or uploads to datastore: Under certain conditions, where the protection target is a VMware DRS Cluster, the system might fail to upload or download a file, such as a boot ISO image. This negatively impacts a protection contract.

    See KB Article 7008306.

  • 655828 Failure to mount NSS volumes: Upon failover or test failover, NSS volumes with snapshots enabled are not automatically mounted as expected.

    See KB Article 7008773.

  • 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.

  • 680259 (VMware 4.1) Poor networking performance by traffic-forwarding VMs: In some scenarios, the replica of a workload that is forwarding network traffic (for example, if the workload’s purpose is to serve as a network bridge for NAT, VPN, or a firewall) might show significant network performance degradation. This is related to a problem with VMXNET 2 and VMXNET 3 adapters that have LRO (large receive offload) enabled.

    Workaround: Disable LRO on the virtual network adapter. For details, see the VMware vSphere 4.1 Release Notes. Sscroll down to the bulleted item Poor TCP performance....

  • No software RAID support for Linux workloads: PlateSpin Protect does not support Linux workloads with volumes on software RAID.

  • 590635 Inconsistent failover results after upgrading: Following an upgrade to PlateSpin Protect, a failover operation might fail to complete or might not apply the correct failover parameters, such as the proper hostname and workgroup settings.

    Workaround: Before performing a failover, run a replication.

  • 581860 Browser exception in the Chinese edition of the product: Attempting to connect to the PlateSpin Protect Server with a browser that does not have a specific version of Chinese added might result in Web server errors. For correct operation, use your browser’s configuration settings to add a specific Chinese language (for example, Chinese [zh-cn] or Chinese [zh-tw]). Do not use the culture-neutral Chinese [zh] language.

  • 610918 Unresponsive Expand and Collapse icons in integrated help: On some systems with enhanced browser security settings (such as Internet Explorer 8 on Windows Server 2008), the Expand and Collapse icons (+ and -) in the Table of Contents might fail to work. To fix the issue, enable JavaScript in your browser:

    • Internet Explorer: Click Tools > Internet Options > Security tab > Internet zone > Custom level, then select the Enable option for the Active Scripting feature.

    • Firefox: Click Tools > Options > Content tab, then select the Enable JavaScript option.

  • 558937 Failure of block-level replications that use VSS (Windows): If you are using third-party VSS-based backup software, block-level replications might occasionally fail.

    Workaround: Use blackout windows (see “Protection Tiers” in your User Guide).