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Table Of Contents
Release Notes for ActaStor Release 2.5.1
Determining the Software Version
New and Changed Features in ActaStor Release 2.5.1
Caveats in ActaStor Release 2.5.1
Obtaining Technical Assistance
Definitions of Service Request Severity
Release Notes for ActaStor Release 2.5.1
This document describes caveats for ActaStor release 2.5.1.
Released Date: September 14, 2004
Text Part Number: OL-6557-01
Contents
This document includes the following information:
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Determining the Software Version
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Introduction
ActaStor software functionality offers distributed enterprises and organizations, with dozens or hundreds of branch offices, the benefits of centralized storage with local file services. ActaStor is a plug-and-play file caching solution that significantly improves how a company stores, protects, and manages the data accessed at the corporate network edge. The ActaStor software enables companies to consolidate servers and storage and centralize backup and disaster recovery processes. The end result is a significantly lower TCO (total cost of ownership), enhanced protection of branch office data with reduced administration, and low latency access across the WAN.
The Cisco Edge File Engines (FE) deployed at the branch offices present a cached view of centralized storage to local clients, providing fast, near-local LAN read and write access to the file system. At the data center, the core FE connects directly to one or more network attached storage (NAS) gateways or file servers, performing file requests on behalf of the remote edge FEs and the clients they represent. Central management and monitoring provided by the Central Manager allows the FE to be managed easily and remotely.
Hardware Supported
Table 1 lists the hardware components that ActaStor supports, and the minimum software version required. See the "Determining the Software Version" section.
Determining the Software Version
To determine the software version currently running on ActaStor, open the Gateway Management GUI and select Gateway and then Utilities. You see the ActaStor version number.
Upgrading the System Image
Upgrading from ActaStor version 2.0 requires initialization because ActaStor 2.5.1 relies on a new operating system (Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0 ES) and new components (such as JRE 1.4.2).
Upgrading to 2.5.1 from any prior 2.0.x release requires an installation CD, which ships with your system along with the license key file. See the "Distributing Licenses" section for instructions.
To upgrade ActaStor build 2.1-5.6 or later, follow these steps:
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Step 2
Step 3
Step 4
Step 5
Step 6
Step 7
http://<gateway-ip>/mgr or http://<gateway-hostname>/mgr
Step 8
Step 9
Distributing Licenses
A license key file is on the CD-ROM included in the accessory kit shipped to you with the system. To distribute licenses, follow these steps:
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
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Feature Table
Table 2 lists the software features supported by the ActaStor software.
New and Changed Features in ActaStor Release 2.5.1
This section lists new features that are supported by ActaStor release 2.5.1.
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Release 2.5.1 introduces a new kernel level (2.4.21-15.0.2.EL), which adds support to new hardware devices.
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ActaStor release 2.5.1 can upgrade previous 2.1 and 2.5 builds using only the rpm command. Upgrading from previous ActaStor 2.0 versions requires a full reinstallation. For instructions, see the "Upgrading the System Image" section.
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If booting from the CD, a user can specify two available hardware configurations:
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The new MSRPC (Microsoft Remote Procedure Call) request and response caching optimizations reduce the round-trips performed over the WAN link.
Lock optimization for MS Office applications. Lock prediction algorithms in global coherency mode allowing enhanced user perceived performance and reduced round-trips when working with MS Office applications.
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File blocking prevents users from opening, creating, or copying files that match a defined file pattern on the cache, thus preventing bandwidth and cache space from being wasted.
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The following additions were made:
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The replication rule creation and management was vastly improved and moved to the Central Manager. Replication scheduling is now integrated with the built-in ActaStor Scheduler.
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The out of memory condition resulting from clients closing a socket immediately after sending a logoff request was resolved.
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Duplex printing is fixed by upgrading to Samba version 3.0.2.
Caveats in ActaStor Release 2.5.1
This section describes open and resolved caveats in ActaStor release 2.5.1.
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Symptom: A large pre-position task may degrade on-demand performance.
Workaround: Schedule pre-position for office off-hours or network idle times.
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Symptom: For each pre-position policy, the CoreServer keeps cached "file server scan" results allowing different EdgeServers to request these results at different times without loading the file server. The default caching period is 30 minutes. The pre-position policies with "now" scheduling are being modified and distributed within the caching period. The scan results caching period is configurable through the CoreServer Expert mode. To modify this parameter, please contact Cisco Support for specific instructions.
Workaround: None.
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Symptom: Site map is limited to displaying share names of 12 characters or fewer because of system limitations.
Workaround: None.
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Symptom: Site map cannot view unicode resources such as shares, directories, or files.
Workaround: None.
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Symptom: When starting or restarting EdgeServer and CoreServer on the same Gateway without waiting long enough, only the latter component starts.
Workaround: Wait until the first component returns a green check mark, and then start the next component.
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Symptom: The policy distribution functions incorrectly when EdgeServer and Central Manager date and time are out of synchronization.
Workaround: Set the system's local time, date, and time zone using the Setup Wizard's system properties page. If NTP is used within the organization, contact Cisco Support for instructions on enabling NTP client on the ActaStor Gateway.
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Symptom: In the CIFS Servers list (Central Manager, Gateway Manager, and Setup Wizard), when adding a CIFS server name, the validity check is not performed.
Workaround: None.
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Symptom: Disable pop-up blocker utilities and automatic web form-fill options on ActaStor Management applications. Unexpected and faulty behavior of ActaStor Management applications will result otherwise.
Workaround: None.
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Symptom: Legacy MS Windows 16-bit applications may encounter errors when working over the ActaStor cache. These applications convert long file names to 8.3 names when browsing, opening, or saving files. Long file names are converted to short names using the first six characters of the original name, appending a tilde character (~), and a number. ActaStor cache cannot always resolve short names back to the original long names.
Workaround: None.
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Symptom: Hiding the desktop.ini to improve performance results in the removal of the My Documents special folder icon.
Workaround: None.
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Symptom: Replication tasks cannot use a user name that contains spaces.
Workaround: Assign users that contain no spaces to the replication tasks.
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Symptom: Replicated files have the replicating user as the owner, and permissions are inherited from the parent NTFS folder at the destination server.
Workaround: None.
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Symptom: "[Error] rsync (23):" Error messages constantly terminate replication when multiple targets are selected.
Workaround: Select a single target for each replication directive.
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Symptom: Source and destination file servers must be NTFS. The replication works only for CIFS file servers.
Workaround: None.
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Symptom: Restoring backup configuration files from previous versions fails. Configuration backup files from previous builds do not include values for new parameters. Restoring the gateway using these files terminates unsuccessfully.
Workaround: None.
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Symptom: Entering the `domain\username' combination in the Domain Administrator Username field may result in a failure when registering to the domain.
Workaround: Enter only the user name without the domain name.
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Symptom: Set the Samba password server manually in smb.conf when using the Domain security model, where WINS is not in use and the Domain Controller is on a different subnet than the EdgeServer.
Workaround: Log on to the FE using an SSH client and modify in the /etc/samba/smb.conf file the line "password server = *" where DC is the domain controller IP address or host name. The line should read as follows:
password server = DC
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Symptom: Selecting the share security level poses various administration issues.
Workaround: Use the Domain security level only to avoid these issues.
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Symptom: Currently only the Domain Administrator is authorized to manage EdgeServer printers.
Workaround: Add other authorized users by editing the /etc/samba/smbusers file to include the needed Windows user names. The line should read as follows:
root = administrator admin user1 user2.
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Symptom: Users cannot connect to an ActaStor printer published in the Active Directory because the AD associates the printer with the ETH0 hostname and not with the Samba/CUPS virtual ETH0:1 hostname.
Workaround: None.
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Symptom: Updating connectivity properties may cause EdgeServer to fail when connecting to a CoreServer.
Workaround: Distribute directives between connection updates or restart EdgeServer component.
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Symptom: Connectivity directives set to use "prefix" appear with the "original name" option after an upgrade from 2.1 or prior 2.5 builds to build 2.5-1.13.
Workaround: Reregister all CoreServers and modify all existing connectivity directives with the desired aliasing method after upgrading. Verify each connectivity directive's default naming policy and set them to the proper value (prefix, original, or suffix).
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Symptom: An upgrade of ActaStor to the current version resets the EdgeServer's cache because of structural change in the cache.
Workaround: None
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Symptom: The EdgeServer WINS registration may expire and be removed from local WINS servers if the current EdgeServer WINS TTL (Time To Live) configuration is set too high.
Workaround: Manually set the WINS TTL to a lower value by entering the Gateway Manager expert mode, Rx > NameRegistration > WINSRefreshPeriod.
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Symptom: Renaming a file to a blocked file name under strict coherency succeeds.
Workaround: None.
Related Documentation
Refer to the following documents for more information about ActaStor:
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Obtaining Technical Assistance
Cisco Technical Support provides 24-hour-a-day, award-winning technical assistance. Cisco has a special technical support team trained to support File Engine products. For assistance, you can contact this team using one of the following numbers:
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You can also contact the File Engine support team using the following e-mail alias:
fe-support@cisco.com
Please provide the following information in your email:
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Definitions of Service Request Severity
To ensure that all service requests are reported in a standard format, Cisco has established severity definitions.
Severity 1 (S1)—Your network is "down," or there is a critical impact to your business operations. You and Cisco will commit all necessary resources around the clock to resolve the situation.
Severity 2 (S2)—Operation of an existing network is severely degraded, or significant aspects of your business operation are negatively affected by inadequate performance of Cisco products. You and Cisco will commit full-time resources during normal business hours to resolve the situation.
Severity 3 (S3)—Operational performance of your network is impaired, but most business operations remain functional. You and Cisco will commit resources during normal business hours to restore service to satisfactory levels.
Severity 4 (S4)—You require information or assistance with Cisco product capabilities, installation, or configuration. There is little or no effect on your business operations.
This document is to be used in conjunction with the documents listed in the "Related Documentation" section.
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Posted: Fri Jan 14 13:22:04 PST 2005
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