Neverfail Continuity Engine v10 Release Notes

Neverfail Continuity Engine v10 Release Notes

Summary

The following information applies to the v10 release of Neverfail Continuity Engine.

Neverfail Continuity Engine 10.1

This hotfix release supersedes Neverfail Continuity Engine v10.0.

Fixes

  1. [EN-6024]: [LogCollector] - LogCollector crashes when attempting to collect logs locally.
  2. [EN-6012]: [CE10 UI]> Dashboard> Global catalog > Review number of total/protected nodes displayed.

Apache Tomcat version updated to latest

  1. Continuity Engine 10.1 is updated to Apache Tomcat 9.0.76. Following link lists all security vulnerabilities fixed in released versions of Apache Tomcat.

___________________________________________________

Neverfail Continuity Engine 10

What's New

More Secure

Check for SMBv1 presence and veto installation or upgrade

Disabling SMB v2/v3 on a server protected by Neverfail Continuity Engine

OpenJDK and Apache Tomcat version updated to latest

Better User Experience

Improved Interaction Experience with Engine Management Service Inventory and Automated Deployment Operations

  • Engine Management Service Inventory view aligned with VMware vSphere Web Client hierarchy.

  • VMware Clusters and Resource Pools can now be selected and configured as compute resource targets when deploying Continuity Engine solution (Protect | Add Standby | Reconstruct | Reclone).

Google Cloud Platform Support Enhancements - Solution Pack for streamlining hybrid deployments

Patching Downtime Reduction with Passive Management Name

New Supported Versions

Support for Microsoft Windows Server 2022

Support for Microsoft Windows 11 IoT/Enterprise ecosystems

New or Updated Plugins

VMware vCenter Server and VMware vCenter Converter Support

  1. Supported - Neverfail Engine Management Service API Support for deployment using the latest versions of VMware vCenter Server 7.0 and VMware vCenter Converter 6.2.
  2. Supported - Neverfail for vSphere Integration Plug-in Support for interoping with the latest versions of VMware vCenter Server 7.0
  3. Coming soon - Neverfail Engine Management Service API Support for deployment using the latest versions of VMware vCenter Server 8.0 and VMware vCenter Converter 6.3.
  4. Coming soon - Neverfail for vSphere Integration Plug-in Support for interoping with the latest versions of VMware vCenter Server 8.0

Licensing Updates 

Software Licensing Model

  • Continuity Engine 10 licensing model is built on top of v9.0 model which transitioned Engine from a perpetual model to a (SaaS) term and rental model. Engine Licensing Service (ELS) enables call-home features that power our SaaS based licensing. The new cloud service is free but is required for Term and Rental deployments.  For more information on how the licensing works and upgrade notes please read Continuity Engine Licensing Model and updated Neverfail End-User License Subscription Agreement  (valid for Continuity Engine 10 and later). 

  • The Engine Management Service provides the mechanism to securely communicate with the ELS via SSL and transfer hardware signatures to the ELS to generate licenses. Then the EMS delivers a node locked key to the EMS and it automatically assigns that license to the protected application server. Then daily it sends Neverfail telemetry information describing the current state of the license.

  • ELS has a fully automated process for regenerating license keys if a customer decides to continue to renew its SaaS license yearly.

  • Offline activations of new term/rental licenses will be handled via a support ticket at support@neverfail.com.

End of Perpetual Limited Licenses

Continuity Engine 10 doesn’t support anymore the legacy business model with perpetual limited licenses introduced by v9.0. The only supported model is subscription (term) based licenses. Check the new Neverfail End-User License Subscription Agreement.

Backward Compatibility

Neverfail Continuity Engine 10 Management Service is compatible with older versions of Continuity Engine (i.e. EMS 10.0 manages correctly CE 6.x/7.x/8.x/9.x). However, many of the new features are not supported thus cannot be used in this context. For example, here are the new v10.0 features not supported with CE v8.x:

  • Server Monitoring features. This is new in Engine 9.0 and exposes Failover/ Split-brain avoidance / Isolation / Network Monitoring functionality

  • Access to unified deployment workflow which includes: Add | Reconstruct | Reconfigure Standby Servers

  • Access to the new licensing service (ELS), hence to online licensing process

FAQ

  1. Will the HTML5 UI work with my Engine 8.0/8.5 deployments for I don’t have to use FLASH? Yes, but some features as mentioned above will be disabled as they are exclusive to Continuity Engine 9.0 and later. However, you will get popup messages asking you to upgrade. However, Continuity Engine 8.x is already end of life, since January 31, 2023.  For more information regarding Continuity Engine v8.x EOL Policy, please read Notice of End of Support Life for Neverfail Continuity 8.1, 8.2 and 8.5.

  2. If I upgrade to Continuity Engine 10, will my perpetual license cease? Yes! You are accepting SaaS license. requirements outlined in the new EULA for Term and Rental. Neverfail will generate new license authorizations for your current deployment. This means you will need to pay for support to continue software operations yearly or monthly depending on the type of license. Please read carefully the Continuity Engine Licensing Model article.

  3. Can I upgrade using the Upgrade Wizard from 6.7 to Continuity Engine 10? Yes, the upgrade wizard is still supported. Keep in mind that Continuity Engine 6.7, 7.x and 8.x are currently End-of-Life (EOL). To ensure organization continued support, we would encourage you to upgrade to the latest version.

  4. Will Continuity Engine 9.0 EOL soon? Continuity Engine 9.0 will be EoL 30th of April, 2024. For more information regarding Continuity Engine v9.0 EOL Policy, please read Notice of End of Support Life for Neverfail Continuity 9.0.

  5. Can I stay on previous versions of Continuity Engine? Yes, however, previous versions will eventually EOL and you will not be able to take full advantage of the new features of Continuity Engine v10. And evenly important, your systems will be more exposed to cyberattacks. Just as a brief "illustration" for older version cybersecurity risks compared to CEv10:

    1. CEv9.0
      1. misses all the security fixes between OpenJDK 8u332-b09 (April 2022) and 8u372-b07 (April 2023)
      2. misses all the security fixes between Tomcat 9.0.64 (May 2022) and 9.0.74 (April 2023)
    2. CEv8.5 - EOL since January 31 2023
      1. misses all the security fixes between OpenJDK 8u242-b08 (January 2020) and 8u372-b07 (April 2023)
      2. misses all the security fixes between Tomcat 7.0.100 (February 2020) and 9.0.74 (April 2023). Note: Tomcat 7.x was EOL March 2021. 

Supported Deployment Infrastructure

  • Server roles/applications for which protection will be installed automatically are:
    • SQL Server 2008 SP4, SQL Server 2008 R2 up to SP3, SQL Server 2012 up to SP4, SQL Server 2014 up to SP3, SQL Server 2016 SP2, SQL Server 2017, SQL Server 2019
    • Exchange 2010 SP3, Exchange 2013 up CU17, Exchange 2016, Exchange 2019
      • ForeFront for Exchange up v10 SP1
      • Symantec Mail Security up to v7.9
    • SharePoint 2007 SP2, SharePoint 2010 SP2, SharePoint 2013 up to SP1, SharePoint 2016, SharePoint 2019
      • Microsoft Office Online Server 2016
    • File Server including Windows Server 2022
    • Internet Information Server including v10 on Windows Server 2022
    • VMware vCenter Server 6.0 up Update 3c, VMware vCenter Server 6.5 up Update 1d, VMware vCenter Server 6.7
    • vCenter Server 5.1 Update 2, vCenter Server 5.1 Update 3, vCenter Server 5.5 Update 1a, vCenter Server 5.5 Update 2, vCenter Server 5.5 Update 3, vCenter Server 5.5 Update 3a, and vCenter Server 5.5 Update 3b
    • VMware View Composer 5.3, VMware View Composer 6.2.5, VMware View Composer 7.6
    • Progress MOVEit Central 8.0/8.1, MOVEit DMZ 8.1, MOVEit 2017, MOVEit 2018, MOVEit 2019.2, MOVEit 2020.1, MOVEit 2021.1, MOVEit 2022.1: Automation, Transfer, Mobile Servers, Analytics Agent
    • MySQL Server 5.x, 8.x
    • MiContact Center Server v9.0, MiContact Center Business 9.3, MiContact Center Business 9.5
    • Any of the following SolarWinds Orion Network Management components: SolarWinds NPM v12.0.1, v12.1, SolarWinds APE v12.0.1, v12.1, SolarWinds NCM v7.5.1, v7.6, SolarWinds SAM v6.3.0, v6.4, SolarWinds NTA v4.2.1, v4.2.2
    • Oracle Database 19c, 18c, 12c, 11g
      • Oracle Management Agent v12, v13
    • System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) platforms: 2007, 2007 R2, 2012, 2012 R2, 2012, 2019 
    • Veeam Backup & Replication 9.5 U3 & U4
    • Atlassian Confluence 6.x versions 
    • Atlassian Jira 7.x versions
    • PostgreSQL 9.3, 9.4, 9.5, 9.6, 10.x versions
    • Apache Tomcat 8.x.x., 9.x.x
  • Additional supported plug-ins
    • Neverfail CE for Business Application

Neverfail Engine Plug-ins

Note: Detailed information about each plug-in is contained in the plug-in's knowledgebase file that is available by clicking on the link.

Neverfail plug-ins provide protection for specific installed application configuration data, services, and application data files.  

The following plug-ins are included in this release of Neverfail Continuity Engine and are installed automatically if the application is present:

Plugin Installation

Initial installations of Neverfail Continuity Engine Plug-ins must be performed using the Engine Management Service. Subsequent plug-in re-installations and upgrades may be performed using the Applications: Plug-ins tab of the Neverfail Advanced Client. However, Neverfail recommends that any subsequent plug-in repair installations or upgrades to be performed using Engine Management Service.    

To manually install a Neverfail Continuity Engine Plugin follow the How to install a Neverfail Continuity Engine Plugin using Advanced Management Client procedure.

Fixed Issues

  • [EN-5770]: MailHost can be now set from nfcmd and nfclient
  • [EN-5849]:  Unable to edit a Continuity Engine task once it is created.

Known Limitations

  • Passwords starting and/or ending with space ( ) character(s) are not supported (EN-3935).
  • (Re)cloning limitation: Disconnected Engine cluster after a cloning or recloning action: recloned node is connected to wrong port group. Workaround documented in Neverfail Continuity Engine Cloning and Recloning limitations: disconnected Engine cluster  (EN-3354)
  • Recloning limitations when Neverfail Engine passive nodes when static routes are configured: these are listed in Neverfail Continuity Engine Recloning limitations when static routes are configured  (EN-3355)
  • Neverfail Engine Localization limitations: following localized versions of Windows Server targets/topologies are supported for Engine installation: (EN-3221) 
    • any WS2008R2, WS2012/R2, WS2016 OS domain or workgroup member protected by HA, DR or HA+DR Engine topology having only alphanumeric chars in its hostname and AD domain name
    • any WS2008R2, WS2012/R2, WS2016 OS domain or workgroup member protected by HA or DR-with-same-Public-IP Engine topology having only alphanumeric chars in the AD domain name
  • Engine Management Service will not uninstall a server with an expired license (EN-1315).
  • Affects only vCenter Server 6.x protected by Engine v8.x (or newer) DR deployments with the DR-node configured with different IP address: Managed ESXi hosts appear as disconnected in vCenter Server/vSphere Client after making DR node active. (EN-2042).
  • The Neverfail Continuity Engine .msi installer package is sometimes detected as having untrusted publishers (EN-969).
  • The FileServer plug-in bundled with Neverfail Continuity Engine v8.5 (or newer) properly replicates DFS namespaces. The DFS Management Client does not load the namespaces correctly each time.
  • Affects only MOVEit Central/Automation Server protected by Engine v8.5 (or newer): Local folders specified as source/destination in MOVEit Automation tasks require user-defined filters for protection. (EN-2879)
  • Affects only Engine clusters upgraded from Ipswitch Failover 9.0/9.5 to Engine 8.5 (or newer) (when Create and maintain shadows automatically was not enabled): Progress Failover shadows are still visible as restore points in DRM after upgrading to Engine 8.5 (EN-2863)
  • Affects only upgrades from Ipswitch Failover 9.0/9.5 to Engine 8.5 (or newer): Some Ipswitch Failover 9.0/9.5 log and configuration files are not deleted when upgrading to Engine 8.5 (EN-2820, EN-2861)
  • [Applies to 9.0 (or newer) with Passive Node Management Identity configured] vCenter Inventory passive VMs are not detected as Protected nodes if management name is configured and webservices are stopped on the active. Dashboard's protected servers count in Global Inventory is also impacted. (EN-4647)
    • conditions: Management name configured AND active server webservices stopped
    • result: deployment.location is not available hence the clustername mechanism is used. that makes only the Active server to be reported as protected node (if VM). Passives cannot be determined as vmid is not available
  • [CE HTML5 UI] When extending from pair to trio (add DR to HA pair) Secondary webservices require restart in order to serve (when made active) the updated deployment topology (trio instead of pair). This is known as the webservices are not restarted on S and S is the T's cloning source. (EN-4657)
    • impact: only if S is made active before webservices restart: new HTML UI Datacenter info is not accurate on Tertiary. Possible Protected node count is wrong if management identity is configured on any of the passives.
    • remediation: restart webservices on Secondary/Tertiary
  • [AMFx]: User defined sponsor is not persisted in prefs till Engine service is restarted. Thus webservices don't know about it (till restart is done) (EN-4341)
  • [CE HTML5 UI] Active compression type is shown as 'Standard' when there are no passive instances present in the replication chain. Workaround: This issue is purely cosmetic and it will correct itself once there are passive instances present in the replication chain. (EN-4855)
  • [CE HTML5 UI] Data traffic value in serverlist API is not always accurate. (EN-4859)
  • [CE HTML5 UI] Reconstruct pair: transform from pair HA to pair DR> HA cached configuration must be cleaned up before defining new DR config (EN-4915)
  • [CE HTML5 UI] Startup Engine service may experience delay when unreachable nodes are selected for starting the service on. (EN-4949)
  • [CE HTML5 UI] EULA accept is required all the time when Engine service is stopped (even if previously accepted). (EN-4958)

Known Issues

Engine Management Service

  • With SQL Plug-in + SQL 2014 & In-Memory Tables may result in an OFFLINE DB state during "In Recovery" state (EN-329). 
  • Trying to add a 6.7 pair/trio in EMS UI protected servers list fails with an error. 
    Workaround: Restart Neverfail Web Services on the active server. (EN-1354)
  • Virtual Bytes rule triggered at every check (EN-859).
  • The Engine Management Service MSI repair mode fails to operate properly (EN-1389).
  • If the Engine is running, a new license is added to the list of licenses. If the Engine is stopped, it replaces the list of licenses (EN-902).

Install/Uninstall

Administration

  • LogCollector - Attempt to collect logs fails with exception "...object reference not set to an instance of an object" (EN-6024)
    • Workaround: Download LogCollector v3.0.3. Unzip archive, then copy/replace LogCollector.exe in "C:\Program Files\Neverfail\R2\bin folder", on each of the Continuity Engine nodes. Note: LogCollector v3.0.3 is available also on Neverfail Continuity Engine Download page, under the Utilities section. 
  • LogCollector - The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception (EN-2011).

Applies To

Neverfail Continuity Engine v10.0


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