Summary

This Knowledgebase article provides information about this specific release of Neverfail IT Continuity Engine v7.1.2

Overview

This release of Neverfail IT Continuity Engine is a patch release that applies to Neverfail IT Continuity Engine v7.1.x and addresses the loss of Neverfail Engine registry configuration information caused by upgrading to JAVA 8 Update 60. 

IT Continuity Engine v7.1.2 is the latest addition to the Neverfail family of continuous availability technologies that has been optimized for use in VMware virtualized environments. It provides product capabilities and benefits similar to Neverfail Heartbeat, but with a highly simplified and automated deployment process. IT Continuity Engine's deep integration with VMware vSphere provides complementary add-on HA/DR value in addition to the native VMware BCDR oriented solutions such as HA, SRM, and so on.

What’s New

Engine 7.1.2 builds on the core features and benefits of Engine 7.0 by adding the following:

•  Tertiary Support
  • Create new trio (tertiary) deployments via an easy to use wizard
  • Transition an existing pair (HA/DR) to a trio (tertiary) deployment
• Streamlined Deployment Options
  • The ability to customize IP configurations on each node during each deployment by allowing you to select which IP will be your public and which interface you want to use for the Neverfail Channel
  • Support for multiple NICs. Use a single or dual NIC configuration while using the Engine deployment wizard.
• Redesigned Network Management
  • A complete redesign of packet filtering to leverage Windows Filtering Platform thus restricting network access on passive nodes without the need for hardware specific network interface device drivers.
  • Enhancements to the Configure Server wizard that allow DHCP to be selected for public and/or channel IP addresses.
• Redesigned User Interface (Web Services)
  • Engine Management Service now has its own web portal service which enables management and deployment without the need for VMWare specific plug-ins.
  • Simplified upgrade of managed servers.
  • The ability to upgrade a a single server from a cluster by IP address.
• Licensing Enhancements
  • Offline key application process. This now allows for pre-authorized license keys to be deployed quickly and easily for systems that are not connected to the internet.
• Bundled Plug-ins
  • Neverfail IT Continuity Engine now includes common plug-ins bundled into the setup .msi file and installed automatically.
• Enhanced Fast Check support for:
  • File servers with 1 Million + files
  • Closed files for running applications
  • Fast Check use at first time start-up
  • Improved administrator control over options for synchronization time versus application start-up time.
  • Configurable FileInfoCache
• Citrix Xen to VMWare as a Deployment Option
• Neverfail Engine System Integrity
  • Enhanced resistance to Neverfail IT Continuity Engine registy preference configuration loss.  

Additional Detailed Information

Supporting Documentation

• Neverfail IT Continuity Engine v7.1.2 Quick Start Guide
• Neverfail IT Continuity Engine v7.1.2 Installation Guide
• Neverfail IT Continuity Engine v7.1.2 Administrator’s Guide

Supported Deployment Infrastructure

• Server roles/applications for which protection will be installed automatically are:
  • SQL Server 2008 SP3, SQL Server 2008 R2 up to SP3, SQL Server 2012 up to SP2, SQL Server 2014 up to SP1
  • Exchange 2010 SP3, Exchange 2013 up to and including SP1, plus
    • ForeFront for Exchange
    • Symantec Mail Security
  • SharePoint 2007 SP2, SharePoint 2010, SharePoint 2013 up to and including SP1
  • File Server
  • Internet Information Server
  • VMware vSphere 6.0
  • 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 6.1
• Additional supported plug-ins
  • Neverfail for Business Application

Pre-requisites

• For information about pre-requisites for deploying Neverfail IT Continuity Engine v7.1.2, refer to either of the following:
  • Neverfail IT Continuity Engine v7.1.2 Installation Guide
  • Knowledgebase article #2800 – Neverfail IT Continuity Engine Installation Pre-requisites

Neverfail Engine Plug-ins

Note: Detailed information about each plug-in is contained in the plug-in's Online Help 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 IT Continuity Engine and are installed automatically if the application is present:

• Neverfail for Exchange plus
  • ForeFront
  • Symantec Mail Security
• Neverfail for File Server
• Neverfail for IIS
• Neverfail for SharePoint Server
• Neverfail for SQL Server
• Neverfail for vCenter Server  
• Neverfail for vSphere 6.0         
  • VMware vCenter Server
  • VMware Platform Services Controller
  • VMware Authentication Proxy 6.0
  • VMware Update Manager 6.0
  • VMware vPostgres 
  • VMware Composer 5.x and 6.x   

For more information about Neverfail for vSphere 6.0 Plug-ins, please see Knowledgebase article #2807 - 'Neverfail for vSphere 6.0 Plug-ins - Online Help'.

Plug-in Installation

Initial installations of Neverfail for vSphere 6.0 Plug-ins must be performed using the Engine Management Service. Subsequent plugin 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 of Neverfail for vSphere 6.0 Plug-ins to be performed using Engine Management Service.    

To manually install the Neverfail for vSphere 6.0 Plug-ins using the Neverfail Advanced Client, follow the steps below:

1. Unzip the Neverfail for vSphere 6.0 Plug-ins to the desired location.
2. Launch the Neverfail Advanced Client.    
3. Navigate to Application -> Plugins.
4. Click on the Install button.    
5. Click the Browse button and navigate to the location of the <plug-in name>.dll file.
6. Click OK to complete the installation.    
7. Repeat this process for each of the five individual plug-ins.

Important: After installation of the VMware vCenter Server Plug-in you must add a username and password for the plug-in via the Edit Plug-ins dialog.   

Remove/Uninstall a Plug-in

To remove/uninstall/reinstall the vSphere 6.0 Plug-ins using the Neverfail Advanced Client, follow the steps below:

• Launch the Neverfail Advanced Client.
• Navigate to Application ->Plugins.
• Select the <plug-in name>.dll to be removed/uninstalled.
• Click on the Uninstall button in the 'Plugins' pane.
• Click on the Install button.

1. Click the Browse button and navigate to the location of the <plug-in name>.dll file.
2. Click OK to complete the installation.

Known Limitations

• Affects only vCenter Server 6.x protected by Engine 7.1.2 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)

Fixed Issues 

• Tasks and events may be delayed before displaying in the Engine Management Service. (Ref-14897)
• An unhandled exception during a swithover plan execution may lead to data coruption (EN-1177).
• If the Secondary server virtual machine is deleted, the Neverfail Engine Management Service may continue to display the Secondary server as present and connected until the channel disconnect timeout completes. (Ref-14855)
• When starting the Secondary virtual machine the first time after deployment, a Windows Unexpected Shutdown dialog is displayed as a result of hot-cloning (Ref-14659). 
• When installing on Windows Server 2012, as a result of deployment, Windows Activation may not be retained. (Ref-14556)
• The system tray icon will appear when the user logs on to the target server after installing Neverfail Engine. (Ref-14660)
• If a NIC properties dialog is open on the target server when attempting to install Neverfail Engine, the installation will fail
  (Ref-15084)
• When deploying Neverfail Engine, all NICs should be configured to Connect at power on and Connected prior to deployment of the Secondary server (Ref-16805)
• Logging: Engine NFLog contains multiple informational-level entries like INFO351641[Commands](com.neverfail.amfx.AMFramework) - Licenses> Name=FileServer, value={featureIDs = [I@313e6479partnerIDs = [I@77365d30productIDs = [I@12203775} […] (Ref-17515).
• When configuring the VmAdapter, configuring the Resource Pool text field with the keyword root prevents the migration from completing (Ref-15386).
• Attempting to download the Advanced Management Client via the Failover Management Service User Interface results in Error #2308(EN-1300).

Known Issues

Install/Uninstall/Upgrade of Neverfail IT Continuity Engine Management Server

• After successfully deploying the Primary server and attempting to deploy the Secondary virtual machine, the deployment fails with the message: Creating VM. 100% Timed-out waiting for SECONDARY VM to complete auto-configuration.
  Workaround: Reboot the Secondary server and then wait for the reconfiguration to complete (EN-1573).
• Performing a single node upgrade and then cancelling the upgrade will continue to display the single node upgrade status in the server list.
  Workaround: Navigate to Manage -> Remove Server to remove the single node upgrade status from the server list. Removing the upgrade status may result in the main entry for the cluster being removed as well. To re-add the cluster, navigate to Manage -> Add (EN-1491).
• When performing an upgrade and selecting the Upgrade only a specific server in the cluster option, the progress status for the Secondary/Tertiary sever being upgraded is displayed in the Primary server Status field.
  Workaround: This can be safely ignored as it is only a cosmetic status message (EN-1491).
• After deploying the Engine, the navigation through Status/Events/Tasks/Rules/Settings is blocked.
  Workaround: Refresh the page and login again (EN-965).
• When upgrading Neverfail IT Continuity Engine with the Neverfail System Tray tool running, the About information may not be updated.
  Workaround: Restart the Neverfail System Tray tool (EN-867).
• The Engine Management Service User Interface fails to display a correct status when it is closed and reopened during an upgrade process (EN-1083). 
• On uninstallation of Neverfail IT Continuity Engine Management Service, you may receive a popup about another process holding a lock on a log-file. 
  Workaround: Start Task Manager and terminate any instances of nfremoteexec.exe (Ref-15310)
• After uninstalling Neverfail Engine, when reinstalling, the status of the operation may briefly display inaccurately. (Ref-16640)
• Attempting to upgrade multiple pairs of Neverfail IT Continuity Engine v7.0 to v7.1.1 results in the sequential upgrade of the pairs rather than a simultaneously upgrade and requires the user to click Next to continue the upgrade on the additional pair (EN-919).  

Administration

• In the event the registry preferences be lost, they will be restored during the Neverfail Engine Server service restart (EN-1447).
• Logging out of the Neverfail Engine Management Service User Interface with a server pair selected in the Protected Servers pane and logging back in may result in the server cluster's information failing to display.
• Workaround: Refresh the Neverfail Management Engine User Interface page (F5) and re-login (EN-1018).
• The Plan Execution pane steps displayed may not correspond to the server cluster selected in the Protected Servers pane except when an update arrives (EN-905).
• When a trio is installed and the Secondary server becomes dead or deleted, you reinstall the entire trio (EN-508).
• Synchronization status between servers in a trio is relative, for example, "A" is in-sync with "C" if "A" is in-sync with "B" and "B" is in-sync with "C" (EN-1037).
• When extending a pair to a trio, the status message displayed during tertiary deployment may not be accurate (EN-1094).  
• If a protected server is removed and re-added via Discover Protected Servers in the Neverfail Engine Management Service, old tasks may display in the tasks pane for the newly added protected server (Ref-15470)
• Multiple concurrent tasks of the same type may not be shown correctly in the Neverfail Engine Management Service (Ref-16522)
• When attempting to collect logs via the Neverfail SCOPE Configuration Tool, the dialog prompting you to put Neverfail into the Maintenance Mode is hidden behind the Neverfail SCOPE Configuration Tool dialog and prevents you from collecting the logs (Ref-14294).
  Workaround: Either maximize the dialog icon from the Windows Toolbar or use Alt+Tab to bring the dialog forward so that a response can be given to the prompt.
• After performing a switchover with VMware Platform Services Controller installed, the user must restart their browser and re-login to the vSphere Web Client v6.0 (EN-1310).
• The switchover plan may fail after unprotecting and then again protecting an application (EN-1446).

Plug-ins

• Setup —Neverfail for vSphere 6.0 Plug-ins do not support the ` (grave accent) character 
  Neverfail for vSphere 6.0 Plug-ins does not support usernames and passwords that use the ` (grave accent) character. Change the vCenter Server password before configuring Neverfail Engine rules.
• Enabling/Disabling the VMware Update Manager vSphere Client plug-in
  When the VMware Update Manager vSphere Client plug-in is enabled or disabled on the active server, the change is not automatically replicated to the passive server. After a subsequent switchover, you must repeat the change on the new active server.
• After an automatic or manual failover, the Update Manager client connection will be lost if the timeout exceeds 15-20 seconds. Restart the vSphere Update Manager Client Plug-in once the Update Manager service has started to resolve the issue.
• The VMware Update Manager Plug-in does not support VMware Update Manager Download Services installation type. (EN-1191).
• After a switchover or failover, the vPostgresNFPlugin rules may fail to check the PostgresSQL Database status.
  Workaround: Navigate to Applications: Plug-ins, select the vPostgresNFPlugin and click Edit. Delete the old username and password and click OK. Next click Edit again and reconfigure the plug-in with the correct credentials (EN-1313).   

Install/Uninstall Information

Installation instructions are found in the following document(s)

• Neverfail IT Continuity Engine v7.1.2 Installation Guide
  Important: If there is an existing installation of Neverfail Heartbeat Management for vCenter (also known as "Virtual Availability Director (VAD)/SRMXtender"), you MUST uninstall it before attempting to install Neverfail IT Continuity Engine. (Ref-15099)
• Neverfail IT Continuity Engine v7.1.2 Quick Start Guide 

Uninstalling Neverfail Engine Management Server

1. On the server running Engine Management Service, stop the Engine Management Service.
2. From the Control Panel, uninstall Neverfail Engine Management Service.
   Note: If you receive a popup warning about another process accessing a log, start Task Manager and terminate any instances ofnfremoteexec.exe 

Applies To 

Neverfail IT Continuity Engine v7.1.2 

Related Information

None

KBID-2883