What's New

Licensing Service Access only for Supported Versions

1. Important: Engine Management Services (EMS) upgrade to v17 is required for maintaining access to Licensing Services.
   
2. Starting v17, license key issuance for a new or a renewed Software Subscription is viable only on currently supported versions of the software.
3. EMS UI improved user-experience in displaying Engine version status: Supported, EoL soon or Unsupported

Independent Identity Deployment Support

1. Continuity Engine may be deployed in a Independent Identity  (IID) cluster architecture via CLI Installer.
   
2. ProServ driven deployments: additional requirements and post-deployment configuration may be needed, depending on the deployment scenario and protected application.
   
3. Plugins will be changed to support IID application deployment (where applicable).

EMS Alerting based on Managed Server Telemetry

1. The first chapter in unlocking advanced monitoring and alerting is to enable our new telemetry service, which will seamlessly extract relevant information about events happening on the Engine nodes.
   
2. v17 adds more to this feature by improving the telemetry data upload-via-EMS feature (unlocked in v16) for a deployment not managed via Engine Management Service. 
3. By enabling telemetry, you empower the EMS to deliver better monitoring and alerting for critical events that matter most to your business. This will translate into quicker response times, more accurate alerts, and ultimately, greater peace of mind knowing that your systems are running optimally.
   

Better User Experience

Application Management - Reduced Default Start/Stop Timeout

1. Application Start/Stop timeouts are now set by default to 180s. This will reduce the waiting time in case of app services failing to start/stop.
   
2. The new values are applied immediately when upgrading Engine to v17.
   

Pre-configured localhost connection in Advanced Management Client 

1. v17 brings pre-configured AMC localhost connection for the administrator account provided for Engine installation. 

Systray App Enhancements

Offline Licensing Management via EMS

1. Self-service offline licensing based on telemetry data: customers may claim license keys directly from Engine Management Service for deployments which are not managed via EMS.
   
2. Install Engine Management Service on any supported Windows machine with access to internet (i.e. Engine Licensing Server) then claim your license keys corresponding to your purchased software subscription from the Support section. Details in Self-Service Offline Licensing: How to Claim a License Key for a Deployment Not Managed via Engine Management Service.

New Version Availability and Download Published via EMS

1. EMS UI alerts whenever a newer version is generally available, along with download link and release highlights.

Patching Downtime Reduction with Passive Management Name

1. Continuity Engine's Passive Management Name feature enables the ability of patching of standby passive nodes in centralized update management environment.
   
2. Following document lists all the Patch Management or Backup Software Solutions / Technologies proven to work or scheduled in the near future for interoping validation with Continuity Engine's Passive Management Name feature: Patch Management Solutions / Technologies supported by Continuity Engine's Passive Management Name

Progress MOVEit 2024 Plugins Suite

1. Support for MOVEit Automation Server 2024.1 (plugin version 201.5.6)
2. Support for MOVEit Transfer Server 2024.1 (plugin version 201.5.7)

Automated Logic WebCTRL Plugin v201.5.2

1. Automated Logic WebCTRL Plugin provides protection and proactively monitors the Automated Logic WebCTRL environment’s configuration data, services, and application data files.
2. New: Monitoring rule for WebCTRL SQL Server database.

IIS Plugin v201.5.9

Access to Continuity Engine Utilities Repo

1. Access Continuity Engine collection of utility scripts and add-ons designed to extend core features
2. Collaborate for enhancing and extending Continuity Engine functionality for specific scenarios 
   
3. Utilities repo may be accessed directly from EMS UI> Support> Add-ons

Snapshot Management Improvements

Ransomware Recovery: With Snapshot Management organizations can take snapshots each 15 minutes and roll back the dataset to before the incident happened thus restoring the protected application server to full operating conditions.

1. How to Use Continuity Engine For Ransomware Mitigation
2. How to Setup Snapshot Management for Neverfail Continuity Engine

CLI Installer and Service Manager Improvements

1. IID Support: changes to adapt System plugin to Independent Identity Deployment.
   
2. Version is aligned now with Engine version.   
   

Engine command-line installer (CLI) may be used for installing, upgrading or uninstalling Continuity Engine on a specific node. 

It was designed to be used in the scenarios where EMS-driven fully automated install/upgrade cannot be used. Contact Support for guidance.

Desktop Widget Tool

1. This standalone tool may be registered to Engine SysTray tool and provides high-level, in-desktop System and Engine status and notifications.
   
2. Usage described in Continuity Engine Desktop Widget Tool Guide

More Secure

Read the updated Security Policy Regarding Neverfail Continuity Engine.

OpenJDK and Apache Tomcat version updated to latest

• Continuity Engine's objective is to keep your systems up, running, protected, and safe. Having the latest security updates, fixes and patches for the used open-source software is critical.
  • v17.0 is updated to Azul Zulu 8.84.0.15-CA-win64 (JDK version 8u442-b06). 
  • v17.0 is updated to Apache Tomcat 9.0.100. Following link lists all security vulnerabilities fixed in released versions of Apache Tomcat.
    

New Supported Versions

New or Updated Plugins

1. Progress MOVEit 2024 Plug-ins Suite: support for MOVEit 2024.1 Automation and Transfer Servers

VMware vCenter Server and VMware vCenter Converter Support

1. Supported - 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 - vSphere Integration Plugin Support for interoping with the latest versions of VMware vCenter Server 7.0
3. Coming soon - 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 - vSphere Integration Plugin Support for interoping with the latest versions of VMware vCenter Server 8.0

Licensing Updates 

Licensing Service Access only for Supported Versions

1. End-User License-Subscription Agrement changes are summarized in the below section extracted from Neverfail End-User Software Subscription License Agreement.
   

License Key Issuance vs. Software lifecycle: License Key issuance for a new or a renewed Software Subscription is viable only on currently supported versions of the Software..

1. v17.0 licensing model transitioned Engine from a perpetual model to a software subscription term and rental model. Engine Licensing Service (ELS) enables call-home features that power our software subscription based licensing. The new license 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. 
   

Backward Compatibility

Continuity Engine 17 Management Service is compatible with older supported versions of Engine (i.e. EMS 17.0 manages correctly, including licensing services, for all the supported CE versions 13/14/15/16). 

1. If I upgrade to Continuity Engine 17, will my perpetual license cease? Yes! You are accepting software subscription's  requirements outlined in the new EULA for Term and Rental. Neverfail will generate new software subscriptions expiring the same day as the support was paid through. This means you will need to pay for support to continue software operations yearly or monthly depending on the type of subscription.

1. Can I upgrade using the Upgrade Wizard from older/unsupported versions to Continuity Engine 17? Yes, the upgrade wizard is still supported. Keep in mind that Continuity Engine versions 6.7, 7.x, 8.x, 9.x, 10, 11, 12 are currently End-of-Life (EOL). To ensure organization continued support and access to licensing services, you must upgrade to the latest Continuity Engine version.
   

2. When will Continuity Engine EOL? Check End of Life Policy for Neverfail Continuity Engine
   

3. 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 v17. And evenly important, your systems will be more exposed to cyberattacks. For example:
   


1. CEv12.0
   
1. misses all the Java OpenJDK security fixes released between October 2023 (8u392-b05) and January 2025 (8u432-b06).
2. misses all the Apache Tomcat security fixes released between October 2023 (Tomcat 9.0.82) and February 2025 (9.0.100).

Applies To

Continuity Engine v17