What's New

Independent Identity Installation Type

Engine Installation and Upgrade Safety Measures

1. Both Installation and Upgrade process will stage the deployment tools and CLI utility to all nodes as a fail-safe for interrupted installs or upgrades.
   
2. Enabled by default.
   

In-Product Notification Enhancement

1. Interactive notifications are pushed to EMS then to managed Engine clusters. Advanced Management Client users will "see" the notifications in-AMC.
   
2. Silent trigger mechanism improvement: separate threads for unicast/multicast/broadcast Engine targets.
   
3. License authorization features and plugins updates are pushed and applied automatically on Engine targets (online licensing scenario). 
   
1. Engine license check mechanism will alert any unlicensed items situations.

Engine Compliance - SBOM

1. SBOM improvements: 
   
1. Downloadable SBOMs (CycloneDX) are available in EMS for current GA version of Engine components.  
2. Added missing component supplier information (required by NTIA).
   
3. Added verification pack containing the digital signatures and public key required to verify the integrity and authenticity of the Engine SBOMs.

Alerting based on Managed Server Telemetry

1. 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.
   
2. The first chapter in unlocking advanced monitoring and alerting was to enable our new telemetry service v16, which will seamlessly extract relevant information about events happening on the Engine nodes.
   
3. v17 adds more to this feature by improving the telemetry data upload-via-EMS feature for a deployment not managed via Engine Management Service. 
4. v18 enables In-Product Notification feature which may be used for announcing and alerting customers with relevant Engine information.
5. v19 extends and prepares notification vehicle to be used in relicensing and alerts delivery.
   
6. v20 brings granular, deeper access to Engine online deployment targets for Engine silent relicense mechanism. 
   
7. v21 extends In-product Notification for managed Engine servers receiving license authorization updates.
   
8. v22 brings in-AMC notification: interactive notifications are pushed as far as to managed Engine clusters, enabling users to see and manage them in-AMC also (additionally to in-EMS),

Better User Experience

Application Management - Automating Discovery and Protection via Dedicated Plugins  (on-going)

1. New plugins will be developed and added to Engine family, release by release. These plugins will replace the manual implementation of User Defined application protection. 
2. Application protection made simple. Homogeneous. Reliable.

EMS Alerts Bar Optimizations

1. Optimized version of a lightweight, always-visible Windows notification bar running on machines where EMS web console is installed to provide real-time monitoring of Engine clusters health by displaying the latest events, role assignments, and replication status.
   
1. better events handling, adaptative refresh cycle, continuous alerts flow, logging improvements, start menu shortcut.

Desktop Widget Tool Improvements

Advanced Management Client

1. In-AMC Notifications: users will "see" and manage notifications also in AMC UI, additionally to EMS UI.
2. License Management: hot-add/remove license keys without stopping Engine service.
   
3. Import/Export User Defined settings: 
   
1. Back up your personalized settings by exporting them to a file, or import an existing configuration file to instantly apply your saved setup.
   
4. Standalone AMC x64 MSI Installer
   
5. Portable AMC fixes regarding remote Engine management
   
1. more details in: Neverfail Engine Advanced Management Client (Portable) Requirements 
   
6. Quad configuration support where compatible* (customized 4-node, dual-site HA). 
   
1. requires compatibility check and implementation via Neverfail Professional Services.

Offline Licensing Management via EMS

1. UX Improvements for hardened environments: managed server will show Product Version on grey background with tooltip message "Cannot validate support". Access to offline licensing is permitted.
2. 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.
   
3. 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. 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 Engine's Passive Management Name feature: Patch Management Solutions / Technologies supported by Engine's Passive Management Name

System Plugin v401.0.12 - Support for IID

1. Auto-configuration depending on Engine Standard or Independent Identity* installation
1. Plugin will configure the protected data set and configuration depending on Engine's installation type implemented starting v21. No more need of any extra user configuration - all happens behind the scenes, automatically.
2. Standard Installation type health monitoring via periodical checking of cloned status (hard requirement).
   *limited support - Independent Identity deployments require Professional Services driven deployment
2. Alerting service: Notifications received from EMS are replicated to all the Engine cluster nodes. This assures Advanced Management Client inline displayed notifications are in sync across all the active/passive nodes.
3. More details in System Plugin v401.0.12 - Release Notes.
   

Access to Engine Utilities Repo

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

Fixed Issues

1. [EN-6799]: [AMCx64]: Group/Connection behaves funky: works when defined first. But after restarting AMC group definition is missing and defined connection is misbehaving.
2. [EN-6816]: [EMS UI]:Logout after timeout expires is not user friendly - it shows a lot of RED toast messages. 
3. [EN-6828]: [CLI Installer]: Fix version reporting. 
   
4. [EN-6848]: [EMS UI]: Replace login suggested "administrator" with something more appropriate indicating a local\domain account.
   
5. [EN-6904]: [Windows Server 2025 Support] -  Fix for Preinstall validation check: "Cannot determine number of Free System Table pages."
   
6. [EN-6839]: Neverfail Engine's listener thread for the AMC GUI (port 52267) crashes silently sometimes.
   
7. [EN-7005]: [EMS UI]: Dashboard> Supported versions is not loading the pie chart if no Unknown servers are counted, when version support cannot be evaluated (i.e. ELS cannot be contacted)
8. [EN-7006]: [EMS UI]: Settings> vCenter Server connection> Delete should be allowed (button enabled) when Status is Not connected.
   
9. [EN-6716]: [FileServer plugin vs Windows Update]: Windows Updates changes the MsQuic service into not-a-service. This impacts plugin's service protection.  
   
10. [EN-6868]: [CLI]: Leftover NFBase path using PFx86 path is causing issues with CLI upgrade.
    
11. [EN-6899]: Engine licensed features validator enhancements. 
    
12. [EN-7149]: Removed welcome file list declaration from HBWS web.xml that was useless anyway (not being used).
    
13. [EN-7123]: Cannot connect from remote AMC client to Engine server: Error unmarshaling return header.
    
14. {EN-7192}: [CSW]: Rename "Physical Hardware Identity" to "Server Node Identity".
    
15. [EN-7191]: [Systray tool]: Rename "View NT Event Log" to "View Windows Event Log".

Applies To

Neverfail Engine v22