Archive:Release Notes 4.4.1

Document update: 4.6.2014.

What's new in SEP sesam release 4.4.1

SEP sesam provides extended support for VMWare vSphere that enables instant VMware vSphere recovery as well as single item restore. Introduced is Si3 target deduplication for Linux. SEP sesam GUI has been enhanced to provide better overview of the configured tasks and clients. Additionally, new options for customizing GUI are now available. For details, see Enhancements and changes.

Upgrades and licensing

Direct upgrade for versions 3.6/4.x to version 4.4.1 is supported. Latest released versions are:

• SEP sesam 4.4.1.26 Windows - Released: August 29th, 2014.
• SEP sesam 4.4.1.25 Linux - Released: August 27th, 2014.

SEP sesam server and client components should be upgraded to the latest version during the regular upgrade process. This ensures the highest possible protection of the SEP sesam clients. Customers with a valid license are eligible for a free SEP sesam upgrade for any new release until the license is valid. See also Automatic Update.

Known issues and limitations

Known Issues:

Windows Update An Error occures when trying to update a Windows SEP sesam gui installation package V4.4.1.14-4.4.1.23 with a gui installation package >V4.4.1.23: Could not load table 'LaunchCondition' in SQL query: SELECT `Condition`, `Description` FROM `LaunchCondition`. Workaround: Deinstall the SEP sesam gui and reinstall a newer version (V4.4.1.25 or higher) of the SEP sesam gui. Hint: It is not supported to update a Windows SEP sesam client installation package with a gui or a server installation package. It is not supported to update a Windows SEP sesam gui installation package with a client or a server installation package. It is not supported to update a Windows SEP sesam server installation package with a client or a gui installation package. Remote Update of Windows Server 2003 In SEP sesam V4.4.1 the command line based remote update (using sm_update_client or sm_remote_installer) of a Windows Server 2003 fails. Windows Server 2003 is not supported for SEP sesam V4.4.1. After the failed update the services of the client are down. Workaround: Connect to the Windows Server 2003 and start the services. Side by side error executing Python executables (V4.4.1.22-4.4.1.25) Side by side error occurs when trying to execute any python executable if msvcr90.dll with version 9.0.21022.8 was missing. The python27.dll is linked against another msvcr90.dll than the one delivered by SEP. Now the msi installer, installs the missing redistributable during the installation and update process. Fixed: Version 4.4.1.26: installs the missing redistributable package during install/update If a save set exceeds the maximum file size limit of a file system, the data above the limit is lost during backup/migration on data store. The backup/migration is marked as successful even though the save set is incomplete Since SEP sesam V4.4.1.14 backing up to a data store on a file system with file size limits (e.g. ext3 file system) leads to data loss, if the save set size exceeds the file size limits of the file system. In ext3, the maximum file size is between 16 GiB and 2 TiB. All backups with result data sizes exceeding the maximum file size of a Data Store file system are incomplete. In order to guarantee a full backup save set those backups must immediately be executed on appropriate media (Data Store with sufficient file system limit or tape drive). Fixed: Version 4.4.1.25 aborts backups and migration that exceed the specified limits of the file system. To avoid this file systems with sufficient file sizes, e.g. XFS with 16 EiB, must be used. In case of a not sufficient file system the Data Store must be set up anew, for instance on a new system, and the existing backup sets must be migrated or copied. Note 1: This problem occurs only since version 4.4.1.14. In older versions of SEP sesam (3.6/4.0/4.2) storing operations exceeding the file limits will be aborted. Note 2: Since version 4.4.1.25 SEP sesam provides a consistency check for a data store Path backup option 'VSS' is not selectable for 'Windows Server 2012 R2' clients In SEP sesam V4.4.1.22 the 'VSS' option for 'Windows Server 2012 R2' clients can not be set. Fixed: V4.4.1.23. After the update to 4.4.1.23 the 'Path' backup tasks should be set up with 'VSS' option to allow a consistent backup. Workaround: At the SEP sesam server execute to allow to set the 'VSS' option, after setting the SEP sesam environment sm_db "INSERT INTO syntaxes (os,command,syntax) VALUES ('Windows Server 2012 R2','SNAPSHOT-cmd','vss')" Update on Debian based system fails due to wrong java version To fix update problems on Debian systems: Before updating Sesam, install JRE 7 based Java version 7: apt-get install openjdk-7-jre make this Java version the default: update-alternatives --set java /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk-amd64/jre/bin/java update your Sesam installation via "apt-get upgrade" Interrupted access to vSphere Access to vSphere 5.5 using IBM JRE 1.7 might be interrupted due to missing crypto modules. GUI does not start GUI Jar files were reorganized. To start the GUI, check the target properties of the SEP sesam GUI shortcut. The syntax should be: java -classpath sm_ui.jar de.sep.sesam.gui.client.Frame -u<user> -S<servername> -p 11401 -v2 Windows example: "C:\Program Files\Java\jre7\bin\javaw.exe" -Djava.io.tmpdir="%TEMP%" -classpath sm_ui.jar de.sep.sesam.gui.client.Frame -uAdministrator -Sdogmatix -lwindows -p11401 -P local -v2 -ren Restore to Exchange Server 2013 DAG Microsoft changed the restore logic for Exchange Server Replica Writer used in Exchange Server 2013 Database Availability Groups (DAGs). Fixed: A patch for this issue is available. vSphere Virtual machines, which are located on a VMware data store with : (colon) sign, cannot be backed up in CBT mode. Datastore license bugfix Before updating to SEP sesam 4.4, please be aware that a previous bug in our license was fixed and version 4.4 recognizes the full amount of data stored on a deduplication hardware device, which may result in having to increase the disk based capacity license. Please contact support if you have any questions. Datastore Si3 currently SEP Sesam supports only one Si3 Dedup datastore per Server or Remote Device Server system.

Enhancements and changes

SEP sesam Server requirements

Java 7 or higher required

SEP sesam Server and GUI require Java 7 or higher to work properly. Java 6 is not supported.

64-bit OS required

SEP sesam Server requires a 64-bit OS.

New supported systems

SEP sesam Server 4.4.1 now also supports the following operating systems and applications:

New supported operating systems

Windows Server 2012 R2

Path Backup and Restore of Windows 2012 Volumes on Storage Spaces (Disaster Recovery of Storage Spaces are not supported)

New supported applications

Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 Service Pack 1 (SP1) . See SEP sesam Exchange for further details.

SAP HANA (SEP sesam is SAP HANA certified ) . See SEP sesam SAP HANA for further details.

Novell GroupWise 2014 . See SEP sesam GroupWise 2012/2014 for further details.

You can download SEP sesam for Windows at download SEP sesam. For a complete list of supported OS and databases, see SEP sesam Support Matrix.

GUI Enhancements

New Clients and Tasks overview

• In the Components view, a new item Clients is available as an alternative view to the Components -> Topology. It provides an overview of all configured clients in a form of a list. See Clients table for further details.
• In the Tasks view, a new item as List is provided as an alternative view to the Tasks -> by Clients. It shows all configured tasks by clients as a list. Tasks can be edited in the Properties dialog. They can be started immediately by clicking the Immediate Start button. See Tasks As List for further details.

The lists can be sorted, filtered, and printed. Optionally, additional columns can be added to get as much information about the configured Clients and Tasks as possible.

Customized Fonts and Lists

In the menu bar Configuration -> Defaults, a new tab Fonts and Tables is available in the Defaults dialog. You can change the font style, table striping and table row spacing of the entire GUI.

Changed GUI file name

GUI file name has been changed: GUI JAR files sm_gui.jar and sm_lib.jar have been replaced with sm_ui.jar.

Refresh Button in all Task Dialogs (since V4.4.1.25)

The Main Log tab of task/restore task/migration task dialog can now be reloaded using either the F5 button or the Refresh button on the lower left corner.

Deduplication for Linux

SEP sesam introduces Si3 target (Si3T) deduplication for Linux thus improving your storage efficiency. See Configuring SEP Si3 Deduplication Store for further details or SEP Si3 Deduplication Store for specialized information.

Enhanced recovery for VMWare vSphere

For VMWare vSphere, single item recovery and instant VM recovery is introduced.

Single Item Restore

allows you to restore individual items without having to restore the complete saveset. See Single Item Restore for further details.

Instant VM Recovery

allows you to start a VM instantly and move it via vMotion. See Instant VM Recovery for further details.

Soft reset CBT

CBT soft reset is included in the virtual machine task definition of the GUI, providing an option to reset the CBT without shutting down the virtual machine. See Reset CBT for further details.

Included VDDK 5.5.1 for Windows

The new SEP sesam installation package already includes the Virtual Disk Development Kit (VDDK) version 5.5.1 for Windows. The VDDK 5.5.1 is packaged as a compressed archive (.zip) for Windows 64-bit OS. If a VDDK is already present on the system to which the SEP sesam software is going to be installed, the previous VDDK version will be uninstalled and the VDDK 5.5.1, included in the SEP sesam package, will be unpacked. See VDDK 5.5.1 for further details.

Data Store configuration

Optionally, positive values can be used to specify watermarks and data store capacity. Note that for Si3T data store only positive values can be defined, while negative values can still be used for non-Si3T data stores. See data store configuration for further details on how to configure a data store.

Data Store space calculation for space check and license check

The calculation of reqired disk space has been changed. It's possible to store non Sesam data on the same partition where the data store resides. Now only the sesam data will be counted. For more information how the calculation works see the FAQ, Capacity calculation for data store.

Granularity check for Microsoft Exchange

The enhanced granularity backup level for Microsoft Exchange allows to set and check the level of retrieved items during backup (Single Items, Mailboxes, or Databases), which may be used as a select criteria during restore. Note that for the Exchange Server 2013 single items restore is not supported. See Granularity Backup Level for Microsoft Exchange Server for further details.

Microsoft Data Deduplication Enabled Volumes

Data Deduplication enabled volumes are now supported by SEP sesam. The backup of such volumes is done via Nonoptimized Backup and Restore. Client side data on such volumes is backed up with the native size (without deduplication).

HTTPS protocol support

In addition to the standard FTP protocol (2 ports required), HTTP/HTTPS protocol backup/restore is now supported (1 port required). See How to configure a client for further details.

Enhanced Migration Options

Migration of Migration

(Migration Task Dialog) allows to migrate already migrated savesets to a different media pool. See Copy migrated savesets again for further details.

Deletion after successful Migration

(Execution Parameter of Migration Task Event Dialog) triggers the deletion of the original saveset after the migration of the saveset was successful. See Delete after successful migration for further details.

End of maintenance and support

Obsolete SEP sesam versions

The following product versions are no longer supported:

• SEP sesam 4.0
• SEP sesam 3.6
• SEP sesam 3.4
• SEP sesam 3.0

The support for the following product versions will end soon

• SEP sesam 4.2.1 (December 31st, 2014)

Unsupported OS

The following operating systems are no longer supported:

• all 32-bit operating systems
• Windows 2003
• SLES 10
• SLES 11 SP1 (see Note!)
• RHEL 5
• Debian Squeeze

NOTE: SLES 11 SP2/SP3 is still supported. The limitation applies only to SEP sesam Server systems and does not affect SEP sesam clients. For a complete list of supported SEP sesam clients, see SEP sesam Support Matrix.

Discontinued extensions

The following extensions are no longer supported and cannot be included in backup:

• Ingres
• Marathon Everrun

Major fixes and changes

• See Changes at SEP sesam 4.4.1