Release Notes 4.4.2

Document update: 26.8.2015.

What's New in SEP sesam v4.4.2

SEP sesam provides Si3 replication functionality to consistently replicate data between the SEP sesam Server and the Remote Device Server (RDS). Si3 target deduplication for Windows is also now available. The SEP sesam GUI has been enhanced to provide a complete overview of all backup results in a single table as well as the option to import the license via the GUI. For details, see Enhancements and changes.

Upgrades and Licensing Updates

Direct upgrade for SEP sesam v3.6/v4.x to v4.4.2 is supported.

SEP sesam version 4.4.2 was released on August 26th, 2015.

Latest released versions are:

• SEP sesam 4.4.2.72 Linux - Released: October 1st, 2015.
• SEP sesam 4.4.2.72 Windows - Released: October 1st, 2015.

SEP sesam Server and Client components should be upgraded to the latest version during the upgrade process. This ensures the SEP sesam Clients are fully protected. Customers with a valid license are eligible for a free upgrade of SEP sesam to any new release for the duration of the license. See also Automatic Update.

Known Issues and Limitations

Known Issues:

Importing a LIC-file On Linux systems, importing a lic file with special characters (ä,ö,Ä,...) in the customer or server name might not work. To avoid this problem, please follow the instruction to manually insert the license Known Issues SEP sesam Version 4.4.2.76 Restore of external backup types over RDS fails In SEP sesam Version V4.4.2.76 a restore of external backup types like Oracle, BSR, MaxDB, SAP, etc. fails, since the firewall port range and RDS (tape_server) settings was not supported. Fixed: Windows Server Patch sm_sbc_com Multi EOL change not possible In SEP sesam Version 4.4.2.76 you can only change the EOL of one backup at a time. The multi selection of several backups in combination with the change of the EOL is not possible. Known Issues SEP sesam Version 4.4.2.66-72 System state backup In SEP sesam Version 4.4.2 system state backup was missing important items. In SEP sesam Version 4.4.2.72 a system state backup on EFI Systems fails due to the lack of a VSS writer for EFI partition. Bcdedit will be used instead to backup the EFI partition. Fixed: Windows Client Patch sbc Data loss of active save sets during replication In SEP sesam Version 4.4.2.72 during replication save sets on the device server which were active during replication were deleted after replication. Fixed: Linux Server Patch sm_replicate and Windows Server Patch sm_replicate SLU command execution was aborted In SEP sesam Version 4.4.2.72 slu command execution was aborted in certain situations. Fixed: Linux Server Patch slu Blocking schedules not functioning correctly In SEP sesam Version 4.4.2.72 blocking schedules are not functioning correctly. Assure that suppress events are inserted into cal_sheets with unique ids. Fixed: Linux Server Patch sm_sepul_event Creation of Desktop Shortcut fails using Exchange Recovery Pro on Windows RDS In SEP sesam Version 4.4.2.72 using SEP sesam Exchange Recovery Pro on a Windows RDS the creation of the desktop shortcut fails. Fixed: Windows Server Patch sm_data_store Known Issues SEP sesam Version 4.4.2.66-70 Hyper-V backup of Hyper-V 2.0 fails In SEP sesam Version 4.4.2.70 a backup of Hyper-V 2.0 on a Windows Server 2008 is not supported. Backup exits with 'Error: VSS API error: NCIM::NObjectEnumerator::DoIt(internal): Failed to call "ExecQuery". HRESULT is 80041010h, query is "SELECT * FROM Msvm_ComputerSystem"' Fixed: SEP sesam Server Version 4.4.2.72 or Windows Server Patch sbc Exchange backup failed with sm_reformat_lis returned exit state 1 In SEP sesam Version 4.4.2.70 Exchange backup over CTRL, SMSSH, and SSH failed with sm_reformat_lis returned exit state 1. Binary files aren't copied correctly over CTRL, SMSSH, and SSH. Fixed: SEP sesam Server Version 4.4.2.72 or Linux Server Patches sm_sms_backup, sm_rexec VFS mount on Windows RDS In SEP sesam Version 4.4.2.70 installation of Virtual File System (VFS) driver on Windows Remote Device Server (RDS) fails with 'Cannot install CBFS' Fixed: SEP sesam RDS Version 4.4.2.72 or Windows Patch sm_vfs Exchange Server backup failed with Value cannot be null In SEP sesam version 4.4.2.70 a backup of Exchange Server fails with '[[CExchangeServer::CreateObject: IServerManager:GetExchange - ExchangeManagementShell::GetExchangeServer: Value cannot be null. Parameter name: parameters] - Unspecified error]' Fixed: SEP sesam Client Version 4.4.2.72 or Windows Client Patch qm Known Issues SEP sesam Version 4.4.2.66 SEP sesam BSR Pro for Windows x86 In SEP sesam Client Version 4.4.2.66 with BSR Pro on Windows x86 does not display the task type 'BSR Windows' during Client browsing and the BSR Pro backup failed due to changed product key. Fixed: SEP sesam Client Version 4.4.2.68. Exchange Server backup to RDS failed In SEP sesam Version 4.4.2.66 a backup of Exchange Server mailboxes to a SEP sesam RDS failed with message: ERROR sm_reformat_lis returned exit state 1. The meta data file was not transferred to SEP sesam Server. Fixed: SEP sesam Server Version 4.4.2.68 or Windows Server Patch sm_sms_backup

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 4.4.2 now also supports the following operating systems and applications:

Newly supported operating systems

• Debian 8 Jessie
• RHEL 7 (dedicated RPM packages)

Newly supported applications

• Hyper-V 3.0

You can download SEP sesam from the SEP sesam download center. For a complete list of supported OS and databases, see SEP sesam Support Matrix.

Accelerated Backup & Restore for Windows

New SEP sesam 4.4.2 version for Windows has been enhanced to increase performance and complete backups and restores faster. Backup and restore time can now be significantly reduced, with its throughput being up to 3 times higher than the throughput in SEP sesam version 4.4.1.48 (depending on the SEP sesam Device Server environment).

GUI Enhancements

All Results Overview In the Job State view, a new item Results is available. It provides an overview of all results including backups, restores, migrations, and media actions. See Results for further details.

Import New License The SEP sesam license can be imported via the GUI. In the menu bar go to Help->License Info. In the SEP sesam License Info Dialog select Import new license. In the Import new license dialog either paste the license text in the box or use the file manager to select a valid SEP sesam license. By clicking Apply the new license is imported and checked for validity. See Import new license for further details.

Changed Command Events All configured commands for potential command events can now be displayed and edited as well as newly created from the main menu Configuration->Command. These commands can then be added to a schedule. See Command Event for further details concerning command events.

VSS writer Exclude VSS requestor and writers coordinate to provide a stable system image from which to back up data. In processing a backup with VSS, requestor and writers coordinate to provide a stable system image from which to back up data (the shadow copied volume). A snapshot is created from where the data is being backed up. In addition VSS writers are used to accomplish whichever task is needed for data quiescence of each writer. If several different backups which use VSS writers are configured at the same time it might be useful to exclude one or more writers from a backup. This is now possible using the browse option in the backup task. See Backup with VSS (Volume Shadow Service) on Windows for further details.

Notification Center To emphasize the notification center and new important messages in the notification center the icon was moved from the lower right corner to the upper right corner. See Notification Center for further details.

Si3 Replication

SEP sesam's Si3 Replication is designed to consistently replicate data between the SEP sesam Server and the Remote Device Server (RDS). This is advantageous in terms of redundancy for disaster recovery as well as in providing an additional source for a data restore. SEP sesam replication is used in conjunction with Si3 Deduplication, an inline block-level data deduplication solution. This method writes data directly from the SEP sesam Server or the Remote Device Server (RDS) to the backup media. See Si3 Replication for further details.

Deduplication for Windows

Originally introduced in SEP sesam v4.4.1.47, Si3 Target (Si3T) deduplication for Windows dramatically improves storage efficiency. This deduplication method can only configure one SEP sesam Si3 Deduplication data store per SEP sesam Server or SEP sesam RDS. See Configuring SEP Si3 Deduplication Store for further details or SEP Si3 Deduplication Store for specialized information.

Single File Restore/Cross Platform Recovery File System Layer (XPRFS)

The new single file restore option in the restore wizard mounts the given save set. The target save set is mounted to the disk and made accessible as if it was a separate volume on the disk. The mounted save set is basically a virtual read-only file system, therefore it cannot be altered or otherwise damaged but files can be copied using general copy and paste functionality. You can mount any non-compressed file based save set stored to default data store Path or to Si3 data store. Mounting is not possible if the save sets are stored to tapes or if the data is compressed. See Standard Restore Procedure and Mount save set for further details.

Hyper-V 3.0

SEP sesam provides granular backup and restore for Hyper-V single servers and Hyper-V clusters. It allows the backup of multiple VMs running on Hyper-V single server and individual VMs running on multiple hosts in a Hyper-V cluster. See Hyper-V Backup and Hyper-V Restore for further details.

Hardware Encryption using LTO

LTO generation 4 and higher includes the ability for data to be encrypted by the tape drive hardware. SEP sesam provides native support for managing the LTO hardware based encryption by enabling the LTO encryption of tape drives on a media pool level. See Hardware Encryption using LTO for further details.

SEP sesam BSR Pro for Windows

SEP sesam introduces SEP sesam BSR Pro for Windows, a powerful recovery solution for entire Windows systems. See SEP sesam BSR Pro for Windows for further details.

SEP sesam Exchange Recovery Pro

SEP sesam introduces Exchange Recovery Pro, a powerful recovery solution for Exchange that allows you to browse or search through backed up mailboxes and emails, and restore single emails, calendars, journals, notes, contacts as well as mailboxes using a simple drag-and-drop functionality. In order to use the entire new functionality of SEP sesam Exchange Recovery Pro all SEP clients using Exchange backup functionality have to be updated to SEP sesam version 4.4.2. See SEP sesam Exchange Recovery Pro for further details.

SEP sesam SharePoint Recovery Pro

SEP sesam provides SharePoint extension to backup and restore a SharePoint Server. This extension supports FULL/COPY backup and restore of the SharePoint Server in a single-server environment with SQL Server and SharePoint. See SEP sesam Sharepoint Backup and SEP sesam Sharepoint Restore for further details on SharePoint backup and restore with SEP sesam.

ReFS (Resilient File System) for Windows

SEP sesam supports ReFS (Resilient File System) on Windows in addition to the well known file systems NTFS, FAT, and FAT32. When Microsoft released Windows Server 2012, they introduced the Resilient File System (ReFS). It maximizes data availability, despite errors that would historically cause data loss or downtime. All available backup and restore types (FULL, DIFF, INC, COPY) are supported by SEP sesam. The new file system can be used as basis for a SEP sesam Path data store as well as SEP sesam Si3 Deduplication data store. For further details concerning ReFS (Resilient File System) see Microsoft ReFS.

Included VDDK 5.5.3 for Windows

The new SEP sesam installation package already includes the Virtual Disk Development Kit (VDDK) version 5.5.3 for Windows. The VDDK 5.5.3 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 will be installed, the previous VDDK version will be uninstalled and the VDDK 5.5.3, included in the SEP sesam package, will be unpacked. See VDDK 5.5.3 for further details.

End of Maintenance and Support

Obsolete SEP sesam Server Versions

The following versions of SEP sesam are no longer supported:

• SEP sesam v4.2.1
• SEP sesam v4.0
• SEP sesam v3.6
• SEP sesam v3.4
• SEP sesam v3.0

Unsupported SEP sesam Server OS

The following operating systems are no longer supported for SEP sesam Server:

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

Major fixes and changes

• See Changes at SEP sesam 4.4.2