Release Notes 4.4.3

What's new in SEP sesam v. 4.4.3

SEP sesam introduces web dashboard – an easy-to-use online monitoring tool that constantly tracks SEP sesam operations and their state and provides key metrics of your backup environment. Two new modules are introduced: JIRA backup module and SEP sesam Red Hat Virtualization (RHV) backup module.

Enhanced VMware vSphere CBT backup can now use Si3 target deduplication and can be used for different types of restore and recovery. Incremental (INCR) backups are introduced for Hyper-V virtual machines. Fine-tuning Exchange Server DAG backup includes dynamical DAG host selection and selection of the appropriate database copy mode.

A hybrid of both, target-based (Si3T) and newly introduced source-side deduplication (Si3S) is now available. GUI is enhanced with flexible scheduling that may prevent scheduled jobs from running during holidays by using user defined option.

Storage file servers can be efficiently protected by new NDMP backup. Additionally, SEP sesam HSM-aware backup for Windows is included in SEP sesam package. For details on all changes, see Enhancements and Changes.

SEP sesam Server requirements

Java 8: SEP sesam Windows Server and GUI require Java 8 to work properly. Other operating systems require Java 7. For details, see Java Compatibility Matrix.
JavaFX: Additionally, JavaFX is required for the new web dashboard and user-defined schedules features. The dashboard can also be viewed in GUI, but only if JavaFX is present on the respective GUI client. If JavaFX is not available, the web dashboard can only be accessed by browser (http://[servername]:11401/sep/ui).
Note: Oracle®'s Java 8 already includes JavaFX (e.g., on Windows). Oracle®'s OpenJFX Project provides JavaFX packages that can be installed separately if some other Java version is used, such as IBM Java, which is typically installed on SuSE. Depending on your system and Java version, manually install either OpenJFX package or Oracle®'s Java 8 on your SEP sesam GUI client to have all the latest features available.
64-bit OS required: SEP sesam Server requires a 64-bit OS.

Installation and upgrades

Direct upgrade for SEP sesam v. 3.6/4.x to v. 4.4.3 is supported.

SEP sesam 4.4.3 was released on September 21st, 2016.

Direct upgrade for versions 3.6/4.x to version 4.4.3 is supported. Latest released versions are:

SEP sesam 4.4.3.22 Linux – released: September 21st, 2016.
SEP sesam 4.4.3.22 Windows – released: September 21st, 2016.

The 4.4.3 installation package on Windows also includes:

VMware® Virtual Disk Development Kit (VDDK) version 6.0.2 for Windows.
New Callback File System® (CBFS®) version 6.1.181 from EldoS Corporation, used to create virtual file systems and disks for save sets which are stored on SEP sesam local data store or Si3 deduplication store.

	Note
	A CBFS driver is needed for the virtual file system layer (Cross Platform Recovery File System – XPRFS). The installation/update of this driver requires a reboot of your newly installed or updated Windows SEP sesam Server.

SEP sesam Server and Client components should be upgraded to the latest version during the upgrade process. This ensures that 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.

Former release

Release notes for SEP sesam 4.4.2

Enhancements and changes

New supported systems

SEP sesam Server 4.4.3 now also supports the following operating systems and applications:

Newly supported operating systems

SLES12 on IBM Power Systems (ppc64) and IBM z Systems (Linux Z or LinuxOne)
SLES12 (x86-64)
SLES12 for SAP (x86-64)
SLES11 (ppc64)
SLES11 for SAP (x86-64, ppc64)
OES 2015 (x86-64) (from SEP sesam version ≥ 4.4.2.81)
XenServer 7.0 and XenServer 6.5
Debian Jessie (x86-64) (from SEP sesam version ≥ 4.4.2.81)
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
Windows 10 (x86) (from SEP sesam version ≥ 4.4.2.87), Windows 10 (x64) (from SEP sesam version ≥ 4.4.2.81)

Newly supported applications

vSphere 6.0 (from SEP sesam version ≥ 4.4.2.66)
Microsoft Exchange Server 2016

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.

NDMP

SEP sesam now supports Network Data Management Protocol (NDMP) (from SEP sesam version ≥ 4.4.2.87) with NDMP remote configuration, based on version 4 of the NDMP protocol. For details, see NDMP Backup. For a list of supported NAS appliances, see the support matrix. With v. 4.4.3 the backup levels FULL, DIFF and INCREMENTAL are supported for NetApp Filers. A complete restore of the NAS appliance volume is supported to the original or different target. For details, see NDMP Restore.

JIRA backup add-on

SEP sesam Backup for JIRA was developed in cooperation with catWorkX to provide a simple way for backing up and restoring the whole JIRA infrastructure, including all plug-ins and settings. For details on backing up JIRA database configuration, see Jira Backup Module. For details on preparing for a disaster recovery of your JIRA instance, see SEP sesam Extension for Jira.

SEP sesam Dashboard

SEP sesam Dashboard is an easy-to-use online monitoring tool that constantly tracks SEP sesam operations and their state and provides key metrics of your backup environment. You can handily check if all your backups and restores have been completed successfully and review other useful information, such as daily, weekly, monthly or custom statistics on SEP sesam events, on total size of backed up and restored data, and on data store utilization. SEP sesam web dashboard can be accessed either from GUI or at the following address: http://[servername]:11401/sep/ui or https://[servername]:11401/sep/ui. For details, see SEP sesam Dashboard.

Enhanced VMware vSphere CBT (DIFF/INCR) backup for instant recovery and single file restore

SEP sesam now supports single item restore (SF) and instant recovery (IR) based on almost any type of VMware backup, including differential and incremental. Additionally, with version 4.4.3 the restriction that the VMDKs must be saved in RAW format is no longer in effect.

Integrated Si3 target deduplication for VMware backups

Target deduplication can now be performed with VMware backups thus eliminating redundant data blocks and reducing the size of the backed up data. For details, see VMware backup and Deduplication. Both, instant recovery and single item restore can be performed from data stored on Si3 deduplication store.

SEP sesam Red Hat Virtualization (RHV) backup module

Advanced data protection and native backup API support for RHV is based on agentless snapshots and image-level backups of all supported VMs. For details, see RHEV backup. VMs can be restored one at a time to the original or different location, to the same or different single RHV server and to the same or different RHV cluster. Additionally, a simple path restore to a directory is supported. For details, see Restoring RHV Virtual Machines.

Source-side deduplication

A backup administrator can now choose between target- (Si3T) and newly introduced source-side deduplication (Si3S). Both methods require a configured Si3 deduplication store, for which a special license is needed. Source-side deduplication uses the Si3 deduplication engine to transfer only the data portions which are not yet stored on the Si3 deduplication store, thus offering a number of benefits, including reduced bandwidth and storage usage. For details, see Source-side deduplication.

Hyper-V incremental backup

In addition to the COPY backup, Hyper-V backups can now also use the backup level types FULL and INCR which decrease the time required to run backups and reduce storage space.

Enhanced Exchange Server DAG backup

The new concept for Microsoft Exchange Server backup allows to dynamically select the serving Exchange Server node in the DAG group – a dedicated option Execute on any DAG host allows to run database copy backup on any DAG host that has a required database copy. The Database state option is used to select an active or a passive copy for backup.

HSM-aware backup for Windows

HSM-aware backup is included in the SEP sesam package and provides efficient backup of data on Windows systems that is managed by HSM. For details, see HSM-aware Backup for Windows.

Support for NTFS alternate data streams (ADS) for Windows

SEP sesam now provides backup and restore of alternate data streams (ADS) for Windows on NTFS volumes. ADS are backed up by default, but can be excluded from backup by using a special option.
Alternate data streams are a unique data-hiding feature of NTFS file systems. A file in NTFS consists of the unnamed data stream where the data is actually contained, and of alternate data streams that can store additional metadata. Applications may use ADS for storing file attributes. For details, see Support for NTFS alternate data streams (ADS) for Windows.

Bare Metal Recovery Windows

Bare Metal Recovery Windows has improved restore performance when using BSR Pro Quick-Start recovery option. The writing of the save set data into a temporary file can now be avoided.

Bare Metal Recovery Linux

SEP sesam Bare Metal Recovery Linux Relax-and-Recover (ReaR) integration is enhanced with support for:

SLES12
Debian 8 (Jessie)
UEFI
btrfs-based file systems

Replication improvements

By removing limitation on the required same EOL for the source and target pool, SEP sesam now enables more dynamic data replication strategy. For details, see Replication.

Multiple Si3 deduplication stores supported for Linux RDS

The limitation of only one Si3 deduplication store per server is no longer valid for SEP sesam Remote Device Server (RDS) on Linux. Now several Si3 data stores can be set up on one RDS Linux. Note that this is not yet available in the beta release!

MSP license

The new Managed Service Provider license model is available. For more information, contact sales@sep.de.

Exchange Recovery Pro – email recovery from VMDK

SEP sesam Exchange Recovery Pro now allows to recover MS Exchange Server emails from a VMware backup. The VMDK disk file is mounted from either COPY or FULL save set and incorporates changes from a chain of consequent DIFF or INCREMENTAL backup save sets (based on Changed Block Tracking (CBT), see VMware Backup for details).

GUI enhancements

Flexible scheduling: Scheduling is enhanced with new options: User defined option allows you to create a custom calendar according to your country or company specific requirements. For example, you can define a calendar with specific days on which you want to perform special job executions, such as backup and migration. You can also define specific dates to be excluded from individual schedules, set up a custom calendar of public holiday dates for each year, and stop scheduled jobs from running during holidays. For details, see Creating Custom Calendar.
The Repeat task option allows you to specify the repetition cycle for the task. The task will run, wait for the time interval specified, and then run again. This cycle will continue for as long it is specified by the duration time.
You are also able to prevent tasks to be run for too long by using the option Stop task if runs longer than and setting a time limit for the amount of time a task is allowed to run. For details on new scheduling options, see Creating a schedule.
Follow-up events: This handy feature can ease your data protection administration by configuring events that are triggered on the SEP sesam Server once the initial event has completed. You can set up a migration, a save set verify and other actions to be triggered immediately after a backup or other event is completed. For details, see Follow-up Events.
Overview of all configured events: The Schedules component of the GUI navigation pane provides a new sub-menu Events as List. This overview shows a list of all configured events with details for each listed event, including event ID, related task, related schedule, event priority, target media pool, drive number, interface, follow-up events and the time of the next execution. For details, see Events as list.

End of maintenance and support

Obsolete SEP sesam Server version

The following versions of SEP sesam are no longer supported:

SEP sesam v. 4.2.2
SEP sesam v. 4.2.1
SEP sesam v. 4.0
SEP sesam v. 3.6
SEP sesam v. 3.4
SEP sesam v. 3.0

Unsupported SEP sesam Server OS

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

All 32-bit operating systems
Windows Server 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 changes 4.4.3