Summary
Catalogic Software is proud to announce the availability of ECX 2.8. This new ECX version adds support for the SQL and Oracle to Netapp Storage and many more improvements and fixes.
What's New
Supportability
Adds support for Oracle to NetApp Block/NFS Storage.(ECC-12657)
Adds support for SQL backup to NetApp Block Storage.(ECC-12657)
System Compatibility
Adds Support for vSphere 6.7
Adds support for NetApp Clustered Data ONTAP 9.4
Improvements
Administration
Administrative Console logs are now located in the following directory: /data/log(ECC-12677)
Application Backup
Oracle data masking enhancements. (ECC-12792)
Supports Oracle backup on NetApp LUN with data masking enabled.(ECC-12774)
Application Recovery
Improves performance of SQL restore. (ECSUST-1509)
Improves reliability of SQL restore in environment with many SQL Server databases.(ECSUST-1507)
Enhances process for restore/data movement to original location. (ECC-12740)
Inventory Process Enhancements
Load on vCenter is reduced and performance is improved during inventory job.
SQL Support
ECX copies SQL files back to original volume.
ECX is aware of pRDM disks for SQL backup and restore.
Enhancements to the SQL agent to support Always On availability groups with failover cluster instances.(ECC-10341)
Bugs
Advanced Backup
Fixes an issue where VM backups utilized excessive CPU.(ECSUST-1549)
Advanced Recovery
Fixes an issue where restore of database instances using masked storage copies failed.(ECC-12807)
Application Backup
Fixes an issue where an SLA policy could not be selected when defining an Oracle backup job.(ECC-12674)
Fixes an issue where Oracle snapshot backup with "enable data masking" failed.(ECC-12813)
Application Recovery
Fixes an issue in Oracle environments where retrieval of recovery versions on NetApp storage was unsuccessful.(ECC-12707)
Catalog
Fixes an issue where default inventory job was not generated as expected.(ECSUST-1545)
Maintenance
Disables an option that was causing snapshots to be needlessly left on storage after an instant restore job.(ECSUST-1476 )
Reporting
Fixes an issue where the values of Site and Volumes were not displayed correctly in an exported PDF report.(ECC-12696)
Known Issues
Update Procedures
• When upgrading to ECX through the Administrative Console, a Clean Process Failure message displays during the update process. The message indicates that the update has been applied successfully, but the update cleanup process failed. Log out of the Administrative Console then log back in to verify that the application has been updated successfully.
• After upgrading to IBM Spectrum Copy Data Management ECX, an incorrect version displays on the virtual appliance’s blue startup screen. The correct version is displayed in the ECX user interface and Administrative Console.
• If updating from ECX 2.5, or updating to a newer version of CDM that was previously updated from ECX 2.5, additional steps are required. Updates in this scenario will fail with the following error: <open file '<fdopen>', mode 'rb' at (exception)>. To resolve this issue, log into the ECX appliance with root access, then navigate to /etc/yum.repos.d/. If the erlang_solutions.repo file is in this location, move the file to /tmp on the appliance before updating. Once the file has been moved, run the update procedure again.
NetApp
• On NetApp volumes that are managed by ECX, ensure the option to automatically delete older snapshots is not enabled on the associated NetApp server. This option conflicts with snapshot retention options configured in ECX policies and could lead to job failures or data loss.
Oracle Jobs
• Oracle masking of a mirrored copy of a database is not supported when utilizing NetApp storage systems.
SQL Jobs
• Users running SQL physical jobs on IBM Spectrum Virtualize with Incremental FlashCopy option enabled in SLA Policy will see SQL backups failing after upgrade to 2.8. To resolve, create a new job definition for these SQL servers with a new SLA Policy with Incremental FlashCopy enabled from the first run. The old job definition can be used for recovering existing recovery points and can be deleted once retention criteria is met.
VMware Jobs
• To resolve an issue where the recovery of virtual machines with non-ASCII characters fails, perform the following procedure. Log in to the appliance as root and enter the following commands:
echo "export LANG=en_US.UTF-8" >> ~virgo/.bashrc su - virgo execute "locale" showing UTF-8 settings. execute "su - root" and restart virgo: service virgo stop service virgo start
Reports
• Email notifications fail to be delivered for Report Jobs. This issue will be resolved in an upcoming hot fix. The fix will ensure that the notification is sent if SMTP is properly configured, regardless of the job status after the execution
• For IBM Spectrum Accelerate SLAs that involve replication, the Storage Capacity report shows both the replication volume and the source volume separately, when only the source volume being protected should be shown. The result is that the managed capacity associated with replication is double counted. This issue will be resolved in an upcoming hot fix.
• If a VMware backup job to IBM Spectrum Virtualize storage involves both FlashCopy and Global Mirror, the Storage Capacity Report might not display Mirror entries. This issue will be resolved in an upcoming hot fix.