A2 Release Notes 6.1 #8147


Alike v6.1

Released: 4/2/2019


A major feature release with stabilizations. All A2 customers are encouraged to upgrade to this build


Please note:

This update introduces the use of new temporary data files on the A2 system drive. We recommended 16-24GB disks, if possible. Alternatively, customers with large amounts of RAM available can opt to place these temporary files on a ram disk (setup in the console menu), for improved scalability in larger environments.


Note for users running the A2 on bare-metal:

The kernel update will not automatically apply on bare-metal A2 installs. This was done to avoid any potential driver/boot issues. However, if you are using a CIFS based ADS or ODS, this kernel update is required, so please contact technical support to arrange assistance upgrading.


Note for Amazon S3 users:

In some cases the Offsite Vaults will not re-mount upon reboot. To correct this, simply forget and reconnect your ODS settings from the A2 console.


Features and Improvements

  • Persistent ABDs. ABDs are reused between jobs reducing I/O and job time
  • Dedicated TCP sockets for all backup data transmissions to greatly improve performance and reliability
  • Eliminate CIFS/SMB kernel bug causing periodic "hangs"
  • Upgraded Linux kernel to improve support for Spectre/Meltdown cpu fixes
  • MSP support for the A2
  • Support for S3 "compatible" cloud storage
  • Console option to "raid" multiple local disks for use as a datastore
  • Many UI usability and responsive updates
  • Ephemeral local (or ramdisk) DB to greatly speed up commit operations
  • Significant Performance and responsiveness improvements to restoreFS
  • Major full VM restore performance improvement for Xen
  • Multiple drives are processed concurrently in full restore jobs
  • Revert Restores are now available 
  • Console option to run system cleanup tasks


Bug Fixes

  • Eliminate ABD "missing seed file" error
  • Eliminate DataEngine commit failures with "null"
  • Improve/reduce Xen API frequent disconnects ("transport error")
  • Increase restoreFS timeout period
  • Fix bug (divide by zero error) in CBT jobs with no changes
  • Add noatime to mount options where applicable to reduce I/O on DS
  • Squash Crontab emailing errors
  • ADS resize "max size" is fixed
  • Default to native ADS format
  • Detect unchanged DBs in archival process 
  • Handle "exotic locale strings" in WMI calls
  • Eliminate null pointer exceptin during purge log processing
  • Fix log rotation for engine.log
  • Ads/ods status files had improper file ownership
  • ABD deployment no longer fails when hosts are unlicensed
  • Prevent deadlock/starvation during maintenance purge jobs
  • Fix NFS mount permissions on creation
  • Java DB performance optimzation
  • Java memory tuning for arena memory
  • Set maximum thread counts for VMs with many disks
  • Hyper-V snapshot errors clarification
  • Consider ods.db in sync calculations
  • Clean out JV directory before Java startup
  • Saving ABD settings no longer caused UI glitch
  • Improve journaling DB rebuild performance
  • Eliminate "Vaults and deletes are unmatched" situation
  • Give ABDs DNS settings from A2 when DHCP is unavailable
  • Drastic "commit" performance improvement
  • Manual command/option to force a particular version retention number for VM
  • Fix invalid flags file that can break DB rebuild
  • Dynamic copy of munger binary to ABDs
  • Variuos A2 Logging and Error Handling Tweaks
  • Eliminate ABD "munge stalls" at 0%


Known Issues

  • A2's Jobs directory can grow large, requiring manual cleanup, for single-pass replication jobs
  • ADS/ODS can report the available space incorrectly for local/unencapsulated stores
  • Vaulting bandwidth controls not yet available
  • LVM file-level restore not supported for RestoreFS (full restores are supported)
  • Deleting an entire VM from the UI will remove it to be lost from any configured jobs
  • Dashboard graph empty on first day after initial install and setup