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UPGRADING

Release Notes

Here, at StarWind, we don’t have broken things. But perfection has no limits, which is why we continue to build upon our existing solutions and develop them to be up-to-date. We listen to customer feedback, conduct periodic tests, and follow trends in business and technology to keep delivering what hyperconvergence can offer best.

You can find the latest updates regarding the product of your interest below.

Virtual SAN (VSAN)
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ANNALS OF DEVELOPMENT

Virtual SAN (VSAN) Release Notes

Version V8 (build 15554,
CVM Version 20240822)
26 August 2024

Virtual SAN (VSAN) build 15554

Fixed

  • Addressed a problem where VSAN service would freeze when creating HA devices.
  • Resolved an issue where empty folders were left after device removal.
  • Fixed the issue with HA device status reporting in the Web GUI.

Controller Virtual Machine (CVM Version 20240822)

1. Management Service:

  • Fixed a licensing issue that caused pop-ups when the license expired.
  • Resolved a problem where the capacity of standalone LUNs was incorrectly counted.
  • Fixed an issue with adding partner appliances.
  • Fixed management network configuration for Proxmox VE.
  • Improved validation for HA switchless networks.

2. Storage

2.1 Pools

  • Fixed the appearance of hot-spare disks.
  • Resolved issues with the removal of degraded storage pools.
  • Improved the "Create Storage Pool" wizard to handle scenarios where new disks might take the name of an existing disk that's already in a pool.
  • Improved "Repair Pool" wizard startup for cases involving disk failure.
  • Improved storage initialization for degraded software RAID pools.

2.2 Volumes

  • Fixed volume name validation.

2.3 LUNs

  • Fixed alerts for 3-way HA iSCSI devices using switchless networking.
  • Resolved issues with multiple LUN removals on the CVM.

3. Services

  • Improved the operation of License Manager and Web Console services during CVM boot.
  • Updated Pro-Active Support service to the latest build.

4. Update

  • Improved generation of the HBA rescan configuration file.
  • Improved in-place VSAN CVM updates by backing up important configuration files (hba_rescan) and downloading packages prior to starting the update procedure.

5. Plugin

  • Fixed the availability of the vCenter plugin for certain VSAN for vSphere licenses.

6. Bare Metal

  • Added VM-based update scripts to ISO (Experimental feature for updating older versions of VSAN CVM).
  • Fixed DHCP assignment for VSAN deployed in a VM using ISO.

7. Other

  • Added checksums to CVM build files.
  • Fixed OVF settings validation.
  • Improved naming conventions in product binaries.
  • Improved support bundle generation and log rotation.
Version V8 (Build 15469,
CVM Version 20240530)
30 May 2024

Virtual SAN (VSAN) Build 15469

Added

  • 512 block size emulation for creating iSCSI devices (LUNs) on top of 4Kn underlying storage
  • Automatic backup of device (LUN) header files

Improved:

  • Performance for 3-node HA devices (LUNs) with RAM-based journals
  • Failover for HA devices (LUNs) with Node-majority failover strategy
  • Synchronization performance for iSER-enabled replication networks
  • Creating HA devices (LUNs) using PowerShell samples

Fixed:

  • HA devices (LUNs) reporting wrong physical sector size
  • Issue when adding replication partner for HA devices (LUNs) with L1 cache enabled
  • Bitmap file creation for devices (LUNs) with disk-based journals
  • Issue with removing the partner appliance when using the Node-majority failover strategy
  • Caching for license validation requests

Controller Virtual Machine (CVM Version 20240530)

1. User Interface (UI, Web Console):

  • Updated style for pie charts, graphs, toolbars, settings, tables, filters, and pop-ups
  • Updated UI for Create User, Create Pool, Manage Pool, Manage LUNs wizards
  • Improved size of wizards for large displays
  • Improved UI for Edit Network Adapter Settings dialog
  • Improved locales and refined text throughout the Web Console

2. Dashboard:

  • Fixed issue with performance metrics generation

3. Storage:

  • Improved storage rescan functionality for VMware environments

3.1 Pools:

  • Added PERC 12 Hardware RAID controllers' integration (perccli2), providing layout, media type, resiliency type, and state information for a storage pool
  • Added a new pool type: Single Disk
  • Added advanced settings to software RAID 5 pools
  • Added storage provisioning guidelines to the Create Storage Pool wizard (Read more in KB here)
  • Improved UI visibility for pools with offline disks, ensuring disconnected or failed devices always remain displayed
  • Fixed issue with ZFS pool creation when using hot spares

3.2 LUNs:

  • Added list of connected iSCSI sessions on LUNs page and Manage LUN wizard
  • Improved alert severity and locales, removed duplicated alerts
  • Improved validation for enabling and disabling maintenance mode via Web UI
  • Fixed issue with NIC roles assignment when creating HA LUNs
  • Fixed issue with LUN removal for online and offline partners

3.3 File Shares:

  • Fixed validation for All hosts/IPs assignments for NFS shares
  • Fixed permission assignments and file access for SMB shares

4. Network:

  • Fixed issue with network validation for creating 3-way HA devices (LUNs)

5. Appliances

  • Added “Fix connectivity” button to reestablish connection with the disconnected partner appliance in 3-way HA configuration

6. Users:

  • Fixed issue with removal of currently logged-in user
  • Blocked creation of system-reserved usernames

7. Initial Configuration Wizard:

  • Removed vCenter plugin installation option from the Initial Configuration Wizard

8. Text-based User Interface:

  • Improved TUI service startup
  • Added validations for incorrect network settings provided by the OVF template
  • Added network interface selection to Management Network configuration
  • Removed option to edit hostname in TUI

Other Improvements:

Added

  • Downloadable ISO image for StarWind VSAN bare-metal deployments
  • Support for VirtIO NICs and virtual disks for KVM-based environments
  • Option to download Management Console installer for Windows from the Web Console
  • Option to download PowerShell samples from the Web Console

Improved

  • Log bundle collection
  • Log rotation

Updated

  • Hyper-V VM template to the latest settings with integration services enabled
  • Security patches for CVM components (more information can be found here)

Removed

  • Data Network configuration and hostname setting from OVF Template for VMware environments as this functionality is provided in the Initial Configuration Wizard within Web Console
Version V8 (Build 15260,
CVM Version 20231016)
16 October 2023

VM

  • StarWind Controller Virtual Machine has got new Web and Text-based user interfaces.
  • Software RAID and ZFS web-based management have been added.
  • Web-based management for Standalone and Highly available iSCSI LUNs has been added.
  • Web-based management for SMB and NFS file sharing has been added.
  • VMware vCenter Plugin has been added.
  • Latest security updates installed (More info you can find here)
  • Linux Kernel has been updated to the latest HWE version.
Version V8 (Build 15260,
OVF Version 20230901)
01 September 2023

VM

  • Linux Kernel has been updated.
  • Additional services have been updated.

Synchronous Replication

  • Fixed an issue with synchronization/heartbeat channels unable to restore the connection when performance degradation occurs on the underline storage and VAAI is enabled for StarWind HA Devices.
Version V8 (Build 15159,
OVF Version 20230602)
02 June 2023

VM

  • Linux Kernel has been updated.
  • Additional services have been updated.

Synchronous Replication

  • Fixed deadlock when a partner device is removed during full or fast synchronization.
  • Fixed crash when updating StarWind service with mutual CHAP configured on StarWind HA devices.
  • Fixed failure when extending StarWind HA device with disk-based synchronization journal.
  • Fixed deadlock when a partner device is added.
  • Fixed false fast synchronization when the first partner is added with a node majority failover policy.
Version V8 (Build 15020,
OVF Version 20230320)
20 March 2023

VM

  • Linux Kernel has been updated.
  • Additional services have been updated.

Synchronous Replication

  • Fixed spurious replication failure.
Version V8 (Build 14947,
OVF Version 20230208)
08 February 2023

VM

  • Linux Kernel has been updated.
  • Additional services have been updated.

Synchronous Replication

  • Fixed the slow full synchronization issue.
Version V8 (Build 14869,
OVF Version 20230117)
28 December 2022

VM

  • Linux Kernel has been updated.
  • Additional services have been updated.
  • Fixed an issue where rescan script couldn't start.

Core

  • Excluded asynchronous replicas, LSFS and LWC from the project.
  • Encrypted secret passwords for chap authentications.
  • Fixed the crash during the creation of the replica.
  • Fixed the crash for time-outed I/O requests.
  • Fixed the spurious lost connection.
  • Updated the TLS version to 1.2 (used for email notifications).
  • Minor fixes and updates.

Synchronous Replication

  • Added synchronization journal places on a disk with two working strategies:

    Best Performance: The strategy provides better I/O performance while all device nodes are in a healthy state. But it can't guarantee fast synchronization in all cases

    Fast Recovery: The strategy provides faster recovery in all cases but requires an I/O overhead for each write operation.
  • Fixed the node majority logic during storage degradation.
Version V8 (Build 14398,
OVF Version 20211124)
25 November 2021

VM

  • Linux Kernel updated.
  • Collect logs script was updated. It generates a random archive name in case the archive name was not indicated.
  • Log watcher script was updated to avoid multiple HBA rescan triggers from occurring. It stops on the last succ essful synchronization event.
  • Additional services were updated.

Core

  • Fixed the memory leak in the VSA-based version that could be caused by changing the time on the VM.
Version V8 (Build 14338,
OVF Version 20211012)
13 October 2021

StarWind Health Service was updated in this new build.

Core

  • Fixed the crash for client write request handling.
  • Fixed the deadlock for the processing of SCSI persistent reservation during client session registration.
  • Fixed the issue with the service getting stuck when the log file would be located on the storage that had degrading performance.

StarWindX PowerShell Module

  • Fixed memory leak on getting information for HA devices.
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