EMC HomeBase Version 6.5 Release Notes P/N 300-012-130 Rev A01 March 17, 2011 These release notes contain supplemental information about EMC HomeBase Server and Agent Release 6.5. Topics include: Revision history... 2 Product description... 2 New features and changes... 3 Fixed problems... 3 Environment and system requirements... 4 Known problems and limitations... 4 End of support for AIX and Solaris platforms... 7 End of service dates and extended support... 7 Troubleshooting and getting help... 9 1
Revision history Revision history Table 1 Table 1 on page 2 presents the revision history of this document. Revision history Revision Date Description A01 March 21, 2011 First release of EMC HomeBase version 6.5 EMC HomeBase product functionality consists of: HomeBase Bare Metal Recovery (BMR) HomeBase Bare Metal Provisioning (BMP) Product description HomeBase Bare Metal Recovery EMC HomeBase is a product suite that uses profile images of a server to recover it in the event of a disaster or to migrate one server s configuration to another server. The HomeBase Server functions primarily through a web interface that enables browsing of stored profile images, software deployment, and automated recovery. The profile image data can be also be compared against previous versions, which provides an effective change management analysis for any server. EMC HomeBase product suite includes the following components: EMC HomeBase Agent: HomeBase Agents are installed on remote machines that need to be protected. EMC HomeBase Server: HomeBase Server is the secure repository that receives the Profile data sent by HomeBase Agent installed on remote machines. EMC HomeBase Proxy Server (optional): Proxy Server provides access to the HomeBase Server where the server is deployed in a highly sub-netted and secure environment. HomeBase Bare Metal Provisioning EMC HomeBase BMP supports the deployment of multiple types of operating systems from a single unified interface. Deployment templates prepared earlier allow rapid redeployment of a common operating system build such as operating system, device drivers, and software. HomeBase BMP supports deploying Microsoft Windows, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), VMware ESX, and VMware ESXi operating systems. In addition, HomeBase BMP supports scripted installation of third-party applications on Windows and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. 2 EMC HomeBase Release 6.5 Release Notes
New features and changes New features and changes This section describes the new features and enhancements for HomeBase. EMC NetWorker Enhanced Bare Metal Recovery on page 3 ESXi support on page 3 Archiving redundant license batches on page 3 In addition, Table 3 on page 4 provides a list of all fixes in this release. EMC NetWorker Enhanced Bare Metal Recovery In this release of EMC HomeBase, EMC NetWorker integrates with HomeBase to provide enhanced server recovery and Windows disaster recovery support. This release provides a one-click enhanced server recovery that facilitates the orchestration of multiple recoveries including installing an operating system, recovering, and restoring NetWorker data. Table 2 on page 3 specifies the supported versions of NetWorker. Table 2 Supported NetWorker Windows Client versions Version Platform 7.6 SP1 Update 1 and SP2 32-bit and 64-bit The EMC HomeBase Agent Release 6.5 Recovery and Migration Guide and EMC HomeBase Server Release 6.5 Administration Guide provide information on using EMC NetWorker as a backup client. ESXi support This release of EMC HomeBase provides the ability to upload ESXi images and assign them to deployment sessions. The administrator can upload an ESXi image to the HomeBase sever and use the HomeBase provisioning capabilities to automatically install the VMware vsphere Hypervisor remotely on to a new bare hardware. Archiving redundant license batches This release allows redundant license batches to be archived. Typically, license batches expire or can be created in error. For audit purposes however, license batches cannot be removed and they reside on the HomeBase server indefinitely. An administrator can select one or more license batches to be archived, and thereby hide them from the main license batch listing page. Fixed problems Product issues are sorted alphabetically by product feature and by issue number within each product feature. Product issue details include a three column table with the following information for each product issue: EMC HomeBase Release 6.5 Release Notes 3
Environment and system requirements Issue number A unique case number assigned to track the problem. Product feature The name of the feature affected. Problem summary A short description of the problem. Issues fixed in version 6.5 Table 3 on page 4 lists the issues fixed in version 6.5. Table 3 Issues fixed in version 6.5 Issue number Product feature Problem summary HB-7138 Recovery Recovery of RHEL installs wrong kernel version. Note: The package repositories populated with RHEL packages using earlier versions of HomeBase must be reindexed for the fix to take effect and perform RHEL package matching much more accurately. HB-7089 Server Service Pack number stated incorrectly on some Microsoft Windows 2008 media. HB-7229 Windows Recovery Base recovery fails with the Failed to extend volume group message when trying to use additional disks in dynamic mode. HB-7745 Windows BMR Recovery fails to restore Terminal Services settings. HB-7264 Windows Recovery Active Directory trust relationship tests fail with nltest.exe. HB-7671 Server Profiles were held up in the queue for overloaded servers. Environment and system requirements All system requirements and configuration details are provided in the installation guides for each HomeBase component. Known problems and limitations The following are known problems for HomeBase 6.5 release and are listed separately for the Agent and the Server. HomeBase Agent issues on page 4 HomeBase Server issues on page 5 HomeBase Agent issues The following are known issues with the HomeBase Agent: Windows Veritas Recovery fails with error Failed to find enough allocatable storage, please omit volumes or attach more disk. on page 5 4 EMC HomeBase Release 6.5 Release Notes
Known problems and limitations Cannot launch control panel on recovered server. on page 5 Windows Veritas Recovery fails with error Failed to find enough allocatable storage, please omit volumes or attach more disk. Issue number - HB-4198 Cannot launch control panel on recovered server. Issue number - HB-4249 Storage recovery for Windows 2003 with Veritas storage manager is unable to use concatenated RAID to span single partitions over multiple disks. It should be noted that a profiled RAID configuration is never recovered, but the recovery should be able to span a partition across multiple disks. Workaround: Make sure you have enough storage available to accommodate your profiled partitions without needing to span any single partition across multiple disks. This problem seems to affect the administrator account, when restoring a profile from a VM on to a physical server. Workaround: Delete the references to the VMware Tools Control Panel applet (VMControlPanel) from the registry. HomeBase Server issues The following issue is found in HomeBase Server: Enhanced Bare Metal Recovery using EMC Avamar fails on page 5 Relicensing a HomeBase Server invalidates any existing licence batches on page 6 Concurrent scheduled replications fail to run. on page 6 HomeBase server displays license information based on the latest profile, not live data. on page 6 Error in uploading large sets of HP-AIX packages. on page 6 Data transmission error occurs when sending command to the HomeBase server. on page 6 EBMR data restore fails on Windows 2008 R2 64 bit server on page 6 Windows services not recovered after EBMR on page 7 NetWorker data restore fails on page 7 Enhanced Bare Metal Recovery using EMC Avamar fails Issue number - HB-7448 EMC Avamar restore fails to recover certain files, folders, and links in directories to which the system user does not have write permission. The issue affects Enhanced Bare Metal Recovery (EBMR) on Windows 2008, 2008 R2, and Windows 7 to dissimilar hardware. EMC HomeBase Release 6.5 Release Notes 5
Known problems and limitations The services might not function correctly after recovery and error messages such as, "Login process cannot be initialized" and "Windows Error Recovery, Windows failed to start" are displayed. Relicensing a HomeBase Server invalidates any existing licence batches Issue number - HB-1900 Concurrent scheduled replications fail to run. Issue number - HB-2499 If a new HomeBase license is generated by using a new license (.bsk) file, any batches created using the old issuer is incompatible and fails to import the HomeBase user interface. Workaround: Contact your licensing representative for replacement batches that will work with your new licence. If a replication is already running when another starts, it fails with an exception, Failed listing agreements:repositoryagreementstore.java:169 error in the server.log file. Workaround: Make sure that scheduled replications do not overlap. HomeBase server displays license information based on the latest profile, not live data. Issue number - HB-2620 Error in uploading large sets of HP-AIX packages. License information displayed for the Agent in the HomeBase Server web interface is based on the latest profile, not live data Workaround: Either upload a new profile after an agent license is updated, or run the hba lic show command on the agent machine to view current information. Issue number - HB-6466 This problem was introduced by the change in process launcher technology made to support Windows 2008. When trying to upload large sets of HP-AIX packages, an error message indicating that too many files are open appears. Workaround: Manually set a high file ulimit on the UNIX command line, for example, ulimit -n 16384, before using the HomeBase commands. Data transmission error occurs when sending command to the HomeBase server. Issue number - HB-6654 There is an intermittent failure during when sending command to the HomeBase server. This occurs when processes are communicating with the HomeBase Server over the homebasessl protocol. Workaround: Restart the HomeBase Server service. EBMR data restore fails on Windows 2008 R2 64 bit server Issue number - HB-7686 On a Windows 2008 R2 64bit server, the EBMR fails with the 5054:recover: Failed to create directory B:\Boot: No such file or directory. 6 EMC HomeBase Release 6.5 Release Notes
End of support for AIX and Solaris platforms Windows services not recovered after EBMR Issue number - HB-7634 NetWorker data restore fails Issue number - HB-7668 Workaround: Perform a manual recovery. The error appears during a manual recovery too. Ignore the message and continue the recovery. Some of the Windows services and drivers are not recovered correctly after a EBMR. The issue affects Windows 2003 recoveries using the NetWorker EBMR feature. The NetWorker data restore fails with Win2k3r264 NW data restore failed: ERROR: Failed to initialize VSS recover, error=0x0: Invalid XML document passed: it is either not a correctly formed XML string or it does not match the schema message. The impact of the error is not completely deduced and is currently observed only on Windows 2003 64 bit R2 SP2. End of support for AIX and Solaris platforms AIX and Solaris platforms will not be supported by HomeBase version 6.5.x. Post-6.5.x will not be supported on these platforms. Service pack releases offered as part of normal support till the end of support life in March 2013 will continue to support AIX and Solaris platforms. End of service dates and extended support EMC has a standard software support duration policy which specifies that a major version will reach End of Service Life (EOSL) a minimum of 24 months following the General Availability (GA). EOSL is followed by an Extended Support period during which customers may elect to pay an additional fee to extend their support coverage rather than migrate to a current software version. Once a software product reaches EOSL, EMC Technical Support is no longer available under base support/maintenance agreements. Customers interested in uninterrupted support must upgrade to a current release or contract for Extended Support (ES). Powerlink contains a list of documents that provide end-of-service and extended support information for EMC software and hardware products. To access these documents on Powerlink: 1. Go to Powerlink. 2. Enter the following text in the Search box and click Search: EMC software release end of service life 3. Find the EMC Software Release and End of Service Life Notifications document in the results. 4. Open it and search for your product and version. This document provides EOSL dates for EMC software products. EMC HomeBase Release 6.5 Release Notes 7
End of service dates and extended support Note: This policy is in effect for select releases and will be phased in as new versions are made available. In cases where a software release is not eligible for Extended Support, the previous policy, which specifies product support and maintenance under Continuous Coverage Product Maintenance (CCPM), terms still apply. 8 EMC HomeBase Release 6.5 Release Notes
Troubleshooting and getting help Troubleshooting and getting help EMC support, product, and licensing information can be obtained as follows. Product information For documentation, release notes, software updates, or for information about EMC products, licensing, and service, go to the EMC Powerlink website (registration required) at: http://powerlink.emc.com Technical support For technical support, go to EMC Customer Service on Powerlink. To open a service request through Powerlink, you must have a valid support agreement. Contact your EMC sales representative for details about obtaining a valid support agreement or to answer any questions about your account. Note: When inquiring about issues with the HomeBase Agent, send the work area associated with the action that is causing a problem. EMC HomeBase Release 6.5 Release Notes 9
Troubleshooting and getting help 10 EMC HomeBase Release 6.5 Release Notes
Troubleshooting and getting help. Copyright March, 2011 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. EMC believes the information in this publication is accurate as of its publication date. The information is subject to change without notice. THE INFORMATION IN THIS PUBLICATION IS PROVIDED AS IS. EMC CORPORATION MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND WITH RESPECT TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PUBLICATION, AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Use, copying, and distribution of any EMC software described in this publication requires an applicable software license. For the most up-to-date regulatory document for your product line, go to the Technical Documentation and Advisories section on EMC Powerlink. For the most up-to-date listing of EMC product names, see EMC Corporation Trademarks on EMC.com. All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners. EMC HomeBase Release 6.5 Release Notes 11