SIOS DataKeeper Cluster Edition

Release Notes

Version 8.8.1

(Version 8 Update 8 Maintenance 1)

Released November 16, 2021

Important!!

Read This Document Before Attempting To Install Or Use This Product!
This document contains last minute information that must be considered before, during and after installation.

Introduction

SIOS Datakeeper Cluster Edition is a highly optimized host-based replication solution which integrates seamlessly with Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, and Windows Server 2008 R2/2008 R2 SP1 Failover Clustering. Features of Windows Server Failover Clustering such as cross-subnet failover and tunable heartbeat parameters make it easy for administrators to deploy geographically dispersed clusters. SIOS DataKeeper provides the data replication mechanism which extends both versions of Windows Clustering, allowing administrators to take advantage of these advanced features to support non-shared disk high availability configurations.

Once SIOS DataKeeper Cluster Edition is installed, a new storage class resource type called DataKeeper Volume is available. This new SIOS DataKeeper Volume resource can be used in place of the traditional Physical Disk shared storage resource to enable geographically dispersed clusters, also known as multi-site clusters.

New Features of SIOS DataKeeper Cluster Edition v8

Feature
Description
New in This Release
General maintenance Bug Fixes
New in Version 8.8.0
General maintenance Bug Fixes
New in Version 8.7.2
vSphere 7.0 Support for VMware vSphere 7.0
General maintenance Bug Fixes
New in Version 8.7.1
Azure Stack DataKeeper Cluster Edition now supports Azure Stack on Windows 2019
General maintenance Bug Fixes
New in Version 8.7.0
Windows 2019 Support Full Support of Windows 2019 with Secure Boot
AWS Nitro System DataKeeper now supports AWS Nitro System
General maintenance Bug Fixes
New in Version 8.6.5
General Maintenance Bug Fixes.
New in Version 8.6.4
Windows 2019 Support DataKeeper now supports Windows 2019 (Restrictions v8.6.4 only)
Delay Writes when Write Queue limit is reached Introduced the BlockWritesOnLimitReached tunable, which will delay writes when a mirror’s queue reaches the HighWater or ByteLimit, rather than pausing the mirror and going into a resync state.
General maintenance Bug Fixes
New in Version 8.6.3
Queue Current Age This Performance Monitor Counter value is the age of the oldest write request in the write queue.
General maintenance Bug Fixes
New in Version 8.6.2
Integration with SIOS iQ DataKeeper now includes the DataKeeper Signal package to deliver events to SIOS iQ.
General Maintenance Bug Fixes
New in Version 8.6.1
General Maintenance Bug Fixes
New in Version 8.6
Tunable Write Queue Byte Limit Users can specify the maximum number of bytes that can be allocated for the write queue of a mirror by changing the WriteQueueByteLimitMB registry value.
General Maintenance Bug Fixes
New in Version 8.5.1
Windows 2016 Support DataKeeper now supports Windows 2016.
VSS Provider SIOS VSS Provider has been disabled by default.
General Maintenance Bug Fixes
New in Version 8.5
CHANGEMIRRORTYPE This EMCMD command is used to change the mirror type of a mirror that is part of a DataKeeper job.
Tunable bitmap block size Users can modify the effective size of an entry in the DataKeeper intent log (bitmap) by changing the BitmapBytesPerBlock registry value.
General Maintenance Bug Fixes
New in Version 8.4
DataKeeper Volume Resource Health Check DataKeeper Volume Resource Health Check determines if the underlying volume device becomes unreachable.
Target Bitmap File Target writes are now tracked in a persistent target bitmap file.
General Maintenance Bug Fixes
New in Version 8.3
DataKeeper Notification Icon The DataKeeper Notification Icon shows a summary of your DataKeeper mirrors in the Windows Notification Tray. In addition to the display functions, the DataKeeper Notification Icon also serves as a shortcut to managing your DataKeeper mirrors.
mirrorcleanup.cmd This command will remove all remnants of a mirror for a selected volume on the local system only and should only be run when recommended by SIOS Support.
Powershell cmdlet support Powershell cmdlets that can be used to create job(s), create mirror(s), remove job(s), remove mirror(s) and fetch information about a volume used in DataKeeper (New-DataKeeperMirror, New-DataKeeperJob, Remove-DataKeeperMirror, Remove-DataKeeperJob, Add-DataKeeperJobPair, Get-DataKeeperVolumeInfo).
DKHEALTHCHECK Support status and issue identification tool. Provides command line interface for basic mirror status and problem detection.
General Maintenance Bug Fixes
New in Version 8.2.1
General Maintenance Bug Fixes
New in Version 8.2
DataKeeper Non-Mirrored Volume Cluster Resource The DataKeeper Non-Mirrored Volume Cluster Resource allows users to use a local volume in a failover cluster without requiring that it be part of a mirror. Some of the common use cases for this feature include enabling rolling cluster OS upgrades on existing hardware and moving tempdb to local storage in SQL 2008 R2 clusters and earlier.
General Maintenance Bug Fixes
New in Version 8.1
General Maintenance Bug Fixes
New in Version 8.0.1
General Maintenance Bug Fixes
New in Version 8.0
Replicate to Node Outside of Cluster DataKeeper now allows you to have a replication target which resides outside of the failover cluster.
Operating System Support DataKeeper now only supports Windows 2008R2 and later 64-bit Operating Systems. To run on an earlier version of Windows or on 32-bit systems, you must use DataKeeper v7.
Windows 2012 R2 Support DataKeeper now supports Windows 2012 R2.
General Maintenance Bug Fixes

Bug Fixes

The following is a list of the latest bug fixes and enhancements.

Description
PW-3438 Volumes created and added after DK is running are not found for creation of DK mirror
PW-3795 Improve resync throughput
PW-4516 Bugcheck during multi-target switchover
PW-4740 Don’t display error if bitmap is not stored on ephemeral disk

DataKeeper Cluster Edition Requirements

Requirements
Server Components See the DKCE Support Matrix

All servers should run the same version of Windows and the same version of DataKeeper software.

Make sure you verify the following settings prior to installing and configuring SIOS DataKeeper Cluster Edition.
  • Follow Microsoft best practices for deploying geographically dispersed clusters, including changing the quorum mode majority node setting with a file share witness.
DataKeeper Failover Cluster registration is automatic and occurs 60 seconds after the following events have occurred on each cluster node:
  • A DataKeeper Cluster Edition license has been installed on each cluster node.
  • The Windows server Failover Clustering feature has been installed on each server.
  • A Windows server Cluster configuration has been formed.


Hotfix – KB 951308

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/951308

If protecting Hyper-V resources, Hotfix KB 958065
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/958065

Note: These hotfixes are not required for Windows Server 2008 R2/2008 R2 SP1.

Contact Microsoft for a fix that will allow NICs to be added to a Virtual Machine after the VM has been placed into a Failover Cluster. (For more information, see Hyper-V Host Cluster Error.)

User Interface See the DKCE Support Matrix

MMC 3.0 – download from:
https://download.cnet.com/Microsoft-Management-Console-3-0-for-Windows-XP-KB907265/3000-2206_4-10741230.html

System Requirements for DataKeeper

Requirements
Memory (with no mirrors or jobs configured)

Baseline Memory Usage:

  • Emtray.exe = 7,560 KB
  • Extmirrsvc.exe = 2,504 KB
  • Mmc.exe = 56,944 KB
  • Poolmon.exe(EmDB & EmMi) = 102.704 KB
  • Extmirr.sys = 367 KB

Total = 167,277.7KB or 167.28 MB
Processor Refer to Windows Processor Requirements.
Disk size 667 MB

Local Security Policy Requirement

If your Windows servers are not in a domain and you are going to run the DataKeeper Service as the local system account, the Local Security policy setting “Network Access: Let Everyone permissions apply to anonymous users” must be enabled.

Known Issues

Windows 2016

SCVMM 2012

If using DataKeeper with SCVMM 2012, you must use SCVMM 2012 SP1.

Windows Server 2012

For issues and enhancements related to Windows Server 2012, see the following topics:

WSFC 2012 Failover Cluster Manager UI Defect
Manual Creation of a Mirror in WSFC
WSFC 2012 Cluster Creation Default Setting Issue
WSFC 2012 File Shares Cannot be Created for File Server Resource
WSFC 2012 Server Manager — Incorrect Volume Display
WSFC 2012 Server Manager — DataKeeper “Disk” Not Shown as Clustered
Windows Server 2012 Default Information Missing During Mirror Creation
Windows Server 2012 DataKeeper MMC Snap-in Crash
Windows Server 2012 — Simultaneous Move of Multiple Clustered File Server Roles Can Result in DataKeeper Switchover Failures
Windows Server 2012 iSCSI Target Role Does Not Support Dynamic Disks
Using iSCSI Target with DataKeeper

Windows 2008 R2

SIOS DataKeeper includes a kernel-mode driver (ExtMirr.sys) which is signed with a SHA-256 signature. If you are installing on a Windows 2008 R2 system that has not been updated with Microsoft hotfixes, it might not be able to boot with such a driver. Please refer to this bulletin from Microsoft for more information, in particular the first event listed which applies to Windows 2008 R2 SP1.

If you are updating SIOS DataKeeper, and your previous version was version 8.6.2 or later, then your system does have SHA-256 driver support (the 8.6.2 driver is signed with SHA-256). In that case you can safely install this version of DataKeeper.

Also see the Known Issues and Workarounds and Restrictions sections of DataKeeper Cluster Edition Technical Documentation.

DataKeeper Cluster Edition Quick Start Guide

To get started using SteelEye DataKeeper Cluster Edition, refer to the DataKeeper Cluster Edition Quick Start Guide.

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