Known Issues and Restrictions

Known Issues

During an upgrade, the GUI shows the incorrect state for the target server

When upgrading to LifeKeeper version 8.10.1 or newer from version 8.10.0 or earlier, the target server status will show an incorrect state. Please see this Known Issues and Workarounds for more information. If you are upgrading from 8.10.1, you will not be impacted.

Missing Job Information warning displayed during mirror creation or deletion

During job creation, the warning “This computer is missing SIOS DataKeeper Job information for the following target volume(s): <vol>” might be displayed in the GUI briefly. The warning will go away after a few seconds. This is a transient condition that can occur during mirror creation and deletion, and does not indicate an error.

Restrictions

Extending a resource hierarchy

When extending a resource hierarchy with dependencies, create the resource hierarchy on the primary server and then extend it as a group. If a dependent resource has already been extended, extending a resource that has not yet been extended may fail.

Antivirus Software

Antivirus software may mistakenly detect LifeKeeper binaries as malware. You should configure an exclusion for the folder LKROOT (C:\LK by default) to prevent LifeKeeper utilities from being mistakenly put into quarantine.

SCVMM 2012

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

Server with Microsoft Failover Cluster Installed

LifeKeeper for Windows is not supported on Enterprise or DataCenter class servers with Microsoft Cluster Server or Microsoft Failover Cluster features installed. It should never be the case that two “Clustering” solutions are deployed on the same group of servers. As part of this restriction, LifeKeeper for Windows communication paths will not function using IP addresses (169.254.xxx.xxx) that are hosted by the Microsoft Failover Cluster Virtual Adapters (Virtual NICs).

FAT File System Support

LifeKeeper for Windows does not support protection for volumes using the FAT or FAT32 file systems.

Fault Tolerant Disk Sets

While LifeKeeper for Windows replicated volumes are supported using Windows fault tolerant disk sets (Software RAID), LifeKeeper for Windows shared volumes are not compatible with Windows fault tolerant disk sets. Fault tolerant disk sets must be set up with dynamic disks and dynamic disks cannot be shared between two systems.

File Share Recovery Kit

• The File Share Recovery Kit is supported only in an Active Domain environment, not in a Workgroup environment. File share permissions granted to local machine accounts, either in a workgroup environment or a domain environment, will not be preserved during failover because local User IDs are valid only on the local system where they originated; other systems will not recognize them. Even if two local User IDs are spelled the same way on two different machines, they will be treated as two different accounts and valid only on the system where they originated. Domain accounts, on the other hand, are identifiable and usable on any system in the domain.

• The File Share Recovery Kit will not work if more than 9999 file shares are defined on the system. Any attempt to protect eligible file shares under LifeKeeper for Windows will fail if the total number of user-defined shares exceeds 9999. This restriction also applies to editing file share resources. You will not be able to alter the list of protected shares if more than 9999 shares are defined on the system.

• Changes to cache settings are only saved upon creation of a file share list resource. Changes made to cache sharing settings of a file share that is protected under an existing file share list resource will not be saved. Upon restore, these settings will revert to whatever value they were set to before the resource was created.

• The file share settings “Enable access-based enumeration” and “Encrypt data access” are not being persisted upon switchover/switchback. Customers must manually update these settings to the desired value after switchover.

LAN Manager Recovery Kit

Microsoft supports LAN Manager functions only over the first IP address per network interface card (Microsoft bug SRX#9704116-48). This prohibits using LAN Manager functions over LifeKeeper for Windows protected IP addresses. Therefore, the only way to switch over an alias computer name using the TCP/IP protocol is to allow dynamic IP#-to-LAN Manager name mapping for your clients. The recommended solution is to use a WINS server. You will need to make the LifeKeeper for Windows servers (and all computers accessing the protected LAN Manager name) WINS clients of the same WINS server.

Low Virtual Memory Degrades System State

LifeKeeper for Windows depends on memory being available when it is needed. If your system is reporting that it is low on virtual memory, that need must be resolved immediately.

A virtual memory shortage serious enough to degrade or delay communications and other internal system functions will very likely cause LifeKeeper for Windows to malfunction. For instance, deepcheck of TCP/IP communication resources may be impacted enough to cause a false failure, and thus a failover of the resource to the backup server.

If LifeKeeper for Windows communication with other servers in the cluster is degraded, it could cause a manually initiated switchover to fail. However, this will not affect LifeKeeper for Windows ability to fail over protected resources when a server completely fails.

GUI interoperability

The LifeKeeper GUI may only be used to administer LifeKeeper on Windows servers. Note that you can connect to and monitor a LifeKeeper for Linux cluster. However, performing administrative tasks such as creating resources, editing properties, bringing servers in and out of service, is not supported at this time.

Discontinuing Serial Port and Shared Disk Communication Paths

LifeKeeper for Windows discontinued support for TTY communication paths in Version 7.2. Support for DISKCA communication paths also ended with LifeKeeper for Windows version 10. It is required to migrate to TCP/IP communication paths. Though SIOS does not recommend it, if currently using TTY communication paths, this option can be re-enabled by removing the (#) symbol on the TTYCA.EXE line in the /etc/lkinit.config file as shown below. Existing DISKCA communication paths can still be used without changing the settings, although this is not recommended.

# … /bin/TTYCA.EXE|-t 1 X X X X X X <=
(TTY Comm Paths Disabled)
… /bin/TTYCA.EXE|-t 1 X X X X X X <=
(TTY Comm Paths Enabled)

To enable or disable the TTY communication path feature, the LifeKeeper service must be stopped and restarted after editing lkinit.config. To stop LifeKeeper, run command {c:\lk}\bin\lkstop.exe –f (c:\lk being the LifeKeeper installation path). Make sure the GUI is closed and all processes associated have stopped. Restart LifeKeeper by entering {c:\lk}\bin\lkstart.exe.

Console Application Management

Launching console applications from LifeKeeper for Windows is not supported on Windows Server 2016 and later. Server architecture and security improvements in Server 2016 including UAC and memory management, prevent background processes such as LifeKeeper for Windows from starting console applications.

Bitlocker Does Not Support DataKeeper

According to Microsoft, Bitlocker is not supported to work with Software RAID configurations. Since DataKeeper is essentially a software RAID 1, Microsoft does not support Bitlocker working with DataKeeper.

The specific article and section can be found here:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee449438#BKMK_R2disks

When using S3 for Quorum/Witness, computer resources periodically spike

LifeKeeper for Windows periodically issues signed URLs internally when accessing Amazon S3 QWK objects. Issuing signed URLs consumes more computing resources than usual. For recommended actions, see Recommended Settings When Using S3 Quorum.

For more known issues, see the Troubleshooting section of LifeKeeper for Windows Technical Documentation