Version 9.5.0

Released May 12, 2020

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

This release notes document is written for the person who installs, configures and/or administers the SIOS Protection Suite (SPS) for Linux product. The document contains important information not detailed in the formal LifeKeeper and DataKeeper documentation sets such as package versions and last-minute changes to instructions and procedures as well as a link to the Troubleshooting sections for product restrictions and troubleshooting hints and tips that were discovered through final product testing. It is important that you review this document before installing and configuring SPS software.

SIOS Product Descriptions

LifeKeeper for Linux

The LifeKeeper product includes fault detection and recovery software that provides high availability for file systems, network addresses, applications and processes running on Linux. LifeKeeper supports the configuration and switchover of a given application across multiple servers. The servers on which the application is configured are assigned priorities to determine the sequence in which the application will move from server to server in the event of multiple failures.

LifeKeeper for Linux provides switchover protection for a range of system resources. Automatic recovery is supported for the following resource types:

  • Processes and Applications
  • Shared Storage Devices (Including VMWare virtual hard disks)
  • Communication Resources (TCP/IP)

DataKeeper for Linux

The SIOS DataKeeper product:

  • Provides volume-based synchronous and asynchronous data replication.
  • Integrates into the LifeKeeper Graphical User Interface for administration and monitoring.
  • Automatically resynchronizes data between source and target servers at system recovery.
  • Monitors the health of underlying system components and performs local recovery in the event of failure.
  • Allows manual resource switchovers and failovers of mirrored volumes.
  • Can be easily upgraded to provide high availability clustering and automatic failover and recovery using a license key to enable new functionality.

SPS Components

SPS Core

SPS for Linux is bundled for, and only runs on, 64-bit systems (AMD64 and EM64T systems).

The SPS Core Package Cluster includes the following installable packages:

Package
Package Name
Description
LifeKeeper Core steeleye-lk-9.5.0-7075.x86_64.rpm The LifeKeeper package provides recovery software for failures associated with core system components such as memory, CPUs, the operating system, the SCSI disk subsystem and file systems.
DataKeeper Core steeleye-lkDR-9.5.0-7075.noarch.rpm The DataKeeper package provides data replication (synchronous or asynchronous mirrors with intent logging).
LifeKeeper GUI steeleye-lkGUI-9.5.0-7075.x86_64.rpm The LifeKeeper GUI package provides a graphical user interface for LifeKeeper and DataKeeper administration and status monitoring.
SPS IP Recovery Kit steeleye-lkIP-9.5.0-7075.noarch.rpm The SPS IP Recovery Kit provides recovery software for automatic switchover of IP addresses.
SPS Raw I/O Recovery Kit steeleye-lkRAW-9.5.0-7075.noarch.rpm The SPS Raw I/O Recovery Kit provides support for applications that use raw i/o to bypass kernel buffering.
LifeKeeper Man Pages steeleye-lkMAN-9.5.0-7075.noarch.rpm The LifeKeeper Man Page package provides reference manual pages for the SPS product.

SPS Optional Recovery Software

The following optional software provides resource definition and recovery software for the application versions listed. See the Support Matrix and Recovery Kit Administration Guides for the requirements for each recovery software.

Package
Package Name
Description
SPS Apache Web Server Recovery Kit steeleye-lkAPA-9.5.0-7075.noarch.rpm The SPS for Linux Apache Web Server Recovery Kit provides fault resilience for Apache Web Server software in an SPS environment.
SPS SAP Recovery Kit steeleye-lkSAP-9.5.0-7075.noarch.rpm The SPS for Linux SAP Recovery Kit provides a mechanism to recover SAP NetWeaver from a failed primary server onto a backup server in an SPS environment working in conjunction with other SPS Recovery Kits to provide comprehensive failover protection.
SPS SAP MaxDB Recovery Kit steeleye-lkSAPDB-9.5.0-7075.noarch.rpm The SAP MaxDB Recovery Kit provides fault resilient protection for SAP MaxDB databases in an SPS for Linux environment.
SPS DB2 Recovery Kit steeleye-lkDB2-9.5.0-7075.noarch.rpm The SPS for Linux DB2 Recovery Kit provides fault resilient protection for DB2 database instances. SPS together with the DB2 Universal Database product family afford increased availability to DB2 operating environments by effectively recovering database server failures without significant down-time or human intervention.
SPS Oracle Recovery Kit steeleye-lkORA-9.5.0-7075.noarch.rpm The SPS for Linux Oracle Recovery Kit provides fault resilience for Oracle software in an SPS environment furnishing a mechanism to tie the data integrity of Oracle databases to the increased availability provided by SPS.
SPS MySQL Recovery Kit steeleye-lkSQL-9.5.0-7075.noarch.rpm The SPS for Linux MySQL Recovery Kit provides an easy way to add SPS fault‑resilient protection for MySQL resources and databases enabling a failure on the primary database server to be recovered on a designated backup server without significant lost time or human intervention.
SPS PostgreSQL Recovery Kit steeleye-lkPGSQL-9.5.0-7075.noarch.rpm The SPS for Linux PostgreSQL Recovery Kit is an SQL compliant, object-relational database management system (ORDBMS) based on POSTGRES providing a mechanism for protecting PostgreSQL instances within SPS.
SPS Sybase ASE Recovery Kit steeleye-lkSYBASE-9.5.0-7075.noarch.rpm The SPS for Linux Sybase ASE Recovery Kit provides SPS resource protection for the Sybase ASE components Adaptive Server, Monitor Server, and Backup Server.
SPS Postfix Recovery Kit steeleye-lkPOSTFIX-9.5.0-7075.noarch.rpm The SPS for Linux Postfix Recovery Kit provides a mechanism to recover Postfix from a failed primary server to a backup server in an SPS environment.
SPS Samba Recovery Kit steeleye-lkSMB-9.5.0-7075.noarch.rpm The SPS for Linux Samba Recovery Kit provides fault resilient protection for Samba file and print shares on a Linux server existing in a heterogeneous network enabling a failure on the primary Samba server to be recovered on a designated backup server without significant lost time or human intervention.
SPS NFS Server Recovery Kit steeleye-lkNFS-9.5.0-7075.noarch.rpm The SPS for Linux NFS Server Recovery Kit provides fault resilience for Network File System (NFS) software in an SPS environment enabling a failure on the primary NFS server to be recovered on a designated backup server without significant lost time or human intervention.
SPS Network Attached Storage Recovery Kit steeleye-lkNAS-9.5.0-7075.noarch.rpm

The SPS for Linux Network Attached Storage Recovery Kit provides fault resilience for Network File System (NFS) software in an SPS environment affording SPS users the opportunity to employ an exported NFS file system as the storage basis for SPS hierarchies.

NFS over UDP is not supported on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 and later.

Some environments may require additional configurations. Refer to Specific Configuration Considerations for details.

SPS Logical Volume Manager (LVM) Recovery Kit steeleye-lkLVM-9.5.0-7075.noarch.rpm The SPS for Linux Logical Volume Manager (LVM) Recovery Kit provides logical volume support for other SPS recovery kits allowing SPS-protected applications to take advantage of the benefits offered by the Logical Volume Manager, including simplified storage management and the ability to dynamically re-size volumes as needs change.
SPS Software RAID (md) Recovery Kit steeleye-lkMD-9.5.0-7075.noarch.rpm The SPS for Linux Software RAID (md) Recovery Kit provides software RAID support for other SPS recovery kits allowing SPS-protected applications to take advantage of the benefits offered by software RAID, including lower cost data redundancy, data replication over a SAN and simplified storage management.
SPS PowerPath Recovery Kit steeleye-lkPPATH-9.5.0-7075.noarch.rpm The SPS PowerPath Recovery Kit protects applications that use EMC PowerPath multipath I/O devices.
SPS Device Mapper Multipath (DMMP) Recovery Kit steeleye-lkDMMP-9.5.0-7075.noarch.rpm The SPS Device Mapper Multipath (DMMP Recovery Kit) protects applications and file systems that use DMMP devices allowing SPS to operate with and protect these applications and file systems.
Hitachi Dynamic Link Manager Software (HDLM) Recovery Kit steeleye-lkHDLM-9.5.0-7075.noarch.rpm The Hitachi Dynamic Link Manager Software (HDLM) Recovery Kit protects applications that use Hitachi Dynamic Link Manager Software devices.
SPS NEC iStorage StoragePathSavior (NECSPS) Recovery Kit steeleye-lkSPS-9.5.0-7075.noarch.rpm The SPS NEC iStorage StoragePathSavior (NECSPS) Recovery Kit protects applications that use NEC iStorage StoragePathSavior v3.3 or later multipath I/O devices.
SIOS DataKeeper steeleye-lkDR-9.5.0-7075.noarch.rpm SIOS DataKeeper for Linux provides an integrated data mirroring capability for SPS environments enabling SPS resources to operate in shared and non-shared storage environments.
SPS WebSphere MQ Recovery Kit steeleye-lkMQS-9.5.0-7075.noarch.rpm The SPS for Linux WebSphere MQ Recovery Kit provides fault resilient protection for WebSphere MQ queue managers and queue manager storage locations enabling a failure on a primary WebSphere MQ server or queue manager to be recovered on the primary server or a designated backup server without significant lost time or human intervention.
Quorum/Witness Package steeleye-lkQWK-9.5.0-7075.noarch.rpm

The SPS Quorum/Witness Package allows a node to get a “second opinion” on the status of a failing node acting as an intermediary to determine which servers are part of the cluster. When determining when to fail over, the Witness Server allows resources to be brought in service on a backup server only in cases where it verifies the primary server has failed and is no longer part of the cluster.

Note: Quorum is required for all 2 node DataKeeper clusters. Each 2 node cluster must use its own quorum/witness node. Shared witness servers are not recommended.

Quick Service Protection steeleye-lkQSP-9.5.0-7075.noarch.rpm SPS Quick Service Protection supplies functionality to easily protect OS services.
Recovery Kit for EC2 steeleye-lkECC-9.5.0-7075.noarch.rpm The Recovery Kit for EC2 provides a mechanism to recover an Elastic IP from a failed primary server to a backup server. It also provides a mechanism to enable the IP Recovery Kit to work in multiple availability zones.
Route53 Recovery Kit steeleye-lkROUTE53-9.5.0-7075.noarch.rpm Route53 Recovery Kit provides a mechanism for updating Amazon Route 53 DNS information corresponding to a virtual IP address and an actual IP address information of IP resources that are in dependency relation when switching to a failed primary server to a backup server.
VMDK as Shared Storage Recovery Kit steeleye-lkVMDK-9.5.0-7075.noarch.rpm With the VMDK as Shared Storage Recovery Kit, VMware virtual hard disks and their file systems used as shared disks can be protected as LifeKeeper resources.

New Features of SIOS Protection Suite for Linux Version 9


Product
Feature
New in Version 9.5.0
IMPORTANT NOTICE: As our valued customer, we want to proactively notify you of an issue that we discovered in the md/raid1 kernel module of several Linux releases. Due to this issue, a partial resync of data within supported versions (v9.3.2 – v9.5.1) of SIOS Protection Suite for Linux with DataKeeper cluster nodes may NOT resync all blocks. Refer to this link for more information.
SAP HANA Recovery Kit The SAP HANA Recovery Kit, providing high-availability for SAP HANA 2.0 SPS04 clusters, is now available. See the SAP HANA Recovery Kit Administration Guide for details.
  • If you are using SIOS Protection Suite for Linux v9.5 or later you must use the new (built-in) SAP HANA Application Recovery Kit.
  • The existing SAP HANA gen/app based Recovery Kit is not supported with v9.5.0. Users who wish to upgrade to the SIOS Protection Suite for Linux v9.5.0 must convert their existing SAP HANA gen/app based Recovery Kit to the new SAP HANA Recovery Kit. Refer to Upgrading from the SAP HANA Gen/App to the SAP HANA Recovery Kit for details.
  • SIOS will continue to support the SAP HANA gen/app based Recovery Kit with the 9.4.x releases until March 31, 2022.
  • The SAP HANA Recovery Kit does not support HANA v1.
LifeKeeper Core

Supports Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.8 (Certified in July 2020)

Note: If you are using DataKeeper, follow these steps when installing LifeKeeper.

Supports CentOS 7.8 (Certified in July 2020)

Note: If you are using DataKeeper, follow these steps when installing LifeKeeper.

Supports Oracle Linux 7.8 (Certified in July 2020)

Note: If you are using DataKeeper, follow these steps when installing LifeKeeper.

Supports SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP5 (Certified in July 2020) Please see this IMPORTANT NOTICE.
Support VMware vSphere 7.0 (Certified in July 2020)
Supports CentOS 8.0
Supports Oracle Linux 8.0
Supports Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.1
Supports CentOS 8.1
Supports Oracle Linux 8.1
The CLI has been enhanced to allow you to control LifeKeeper through the Command Line Interface. See LKCLI for details.
Bug Fixes
PostgreSQL Support PostgreSQL 12
EDB Postgres Advanced Server v12.0 is supported. (Certified in July 2020)
Oracle PDBs with Multitenant configurations can now be protected. See Configuring a Pluggable Database with Oracle Multitenant for details.
DataKeeper DataKeeper online mirrored volumes can now be resized. See Mirror Resize for more information.
Mirror recovery of data replication resources can now be performed in parallel.
Added LKDR_CONNECT_NBD_DURING_RESTORE parameter. Refer to DataKeeper parameter list for details.
Bug Fixes
Filesystem, LVM, NFS, IP, DB2, MaxDB, SAP, Sybase, Sybase ASE, Quorum/Witness Bug Fixes
New in Version 9.4.1
LifeKeeper Core OpenJDK included with OS is installed. See Configuring the LifeKeeper GUI for details.

(Updated December 2020)
Some environments may install OpenJDK that is included with the LifeKeeper installation image. Please refer to Configuring the LifeKeeper GUI for more information.
Supports SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP1
Supports Oracle Linux 7.7
Supports CentOS 7.7
Supports AWS Nitro system
Supports AWS Transit Gateway
Bug Fixes
DataKeeper Supports NVMe devices
Bug Fixes
VMDK as Shared Storage LifeKeeper for Linux VMDK as Shared Storage Recovery Kit is now available. See the VMDK Shared Storage Recovery Kit Management Guide for details.
PostgreSQL PowerGres Plus (for Linux) v10 and PowerGres on Linux v11 can be protected with the PostgreSQL Recovery Kit
Support FUJITSU Software Symfoware Server (Postgres) V12.4 (Certified in March 2020)
For the details, refer to the SPS Optional Recovery Software Requirements, PostgreSQL Recovery Kit Administration Guide > Administration.
Install, IP, MaxDB, EC2 Bug Fixes
New in Version 9.4.0
LifeKeeper Core Standby Node Health Check – allows the user to monitor CPU and memory utilization on the standby node and monitor the health of out-of-service (OSU) resources to detect errors on the standby node.
Oracle Linux 7 Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 5 (UEK R5) is supported.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 is supported.

Note: Upgrading from one kernel version to another major version such as from RHEL7 to RHEL8 is NOT supported. (i.e DataKeeper resource does NOT work when upgrading from RHEL7 to RHEL8.)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.7 is supported (Certified in November 2019)

Note: If you are using DataKeeper, follow these steps when installing LifeKeeper.

SAP SAP-certified support of SAP S/4HANA Platform via SAP High Availability Clustering Certification S/4-HA-CLU-1.0
SAP S/4HANA 1809 Platform is now supported.
SAP S/4HANA 1909 Platform is now supported. (Added support in November 2019)
Support for Standalone Enqueue Server 2 and Enqueue Replication Server 2
SAP Resource UI Enhancements
Optimizations for the LifeKeeper SAP ERS Resource
MySQL MariaDB10.3 is supported.
DB2 DB2 11.5 is supported.
PostgreSQL FUJITSU Software Enterprise Postgres 11 is supported. (Certified in November 2019)
General maintenance Bug Fixes
New in Version 9.3.2
LifeKeeper Core

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.6 is supported.

Note: DataKeeper asynchronous mirrors are not supported because of a Linux kernel bug.

CentOS 7.6 is supported.

Note: DataKeeper asynchronous mirrors are not supported because of a Linux kernel bug.

Oracle Linux Version 7.6 is supported.

Note: DataKeeper asynchronous mirrors are not supported because of a Linux kernel bug.

Note: Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 5 (UEK R5) is NOT supported. (i.e. DataKeeper resource does NOT work on UEK R5.)

Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP4 is supported.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 is supported.

Note: Upgrading from one kernel version to another major version such as from SLES 12 to SLES 15 is NOT supported. (i.e DataKeeper resource does NOT work when upgrading from SLES 12 to SLES 15.)

OpenJDK v10.0.2 is supported.

SIOS has tested OpenJDK v10.0.2 downloaded from https://jdk.java.net/10/ with SIOS Protection Suite for Linux (SPS-L) v9.4.0. OpenJDK is compatible with SPS-L v9.4.0, therefore customers may use this version or any compatible version of OpenJDK with SPS-L v9.4.0. If a customer encounters an issue due to the OpenJDK version, SIOS may recommend using a newer version of OpenJDK or the OracleJDK included in SPS-L package.

Install The -s option for saving the current setup configuration has been added to the setup command.
RHEL7.6 also does not support DataKeeper’s asynchronous mode. The warning message is output by setup.
DataKeeper

Wait For Previous Source for multi-target mirrors.

For a multi-target mirror DataKeeper keeps track of the last server, aka previous source, that had the mirror in-service. When there is a failover, the bitmap from the previous source is required to keep all of the targets in-sync. DataKeeper will now automatically wait for the previous source to join the cluster before resuming replication to any target. This allows the bitmap from the previous source to be merged so that only partial resyncs are necessary.

Unnecessary synchronization is avoided in the environment with three or mode nodes.
Add updated messages for “wait for source” in GUI and mirror_status.
PostgreSQL PostgreSQL 11 is supported.
EDB Postgres Advanced Server v11 is supported.
FUJITSU Software Enterprise Postgres 10 is supported.
For the details, refer to the SPS Optional Recovery Software Requirements.
MQ SIOS Protection Suite for Linux now supports IBM MQ 9.1
Oracle Support Oracle 19c (Certified in August 2019).
SAP Supports new maintenance mode feature available with SAP kernel 7.49 and above.
General Maintenance Bug Fixes
New in Version 9.3.1
LifeKeeper Core Updated the OpenSSL package to 1.0.2p
Support Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.10
Support CentOS 6.10
Support Oracle Linux 6 Update 10
MySQL Support MySQL 8.0
Oracle Support Oracle 18c (Certified in March 2019)
Install, EC2, Route53 Bug Fix
New in Version 9.3
LifeKeeper Core Red Hat Enterprise Linux Version 7.5 is supported.
However, DataKeeper asynchronous mirrors are not supported because of a Linux kernel bug.
CentOS7.5 is supported.
However, DataKeeper asynchronous mirrors are not supported because of a Linux kernel bug.
Oracle Linux Version 7.5 is supported.
However, DataKeeper asynchronous mirrors are not supported because of a Linux kernel bug.
Support VMware vSphere 6.7 (Certified in October 2018)
Bug Fixes
EC2, Route53 EC2 and Route53 RK now support HTTP Proxy.
Bug Fixes
Quorum/Witness Storage QWK is now supported. For details, please click here.
Bug Fixes
Install The SPS for Linux installation process has been upgraded. For details, please click here.
SAP, Oracle, Samba, MQ, Sybase, Filesystem, Generic Application, QSP, SAP MaxDB, DataKeeper Bug Fix
New in Version 9.2.2
EC2,Route53 IAM Role is now supported.
  • Openswan Recovery Kit does not support IAM Role. You may use v9.2.1 in case of Cross Region configuration.
DataKeeper Support GUID Partition Table (GPT) to identify protected disks
  • The supported disk is SCSI Hard Disk or Xen Virtual Disk(xvd) in case of Linux kernel 2.6.27 or earlier.
PostgreSQL Support PostgreSQL 10
EDB Postgres Advanced Server v10.0 is now supported. (Certified in April 2018)
SAP, NAS, EC2 Bug Fix
New in Version 9.2.1
LifeKeeper Core Support Oracle Linux 7.4
Support CentOS 7.4
Support SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP3
  • The kernel should be updated to 4.4.82-6.9.1 for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP3
The Recovery Kit for EC2, Route 53 Recovery Kit, Openswan Recovery Kit can now be installed from the setup menu. Openswan Recovery Kit is supported only when using with Cross Region configuration
Bug Fixes
PostgreSQL Support EDB Postgres Advanced Server 9.6
MQ Support IBM MQ 9.0
New in Version 9.2
LifeKeeper Core Support Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4
SNMP trap can be sent to multiple targets
Bug fixes
IP IP resources using real IP(primary IP address configured for NIC) can be created
PostgreSQL Support PostgreSQL 9.6
Support FUJITSU Software Enterprise Postgres 9.6
For the details, refer to the SPS Optional Recovery Software Requirements, PostgreSQL Recovery Kit Administration Guide > Administration.
MQ Support IBM MQ 9.0 (Certified in December 2017)
MD, SAP, SAP MaxDB, Quorum/Witness, Route53, Install Bug fixes
New in Version 9.1.2
LifeKeeper Core SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP2 is supported.
CentOS7.3 is supported.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Version 6.9 is supported.
kernel of Oracle Linux Version 7.3 is supported.
Bug fixes
PostgreSQL Support PostgreSQL 9.6
Support FUJITSU Software Enterprise Postgres 9.6
For the details, refer to the SPS Optional Recovery Software Requirements, PostgreSQL Recovery Kit Administration Guide > Administration.
Oracle Oracle 12c R2 is supported.
DB2 DB2 11.1 is supported.
IP, QSP, MySQL, NFS Bug fixes
New in Version 9.1.1
LifeKeeper Core SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP1 support.
  • SLES12.0 is not supported.
  • Btrfs is not supported.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Version 7.3 support.
Oracle Linux Version 7.3 support.
  • UEK is not supported.
vSphere 6.5 support.
Bug Fixes
PostgreSQL PostgreSQL 9.5 support EDB Postgres Advanced Server v9.5 support
FUJITSU Software Symfoware Server (Open Interface) V12.2 support
FUJITSU Software Symfoware Server (Postgres) V12.3 support
FUJITSU Software Enterprise Postgres 9.5 support
For the details, refer to the SPS Optional Recovery Software Requirements, PostgreSQL Recovery Kit Administration Guide > Administration.
Sybase ASE Sybase ASE 16.0 support.
MySQL MySQL 5.7 support on RHEL 7.x/CentOS 7.x/OEL 7.x.
  • MySQL 5.7 on other OS is already supported.
SAP SAP 7.5 support.
New in Version 9.1.0
LifeKeeper Core Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.8 support (Certified in September 2016).
CentOS 6.8, Oracle Linux 6.8 support (Certified in September 2016).
  • MD Recovery Kit is not supported on these OS.
LifeKeeper API for Monitoring
Added API to supply LifeKeeper status and log information.
Quick Service Protection support
Added functionality to easily protect OS services.
Bug Fixes
New in Version 9.0.2
LifeKeeper Core Support of Red Hat Enterprise Linux Version 7.2.
  • SQL RK is not supported when running on RHEL 7.x/CentOS 7.x/OEL 7.x.
Updated OpenSSL package to version to 1.0.1q
Bug Fixes
MQ Added support for Multi-version WebSphere MQ. With this support queue managers for 7.1, 7.5, and 8.x can all be protected on the same cluster node.
Removed the Recovery Kit restriction that only the mqm user could be used for running MQ commands. With this change any user in the mqm group can be used by the Recovery Kit to run MQ commands.
Bug Fixes
IP, Filesystem, DMMP, DataKeeper, EC2, PostgreSQL, Power Path, SAP, SAP DB/MaxDB, Oracle Bug Fixes.
Licensing Update to a newer version of FlexNet
New in Version 9.0.1
LifeKeeper Core Bug Fixes.
DataKeeper Bug Fixes.
New in Version 9.0
LifeKeeper Core Red Hat Enterprise Linux Version 6 Update 7 support. (Certified in October 2015)
Community ENTerprise Operating System (CentOS) Version 6 Update 7 support. (Certified in October 2015)
Oracle Linux Version 6 Update 7 support. (Certified in October 2015)
SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 11 SP4 support. (Certified in October 2015)
Chef support
Added SPS for Linux Parameters List, document detailing tunable values. Added the lkchkconf command.
vSphere 6 support
reiserfs filesystem type is no longer supported.
Arks supported with Red Hat Enterprise Linux Version 7.0/7.1, Community ENTerprise Operating System (CentOS) Version 7.0/7.1, and Oracle Linux Version 7.0/7.1 are the same as LifeKeeper for Linux v8.4.1. (Arks to be supported are: PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, DB2, Apache, Postfix, DMMP, LVM, NFS, NAS, Samba, MD, EC2, Route53, Openswan)
Bug Fixes.
DataKeeper The DK rewind feature is no longer supported in version 9. Prior to upgrading to version 9, you will need to deactivate all rewind configuration settings, and perform any necessary archival of data.
Bug Fixes.
GUI JRE 8u51 support. (JRE 7 is no longer supported.)
Chrome Browser is no longer supported.
Bug Fixes.

Bug Fixes

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

Bug
Description
PL-114 Added a timer to the restore functionality in the MaxDB ARK
PL-118 NFS quickCheck fails to detect matching export option list if an option is listed more than once
PL-756 Enhanced resync checking to make sure devices are not mounted on the target
PL-1215 Enhanced quickCheck for NFS resources to monitor fsid
PL-1222 Fixed an issue where “Repository named ‘tmpRPMcache’ already exists” message was output and setup failed in SLES environment
PL-2300 The LifeKeeper logrotate configuration does not reload rsyslog, which results in lost LK logging after log rotation
PL-2310 Avoid using Sybase “shutdown with nowait”
PL- 2315 Fixed LVM ARK cache to automatically update
PL- 2320 Repaired DB2 ARK to create DB2 resource if character code is set to IBM-943
PL-3083 Changed LKDR default speed limit from 50k to 500k
PL-3135 Using confirm failover can result in a hierarchy being out of service
PL-3149 Added XFS sanity check
PL-3186 Fixed an issue where quickCheck resulted in an error instead of recovering correctly with local recovery of SAP resources
PL-3232 Fixed an issue where resources could not be created if Sybase was installed outside of /opt/sybase
PL-3292 Mirror create needs to protect against device reordering
PL-3415 Fixed a duplicate message ID
PL-3518 Stopping LifeKeeper needs to clean up in-progress tasks such as machine failover, quorum_isp, and quickCheck daemons
PL-3546 Quorum is inefficient when attempting to restore resources
PL-3760 Use “ip” command to bring up network interfaces.
PL-4051 Fixed an issue where Quorum would not launch resources if there were ISP resources
PL-4164 lkstop fails if the process of removing all the resources takes more than 90 seconds
PL-4355 Fixed an issue where LifeKeeper also stopped if the rsyslog service stopped on systems employing systemd
PL-4575 Fixed an issue where after switching over IP resources on RHEL 8 the virtual IP address could not be pinged from the previous host
PL-4746 When creating a new DataKeeper resource, the configuration using DEVNAME for disk identification is no longer supported. Use GPT partition (GUID Partition Table) configuration. Before upgrading to SPS for Linux 9.5.0 please review the following Known Issue to see if this impacts your cluster.

Hot Fixes and Add-on Support Packages

The patches are located here.

Hotfix/Add-on Support Package
Bug Description
Patch Description
steeleye-lkHOTFIX-SAP-PL-6050-9.5.0-7075.noarch.rpm Split brain created during comm_up processing when migrating the ERS hierarchy. This patch prevents ERS hierarchy migration during LifeKeeper comm_up processing. With ERS v2 the goal is to have the ERS hierarchy running on a non-central services node but can run on the same node when a viable node is not available. When a viable target becomes available LifeKeeper will migrate the ERS hierarchy to the available target. In certain circumstances the migration would overlap with comm_up actions resulting in a split brain. This patch prevents that overlap from occurring. NOTE: This patch must be removed before upgrading LifeKeeper to a newer version beyond v9.5.0
steeleye-lkHOTFIX-systemd-PL-6728-9.5.1-7154.noarch.rpm Addresses a possible hang when stopping LifeKeeper during a system shutdown or reboot. LifeKeeper depends on the NFS service in some configurations and if that service is stopped by systemd before LifeKeeper completes its shutdown a hang can occur. This patch updates the lifekeeper.service file to add a dependency on NFS to ensure NFS shuts down after LifeKeeper. This patch prevents systemd from stopping the NFS subsystem before LifeKeeper stops.
steeleye-lkHOTFIX-core-PL-6780-9.5.0-7075.x86_64.rpm lkscsid core dumps: segmentation fault This patch addresses a bug in the LifeKeeper core SCSI recovery kit where lkscsid will not properly handle the threads it starts to check devices. New threads are created instead of reusing those already started. These threads will eventually cause the process/system to run out of file descriptors and will eventually core dump.
steeleye-lkHOTFIX-core-PL-6847-9.5.0-7075.noarch.rpm Resource hierarchy ends up out of service on all nodes after rebooting the source node. This patch prevents the quorum_isp logic from running on comm up events to a node for which no resource equivalencies exist. This prevents a hierarchy migration from being attempted incorrectly.
Other hotfix interactions:
On systems with the SAP ARK installed the hotfix rpm steeleye-lkHOTFIX-SAP-PL-6050-9.5.1-7154.noarch.rpm must be installed prior to this patch and removed after removing this patch. For more information and to download the PL-6050 patch go to the ftp link http://ftp.us.sios.com/pickup/SAP-rpm-PL-6050.
steeleye-lkHOTFIX-IP-PL-7858-9.5.0-7075.noarch.rpm The physical IP address is set to 0.0.0.2/0 via a restore or recover of a protected virtual IP address when the restore or recover occurs after running the command “ifdown “ where is NIC on which the virtual IP resource is attached. This patch prevents the physical address from being set to 0.0.0.2/0 during a restore or recover of a virtual IP resource. The incorrect setting of the physical IP address only occurs if the command “ifdown “ is run prior to the restore or recover operation.
HOTFIX-PL-9146-raid1_data_integrity_patch/ The md/raid1 kernel driver that causes failed writes not to be reported.
As a result, DataKeeper was unable to rewrite the failed data blocks when a mirror was resynchronized,
causing the target to be out of sync with the source.
This patch provides an updated md/raid1 kernel module that will properly report all writes that fail. LifeKeeper will verify that the proper md/raid1 module with the SIOS fix is loaded. NOTE: The updated md/raid1 kernel module requires Secure Boot to be disabled.
steeleye-lkHOTFIX-ROUTE53-PL-11129-9.6.0-7333.noarch.rpm Addresses failure of the Route53 recovery kit when accessing the AWS CLI from nodes without internet access or configured AWS role. This patch exports NO_PROXY within the value_domain script prior to attempting an AWS CLI call.
steeleye-lkHOTFIX-core-PL-7770-9.6.1-7412.noarch.rpm This patch fixes a problem related to the lklicmgr command not properly recognizing licenses for the HANA ARK and showing them as unknown. This patch avoids erroneous unknown status messages for installed HANA
ARK licenses.

Discontinued Features

Feature
Description
Discontinued in Version 9.5.0
LifeKeeper Core System log management using syslog-ng is no longer supported. Please use rsyslog.
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 11.0 to SP4 is no longer supported.
DataKeeper Environments that use DEVNAME for disk identification using DataKeeper for Linux (DK resources) are no longer supported. Please use a GPT partition (GUID Partition Table).
Oracle Oracle Database Enterprise Edition 11g R2 is no longer supported.
Oracle Database Standard Edition 11g R2 is no longer supported.
Oracle Database Standard Edition One 11g R2 is no longer supported.
MySQL MariaDB 5.5, 10.0 is no longer supported.
PostgreSQL PostgreSQL 9.4 is no longer supported.
EnterpriseDB Postgres Plus Advanced Server 9.4 is no longer supported.
Discontinued in Version 9.4.1
None
Discontinued in Version 9.4.0
DataKeeper Multi-Site Cluster Feature

System Requirements

SPS Product Requirements

SPS for Linux is supported on any Linux platform that satisfies the minimum requirements included in the Linux Configuration Table. Also refer to the SPS Support Matrix for supported operating systems, applications and virtualization.

Description
Requirement
Linux Operating System See the Linux Configuration Table for specific operating system information.
Virtual Environments The guest operating system running on the virtual machine must be one of the supported versions listed in the Linux Configuration Table. The following virtual environment is an example where SIOS Protection Suite for Linux is deployed. Please refer to the Support Matrix for detailed versions of supported virtualization environments.

  • KVM

  • Oracle VM Server for x86

  • VMware vSphere v5.5, v6.0, v6.5, v6.7 and v7.0

  • Amazon EC2

  • Microsoft Azure

  • Nutanix Acropolis Hypervisor

    vSAN configuration is supported for vSphere 6.5 or later except RDM which is not supported by VMWare.

    Fibre channel SAN and shared SCSI cluster configurations are not supported with SPS for Linux running in a KVM and Oracle VM Server for x86 virtual machine.

    Note: On SLES v12 or later running on AWS or Azure, the dynamic change of the virtual IP address by the cloud network plug-in may affect the operation of the LifeKeeper cluster. For detailed information, see LifeKeeper Core – Known Issues / Restrictions.


Memory The minimum memory requirement for a system supporting SPS is 512 MB. This is the minimum amount required by SPS supported Linux distributions. System memory should be sized for the applications that will be running on the SPS protected system as well. Refer to Application Configuration for further information.
Disk Space The SPS Package Cluster requires the following disk space:


/opt – approx 100MB (depending on kits installed)

/ – approx 110MB

Java Runtime Environment
  • OpenJDK 1.8, 10 or later

SPS Optional Recovery Software Requirements

The following table shows the software requirements for the optional SPS recovery software.

See Application Configuration for additional requirements and/or restrictions that may apply to applications under SPS protection.

Product Requirement(s)
SPS Apache Web Server Recovery Kit Apache Web Server v2.4
SAP Recovery Kit SAP NetWeaver 7.0 including Enhancement Package 1,2 and 3
SAP NetWeaver 7.3 including Enhancement Package 1
SAP NetWeaver 7.4
SAP NetWeaver 7.5
SAP NetWeaver AS for ABAP 7.51 innovation package
SPS SAP MaxDB Recovery Kit SAP MaxDB v7.9

LifeKeeper v6 or later Core Package Cluster
SPS Postfix Recovery Kit Postfix software provided with the supported Linux distributions installed and configured on each server. The same version of Postfix should be installed on each server.

LifeKeeper v6 or later Core Package Cluster
SPS Oracle Recovery Kit Oracle Database Enterprise Edition v12c, v12c R2, v18c and v19c (excluding ASM)

Oracle Database Standard Edition 2 (SE2) v12c, v12c R2, v18c and v19c (excluding ASM)
SPS DB2 Recovery Kit IBM Db2 Universal Database v10.5, v11.1

IBM Db2 Enterprise Server Edition (ESE) v10.5, v11.1 and v11.5

IBM Db2 Workgroup Server Edition (WSE) v10.5, v11.1 and v11.5

IBM Db2 Express Edition v10.5, v11.1 and v11.5

LifeKeeper v6 or later Core Package Cluster

SPS NFS Server Recovery Kit v5.1 or later (for DB2 EEE and DB2 ESE with multiple partitions only)
SPS MySQL Recovery Kit MySQL and MySQL Enterprise v5.7 and v8.0

MariaDB v10.3 and v10.4
SPS PostgreSQL Recovery Kit PostgreSQL v9.5, v9.6, v10, v11 and v12

EnterpriseDB Postgres Plus Advanced Server/EDB Postgres Advanced Server v9.5, v9.6, v10.0, v11.0 and v12.0

PowerGres Plus (for Linux) v10

PowerGres on Linux v11

The following edition of FUJITSU Software Symfoware Server.

Symfoware Server V12.2

  • Symfoware Server (Open Interface) V12.2 Enterprise Edition

  • Symfoware Server (Open Interface) V12.2 Standard Edition

    Symfoware Server V12.3

  • Symfoware Server (Postgres) V12.3 Enterprise Edition

  • Symfoware Server (Postgres) V12.3 Standard Edition

  • Symfoware Server (Postgres) V12.3 Lite Edition

    Symfoware Server V12.4

  • Symfoware Server (Postgres) V12.4 Enterprise Edition

  • Symfoware Server (Postgres) V12.4 Standard Edition

    The following edition of FUJITSU Software Enterprise Postgres 9.5

  • FUJITSU Software Enterprise Postgres 9.5 Advanced Edition

  • FUJITSU Software Enterprise Postgres 9.5 Standard Edition

    The following edition of FUJITSU Software Enterprise Postgres 9.6

  • FUJITSU Software Enterprise Postgres 9.6 Standard Edition

    The following edition of FUJITSU Software Enterprise Postgres 10

  • FUJITSU Software Enterprise Postgres 10 Advanced Edition

  • FUJITSU Software Enterprise Postgres 10 Standard Edition

  • FUJITSU Software Enterprise Postgres 10 Community Edition

    The following editions of FUJITSU Software Enterprise Postgres 11

  • FUJITSU Software Enterprise Postgres 11 Advanced Edition

  • FUJITSU Software Enterprise Postgres 11 Standard Edition

  • FUJITSU Software Enterprise Postgres 11 Community Edition
SPS Sybase ASE Recovery Kit Sybase ASE 15.7 and 16.0
SPS Samba Recovery Kit Standard Samba file services provided with the supported Linux distributions
SPS NFS Server Recovery Kit Linux kernel version 2.6 or later

The NFS Server and client packages must be installed on SLES systems.

NFSv2 is not supported on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 or later, CentOS 7 or later, Oracle Linux 7 or later.

NFS over UDP is not supported on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 and later.

Some environments may require additional configurations. Refer to NFS Specific Configuration Considerations.
SPS Network Attached Storage Recovery Kit NFS version of Mounted NFS file systems from an NFS server or Network Attached Storage (NAS) device v2, v3 and v4
SPS Logical Volume Manager (LVM) Recovery Kit Linux Logical Volume Manager (LVM) Version 1 or 2 volume groups and logical volumes
SPS Software RAID (md) Recovery Kit Software RAID devices based on md

Note: The MD Recovery Kit cannot be used in conjunction with SIOS DataKeeper.
EMC PowerPath PowerPath for Linux v5.3 or later

The sg3_utils package must be installed.
Device Mapper Multipath (DMMP) The device-mapper-multipath package attached to the operating system.

The sg3_utils package must be installed.
Hitachi Dynamic Link Manager Software (HDLM) Please see Hitachi Dynamic Link Manager Software Multipath I/O Configurations and Linux Distribution Requirements.

The sg3_utils package must be installed.
NEC iStorage Storage Path Savior (NECSPS) iStorage StoragePathSavior for Linux v3.3 or later

For the supported Linux kernel and distribution, please refer to the support information of StoragePathSystem for Linux.

The sg3_utils package must be installed on Red Hat and SLES.

LifeKeeper v6 or later Core Package Cluster
WebSphere MQ Resources IBM MQ v8.0, v9.0 and v9.1.

See Known Issues and Restrictions > Installation.
Quorum/Witness Package All nodes which will participate in a quorum/witness mode cluster, including witness-only nodes, should be installed with the Quorum/Witness Server Support Package for SPS.

Open Source Packages

The following open source packages are included in the LifeKeeper installation image.

Name Version License Type and Version
curl-7.21.7-3.2 7.21.7 MIT
libcurl-7.212.7-3.2 7.21.7 MIT
gnutls-2.8.6-3.1 2.8.6 GPLv3+ and GPLv2+
gnutls-utils-2.8.6-3.1 2.8.6 GPLv3+
libgcrypt-1.5.0-2.1 1.5.0 LGPv2+
libgpg-error-1.10-2.1 1.1 LGPv2+
libvirt-0.9.3 0.9.3 LGPLv2+
libxml2-2.7.8-7.1 2.7.8 MIT
libxml2-static-2.7.8-7.1 2.7.8 MIT
lighttpd-1.4.41-1 1.4.41 BSD
lighttpd-fastcgi-1.4.41-1 1.4.41 BSD
openjdk-12.0.2 12.0.2 GPLv2+
java-1_8_0-openjdk-1.8.0.222-351.4 1.8.0 GPLv2+
java-1_8_0-openjdk-headless-1.8.0.222-351.4 1.8.0 GPLv2+
openssl-1.0.2p-1.1 1.0.2p BSDish
openssl-perl-1.0.2p-1.1 1.0.2p BSDish
pcre-4.5-2.1 4.5 distributable
pdksh-5.2.14 5.2.14 GPL, distributable
perl-5.8.8-8.2 5.8.8 Arrtistic or GPL
perl-addons-5.8.8-24.1 5.8.8 Various(GPL, artistic v2, BSD, Open Market, GPLv2+, MIT)
powercli-11.5.0-1 11.5.0 Various
powershell-6.2.3-1 6.2.3 MIT
readline-4.3-14.1 4.3 GPL
runit-2.0.0-4.11 2.0.0 BSD
util-linux-2.31.1-2 2.31.1 GPLv2 and GPLv2+ and LGPLv2+ and BSD with advertising and Public Domain
xenserver-5.6.100 5.6.100 LGPL
Perl Config::IniFiles (CPAN module) 2.27 GPL/Artistic (Same as Perl)
HADR-CentOS-2.6.32 2.6.32 GPLv2
HADR-CentOS-3.10.0 3.10.0 GPLv2
HADR-CentOS-4.18.0 4.18.0 GPLv2
HADR-RHAS-2.6.32 2.6.32 GPLv2
HADR-RHAS-3.10.0 3.10.0 GPLv2
HADR-RHAS-4.18.0 4.18.0 GPLv2
HADR-OEL-2.6.32 2.6.32 GPLv2
HADR-OEL-3.10.0 3.10.0 GPLv2
HADR-OEL-4.18.0 4.18.0 GPLv2

Client Platforms and Browsers

The SPS web client can run on any platform that provides support for Java Runtime Environment JRE8 update 51. The currently supported browsers are Firefox (Firefox 51 or earlier) and Internet Explorer running on Linux, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016, Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 10 with JRE8 update 51. Other recent platforms and browsers will likely work with the SPS web client, but they have not been tested by SIOS Technology Corp. In addition, particular features of each browser have not been tested.

You should specify all the hostnames and addresses in your cluster in the client machine’s local hosts file (usually /etc/hosts or C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts). This minimizes the client connection time and allows the client to connect even in the event of a Domain Name Server (DNS) failure.

Installation and Configuration

See the SIOS Protection Suite Installation Guide for complete installation and configuration information.

Upgrades

LifeKeeper can be upgraded to Version 9.5.x from either LifeKeeper Version 9.3.x or Version 9.4.x. If upgrading from a version other than 9.3.x or 9.4.x, the older version will need to be uninstalled and SIOS Protection Suite for Linux will have to be reinstalled. An alternative to uninstalling the older version would be to upgrade from the older version to 9.3.x or 9.4.x, then perform the upgrade to 9.5.x.

Storage and Adapter Options

For a list of the disk array storage models and adapters currently supported by SPS in shared storage configurations as well as their type of certification, see the Storage and Adapter Options topic. Details about driver versions and other configuration requirements for these arrays and adapters are listed in the Storage and Adapter Configuration topic.

Technical Notes

We strongly recommend that you read the Technical Notes section concerning configuration and operational issues related to your SPS environment.

Known Issues

See Known Issues and Restrictions in the Troubleshooting section of SIOS Protection Suite for Linux Technical Documentation and the DataKeeper Troubleshooting section.

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