Cloud Attached Storage 3.1 EA

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Cloud Attached Storage 3.1 EA Release Notes 1

Release Notes

Cloud Attached Storage 3.1

EA

March 2012

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2 Cloud Attached Storage 3.1 EA Release Notes

Information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on part of CTERA Networks Ltd.

CTERA, C200, C400, C800, P1200, CloudPlug, NEXT3, Cloud Attached Storage, and Virtual Cloud Drive are trademarks, service marks, or registered trademarks of CTERA Networks Ltd.

All other product names mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

The products described in this document are protected by U.S. patents, foreign patents, or pending applications.

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About This Release

Cloud Attached Storage 3.1 is a minor product release, which includes the following highlights:

• Cloud Drive Synchronization

• Active Directory Forest Support

• UPS Integration

• CTERA Mobile App

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Release Contents

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Cloud Drive Synchronization

With the new Cloud Drive Sync technology, the CTERA Portal Cloud Drive can be synchronized in near real-time with either a specified folder on a CTERA appliance, or a computer installed with a CTERA Agent operating in Cloud Agent mode. Two-way file synchronization is

supported, meaning that updated files are sent in both directions.

Conflicts that may occur when a file has been modified on multiple sources are detected and automatically resolved.

CTERA Mobile App

The CTERA Mobile App for iPhone and Android allows you to:

 Securely download files from your CTERA Portal account or CTERA Cloud Attached Storage appliance and view them on your mobile devices

 View .doc, .xls, .pdf, .mp4, .zip, .rar, and other supported file types

 Access files securely via HTTPS

The app supports connecting to your CTERA Portal account (to view your backup files and cloud drive), or to CTERA Cloud Attached Storage appliances (either directly on the LAN, or via the remote access service). You can define multiple stored server profiles.

The app includes a built-in basic text editor, as well as audio recording and upload. You can select and upload multiple photos from your mobile device photo gallery, or upload photos directly from your camera.

The following languages are supported: English, Chinese, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish.

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The iOS version is compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad (HD), and requires iOS 4.0 or higher.

To download CTERA Mobile for iOS for free, visit http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ctera- mobile-for-ios.

CTERA Mobile for Android is coming soon. It requires version 1.6 or higher of the Android OS.

UPS Integration

CTERA C Series appliances now support USB-based UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) integration. Many UPS devices are supported, including models from vendors such as APC and TrippLite. The appliance automatically detects any attached UPS that uses the USB HID power device class.

Information about attached UPS devices is displayed in the appliance's administration interface. This information includes the device vendor and model, power status, estimated remaining protection time, and battery charge level.

When the UPS device reports that AC power is off and the battery level is critically low, the appliance is shut down automatically and safely.

Log messages are sent when UPS devices are attached or detached, and if the power status changes.

This feature requires CTERA C series appliances (C200, C400, and C800), and is not supported on the CloudPlug platform.

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Maintenance and Storage

Language Selection

CTERA Cloud Attached Storage appliances allow the administrator to select an administration interface language.

The following languages are supported: English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Polish, and Spanish.

RAID Data Scrubbing

CTERA Cloud Attached Storage appliances now support RAID data scrubbing. With data scrubbing, the appliance periodically reads all the disks in a RAID array and checks for defective blocks, before applications access the blocks. This reduces the likelihood of silent data corruption and data loss due to bit errors.

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By default, automatic scrubbing is performed on a weekly basis for all defined RAID arrays. It can also be run manually for specific arrays.

Scheduled Reboot After Firmware Update

Appliance administrators can now configure when the appliance should restart after a firmware update has been installed.

If you select As soon as possible, the appliance will restart itself as soon as it is recommended to do so. (For example, the automatic reboot might be deferred, if the appliance is

undergoing system maintenance that should not be interrupted.)

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If you select During these hours, you can specify a time range and list of days when the automatic reboot should occur.

Enhanced “My Computers” Tab

The My Computers tab has been enhanced to allow downloading either the Linux or the Windows version of the CTERA Agent.

CTERA Agent Changes

CTERA Agent Pop-Up Notifications

CTERA Agent for Windows now displays pop-up notifications upon the following events:

 No files were selected for backup

 Backup started /ended / failed

 No backup has been successfully completed for more than three days

 Backup is suspended

 Restore started / ended / failed

The notifications can be disabled via the CTERA Agent Editor’s new Explorer Integration tab.

Pre-Backup and Post-Backup Scripts in CTERA Agent

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CTERA Agent now supports executing user-configurable pre-backup and post-backup shell scripts.

The scripts in Windows are called pre-backup.cmd and post-backup.cmd.

The scripts in Linux platform are called pre-backup and post-backup.

The scripts are required to return an exit code of “0” to signify success. Any other exit code indicates a failure.

A timeout of 20 minutes is defined. If the pre-backup or post-backup script does not complete within this time, the script is terminated, and this is considered a failure.

The script output is sent to the file pre-backup.log or post-backup.log.

Automatic Software Updates for CTERA Agents in Appliance Mode

Automatic software updates are now performed when the CTERA Agent is connected to a CTERA appliance. This feature requires the appliance to be connected to CTERA Portal (release 3.1 or later).

To enable automatic software updates, open the Global Agent Settings dialog box’s Software Updates tab in the appliance’s administration interface, then select the Automatically download and install agent updates check box.

Whenever new agent versions are available on the CTERA Portal, they will be downloaded to the appliance, and the appliance will then distribute the downloaded updates to agents as needed.

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CTERA Server Agent for Linux

The CTERA Server Agent is now supported on the Linux operating system.

The following Linux distributions are supported:

 CentOS 5.x and 6.0

 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5 and 6.0

 SUSE 11 Linux Enterprise 64 bit

 SUSE 11 Linux Desktop 32 bit

 Debian 6 32 bit and 64 bit

 Fedora 15 or higher, 32 bit and 64 bit

 Mandriva 32 bit and 64 bit

 Mandriva 2011 x86.1

 Mandriva 2011 x86_64.1

 Ubuntu server 11.4 32 bit and 64 bit

 Ubuntu desktop 11.4 32 bit

 Ubuntu 10.4 32 bit and 64 bit

The Linux agent is controlled via the following tool (requires root credentials):

/sbin/cteractl <COMMAND> [ARGS...]

COMMANDS:

signin <address> <username> - Sign in to server signout - Sign out

start - Start backup now cancel - Cancel running backup suspend - Suspend backups unsuspend - Unsuspend backups status - Show agent status

Active Directory

Device Administration by Active Directory Users

The CTERA appliance administration interface now supports administration by Active Directory users.

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By default, all AD groups and users have no administrative permissions. To grant

administrative permissions to Active Directory users/groups, after joining an Active Directory Domain, click Configure Permissions under the Share > Windows File Sharing page.

Improved Performance with Active Directory

The Active Directory implementation has been optimized for faster Kerberos authentication, especially in high-latency environments with multiple domain controllers.

FTP and WebDAV Server Supports Active Directory Users

The CTERA FTP server and CTERA WebDAV server now support Active Directory users.

File Sharing

Automatic Creation of Shares

To simplify the appliance setup, the following shares will be created automatically, without any need for administrator action:

Share Name Purpose

public Public share with read/write permission for all

users.

backup Default destination for Agent and Clientless

Backups.

users Automatically created when the home directories

feature is enabled. Used as the default location for storing user home directories.

projects Automatically created when the collaboration

feature is enabled. Used as the default location for storing projects.

WebDAV URL Changed

The WebDAV access URL of the device was changed for consistency with the CTERA Portal WebDAV. The new URL is:

http://<device-address>/webdav

Reapply Permissions Tool

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A new Reapply Permissions tool allows reapplying access permissions to home directories.

This resets the home directory permissions and marks all files as owned by the home directory owner.

Cloud Backup

Changes in Cloud Backup Default Folder Selection

Following initialization of the cloud backup service, all the shares on the device are selected for cloud backup by default. In previous versions, no shares were selected for cloud backup by default.

Enhanced File Upload Dialog Box in File Manager

The File Upload dialog box has been enhanced and now supports:

 Uploading files greater than 2GB in size

 Dragging and dropping files from your PC to the File Upload dialog box (in Google Chrome and Firefox)