StarWind vSAN for vSphere

OVF Version 20230602
Version V8 (build 15159)

02 June 2023

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VM

• Linux Kernel has been updated.
• Additional services have been updated.

Synchronous Replication

• Fixed deadlock when a partner device is removed during full or fast synchronization.
• Fixed crash when updating StarWind service with mutual CHAP configured on StarWind HA devices.
• Fixed failure when extending StarWind HA device with disk-based synchronization journal.
• Fixed deadlock when a partner device is added.
• Fixed false fast synchronization when the first partner is added with a node majority failover policy.

OVF Version 20230320
Version V8 (build 15020)

20 March 2023

VM

• Linux Kernel has been updated.
• Additional services have been updated.

Synchronous Replication

• Fixed spurious replication failure.

OVF Version 20230208
Version V8 (build 14947)

08 February 2023

VM

• Linux Kernel has been updated.
• Additional services have been updated.

Synchronous Replication

• Fixed the slow full synchronization issue.

OVF Version 20230117
Version V8 (build 14869)

28 December 2022

VM

• Linux Kernel has been updated.
• Additional services have been updated.
• Fixed an issue where rescan script couldn't start.

Core

• Excluded asynchronous replicas, LSFS and LWC from the project.
• Encrypted secret passwords for chap authentications.
• Fixed the crash during the creation of the replica.
• Fixed the crash for time-outed I/O requests.
• Fixed the spurious lost connection.
• Updated the TLS version to 1.2 (used for email notifications).
• Minor fixes and updates.

Synchronous Replication

• Added synchronization journal places on a disk with two working strategies:
  
  Best Performance: The strategy provides better I/O performance while all device nodes are in a healthy state. But it can't guarantee fast synchronization in all cases
  
  Fast Recovery: The strategy provides faster recovery in all cases but requires an I/O overhead for each write operation.
• Fixed the node majority logic during storage degradation.

OVF Version 20211124
Version V8 (build 14398)

25 November 2021

VM

• Linux Kernel updated.
• Collect logs script was updated. It generates a random archive name in case the archive name was not indicated.
• Log watcher script was updated to avoid multiple HBA rescan triggers from occurring. It stops on the last succ essful synchronization event.
• Additional services were updated.

Core

• Fixed the memory leak in the VSA-based version that could be caused by changing the time on the VM.

OVF Version 20211012
Version V8 (build 14338)

13 October 2021

StarWind Health Service was updated in this new build.

Core

• Fixed the crash for client write request handling.
• Fixed the deadlock for the processing of SCSI persistent reservation during client session registration.
• Fixed the issue with the service getting stuck when the log file would be located on the storage that had degrading performance.

StarWindX PowerShell Module

• Fixed memory leak on getting information for HA devices.

OVF Version 20210917
Version 8 (build 14314)

20 September 2021

Core

• Fixed the issue with hang-up on service stopping. On service stop, it could get stuck on the device closing in configurations with parameter "QueueWorkersCount" value more than 1.
• Fixed the issue with hang-up on service stopping. In some cases, the service could not close the client connection gracefully. Now, the service closes it forcibly.
• Fixed the issue with hang-up operations on the underlying storage. Some RAID could produce hang-up operations that would never complete. Now, the service completes such operations with timeout as a workaround. The timeout default value is 60 seconds.
• Fixed the crash for client session closing.
• Fixed the issue when email notification could cause HA device timeouts and failure of the network connection between partners.
• Fixed the issue for STARTTLS authentication on SMTP — compatibility issues with some servers.
• Performance optimization for the vSAN for vSphere version.

Management Console

• Fixed control connection issues and improved logging and diagnostics abilities.
• Fixed the issue with service events flooding.
• Fixed minor issues in device creation wizards and dialogs.

StarWindX PowerShell Module

• Fixed the issue with size conversion during RAM device creation.

OVF Version 20210520
Version 8 (build 14120)

24 May 2021

Synchronous Replication

• Fixed the issue with HA node synchronization rejection after service restart. When the service was restarted on one node, the synchronization procedure was not starting in some cases.
• Fixed the crash in the case when underlying storage or network connection between partners experienced performance degradation.

VTL and Cloud Replication

• Fixed the crash that happened during tape export in the case when cloud replication was configured with the option "Create new empty tapes automatically when existing tape removed from VTL for replication." When the option was enabled, the program could crash after the creation of one of the new virtual tapes.

OVF Version 20210325
Version 8 (build 14033)

25 March 2021

Core

• Linux Kernel has been updated.
• Default credentials have been changed.
• Fixed the issue with StarWind logs. Previously, StarWind logs could not be downloaded from StarWind Management Console.
• Performance optimization for the VSA-based version has been applied.
• Fixed the issue with processing the close session operation in the state when system resources are extremely low.
• Fix for the processing of the control connection close operation. In some cases, this error could lead to massive notification generation and make the management console unresponsive.
• Changed the session close procedure on service stopping. In case a session cannot be closed gracefully, the service closes it forcibly.
• The service could hang up waiting for session closing in previous versions.
• Fixed the issue with StarWind Management Console hang-up when a free license is applied on the server without Internet access.

Synchronous Replication

• Fix for Node Majority failover strategy implementation. The failover routine was working incorrectly if the network connection between partner nodes was broken only in one direction.
• Fix for the auto-restore procedure in three-way synchronous replication. Previous versions could be restored using the state information from two nodes out of three. This is incorrect for the auto-restore procedure, as state information from the third node may affect the result of the restore procedure, too.
• Fixed the issue with losing the partner connection during the extend size operation. On some types of storage, this operation could take a long time. The waiting procedure has been changed to not cause partner disconnection.
• Fixed the error which led to full synchronization instead of fast synchronization in some cases.
• Fixed the error with processing IO requests that would get stuck on underlying storage on one node in a device with three-way synchronous replication. This error led to a state when all three nodes worked incorrectly when the underlying storage on one of the nodes would not respond in time.

Licensing

• The License Agreement has been updated.

OVF Version 20201027
Version 8 (build 13861)

10 November 2020

Core

• Linux Kernel updated.
• Updated default value for the iScsiPingCmdSendCmdTimeoutInSec setting to 5 seconds.
• Fixed logging for email notifications, namely prevented internal log messages from mixing with quotes from the mail server.
• Improved the service stop operation. In some cases, clients could keep the connection open even after the logical iSCSI connection shutdown, which used to prevent the service's normal stopping. Now Server closes the connection forcefully.
• Fixed and updated the SCSI protocol's implementation, fixed reporting the size of the MODE_SENSE length field in the response. The MODE_SENSE10 command is reported as unsupported by flat devices. Flat devices report the Resource Provisioned type instead of Thin Provisioned type on the Logical Block Provisioning VPD page. Resource Provisioned type suits better, as flat devices allocate all blocks at the start of the operation. UNMAP/TRIM commands are processed correctly as before and release blocks of underlying storage devices.

Synchronous Replication

• Added the option to use the SMB share as a witness resource for devices with synchronous replication and node majority failover strategy.
• Fixed the processing of persistent reservations for devices with synchronous replication. When the reservation state is being updated on one node, another node could report old reservation values to the client.
• Fixed the partner state updating for the cases of restoration after the split-brain issue.

Management Console

• Fixed the system crash that occurs due to the StarWind Event log containing records with incorrect string format.
• Updated the email notification settings dialog. Added validation for the list of email addresses in the "Send to" field. Login/Password fields are hidden if Authentication is set to none.

StarWindX PowerShell module

• Added functionality for creating HA devices with Node Majority configuration. StarWind node or SMB Share can serve as a witness resource. Please, see sample scripts CreateHAPartnerWitness.ps1 and CreateHASmbWitness.ps1.
• Fixed processing of the ALUA parameter for HA device creation commandlets.

OVF Version 20200515
Version 8 (build 13586)

18 May 2020

Synchronous Replication

• Linux Kernel updated.
• StarWind event log rotation updated. The log file size is now limited to 50MB and will be rotated in case the file size is more than 50MB. Logrotate works on an hourly basis.
• Fixed the processing of the EXTENDED COPY(LID4) command. It was returning an error to the client on the previous build, thus making the client use non-VAAI commands.

Notifications

• Text file notification changed to open and close text file on each message instead of keeping the file open constantly.

E-mail Notifications

• Introduced a minor fix for secured authentication on SMTP — compatibility issues with some servers.

OVF version 20200420
Version 8 (build 13569)

20 April 2020

Synchronous Replication

• Full synchronization with CRC check, which was added in the previous release, is now used only for cases when underlying storage is MS Storage Spaces. Synchronization type (Full or Full hash) is shown in the Management Console. For generic storage types, the old algorithm with data copy without additional CRC check is used due to better performance.
• Memory alignment fixed for data CRC request. Compatibility fix for VSA build.
• Fixed the bug for the Node Majority configuration with two nodes and a Witness node. Data corruption may occur in the case when failure is caused only by the loss of the sync channel, and the failing node has the ability to process client requests at the moment when the loss of the sync channel is detected.

Installer

• The number of files for log rotate is updated to the new value of 20 during the update of existing installations.

Flat Storage

• Improved the processing of responses to UNMAP/TRIM commands from the underlying storage system for ReFS: functionality to suppress log error on failed Trim call for the error 312 (ERROR_NO_RANGES_PROCESSED) added.

E-mail Notifications

• Fixed bug: sending e-mail notifications using the SMTP server without authentication was broken in the previous build.

OVF version 20191007
Version 8 (build 13170)

08 October 2019

Core

• Linux Kernel updated.
• Fixed StarWind Events issue in Management Console, namely the invisibility of events after changing time in the OS.
• Added support for iSCSI Header Digest and iSCSI Data Digest. These features provide CRC data control in iSCSI headers and PDUs, respectively, and can be enabled by setting corresponding options in iSCSI Initiator on the client.
• Optimized performance when more than three sessions connect to the target.
• Added log message for an error on session reinstantiation due to the stuck old session.
• Fixed issue in cache deinitialization. In some cases, devices with disk cache could prevent normal service termination.

Synchronous Replication

• Added option to change ALUA settings of an existing device.
• Optimized processing of failover to minimize response time when a partner server has gone offline without proper shutdown. Please, see KB for more information.
• Fixed processing of sync channel loss. The failover procedure involved the request of some extended status fields from the partner nodes, which could take long and exceed command processing timeout. This state could occur in some cases when running Windows Server 2019 and could lead to data loss.
• Changed failover procedure to process sync channel loss without extended interaction with partners.

Management Console

• Optimized UI performance.

Logs

• CollectLogs script moved to the StarWind Service directory.

Update Option

• Added an ability to update from the previous builds. The update procedure is described here.

OVF version 20190226
Version 8 (build 12859)

27 February 2019

Core

• Linux Kernel updated.
• Automatic rescan script updated.
• Fixed a network layer implementation with eliminating possible data transfer issues under a heavy workload.
• Improved performance compared with previous builds.
• Added an ability to update from the previous builds. The update procedure is described here.
• Updating is strongly recommended for systems that are running on previous builds of StarWind vSAN for vSphere!

OVF version 20181210
Version 8 (build 12658)

13 December 2018

Core

• Linux Kernel update.
• Fixed StarWindVSA.service startup output.
• Fixed checking available underlying storage capacity during an HA device creation/extension.

Synchronous Replication

• Fixed the issue with incorrect processing of storage hardware failures (introduced in build 12393). Before, in build 12393, disk storage failures on an HA node were sometimes left unprocessed. After the hardware issue was resolved and the HA node restarted, no correct full sync process was done, leading to the risk of data corruption. Updating is strongly recommended for systems running StarWind vSAN for vSphere V8 build 12393 and later!

StarWind Management Console

• Added ACL and CHAP functionalities.

OVF version 24092018
Version 8 (build 12533)

24 September 2018

Core

• Linux Kernel update.
• Added Linux Software RAID support.
• Fixed StarWind service crashes when the size of L1 cache exceeds 3GB.
• Fixed StarWind service crashes when the L2 cache is assigned.
• Updated the automated storage rescan script.
• StarWind Management console is not included in this build. Management is done through the dedicated console.
• Fixed issues with space allocation on the underlying storage during a device extension.
• Fixed issue with an empty header after resetting a VM.
• StarWind accepts connections only from ESXi iSCSI Software Adapter.
• Fixed StarWind Events format in Management Console.
• Removed the "Mark as synchronized" option when HA device is in Maintenance mode.