Important note

Installation

• Support of OpenSuSE 10.3 as Sesam Server.
• Tru64 and FreeBSD 4 are no longer supported as Sesam Server platforms
• IBM Java Runtime can be used instead of SUN JRE
• With the Release of Sesam Kit 3.4.x.x-windows_x64 (64-Bit binaries) some extra requirements arise:

1. Requires x64 architecture-based computer with Intel processor that supports Intel 64 architecture (formerly known as Intel EM64T) or AMD processor that supports the AMD64 platform
2. Upgrade on Windows x64 with an existing Sesam x86 (32-Bit) installation is not possible. Please de-install the 32-Bit Sesam installation before installing the 64bit release.
3. Installation of Sesam Server on Windows x64 requires Java 1.6 x64 (Java x86 (32-Bit) will not be recognized!)
4. Backing up native MS SQL Server 2005 on x64 requires x64 Sesam Client.
5. Backing up MS Exchange Server 2007 requires installation of the Exchange Server Management Tools (32-Bit) on a computer that has a 32-Bit processor.

Upgrade

• Before starting an upgrade of SEP sesam Server make sure that SESAM_BACKUP has been executed successfully.
• The communication between SEP sesam Server and GUI has been changed, therefore the SEP sesam GUI client must be updated after the server upgrade, as well.
• Also SEP sesam GUI from 3.4 will no longer connect to a 3.0 server.
• Verify that you have a valid upgrade license or current Upgrade Support Services from SEP.

GUI

• New communication protocol between SEP sesam RMI GUI Server and GUI Client ( see https://cajo.dev.java.net/ ).
• Only one TCP port is used for communication, so ssh tunnel and firewall setup is now much easier.
• One GUI Client can connect to several Sesam Servers using different databases.
• Last backup status of a task and of all tasks of one client are displayed under GUI->Tasks->by Clients.
• Actual amount saved by running backup/restore tasks is displayed in job status screen.
• Aborted backups can be restored, without making changes in Sesam Database.
• Throughput of drives on a Remote Device Server is displayed.
• All GUI actions are logged on Sesam Server into sm_gui_server.lgc.
• Backup of a task from Sesam client locked for backups doesn't result in an error.
• Memorize user specific window positioning and size. See English: Reuse of Window Positions or deutsch: Anpassen der SEP sesam GUI.

Sesam Server

Saveset migration

• Protocol of every migration saveset copy will be found under Status -> Migration

Storage pools

Sesam disk media pool (DISK_HARD) can now use more than one partition. To enable this function Storage Pools have been introduced. A media pool can be spread over multiple Storage Pools.

• Saveset and media sizes are correct for data amount > 2TB

Backup client for UNIX

• Exclude directories by .nosbc file on client side became the default. You can switch off this feature by entering -o noexcl switch under Task-> Options 1-> Save Options

Backup client for Windows

Release Notes for version 3.4.1.67

• During upgrade the SEP Sesam Server service owner account is no longer changed. Fixes problem regarding insufficient user rights that caused MS-Exchange backups to fail after the upgrade.
• Support of 64 bit Windows.
• Fixed problem that sometimes files could be skipped during restore.
• Sesam doesn't use Archive bit any more for incremental and differential backups. This can be switched, if necessary.

See also the English FAQ or the German FAQ. The use of archive bit may be reset with

• Exclude directories by nosbc file on client side became the default. You can switch off this behaviour with -o noexcl switch under Task-> Options 1-> Save Options.
• With the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) opened files can be consistently backed up under Windows. Windows creates a temporary, non-persistent snapshot (shadow) of the volumes which is then backed up. This behaviour is switched on with -o vss switch under Task-> Options 1 -> Save Options.

See English description 'Backup via VSS' or deutsche Beschreibung 'Sicherung via VSS'.

• Unicode encoded file names are now fully supported with the backup type Path Backup. The backup type win32-unicode is still supported in Version 3.4 for backward compatibility.
• SEP sesam BSR (SBMR) 2.0 for Windows 32 and 64 Bit system volume backup is supported.
• Active Directory Backup on Windows 2008 is now done via VSS with system_state backup type, NTDS API is not longer supported by Microsoft Windows

Backup client for OES Linux and OES Netware

• Novell OES2 provides a TSA for eDirectory backup. So SEP sesam can use this TSA as for NetWare now. The workaround using the ndsbackup utility is no longer necessary.

Sesam extensions

Zarafa Groupware Server

Sesam can make online backups from Zarafa Groupware Server. In case of restore, single mails or complete user mailboxes can be recovered.

VMWare ESX Server

Sesam can save guest computers from VMWare ESX Server.

VMWare Consolidated Backup

Sesam can save guest computers from VI3 over VMWare Consolidated Backup

Known issues

Downgrade of SEP sesam version is not possible

FIX: Is not available, downgrade is not supported!

WORKAROUND: Do a full Sesam backup (bin, skel and var directories) before the upgrade. Restore this backup.

Cancel of restore and migration tasks doesn't work correctly

WORKAROUND: Stop Sesam, e.g. with 'sm_shutdown'

Remote Device Licenses aren't counted correctly

FIXED in 3.4.1.26.

ACLs from encrypted savesets are not restored correctly on LINUX

FIXED in 3.4.1.26

Task status screen freezes if total data amount saved at one Sesam day is larger then 2TB

FIX: Update sm_rmigui.jar from http://download.sep.de/servicepacks/3.4/gui

FIXED in 3.4.1.28.

New installation LINUX on X86_64 will fail because group sesam is created to late

WORKAROUND: Create group sesam by groupadd -r sesam before starting RPM installation.

FIXED in 3.4.1.28.

GUI update function in GUI itself doesn't work

WORKAROUND: Copy sm_rmigui.jar on OS level from server to GUI client.

Missing dependency for mt-st package in RedHat RPMS but mt command is needed by Sesam Server and RDS

FIX: Install mt-st package manually.

FIXED in 3.4.1.29.

In the Drives->New drive dialog the FQDN hostname can be selected for Device Server even if this name is not used as client name

WORKAROUND: Select the correct Sesam server name.

In the Archive Adjustment dialog you couldn't select a valid drive, because Sesam offers the internal loader drive number instead of Sesam drive number

WORKAROUND: Leave the drive selection empty. Sesam will then select correct drive itself.

'Standard' Edition > Problem in Queue_Manager with restriction to 5 global streams

APPEARED: in 3.4.1.26

FIX: sm_config_drives patch revision 1.142 or higher

FIXED in 3.4.1.30.

Full restore of ESX-Server doesn't work correctly

WORKAROUND: Select toplevel directory in restore wizzard instead

History

You will find complete CVS change reports here

v3.4.1.88

BUGFIX: MS SQL Server MOVE option: If argument contained a " then part of argument was skipped, e.g. '-a move=testdb:"C:\Inetpub\restore84.mdf"' was shortened to '-a move=C:\Inetpub\restore84.mdf'

BUGFIX: MS SQL Server restore with more then one database file remained in state 'restoring...'

CHANGE: Transfer of big SEL files to RD[S] is now more efficient.

CHANGE: NTBACKUP written media will be accepted

BUGFIX: SBC_WIN32_VERSION=3.2A19: If option '-o vss' was given with non file system backup, e.g. system_state then very large logfiles could be processed and function failed. Now backup is broken due to wrong option.

CHANGE: If source 'ALL' is given and 'nosbc' files is placed under a volume, e.g. 'H:/nosbc' then this volume is skipped from backing up. If volume is explicitely given as target, e.g. 'H:' then 'nosbc' file is ignored --- similar to processing of directories with 'nosbc' file.

v3.4.1.83

BUGFIX: BSR backup with RDS (Remote Device Server) support

BUGFIX: XBSA firewall portrange fixed (since version 3.4.1.41)

BUGFIX: Support for Sesam Windows Server 2000 (again) (Problem was sm_qm_main GetProcessId() ...)

BUGFIX: EFS encrypted files are backed up as normal files since version 3.4.1.61.

BUGFIX: SBCLN Version 3.4.2.4 with correct Transaction Log Processing (was corrupt since version 3.4.2.1).

CHANGE: SBCLN: In case of WINDOWS uppercase of Volume names in paths to allow correct browsing in restore wizard.

CHANGE: sm_recover with extra CLI arguments

CHANGE: SMS Using Global namespace to allow sm_recover access

Licence: Encryption disallowed if ENCRYPT_DISALLOWED 0001 in sm_lic.ini

v3.4.1.73

BUGFIX: Backups on Windows Server 2008 (x64) could fail with message "sm_sms_backup undefined broken"

BUGFIX: GUI User Administration (add or remove) works again.

NEW: Now media with forced tape trailer are accepted for backup. A forced tape trailer appears if a backup stream to the media was aborted by shutdown of the server.

BUGFIX: Installation on Windows Server 2008 (x86) could fail (sm_main).

BUGFIX: Windows: Since version 3.4.1.68 backup throughput could be reduced - resolved with new sbc.exe version 3.2A17.

BUGFIX: If a Windows client was added in GUI then the following error message appeared in Sesam daily protocol: E006-DATABAS[ 768]: CONFIG_CLIENT: empty recordlist, cannot catch requested data.

v3.4.1.68

NEW: sbc.exe 3.2A15 with

1. Backup Windows 2000: BUGFIX: sbc.exe could not run on Windows Server 2000 - GetVolumePathNamesForVolumeName() not available on w2k
2. Exchange Backup without warnings: "sbc-2036: Warning: Retrieving of standard attributes for item [C:\Exchange]: (2) [No such file or directory. ] failed." and "sbc-2046: Warning: Cannot get item security data for [sbcex2k:sbsserver]"

v3.4.1.67

NEW: system_state backup without warnings for Active Directory (NTDS) backup on Windows 2003 and Windows 2008

NEW: system_state backup using VSS for Active Directory (NTDS) backup on Windows 2008

NEW: Support for backup with MS Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service.

NEW: GUI backup source browser allows to select 'BSR' if 'BSR' Client software is installed at client side.

NEW: SEPsesam BSR Backup and Desaster Restore for system volume.

NEW: Backup option '-o follow' allows to backup Reparse Points as directories.

NEW: Backup and Restore for backup type VCB_File (vmware)

NEW: Junction dirs and mount points are not longer stored as directories but as reparse points.

BUGFIX: GUI allows to edit restore specific PREPOST files.

BUGFIX: Enhanced maximal path length to 34000, so long path name are handled correctly in GUI restore tree.

CHANGE: (sm_break) Interrupted backups have state '3' now. Backups cancelled before transfering data have state 'c'.

BUGFIX: (sm_config_drives) Don't set number of parallel streams to 5, if standard license is used, but requested streams are less then 5

BUGFIX: Set exit code from 'sm_db export' to >0 if an error occurs. Important during Sesam update to stop it, if export has failed

CHANGE: Preset all non mandatory arguments for 'sm_inventory' and skip all empty arguments during call of 'sm_robot'

BUGFIX: Use function 'int_INSERT_INTO_RESULTS' also for saveset migration, because else 'results.datum' is not set

BUGFIX: (#7609) If original does not exist any more then avoid using unsuccessfully migrated savesets in case of restore.

BUGFIX: Correct check of prio for media_events. Order of 'cal_sheets.object' changed to 'pool drivegrp grpflag drivenum'

BUGFIX: Avoid using same LIS/SGM file name for different backups. Could happen, because of a race condition between select MAX(results.cnt) and INSERT into results. Now 'sm_sepul_event' and 'sm_sbc_com' using same function protected by a semaphore.

CHANGE: SQL Server restore displays SQL Error Messages in Log Level 0.

NEW: sbc.exe displays architecture (x86) or (x64) of program and host

BUGFIX: (sbc.exe) in some error cases during restore output was set to 'Operation successful'

BUGFIX: MS SQLServer database remains in state 'Recovering ...' after restore.

BUGFIX: (sm_pur_status) Wrong entry datum="" in table results could lead to purge of all protocol files.

BUGFIX: During Update PRE, POST, ALARM, DISASTER and NOTIFY interface scripts where fetched from 'downgrade' directory.

NEW: (Windows) If sms.ini [SMS_Server] Compresslevel=1 is set for DISK_HARD media then compressed data is stored till size is reached. Old implementation did not care about compression ratio.

CHANGE: Start subprocess with EXTENDED_STARTUP_INFO for Windows 2008 to avoid 'sm_sms_backup undefined broken' problem.

NEW: LIS file for MS SQL Server with entry for SQL Server datenbase to display it in GUI Restore Wizard.

v3.4.1.50

BUGFIX: Truncate glbv after 512 characters to avoid core dump

BUGFIX: Cut of backup state message after 132 char, before insert it into cal_sheets

BUGFIX: Remove all non ascii characters from CTRLD message, because answer scd-1139: Error: CTRLD reply: Could not find executable..... includes non UTF8 conform bytes, which couldn't be inserted into PostgreSQL DB

BUGFIX: For saveset migration: Copy command could became to long. Now sm_client can handle longer command line.

BUGFIX: If option use empty tape is set in media preferences, check if there is even a tape in drive.

BUGFIX: Check for ALL_JOBS_DONE after all active jobs are set to canceled in database, to be sure that ALL_JOBS_DONE notification is send in all cases

BUGFIX: Selective restore of ESX server backups

BUGFIX: Fix core dump in sm_restore during Open-Xchange selective mail restore.

BUGFIX: Correct name of restore PRE/POST protocol file, so GUI can show it.

BUGFIX: Correct check of higher priority events for media appointments.

BUGFIX: Sesam watch process waits longer before a backup job has to transfer data, because VCB backups need long time for exporting VMDK files.

BUGFIX: Avoid killing non Sesam processes starting with 'sbc' during client shutdown. Attention: Shutdown during a client update will be done by old client !

BUGFIX: Save default ACLs for directories on Linux, which have no additional ACLs.

NEW: Call 'find' with option '-ignore_readdir_race', to avoid errors from 'sbc_find' if file is deleted between 'readdir' and 'stat' calls.

BUGFIX: Correct reconstruct of index files for CYRUS/IMAP public folders.

NEW: Remove OX backup dump files older than 7 days from client.

CHANGE: Faster restore of data from saveset on disk device spreading over more media. This affects migration too.

CHANGE: Don't cut tape device name after first '-' to allow names like '/dev/tape/by-id/LTO-drive' (Linux udev). In former Sesam versions the internal drive number was set by number after '-', but internal drive number is saved in hw_drives.loader_drive.

CHANGE: Adopt read tape trailer to use a tape initialized on Linux on Windows. Especially important for shared drives. Reason is a different number of automatically written file marks written when tape is closed.

v3.4.1.41

BUGFIX: Backups of clients in a task group behind a client, which is locked for backups are started correctly. In Sesam 3.4.1.39 they were silently ignored

BUGFIX: License order is corrected. Because of a missing license check Open-Xchange backup needed a Scalix license.

BUGFIX: Fix core dump during End-of-Media, if more then 10 parallel backups are running.

NEW: The default backup interface can be saved in GUI

v3.4.1.39

BUGFIX: FQDN name couldn't be entered for client name, because filtering invalid characters doesn't accept '.' any more.

NEW: Easy to use template file for sm_disaster interface.

CHANGE: Better log function in SMS. Former log function in Sesam SMS module could cause a slow down in backup speed, especially on Solaris.

CHANGE: Message invalid path specification from sbc for Windows will be interpreted as an error instead of warning.

BUGFIX: Fix core dump during exit of sm_data_server. On Windows sm_data_server sometimes cores during exit log log function.

BUGFIX: Sesam UNIX installation with tar-ball: Because of a change in sm_setup for support of whitespaces in temporary path on Windows, installation on UNIX/Linux failed. Installation by RPM wasn't affected.

BUGFIX: Backups a Windows client from an UNIX Server failed with message SBC logging without final state message, if single port connection was used.

BUGFIX: Avoid deadlock in sm_ctrlc. Sometimes remote access by sm_ctrlc didn't finish properly, causing failed backups.

BUGFIX: Adjust EOL of a medium after saveset copy affected EOL of source pool: The EOL of source medium was set to EOL of target pool. Now EOL of source medium isn't changed any more.

BUGFIX: Media pool could be deleted, even if it was still referenced from a task event: Now reference is checked before.

CHANGE: All database DELETE statements are checked for a valid WHERE clause, to avoid deletion of database records from GUI.

CHANGE: SPARE pools aren't offered as target for backups any more, because they shouldn't be used for regular backups.

BUGFIX: All Sesam clients can be selected as Remote Device Server in Loader Properties: Before only Sesam server could be selected

BUGFIX: Performance data was read to often from a RDS, causing error E001-WATCH Performance data with invalid format. Underlaying problem was ERROR: CTRLD reply: 2008-08-14 19:46:09: scm-1133: Error: Denying service. Maximum active connection reached.

v3.4.1.31

BUGFIX: In GUI->Tasks->Properties: Saving an existing task under a new name and deleting it at once could cause deletion of all tasks not referenced in Sesam database elsewhere.

BUGFIX: New entry in build_host in sm.ini could result in a syntax error during source of sm.ini from shell. This caused failure of some Sesam scripts like sm_os_startup and sm_notify

v3.4.1.30

NEW: OES-Linux can use tsafs to backup eDirectory

CHANGE: Incremental and differential backups of Windows clients using internal timestamp instead of archive bit

NEW: Backup source for Zarafa mail server can be selected by client browser

BUGFIX: A different port for CTRL access can be set in Clients->Properties->Access options again

BUGFIX: Avoid race condition during EOM, which could block all media change operations

BUGFIX: Check stpd listen port for empty or NULL value. Before an empty value wasn't recognized and backup failed because of missing stpd port specification

v3.4.1.29

BUGFIX: Automatic load of tape failed, if no tape was in drive.

BUGFIX: Add package mt-st (including the mt command) as dependency of SEPsesam RHEL RPMs.

BUGFIX: Change '*' and '/' in Zarafa mail subject lines, so GUI can show them correctly

BUGFIX: GUI update function in GUI itself doesn't work

NEW: File system browser creates correct exclude list for NetWare clients

v3.4.1.28

BUGFIX: Create OS group sesam before OS user sesam, because user should become member of group. Only relevant for Sesam server with PostgreSQL as Sesam DB.

CHANGE: write exlude list of SESAM_BACKUP as regular expression for UNIX servers. Avoids that sbc_find walking into work and tmp directory, which can causing errors during SESAM_BACKUP

BUGFIX: GUI Update function works correctly again

BUGFIX: Edit of Sesam interfaces doesn't include trace messages

BUGFIX: Task status screen hangs, if total data amount saved at one Sesam day is larger then 2TB

BUGFIX: Arguments of Command Events are transfered correctly to Sesam client

v3.4.1.27

BUGFIX: Sesam Server on some i386 Linux platforms (RHEL 4, SLES 8...) were linked with shared sqlite library. This causes problems, if no sqlite package was installed on the server too. Now library is linked statically.