Version 1.0.11.1 release notes (September 2018)

What's new

Web console

• IBM Integrated Analytics System now supports data movement using built-in Lift to cloud UI panels. The Lift™ to cloud user interface provides a way for you to quickly, securely, and reliably migrate tables and their data from IAS to a data center in the cloud, without downtime. Each migration task that you submit is automatically saved and can be used as a template to create new tasks. The Lift solution resides in a separate lift container in IAS. For more information see Moving to cloud.
• A new widget is available in the web console home page for monitoring the file system disaster recovery solution. It allows you to verify that the primary and secondary systems are communicating and ready for the next snapshot, and view the time of the recovery point, and the time of the next scheduled snapshot.

  

• On the web console home page, you can now switch between classic baseline and smarter baseline. Smarter baseline is generated based on Machine Learning Model trained by historical data from at least 4 weeks behind. When enough data is collected, you can click Train now to configure and start the first training. When the training is finished, your smarter baseline is visible for the following widgets:
  • Database throughput
  • Database contention
  • Database responsiveness

Platform management

• ap issues --service_requests command can now be used to display service requests opened by Platform Manager. In the output, it displays service requests, their statuses and alert IDs assigned to each.
• Platform Manager can now detect nodes that ran out of memory and power cycle them automatically.
• Platform Manager is now monitoring the number of Fibre Chanel connections to switches, and opens an alert with reason code 205 when this number if not optimal.
• Lift status is now monitored using REST.

Backup and restore

Platform level backups:

• The host_backup command now preserves all the permissions, owners and groups of all the files that are part of the platform level backup.
• Platform level backups now support backing up the configurations for the Lift container.
  Usage:

  host_backup --lift

File system based disaster recovery :

• The disaster recovery solution now supports failback to the old primary once it’s repaired. For more information on the procedure, see Failback to the old primary system.
• Added support for Tier2 storage in DR solution. You can now enable DR between two IAS systems that have Tier2 storage.

EMC NetWorker:

• Added new options to emc_client command to install, configure and view EMC NetWorker settings.
  Usage:

  emc_client install --server <server> --dvp <dvp> --lvp <lvp> --client-libraries <client_libraries> --nmda-libraries <nmda_libraries> 
  
  emc_client settings --backup
  
  emc_client settings --restore
  
  emc_client networker --start
  
  emc_client networker --stop
  
  emc_client networker --status
  
  emc_client networker --version
  

  For more information see emc_client command reference.
• Added a new option to setup_nmda_cfg command to save EMC NetWorker server information such as IP, fully qualified domain name, and host name, in /etc/hosts file.
  Usage:

  setup_nmda_cfg -set-hostnames <hostname>

  For more information see Configuring EMC NetWorker by using the setup_nmda_cfg command
• EMC NetWorker settings are now saved during IAS upgrade. There is no need to restore them after the upgrade.

Security

• Platform users can now change their password using the passwd command. For more information see Changing your user password
• A new tool ap_ldap_ppolicy.pl is introduced to create and modify password policy settings and apply to Internal LDAP users on Platform Authentication. For more information see Enabling password policy for platform users
• You can now make IAS system fully STIG compliant by using a tool called security_compliance_manager. For a configuration procedure, list of STIG compliance exceptions and security_compliance_manager command overview, see STIG compliance.

Reliability and serviceability

The system now keeps a record of significant alterations or modifications (such as upgrade, service). Any change history related to the appliance is collected by the aphistory utility. This data is now captured with every diagnostic data collection, whether that collection is done automatically after an error or alert is presented, or manually via the apdiag utility.

High availability

Apache Livy server monitoring is now enabled in HA when Spark is enabled.

Components

Resolved issues

• Fixed a defect with false positive states reported by HA when the system was stressed: When Db2 was running out of application HEAP, no new connections were possible to bludb. Since HA depends on connecting to Db2 for status, it was reporting that DB2® was down and in recovery phase.
• Fixed an issue where during a node failover, Db2 ACTIVATE DATABASE BLUDB command was hung.
• Fixed a docker mount count issue in systems with Tiered storage or external mount.
• Fixed a defect in emc_client settings --backup command, to only unlink the NMDA library instead of removing it entirely.
• Fixed an issue in the DR environment, where after a snapshot job failure Db2 was put into WRITE-SUSPEND mode and was not resumed.
• Fixed an issue with ap info showing Growth on Demand data with significant delay (~2 hours) after it’s updated or set with the apgodmgr command.
• Fixed an issue with Platform Manager unable to close alert 112 (FSP unrecoverable events detected) on one or more nodes if FSP event with the same identifier was generated by nodes.
• Fixed a bug in db_backup and db_restore commands to clean up the lock acquired once the backup or restore is complete.
• Fixed a bug in backup progress view on web console to report a more accurate percentage of completion.

For a cumulative readme of all resolved issues since IAS 1.0.2.0, see Cumulative readme for fixed issues.

Known issues

• After a web_console container recovery, you might get the Encountered error while verifying authentication token message while opening Lift To Cloud panel in the web console.

  Workaround:

  Run the following commands:

  ap apps disable lift 
  ap apps enable lift

• There are several known issues, which can cause the IAS web console to be unusable immediately after upgrade. Symptoms can include error messages pertaining to the internal derby database, or the inability for your browser to connect to the console.

  Workaround:

  1. Log in to any node of your system as apuser.
  2. Run the command ap apps disable WebConsole and confirm by entering y.
  3. Run ap apps enable WebConsole and confirm by entering y.

  After this, you should be able to log in to the IAS console.
• The table size reported in Lift UI is a compressed size. It’s possible for the throughput recorded in Lift UI to be actually lower than reported.
• In a Tier2 storage system after a successful disaster recovery setup, the commands for failover and failback might face errors because it’s not possible to fetch Tier2 storage information.

  Workaround:

  In a system with Tier2 storage, while doing the initial DR setup, make sure you restart the apafmdr service after the apdr config command ran successfully.

• Note that if there is a need to run the apinit --reinit option on the Db2wh container, all data will be erased from the following directories:
  • /opt/ibm/appliance/storage/head
  • /opt/ibm/appliance/storage/data
  • /opt/ibm/appliance/storage/local
  • /opt/ibm/appliance/storage/scratch

  This means that all NFS/SAN directories must be unmounted from inside of those directories, and all custom client files need to be backed up from there. Otherwise this data is erased as part of the process. A warning is displayed if apinit detects any mounts inside those directories.

• The root privilege is required to execute db_backup or db_restore command from inside a script. To properly run the script use the corresponding command:

  su - bluadmin -c "sudo -E db_backup -type <> -path <>"
  su - bluadmin -s "sudo -E db_restore -type <> -timestamp <> -path<>"

• When running apupgrade to start the upgrade on the appliance, Platform Manager might time out resulting in node0101 (or current head node) rebooting, or, in some cases, powering itself off.

  Workaround:

  Restart the database with apstop -p --service and apstart -p before upgrading to avoid this condition.