Netezza Performance Server 11.2.1.0 release notes

Deployment options: Netezza Performance Server for Cloud Pak for Data SystemNetezza Performance Server for Cloud Pak for Data

Version 11.2.1.0 introduces a number of new enhancements, improvements, and fixes.

New features, enhancements, and improvements

Netezza Performance Server for Cloud Pak for Data SystemNetezza Performance Server for Cloud Pak for Data

Changed the name of the nz_azconnector connector to nz_azConnector.
For Netezza Performance Server for Cloud Pak for Data System, see Migrating backups from file systems to Azure Blob Storage and from Azure Blob Storage to file systems and Examples of the nz_azConnector command.

For Netezza Performance Server for Cloud Pak for Data, see Migrating backups from file systems to Azure Blob Storage and from Azure Blob Storage to file systems and Examples of the nz_azConnector command.

Netezza Performance Server for Cloud Pak for Data System

Changed the default connection protocol to TLSv1.2 instead of SSLv3 in the onlySecured mode.
Updated documentation for custom SSL certificates.
For more information, see Creating and enabling an SSL certificate for a secure database connection.
Added a -U option to the nzdeploy command to both upgrade the container and preinstall the Netezza Performance Server software package.
For more information, see Upgrading the container.
Important:
1. Upgrading to 11.2.1.0 from a version lower than 11.0.5.0 is not supported. Systems with versions lower than 11.0.5.0 need to be upgraded to 11.0.7.0 first, and then to 11.2.1.0.
2. Before you can start Upgrading to 11.2.X.X, you must disable the logrotate.hourly cron jobs and all other cron jobs that can trigger a postgres session as detailed in Disabling and restoring.
3. Before you upgrade the software to 11.2.1.0:
  1. Ensure that the kernel.shmmax entry in /etc/sysctl.conf inside the container is updated as described in point 2 of the Known issues section.
  2. You must take a DDL of views that are in a database if the views have any non-English characters in their definitions. For example, Korean characters. After you upgrade, you must recreate the views. Follow the steps that are described in point 3 of the Known issues section.
4. After you upgrade software to 11.2.1.0, apply the IBM_NEXTGEN6363_binaries.tgz binaries as described in point 4 of the Known issues section.
5. Netezza Performance Server host container downgrade from 11.2.1.0 to prior versions is not needed. You need to downgrade only the Netezza Performance Server software. Netezza Performance Server 11.2.1.0 container is compatible with it.
6. If the upgrade process fails for any reason, apply the workaround that is described in point 5 of the Known issues section when running nzstart.
7. After you upgraded to 11.2.1.0, you must add the following settings to /nz/data/config/system.cfg before you can run nzstart.
```
system.fCommEnableOOPHandling = false
 system.rsSpuWriteFlushReserveMB=10400
 system.rsSpuWriteFlushKBPerSlice=486400
```

Netezza Performance Server for Cloud Pak for Data

Introduced a new installation procedure.
For more information, see Installing.
Added a technical preview of the image bundling procedure.
For more information, see Bundling images.
Enhanced the scaling procedure.
For more information, see Scaling.
Added options for pausing and resuming instances for AWS and Azure.
For more information, see Pausing and resuming.
Added APIs to set up time zones.

Known issues

Netezza Performance Server for Cloud Pak for Data System

Fixed-format data files that contain numeric fields might be loaded incorrectly into the database. For more information, see https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/6583457.
Before you upgrade the Netezza Performance Server software to version 11.2.1.0 as described in Upgrading the software, ensure that the kernel.shmmax entry is in /etc/sysctl.conf inside the container is updated as described in the following steps.
As the root user inside the container, run the command:
```
$ cat /etc/sysctl.conf | grep kernel.shmmax
```
- If you can see only one kernel.shmmax entry, no action is needed.
- If a duplicate entry of kernel.shmmax is in /etc/sysctl.conf inside container as in the example, do the following steps.
  Example of the /etc/sysctl.conf file:
```
$ cat /etc/sysctl.conf | grep kernel.shmmax

kernel.shmmax = 180000000
kernel.shmmax = 120000000
```
  1. Change the kernel.shmmax = 120000000 entry to kernel.shmmax = 180000000.
  2. Verify that both kernel.shmmax entries have the same value:
    $ cat /etc/sysctl.conf | grep kernel.shmmax
    Example:
    $ cat /etc/sysctl.conf | grep kernel.shmmax kernel.shmmax = 180000000 kernel.shmmax = 180000000
  3. Save the /etc/sysctl.conf file and run the command:
    $ sysctl -p
Before you upgrade to 11.2.1.0, you must take a DDL of views that are in a database if the views have any non-English characters in their definitions. For example, Korean characters. After you upgrade, you must recreate the views.
To recreate views for a specific database:

To take a DDL of views and to recreate the views for a specific database, follow the steps:
1. Before the upgrade, run the command:
```
/nz/support/bin/nz_ddl_view DBNAME -schemas all > views_DBNAME.out
```
  Where
  
  DBNAME
  
  Specifies the name of the database.
2. After the upgrade, run the command to recreate the views. Use the file that was taken before upgrade (views_DBNAME.out).
```
nzsql -db DBNAME -f views_DBNAME.out
```
  Where
  
  DBNAME
  
  Specifies the name of the database.
3. If you have multiple databases with views that have non-English characters, repeat step 6 a before upgrade and 6 b after upgrade for all databases.
Copy the tgz file from https://ibm.box.com/s/xjurbmsjoq6tiuv4x6zjusvd0cgghfpz to the system.
Follow the steps described in "Patch Apply Procedure.docx" in https://ibm.box.com/s/xjurbmsjoq6tiuv4x6zjusvd0cgghfpz box folder to apply the binaries from tgz file.
Software upgrade to 11.2.1.0 fails and the system is in the Stopped state.
If the software upgrade to 11.2.1.0 fails out or errors after you upgrade the container to 11.2.1.0 from 11.0.X.X, the system is in the Stopped state on the previous version.
The nzstart command might fail with the following error in sysmgr due to sysmgr stopping unexpectedly:
```
Error: NZ-01571: Spu AEK 'key-unlock' operation failed.
Error: ' Action not supported.'.
```
WORKAROUND:
To get the system back Online, follow the steps:
1. Make sure that Netezza Performance Server is on version 11.0.X.X:
```
nzrev
```
2. Make a copy of the hpfinfo file:
```
cp /nzlocal/scripts/hpfinfo /nzlocal/scripts/hpfinfo.original
```
3. Open the file:
```
vi /nzlocal/scripts/hpfinfo
```
4. Remove the following two entries that appear before the EOF statement. Do not remove EOF.
```
SYS_AEK_ENABLED="YES"
SYS_KEY_STORE_SHARED="YES"
```
5. Save the file.
6. Start the system:
```
nzstart
```
Now, you can resolve any issues that are related to the software upgrade and attempt upgrade again.

After you upgraded to 11.2.1.0, you must add the following settings to /nz/data/config/system.cfg before you can run nzstart.

system.fCommEnableOOPHandling = false
 system.rsSpuWriteFlushReserveMB=10400
 system.rsSpuWriteFlushKBPerSlice=486400

nzrestore fails if backup is taken with BUCKET_URL having slashes.
Whenever the nzrestore failure happens with following error:
```
[Restore Server] : Starting the restore process
[Restore Server] : Operation aborted 
Error: Connector exited with error: 'The specified key does not exist. with address : xx.xxx.xx.xxx'.
```
Check the backup command and verify whether BUCKET_URL is having slashes as shown in the following example:
```
BUCKET_URL=bakcupbucket/subdir/
UNIQUE_ID=2024-01-12
```
WORKAROUND:
Modify BUCKET_URL and UNIQUE_ID as shown:
```
BUCKET_URL=bakcupbucket 
UNIQUE_ID=subdir/2024-01-12
```
Note: UNIQUE_ID is a combination of string that is taken from BUCKET_URL after the first slash and actual UNIQUE_ID. Pass these two arguments to the nzrestore command.

Resolved issues

Netezza Performance Server for Cloud Pak for Data System

Upgrade stability

Added support for upgrade from 11.0.5.0 to 11.2.x.x.
Fixed issue in upgrade with password policy set, cached password, and database with udf present on the system.

Container stability and provisioning

Improved details connected to reporting events.
Fixed issue that is connected to event processing after event generation.

System Management

Improvised network outage handling for sysmgr.
Fixed the issue with disk reporting small size, which caused System Manager to crash.
Improved nzstart timings by avoiding unnecessary SPU restarts.
Domain-specific rebalance is allowed if rebalancing is necessary only in a single domain.
Fixed the issue with iSCSI timeouts impacting SPU restarts.

SQL Stability

Fixed issue with postgres crashing against queries that were run against columns with default values when upgraded to 11.2 from earlier releases.
Fixed performance issue with 64-bit host.
Fixed the problem that led to storing partial SHA256 checksum in the history database. Now, it stores the value of full checksum by using the MD5 internal representation.
Fixed issues to enable preserving the correct typecast information in view definition.
Fixed the issue that led to an incremental restore failure after a default value was dropped for a versioned table.
Fixed the postgres crash that happened while querying the current authorization on catalog views.

Netezza Performance Server for Cloud Pak for Data

Scaling

Fixed the intermittent network issue that occurred while you were connecting to the Netezza Performance Server rest server.

UI

The upgrade option is now part of the Details provisioning UI page.
Introduced an enhanced status reporting for scaling operations.
Fixed the login issue if there is "_" in username.