Novell File Reporter 2.6.1 Release Notes

August 2015

The information in these Release Notes applies to Novell File Reporter 2.6.1 and contains the following sections:

1.0 New in Version 2.6.1

1.1 Added Support for Clustered EMC Isilon Devices using SmartConnect Mode

Support for EMC Isilon NAS devices configured as a cluster with SmartConnect mode enabled is now included. Prior to this update, Isilon devices were only discoverable and available for processing when set up as standalone NAS devices without SmartConnect mode enabled.

2.0 Updates in Version 2.6.1

The following updates are included in Novell File Reporter 2.6.1:

2.1 Fixed Issue with Scan Policy Deletion and Associated Scan Data

Version 2.6 eliminated the dependent association of scan policies with related scan data. This was introduced to so that scan policies could be deleted without affecting the associated scan data. Version 2.6.1 corrects a deficiency that caused associated scan data to be deleted.

2.2 Fixed Issues with Comparison Report on SQL Server

Running the built-in Comparison report against Microsoft SQL Server would produce incorrect results. Additionally, performance enhancements were made for this report when the scan data set is rather large.

2.3 Improved Error Reporting

Minor improvements for proper error reporting were made for the Custom Query web editor and the Report Branding dialog.

2.4 Fixed Issue with Duplicate File Detail Report Size Parameter

In the Report Definition Editor, the Size parameter of the Duplicate File Detail report definition did not show as checked, even though it had been selected previously.

2.5 Fixed Issue with Volume Free Space Trending Report not Displaying Selected Target Paths

With formatted Volume Free Space Trending reports, the report header did not correctly display the selected target paths included in the report.

2.6 Fixed Issue with Scan Target Names with non-ASCII Characters and PostgreSQL

When importing scan data into PostgreSQL, errors would occur if a given scan target contained characters from any Unicode character that translated to a multi-byte UTF-8 character encoding. This could affect any share or volume names using Extended Latin, Asian or other non-ASCII characters.

2.7 Addressed Issue with Locked Scan File During Scan Import

Due to system timing, in certain cases a scan file would appear locked when trying to acquire it for processing. A delayed retry was added when this condition is encountered so that the entire scan does not error out.

2.8 Improved Logging for Agent

Minor logging updates were added to the Agent for identification of failed target paths on scan failure.

3.0 New in Version 2.6

The following new features have been added to Novell File Reporter 2.6:

3.1 Added Expression Editor Custom Functions

Client utility for managing custom report SQL queries and custom report layouts.

3.2 Scan Data Deletion

Updated the interface for managing Scan Data. All scan data is now visible, along with a status. In addition, scan data entries can now be marked for deletion.

3.3 Previous Scan Retention

Scan policies have been updated to allow for rolling retention of the previous scan for File System and Permissions scan types.

3.4 Baseline Scan Retention

One scan per target and scan type may be flagged as a baseline scan for indefinite retention. This is in addition to any Previous scan retention defined by a scan policy.

3.5 Built-in Reports for Historic Comparison

Built-in comparison reports were added to take advantage of the new Previous and Baseline scan retentions:

  • Historic File System Comparison

  • Historic NCP Permissions Comparison

  • Historic NTFS Permissions Comparison

3.6 Copy Report Definition

The ability to copy Report Definitions has been added to both the Web Application and the Report Designer. The Web Application is able to copy any report definition type, and the Report Designer is able to copy any Custom Query report definitions.

4.0 Updates in Version 2.6

The following updates are included in Novell File Reporter 2.6:

4.1 .NET Framework 4.5.2

The Windows components now require .NET Framework 4.5.2. This version of the .NET Framework will be upgraded if not already present for Windows installations of the NFR Engine, NFR Agent and Client Tools.

4.2 Fixes for Chart Wizard in Report Designer

Several Chart Wizard fixes in Report Designer, with the update of third-party components

4.3 Improved Handling of PostgreSQL SQL Syntax

Several improvements for PostgreSQL’s SQL dialect with the syntax parser and query builder in the Report Designer’s Query Editor.

4.4 Recovery Model Is Now Forced to SIMPLE in SQL Server

Upgrades of an existing installation with SQL Server will set the recovery model to SIMPLE instead of FULL or BULK.

This is a change from 2.0.2, which incorrectly shipped without any recovery model set, thus defaulting to FULL.

With 2.5.0, any new installations would correctly set the recovery model to SIMPLE, but upgrades would fail to update any existing installations if set otherwise.

This version now properly coerces the setting back to SIMPLE when performing the database update.

4.5 Fixed Issue with Custom Query Reports Limited to 10,000 Records

For Stored Reports, there are cases where the final report might have incorrectly been limited to only 10,000 records.

4.6 Fixed Notification Issues with Users Having a Multi-Value Email Attribute

For eDirectory, the associated Internet EMail Address attribute is multi-valued. In cases where a user has more than one email address, the first address will be used for any subscribed notifications, whereas before, an error would be returned.

4.7 Fixed Issue with Notification Aggregation and Cleanup

In cases where large numbers (> 2000) of notifications are marked for aggregation, the SQL query to update the notification statuses could fail due to an excessive number of query parameters in a single query.

4.8 Fixed Issue with Index Out-of-Range in Report Functions

For some reports, the report functions for PostgreSQL were incorrectly set to use a 32-bit integer instead of a 64-bit integer for the unique keys. This caused an out-of-range error for installations that had processed in excess of 2^31 (or approximately 2 billion) scan data entries over the lifetime of the installation.

4.9 Improvements for Report Preview and Stored Report Page Timeouts

For larger reports, it is possible that report generation exceeds the default execution response timeout for web pages. Previously, this could be temporarily addressed by modifying timeout parameters in the web.config file. Now, the admin-defined parameter Report Page Execution Timeout is available in the Web Interface Configuration which provides a separate timeout for the Report Preview and Stored Report Viewer pages.

4.10 Added Support for Filtering File Extension for Built-in File Data Reports.

The filter expression control in the Report Definition Editor for built-in File Data reports (File Extension, Owner, Date-Age, and Duplicate File) now provides filters for File Extension.

4.11 Deletion of Scan Policies No Longer Deletes Associated Scan Data

With the release of version 2.6, the deletion of a Scan Policy no longer requires the deletion of the associated Scan Data.

5.0 Breaking Changes

Novell File Reporter 2.6 includes the breaking changes from previous versions of the product.

5.1 No More Support for NFR Agents on OES 2

Starting with version 2.6, only agents for OES 11 servers will be supported.

With Open Enterprise Server 2 moving to self-support as of January 1, 2015, there is no longer any active support for NFR Agents running on this platform. See https://support.novell.com/lifecycle/ for detailed Novell product lifecycle information.

Although basic support for legacy 2.0.2 NFR Agents is still available with this release, support for OES 2 volumes will be limited to proxy-based scanning only.

5.2 Deprecated 32-bit NFR Agents

Starting with version 2.6, NFR Agents are no longer being developed for 32-bit platforms.

With extended support ending for Novell Open Enterprise Server 2, all currently supported OES platforms are 64-bit only.

For Microsoft environments needing local agents on legacy 32-bit servers (Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008), the version 2.0.2 NFR Agent for 32-bit is included. Although this agent will no longer include any new developments, it will be minimally supported for this release.

5.3 Duplicate File Detail Reports Now Require a Specific File Size

Prior to version 2.6, Duplicate File Detail reports required at least one of the following parameters: create time, modify time, or name. However, results would potentially include all files of the specified criteria, but for different file sizes. This included drill-down report access for the Duplicate File report when clicking on a specific duplicate entry.

With the 2.6 update, the Size parameter is now always required. Any existing Duplicate File Detail reports will need to be updated to reflect the intended size.

6.0 Known Issues

The following are known issues with Novell File Reporter 2.6:

6.1 Identity System Limitations

  • Single-label DNS domains are not supported in Active Directory environments.

  • Windows DFS Standalone mode is currently unsupported.

6.2 Scanning and Data Collection

  • Permissions scans currently do not include LSA (Local Security Authority) privileges.

  • Permissions scans for Active Directory environments do not currently enumerate group memberships for local groups.

  • Permissions scans for eDirectory environments do not currently include Inherited Rights Filters (IRFs).

  • File System scans in eDirectory environments cannot collect the Compressed File Size on NSS volumes.

  • The Engine might stop processing scans if more than about 500 concurrent scans have been delegated. Scans that appear to have stopped processing will need to be cancelled. As a workaround, plan scan scheduling so that only a few hundred concurrent scans are delegated at any one time.

  • Retained Previous and Baseline scans do not yet include point-in-time data for directory services data. This means that differential Permissions reports that need to include changes for indirect rights via group memberships in Active Directory and security equivalences in eDirectory are currently unavailable. Furthermore, detection of changes to directory service accounts, such as a user or group rename, are not yet available.

6.3 Reporting

  • Drill-down links to Detail reports from Summary or aggregate file system reports only work in the context of the Web Application. They do not work with exported reports such as PDF.

6.4 NFR Engine

  • The Engine service might fail to restart if the database is unavailable after restart. If this happens, you must start the Engine service manually.

6.5 NFR Agent

  • During a Directory Quota operation in Active Directory environments, an attempt to stop the NFR Agent might appear to be unresponsive.

7.0 Current Bugs

The following list describes current bugs and workarounds:

7.1 Scans in Waiting-for-Retry State Cannot be Retried After Restarting the Engine Service

Scans in this condition might display with a next retry time in the past. Simply cancel the scan and run the scan policy again to work around this issue.

7.2 Table of Contents Only Works in the Report Footer

NOTE:To add the Table of Contents to the Report Footer, first add the TOC to the report (which requires first placing it in a Report Header), then move it to the Report Footer.

7.3 Certain Parsing Issues Exist with Window Functions in the Query Editor

When using SQL window functions, some database-specific window parameters might not be recognized.

7.4 Unhandled Exceptions

An unhandled exception might appear in the Query Editor in certain cases when the SQL parser throws an exception.

7.5 Query Editor not Closing Properly

The Query Editor might not close properly if the SQL parser fails to validate.

7.6 Web-based Report Preview Might Show Blank Report

Occasionally when running a preview report from the web interface, the displayed report may partially render and then become blank. Simply refresh the preview page, or close and reopen the preview report.

7.7 NFR Agent Might Stop Responding if it Cannot Heartbeat to the Engine for an Extended Period of Time

In some circumstances, an NFR Agent service might become unresponsive after a number of failed attempts to heartbeat into the engine. In this case, the NFR Agent service might not shut down or restart without needing to kill the agent process.