November 2009
Novell® iFolder® is a simple and secure storage solution that increases your productivity by enabling you to back up, access, and manage your personal files from anywhere, at any time. Novell iFolder has clients on Linux*, Macintosh*, and Windows* platforms.
You can share files in multiple iFolders, each with a different group of users. You control who can participate in an iFolder and the access level for each member. You can also participate in iFolders that others share with you. iFolder provides higher security for your confidential iFolder files, to protect them from intentional or unintentional access by unauthorized people.
This Readme provides a brief overview of new features, and installation and configuration instructions for Novell iFolder 3.8. It also lists the known issues and limitations with this release.
The new features for iFolder are as follows:
The new features for iFolder clients are as follows:
The password change feature enables you to change the password of your iFolder account using the web access console or any of the iFolder clients on Linux, Windows, and Mac.
The passphrase recovery wizard enables you to reset the passphrase and recover an encrypted iFolder. This wizard is available with iFolder clients on Linux, Windows, and Mac.
The user interface of iFolder thick clients, web admin console, and web access console is enhanced to improve the usability of iFolder.
The iFolder enterprise server for 3.8 supports iFolder clients for both openSUSE 11.1 and SLED11.
The 64 bit version of iFolder client is available for Vista and Windows 7. This includes:
New 64 bit install
New 64 bit Flaim database
New iFolder binaries in 64 bit
Revert iFolder, from shell extension, now uses the same Dialog that is used by the iFolder main window. This has the Delete from server option.
The iFolder client startup performance is enhanced.
The new features for iFolder server are as follows:
Mono build and runtime environment for iFolder is upgraded to mono 2.4. As part of OES, now iFolder bundles its own mono 2.4 runtime (novell-ifolder-mono) and iFolder will explicitly use this environment for running iFolder. This change in mono runtime addresses several issues related to thread synchronization and daily crashes. With novell-ifolder-mono, iFolder will not use system installed mono (SLES) and updates to latest mono runtime package will be available from regular OES 2 channel.
Multi-level administration feature enables you to create primary as well as secondary administrators.
The iFolder server is integrated with active directory so that the process of admin and proxy user creation is automated.
Novell iFolder 3.8 for OES 2 SP2 supports a system built with the following components of Novell Open Enterprise Server:
Your server must satisfy the following system requirements.
Novell eDirectory™ 8.8 or Active Directory
Novell iManager 2.7
Apache 2 Web Server (worker mode) with SSL configured
Mono 2.4 (novell-ifolder-mono-2.4)
The iFolder client supports the following operating systems:
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) 10 SP1 and above
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) 11
openSUSE 11.1
The iFolder Linux client requires the Mono framework for Linux and a GNOME* desktop foriFolder Nautilus plug-in support.
Windows XP SP2 and above
Windows Vista SP1 and above
Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit)
Macintosh OS X (Intel architecture) v10.4.11 and later (requires Mono 1.2.5 ). PowerPc architecture is not supported.
Novell iFolder supports the following Web browsers:
Internet Explorer*
Mozilla* Firefox* 2.x and later
Safari* 3.0
The iFolder client is available for download on the OES 2 SP2 Welcome page of your iFolder enterprise server. For more information, see Installing the iFolder Client
in the Novell iFolder 3.8 Cross-Platform User Guide.
This section describes known issues for the iFolder enterprise server, Web Access server, and Web Admin server.
Renaming of large-sized files (size above 10 GB) may cause sync issues and the file rename will not be synced.
When you upgrade iFolder setup from OES2 SP1 to OES2 SP2, the Web Admin, Web Access, and Simias configuration files are not restored. This behavior is seen only in 64-bit systems. As a workaround, you must do the following:
Login as root and run /opt/novell/ifolder3/bin/ifolder_mono_setup.
Stop and start the apache server.
The iFolder setup will throw an exception when you specify LDAP proxy user DN in Yast if LDAP proxy user already exists in Active Directory. As a workaround, you must either use a new user's DN or delete the existing user for AD and then use the same DN again.
If you re-provision users from one server to another, then sometimes, duplicate entries of iFolders are displayed for the re-provisioned user in the Web console and iFolder clients. As a workaround, after you re-provison the users, you must login to the Web Admin console to verify if duplicate entries of iFolders are displayed for re-provisioned users. If duplicate entries are getting displayed, you must restart the iFolder server to resolve the issue.
For every iFolder, a directory with iFolder's unique ID as name is created on the server. All the iFolder data is stored under this directory. On deleting an iFolder, the contents of the directory where iFolder data is stored is deleted. However, the directory itself not deleted.
After you create a secondary administrator and assign a group to the secondary administrator, the secondary administrator must assign some disk quota to the users of the group. Otherwise, the users will not be able to upload any files using the Web Access console or the iFolder client. This is applicable only if the Administrator console option is selected for managing group quota while creating the secondary administrator. However, users can create empty iFolders even if the secondary administrator has not set any disk quota for users.
On configuring iFolder through Yast, if active directory is given as the ldap source, the iFolder configuration hangs indefinitely. This occurs only for Active Directory configured on Windows 2003. As a workaround for this issue, follow the steps given below:
First, you must export the AD server certificate on Windows 2003 using the steps given below:
Click to launch the application.
Select a certification authority, then right-click and select .
In the window, click the button.
In the window, click the tab and click the button.
Click in the window.
Select encoded and click .
Specify the path and file name of the certificate and click .
Click to export the certificate.
Finally, copy the exported certificate file to Linux server, and run the following command from the command terminal:
certmgr -add -c -m Trust win2k3-vin.ifolder.ad_win2k3-vin.crt
NOTE: If iFolder is configured in a cluster environment, then this step must be executed for all the nodes.
iFolder does not support spaces or dots in the admin DN and user container DN. If the Admin DN or user container DN has a space or dot in it, iFolder configuration fails. This is applicable in case of all directory services.
Modifying any file in an encrypted iFolder performs a full sync to the iFolder server, instead of synchronizing only the changes.
The iFolder user account cannot have multibyte characters in the username. Authentication fails if the user name contains multibyte characters.
This section describes known issues for iFolder client for Linux.
Section 6.2, No Auto Upgrade Support On Older iFolder Clients
Section 6.3, Confirmation dialog is not displayed on removing an iFolder account
Section 6.4, The iFolder client on Linux might hang while setting the passphrase
Section 6.6, The iFolder client on Linux might freeze sometimes
Section 6.11, The first synchronization cycle after downloading a shared iFolder generates an error
Section 6.12, iFolder emblem does not get updated automatically on openSUSE 11.1 and SLE 11
If you install iFolder linux client 3.8.0.0 and then upgrade your iFolder server to 3.8.0.1, the iFolder client does not automatically prompt for an upgrade. You can download the client from the Welcome page (http://<OES 2 SP2 server ip> ) and install the clients manually.
iFolder clients 3.2 and 3.4 will not be able to connect to iFolder server 3.8.0.0. After upgrading OES 1 server to OES 2 SP2 server, you can download the client from the Welcome page (http://<OES 2 SP2 server ip> ) and install the clients manually.
If you remove an account from the tab of the iFolder Preferences Window of the iFolder client, the account might get removed without displaying a confirmation dialog. This is a rare occurrence.
While setting the passphrase, the iFolder client on Linux might hang. This is a rare occurrence and as a workaround, if the client hangs for a long time, you must kill the client and restart it.
For iFolder clients on Linux, when iFolders are added or deleted, the changes do not get reflected instantly. It takes some time for the changes to come into effect.
The iFolder client on Linux client might freeze sometimes. This is a rare occurrence. If this occurs, then as a workaround, you must kill the client and restart it.
For iFolder clients on SLED 11 and openSUSE 11.1, if you make any modifications to a file or folder that is beyond the second level in the directory structure, then the corresponding changes are not getting reflected on the iFolder server. However, modifications to files or folders in the first or the second level of the directory structure will lead to synchronization of changes on the server for files or folders beyond second level also.
If encryption is enabled and you are configuring an account using the iFolder client, then you may receive an Operation timeout error when you are prompted to enter the passphrase on the Encryption page of the iFolder Account Assistant. This may occur when the server is busy serving iFolder client sync requests and LDAP sync and if the number of users in the system is high.
This is a rare occurrence and you will not be able to set the passphrase when this issue occurs. As a workaround, you must click Cancel in the Encryption page of the iFolder Account Assistant to continue with the account creation. After an account is created, when you attempt to create an encrypted iFolder, you will be prompted to specify the passphrase. You must then specify the passphrase to create an encrypted iFolder.
When you upload multiple files with the same name to the same iFolder using two different clients, the synchronization is successful. However, in such a scenario a name conflict must occur which enables you to resolve the name conflict.
For iFolder clients on SLED 11 and openSUSE 11.1, if you leave iFolder running and log out of the system, iFolder does not start as expected during system reboot.
As a workaround, you must add iFolder to the list of startup programs. To do this, follow the steps given below:
Click the .
Click .
In the dialog box, click the tab.
NOTE:You can also open the Sessions dialog box from the command terminal by typing the command gnome-session-properties.
To add iFolder to the list of startup programs, click and browse to the location where the iFolder executable is available.
IMPORTANT:The iFolder client executable is present at the location /opt/novell/ifolder3/bin .
Click and then click to close the dialog box.
When you download a shared iFolder, the first synchronization cycle fails with an error message “1 item not synchronized”. However, during subsequent synchronization cycles, the synchronization is successful.
For iFolder clients on openSUSE 11.1 and SLE 11, if you convert a folder to an iFolder or revert an iFolder to a regular folder, the emblem on the iFolder does not get updated automatically.
As a workaround for this issue, you must do a manual refresh. For instance, you can manually refresh by pressing the F5 button.
This section describes known issues for the iFolder client for Windows.
If you have installed the 3.8 version of the Windows 64 bit iFolder client, then any attempt to autoupgrade to a new version of the client will fail. You must manually install the new version of the client. After you install the client manually and replace the 3.8 version of the client, autoupgrade feature will work for subsequent client versions.
When you connect an iFolder 3.6 client to an iFolder 3.8 server, the system throws a System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapException error instead of prompting the user to log in to the new client.
This is because the iFolder 3.6 Windows client cannot communicate with an SSL-mandated 3.8 server. During the connection attempt, the server responds that the preferred communication is HTTPS; however, the 3.6 client does not support HTTPS. When the client attempts to connect via HTTPS, the connection fails because the certificate validation and acceptance fail.
The workaround for this issue is to perform a manual upgrade or set the iFolder 3.8 server to communicate via only HTTP.
This section describes known issues for the iFolder client for Macintosh.
There is an inconsistency in menus for clients on Mac in comparison to the clients on Windows and Linux. For instance, for the iFolder client in Mac, both and options get enabled for both local and remote ifolders.
iFolder client for Macintosh doesn’t provide the auto-upgrade feature. When a new version of the client is available for upgrade, iFolder prompts you about the availability of the client for download, and when you click , it downloads the client to a location on your workstation. You need to go to that location and manually install the new client.
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