SG-ME 3.2 Release Notes

Version: SG-ME 3.2.3.0 build 21909
Release Date: 12/17/2004
Revision: 1.01 on 12/21/2004

Table of Contents

Introduction

SG-ME 3.2.3.0 is a minor release of the Blue Coat® Systems Director software. 

These release notes apply to Director management nodes that are currently running or will be upgraded to the SG-ME 3.2.3.0 release. Before starting the upgrade process, please review the Upgrade Instructions and the Limitations and Known Issues section.

Direct support questions regarding this release to Blue Coat Technical Support. For more information, visit http://www.bluecoat.com/support/ or send email to support@bluecoat.com.

New Features

SG-ME 3.2.3.0 provides support for ProxySG™ Appliances that use SGOS 3.2.4.x. 

System Requirements

Hardware Requirements

Supported Blue Coat Director systems that can be upgraded to this version are SG-ME 2.1.09 and SG-ME 3.x.

Software Requirements

The Director Management Console runs on the following platforms:

  • Windows 2000
  • Windows XP

The client PC running the Director Management Console requires, at a minimum:

  • 80 megabytes (MB) free disk space
  • 512 MB RAM

The above configuration is good for managing up to 100 ProxySGs through the GUI.  To manage up to 500 ProxySGs, see New in this Version for the amount of  RAM needed..

During installation of the Director Management Console, you are prompted to select a JRE. You can choose to :

1.      install JRE 1.3.1, which comes with the package

2.      use the existing JRE installed on the PC.

Only JRE 1.3.1 is supported. Other JRE versions are untested and might cause some issues. You can revert to JRE 1.3.1 by re-installing the Director Management Console and selecting JRE 1.3.1 when prompted.

Upgrade Instructions

If you are upgrading your Director management node to the new hardware version, complete the following steps:

  1. Archive the existing Director configuration, which includes Director and its associated ProxySGs. For details, see "Archiving and Restoring the Entire Director Configuration," in Chapter 2 of the Blue Coat Director User Guide. (If you are upgrading from SG-ME 2.1.09, you must first upgrade to SG-ME 3.x. Archiving is a new feature in SG-ME 3.2.1.0.)
  2. Save (upload) the configuration offbox. For details, see "Archiving and Restoring the Entire Director Configuration," in Chapter 2 of the Blue Coat Director User Guide.
  3. Replace the existing 36GB hard disk with the 73GB hard disk.  For details, see the Director Upgrade Installation Kit.
  4.  Replace the 256MB RAM with 1GB RAM. For details, see the Director Upgrade Installation Kit.
  5. Replace the CPU. For details, see the Director Upgrade Installation Kit.
  6. Restore the archived Director configuration onto the new hard disk.  For details, see "Archiving and Restoring the Entire Director Configuration," in Chapter 2 of the Blue Coat Director User Guide.
  7. Upgrade the Director image. For details, see "Upgrading Director" in Chapter 2 of the Blue Coat Director User Guide.

Blue Coat Director ships with SG-ME 3.2.3.0 already installed on the Director management node. You need to download the Director Management Console software to your PC if you want to use the graphical user interface. For information on downloading the Management Console software, go to the SG-ME Download Site.
When installing the Director Management Console, make sure you do not have multiple versions of the Management Console application on your system. Use the Director uninstaller to remove previous versions before installing a newer version of the Management Console. For information on using the Director installer, refer to the Blue Coat Director Installation Manual, located at the Product Documentation Page.

Initial configuration information for the Director management node is also available in the Blue Coat Director Installation Manual.

Doc Errata

  • Adding ProxySG Devices (Chapter 2, Blue Coat Director User Guide): The documentation implied that you could copy existing devices to groups. This is not the case. Devices can only be moved, not copied within a domain. (B#45020)
  • Archiving Configuration (Chapter 2, Blue Coat Director User Guide): The documenation did not include the authentication challenge option in the command. The syntax is: 
    (config)# archive all fetch archive_filename path_to_the_archive_filename auth-credentials_depending_on_the_url

    where archive_filename is the name of the archived file, and path_to_the_archive_filename should be the complete URL to the archive file and not the folder name. Depending on the URL, you might also need to supply credentials.

    Example:
    Director (config) # archive all fetch archive-20040913.tgz ftp://10.10.10.10/archive-20040913.tgz (B#45511)

Fixed in This Release

·        VPM: SG-ME would sometimes lose RDNS policies when they were pulled from the ProxySG. (B#45018)

·        VPM: It was possible for VPM to generate url.host= CPL for destination host/port instead of url.domain=. (B#46532)

Limitations and Known Issues

A set of limitations and known issues with the release is maintained by Blue Coat Systems and updated with each dot release. Read through the issues before upgrading to this release. After upgrading, review these pages if you encounter an issue to verify it is not a known limitation or issue before contacting Blue Coat Systems.

  • Depending on the size of the configuration stored on Director it can take some time for Director to be initialized after a reboot. (B#45023a)
  • If the logging is set to notice_minor, the username and the remote host address are logged in the syslog along with the CLI command being executed by the user. If logging is set to the default notice setting, the username and remote host address are not logged in the syslog.
  • The results of a "force reconnect"  are not automatically shown in the Management Console. You must wait until the domain does an auto-refresh. Also, keep in mind that refresh takes system resources if it's requested on a large domain. (B#45067a)
  • The help directory will remain in the user folder after an uninstall. (B#45249a)
  • The timeout for configuration management commands might not be long enough in some cases, particularly when commands are executed on large groups or the entire domain. In some  multibox configuration instances, the timeout should be increased. (B#45223a)
  • Director Management Console does not support non ASCII character set. Entering any such character using any text editor results in a crash of the CLI. (B#45386)
  • Director Management Console: Only the Policy Summary view has visual reference to a specific ProxySG or its absence. However, all advanced configuration files use this functionality, including those managed through the CLI. Thus, when a record of the ProxySG is removed, you  should do a complete query on all advanced configuration files through the CLI and manually  change any reference to a  deleted device. (B#44773a).
  • Windows XP collapses similar icons together into a single entry, meaning that the collapsed Director icon displays a rocket with the label "(3) Launch Anywhere GUI". (B#44668a)
  • Deleting a large number of devices or groups can cause performance problems with the computer running the Director Management Console. (B#44735a)
  • Overlays should contain no more than 500 commands. (B#44540a)
     
  • You can distribute up to 10,000 URLs to 500 ProxySG Appliances. If you are distributing more than 200 URLs, use the urls-from command  instead of adding each URL individually.
  • The Jobs Summary pane might not display the status of some jobs or some jobs might appear to be running indefinitely if Director cannot obtain data from ProxySGs referenced in the jobs. (B#45419a)
  • The Director QVE and Overlay modules support SGOS 3.2.2 and SGOS 3.2.3 features. Director does not support ProxySG features introduced in PRs between SGOS 3.2.2 and 3.2.3 releases. Features not supported in SG-ME 3.2.2.0 are displayed with a red cross in the QVE and overlay modules.  (B#45086a)

New in Previous Versions

Version: SG-ME 3.2.2.0 build 21665

New features in SG-ME 3.2.2.0 include: 

  •  The Director management node has been upgraded. It consists of  a Pentium III machine with 850 MHz, 1GB RAM and one 73GB SCSI hard disk drive. It also has two on-board 10/100 network interface cards (NICs).
  • Director supports SGOS 2.x, SGOS 3.1.4, and 3.2.3 proxy appliances.

    Note    : CacheOS devices are no longer supported and cannot be connected to Blue Coat Director.
  • You can optionally control up to 500 ProxySG appliances through the Management Console. The client PC running the Director Management Console requires:

·        80 megabytes (MB) free disk space and the following minimum amounts of RAM, depending on the number of ProxySG appliances you want to control:

·        From 1 to 100 ProxySGs: 512MB
From 100 to 500 ProxySGs: 1GB

Note that 500 ProxySG support is only available if you are using the new Director management mode.

  • Director now has the ability to set an output limit for the Management Console and enable or disable verbose mode

Version: SG-ME 3.2.1.0 build 21225

  • Director supports both SGOS 2.x and SGOS 3.x proxy appliances.

Note: CacheOS devices are no longer supported and cannot be connected to Blue Coat Director.

  •  The licensing schemes for both SGOS 2.x and SGOS 3.x are supported in this version of Director.
  •   All of the new installable lists in SGOS 3.2 and 3.1.3.x are supported in this release.
  •  For maximum security, the Director management console uses SSHv2 protocol and simple password authentication for connections between the management node and the Management Console. Telnet is the default protocol between the Director management node and the proxy appliances.
  • You can compare two profiles or two backups using the Diff utility.
  • You can archive and restore Director configuration.
  • RADIUS-like service-type privilege values have been assigned to Director’s three privilege levels: login, enable, and configure.
  • Documentation is more accessible. The Blue Coat Director User Guide is available under About>Help. The Blue Coat ProxySG Configuration and Management Guide for the SGOS version running on the ProxySG is available through the Quick View/Edit Window.

Review the Known Issues.

Documentation

The following documents are available at the Blue Coat web site and also on the CD-ROM that ships with the product.

  • Blue Coat Director User Guide
  • Blue Coat Director Installation Manual
  • Blue Coat Director Command Line Interface Reference
  • Blue Coat Director Content Sync Module Guide
  • Blue Coat Director Request Management Guide

In addition to the above documents, the Director Management Console contains a built-in HTML version of the Blue Coat Director User Guide. However, this manual is only updated with every dot release. Therefore, Blue Coat recommends that you visit the Blue Coat web site for the most up-to-date documentation. 

Support

Support questions regarding this release should be directed to Blue Coat Technical Support. To contact Blue Coat Systems:

  • North America (USA) Toll Free: 1.866.362.2628 (866.36.BCOAT)
  • North America Direct (USA): 1.408.220.2270
  • Asia Pacific Rim (Japan): 81.3.5425.8492
  • Europe, Middle East, and Africa (United Kingdom): +44 (0) 1276 854 101
  • support@bluecoat.com

Copyright© 1999-2004 Blue Coat Systems, Inc.  All rights reserved worldwide.  No part of this document may be reproduced by any means nor modified, decompiled, disassembled, published or distributed, in whole or in part, or translated to any electronic medium or other means without the written consent of Blue Coat Systems, Inc.  The Software may not be modified, reproduced (except to the extent specifically allowed by local law), removed from the product on which it was installed, reverse engineered, decompiled, disassembled, or have its source code extracted.  In addition to the above restrictions, the Software, or any part thereof,  may not be (i) published, distributed, rented, leased, sold, sublicensed, assigned or otherwise transferred,  (ii) used for competitive analysis or used to create derivative works thereof,(iii) used for application development, or translated (iv) used to publish or distribute the results of any benchmark tests run on the Software without the express written permission of Blue Coat Systems, Inc., or (v) removed or obscured of any Blue Coat Systems, Inc. or licensor copyrights, trademarks or other proprietary notices or legends from any portion of the Software or any associated documentation. All right, title and interest in and to the Software and documentation are and shall remain the exclusive property of Blue Coat Systems, Inc. and its licensors.  Blue Coat Systems, Inc. specifications and documentation are subject to change without notice.  Information contained in this document is believed to be accurate and reliable, however, Blue Coat Systems, Inc. assumes no responsibility for its use. ProxySG™, ProxyAV™, CacheOS™,  SGOS™,  are trademarks of Blue Coat Systems, Inc. and CacheFlow®, Blue Coat®, Accelerating The Internet®, WinProxy®, AccessNow®, Ositis®, Powering Internet Management®, and The Ultimate Internet Sharing Solution® are registered trademarks of Blue Coat Systems, Inc.  All other trademarks contained in this document and in the Software are the property of their respective owners.