NEC Express5800-320Ma Release Notes

Release Notes:

Express5800/320Ma

Release 4.1.0

NEC Solutions (America), Inc.

NR004W

Notice

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Manual Name: Release Notes: Express5800/320Ma Release 4.1.0

Part Number: NR004W
Express5800/320Ma Software Release Number: 4.1.0
Publication Date: January 2006

NEC Solutions (America), Inc.
10850 Gold Center Drive, Suite 200
Rancho Cordova, CA 95670

© 2006 NEC Solutions (America), Inc. All rights reserved.

Contents

Preface v

1. Release Notes 1-1

Release Contents 1-2
Installing Express5800/320Ma Software 1-3
Special Procedures and Restrictions 1-4
Known Problems 1-5
Documentation 1-6

Documentation Updates and Corrections 1-7
Obtaining Documentation 1-7

Getting Help 1-8

Contents iii

Contents

iv Release Notes: Express5800/320Ma Release 4.1.0

Purpose of This Manual

The Release Notes: Express5800/320Ma Release 4.1.0 describe release con tents and
significant known problems. They also document new information that does not yet
appear in other Express5800/320Ma online documentation.

Audience

This document is intended for system administrators who will install this
Express5800/320Ma software release and for others who need an overview of the
release.

Notation Conventions

This document uses the notation conventions described in this section.

Warnings, Cautions, and Notes

Warnings, cautions, and notes provide special information and have t he following
meanings:

Preface

WARNING

!

A warning indicates a situation where failure to take
or avoid a specified action could ca use bodily harm or
loss of life.

CAUTION

!

A caution indicates a situation where failure to t ake or
avoid a specified action could damage a hardwar e device,
program, system, or data.

NOTE

A note provides important information about the opera tion
of an Express5800/320Ma system.

Preface v

Preface

Typographical Conventions

The following typographical conventions are used in Express5800/320Ma document s:

• The bold font emphasizes w ords in te xt or indicates te xt that you type, the name of

a screen object, or the name of a programming element. For example:

Before handling or replacing system components, make sure that you are
properly grounded by using a grounded wrist strap.

In the System Properties dialog box, click the Hardware tab.
Call the RegisterDeviceNotification function.

• The italic font introduces ne w terms and indicates programming and command-line

arguments that the user defines. For example:

Many hardware components are custom er -r ep la cea b le un its (CRUs), which
can be replaced on-site by system adm inistrators with minimal tr aining or tools.

copy filename1 filename2
Pass a pointer for the NotificationFilter parameter

• The monospace font indicates sample program code and output, including

message text. For example:

#include <iostream.h>

The operation completed successfully.

Notices

• All regulatory notices are provided in the site planning guide for your system.

• Although this guide documents modem functionality, modems are not av ailab le f or

all systems. Ask your sales representative about modem availability.

• ActiveService Network (ASN) is not currently av aila ble, but may be ordered in the

future.

vi Release Notes: Express5800/320Ma Release 4.1.0

Chapter 1

Release Notes

This document provides information abou t the follo win g topic s :

• “Release Contents”

• “Installing Express5800/320Ma Software”

• “Special Procedures and Restrictions”

• “Known Problems”

• “Documentation”

• “Getting Help”

NOTE

The notes for this release may have changed since this
document was printed. Before proceeding, check for an
update at http://support.necsam.com/servers/.

1-

Release Contents

Express5800/320Ma software and documentation are distributed on two compact
discs (CD-ROMs).

• The ExpressBuilder CD (1 of 2), contains the System software re quired to operat e

your system.

• The ExpressBuilder CD (2 of 2), contains Express5800/320Ma documentation in

both online Help and Portable Document Format (PDF) formats.

NOTE

You need both CD-ROMs to complete the installation.

If you ordered Microsoft
ExpressBuilder CD is included, to be used if you need to perform an initial progr am load
(IPL) of Express5800/320Ma System software.

Release Notes 1-1

®

Windows® Server 2003, Enterprise Edition, an

Release Contents

New Features Available in This Release

Express5800/320Ma System software includes the following new features:

• Support for Express5800/320Ma Dual-Core systems. These systems use

dual-core Intel

• Support for Express5800/320Ma Active Upgrade™ technology. Using the

®

Xeon® processors for increased performance.

optional Active Upgr ade product, you can, in man y cases, install software upgrades
or hot fixes on your system with only a few seconds of interruption to your
application processing. See the Express5800/320Ma: Active Upgrade User’s
Guide for information about this product.

• Rapid Disk Resync (RDR) enhancements. The following enhancements have

been added:

– Improved performance during disk verification. Also, the action Stop Verify

has been added to ftSMC.

– Break Physical Disk fr om RDR Virtual Disk in ftSMC . This action allows yo u

to temporarily isolate a physical disk from an RDR virtual disk so that you can
back up a snapshot of the disk contents.

– Support for GUID Partition Table (GPT) disks. GPT partition style, new with

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1, is now supported for data
(non-system) disks only , in addition to master boot record (MBR) partition style.

See the Express5800/320Ma: System Administrator’s Guide f or inf ormation about
RDR disk verification and Break Physical Disk from RDR Virtual Disk.

• ActiveService™ Network (ASN) related enhanc ements. The f ollo wing f eatures

have been added to enhance ASN functionality:

– Autonomous Call-Home. Virtual Technician Modules (VTMs) can now send

alarms over the ASN ev en when t he Windows opera ting system is not running
(for example, in the rare case when a Fault-Resilient Boot (FRB) is unable to
start the system) .

– Internet Dial-In. A modem is no longer necessary for the NEC Technical

Support to dial in and provide system support over the ASN, if your VTMs are
connected to a network with Internet access.

– Modem control from ftSMC. You can now take an ASN modem out of service

during replacement procedures and return it to service from ftSMC. See the
Express5800/320Ma: System Administrator’s Guide for details.

NOTE

ActiveService Network (ASN) is not currently available.
NEC may offer this optional service in the future.

1-2 Release Notes: Express5800/320Ma Release 4.1.0

For a list of new and updated documents for this release, as well as information not ye t
included in the documents, see “Documentation” on page 1-5.

Installing Express5800/320Ma Software

Table 1-1 lists the Express5800/320Ma system installation and configuration

documents. There are two documents associated with each model:

• The document listed in the Initial Installation column explains how to install

Express5800/320Ma software for the first time or how to complete th e insta llati on
of software preinstalled on a new system.

• The document listed in the Configuration, Upgrade, and Remote Management

column explains how to configure your system after it has been installed, how to
install Express5800/320Ma System software, Windows, and firmware upgrades,
and how to install Express5800/320Ma System software on PCs for remote
management.

Table 1-1. Express5800/320Ma Installation and Configuration Documentation

Model Initial Installation

Installing Express5800/320Ma Software

Configuration, Upgrade, and
Remote Management

Express580
0/320Ma

Express5800/320Ma: Installation
Guide

Express5800/320Ma: Software
Installation and Configuration Guide

Special Procedures and Restrictions

The following are special procedures and restrictions that apply to this release.

Preserving Application Data When Using Active Upgrade™ Software

When you perform an upgrade using Active Upgrade™ software with saved
configuration files, the software does not provide a warning when it discovers a system
disk (that is, a disk that has a boot partition or a paging file) that has not been de clared
in the configuration files.

CAUTION

!

If you place a paging file on a disk that contains persistent
(non-temporary) application data, the Active Upgrade™
software will automatically declare that disk to be a
system disk. When the upgrade is committed, t he disk on
the production side will be overwritten, possibly with stale
data, from the upgrade side , which may result in data loss .

Release Notes 1-3

Known Problems

Follow these guidelines to avoid data loss during upgrades:

• When configuring applications, make sure that you do not write persistent

application data to a disk that has a boo t partition or a paging file , or is declared to
be a system disk in an Active Upgrade configuration file.

• When creating Active Upgrade configuration files, do not declare a disk that

contains persistent application data to be a system disk.

• When configuring paging files, do not place them on disks that contain persistent

application data.

For information about correctly using Active Upgrade™ software, see the
Express5800/320Ma: Active Upgrade User’s Guide.

Avoiding Problems with the EMC® SANSurfer FC HBA Manager Utility

If your Express5800/320Ma system is connected to an EMC Storage System, avoid
installing the EMC utility SANSurfer FC HBA Manager. This utility prevents failover of
QLogic

®

host bus adapters (HBAs). It also prevents Active Upgrade from working .

CAUTION

!

If you do install the SANSurfer FC HBA Manager utility to
update the firmware on a QLogic HBA, uninstall it
immediately after use. While it is installed, your system
cannot fail over a QLogic HBA, so that the fault tolerance
of your system is compromised.

Configuring VTMs

The SMM Admin Dialback Number, a configuration setting for Virtual Technician
Modules (VTMs), is not yet implemented. You can configure a dialback number for your
administrator account, but when you dial in to a VTM , it do es not hang up the
connection and dial the dialback number. When yo u dial into and log into the VTM, the
connection remains established until you log out and hang up. See the
Express5800/320Ma Virtual Technician Module User’s Guide for additiona l information
on configuring VTMs.

Known Problems

This section describes known problems in this release.

Message Box May Block Shutdown or Restart

Description Intermittently, a message dialog box with the following message may

appear when the system is being shut down or restarted:

1-4 Release Notes: Express5800/320Ma Release 4.1.0

Documentation

This application has failed to start because
WINHTTP.dll was not found. Re-installing the
application may fix this problem.

The shutdown or restart will not proceed until the message dialog box
is closed.

Workaround This message can be safely ignored. Click OK to close the dialog bo x,

and the shutdown or restart will proceed normally.

PROSet May Not Correctly Set Ethernet Team Names in Windows

Description When you create two or more teams on a ne w system or a system on

which an IPL has just been perf ormed, one of the teams ma y not ha ve
the name you assigned it. In the PROSet utility, the team name
appears to be set correctly, but in Windo ws Network Connections , it is
not the name you specified.

Workaround Use the PROSet utility to rename the incorrectly-named team.

To rename an incorrectly-named team

1. In PROSet, right-click the team name in the Network Components
tree, and click Rename Team.

2. If you want to use the original name, type a temporary name in the

3. In the main PROSet dialog box, click Apply.

4. Again, right-click the team name, and click Rename Team.

5. In the Rename Team dialog box, type the desired name for the team

6. In the main PROSet dialog b ox, clic k Apply to a pply the change or OK

Documentation

Some updates and corrections that are not yet included in the documentation are listed
later in this section. You can view nearly all Express5800/320Ma documentation online.

Table 1-2 lists documents for Express5800/320Ma 3.2 GHz, 3.6 GHz, and Dual-Core

systems.

Enter Team Name field of the Rename Team dialog bo x, and click OK.
Otherwise skip to Step 5.

in the Enter Team Name field. and click OK. If you skipped Steps 2
through 4, this name must be different from the original name.
Otherwise, Windows Network Connections will not be updated.

to apply the change and close PROSet.

Release Notes 1-5

Documentation

Table 1-2. Documentation

Document

Release Notes: Express5800/320Ma Release 4.1.0
Express5800/320Ma: Software Installation and Configuration Guide
Express5800/320Ma: System Administrator’s Guide
Express5800/320Ma: Technical Reference Guide
Express5800/320Ma: PCI Adapter Guide
Express5800/320Ma ActiveService Network Configuration Guide
Express5800/320Ma Virtual Technician Module User’s Guide
Express5800/320Ma: Site Planning Guide
Read Me First: Unpacking Express5800/320Ma Cabinets
Express5800/320Ma: Installation Guide
Express5800/320Ma: Operation and Maintenance Guide

Documentation Updates and Corrections

The following information does not yet appear in the documentation.

Software Availability Manager (SAM) and Microsoft Outlook

If you are running Outlook Express 6 as your default mail handler, you must change the
default setting of the Warn me when other applications try to send mail as me
option before you can use the SAM email alert feature. Change the setting as follows:

1. In Outlook Express, click the Tools menu and then click Options.

2. Click the Security tab.

3. Clear the check box next to Warn me when other applications try to send mail
as me, and then click OK.

If you leave the box checked, Outlook Express blocks the sending of SAM email alerts.

Obtaining Documentation

Almost all Express5800/320Ma documentation is ava ilable online.
To gain access to the documents on the World Wide Web, point your browser to the

Express5800/320Ma web site:

http://support.necsam.com/servers/

®

Express 6

1-6 Release Notes: Express5800/320Ma Release 4.1.0

Getting Help

If you have a technical question about Express5800/320Ma hardware or software, try
these online resources first:

• Online support from NEC Technical Support. You can find the latest technical

information about an Express5800/320Ma through online product support at the

NEC Technical Support Web site:

http://support.necsam.com/servers/

Getting Help

• Online product support for Microsoft

®

products. Your primary source for

support is the computer manufacturer wh o provided your software, or an
authorized Microsoft Support Provider . You can also find the latest technical
information about Microsoft Windows

®

and other Microsoft products through online

product support at the Microsoft Help and Support Web site:

http://support.microsoft.com/

If you are unable to resolve your questions wit h the help available at these on line sites,
and the Express5800/320Ma system is covere d by a service agreement, please
contact NEC Technical Support (866-269-1239).

Release Notes 1-7

Getting Help

1-8 Release Notes: Express5800/320Ma Release 4.1.0