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The release notes cover the following topics

About VMware Smart Assurance Patch

A patch provides one or more fixes to a VMware Smart Assurance product. A patch can only be applied to the specific major or minor release and Service Pack of the particular product for which it is intended, this is called the product’s baseline.

What's New in this Release

The VMware Smart Assurance 10.1.2.11 introduces the following enhancement:

  • Addresses multiple customer issues

Supported Operating Systems and Version Details

Product Version Number Details
IP

From <BASEDIR>/smarts/bin/, type the following command:
./sm_server --version (Linux)
The following output is displayed:


sm_server:
linux_rhAS50-x86-64/301011270
IP_NETWORK_SUITE: V10.1.2.11(196437), 30-Jul-2021 10:03:17 Copyright 2021, VMware Inc - Build 80
Foundation V10.1.2.1(188976), 22-Sep-2020 12:37:12 Copyright 2020, VMware Inc - Build 1

Installation

A patch installs files to the <BASEDIR>/smarts/local directory of the product. The Installation software performs the following actions:

  • Backs up all files that are being replaced or merged.
  • Merges changes from your current, user-modifiable configuration files into the new versions of the files from the patch.
  • Displays complete summary at the end of patch installation.
  • Displays the location of a log file that lists the results of merging the files.

Note: If the original product was installed on one computer and then was copied to another computer, the patch cannot be applied to the copied installation. You must apply the patch to the computer with the original installation, and then the results can be copied to another computer.

Patch Installation File

You can install the patch on the host where the IP product is running. 

Binary detail for IP-10.1.2.11 release is:

IP:setup-IP-linux-10_1_2_11-20210730-64BIT.bin

Note: You can download the binary from https://support.vmware.com.

Installation directory

In this document, the term <BASEDIR> represents the location where Smarts software is installed.

For UNIX, the default location is:/opt/InCharge/<productsuite>.

The <productsuite>; represents the Smarts product suite to which the product belongs.

Optionally, you can specify the root of <BASEDIR> to be something other than /opt/InCharge (on UNIX) but you cannot change the name of the <productsuite> that is part of the <BASEDIR>.

Install a new patch over an older patch

Patches are cumulative each successive patch includes all of the fixes from any previous patches. As a result, a newer patch can be installed on top of an older patch. The patch number, which increments itself for each successive patch, indicates the version. A patch with higher version number can be installed over a patch with a lower version number.

The Installation software checks the version of the installed product and the version to be installed at the beginning of its process. It will not allow an older version to be installed on top of a newer version.

Apply patch using CLI mode

CLI mode provides a text-based method for invoking the Installation software. This mode is intended for UNIX platforms with non-graphic (text-only) consoles. The CLI mode installation follows the same process as the wizard mode but displays text on the terminal screen and requires user responses on the keyboard.

Run CLI mode

  1. Change directory to the directory where you typically store patches, for example, ./opt.
  2. Run following setup command and then press Enter. Replace xx with the relevant product name, for example: ESM. For exact name, see the Patch Installation File section:

           Setup command syntax for CLI mode (Linux): ./setup-IP-linux-10_1_2_11-20210730-64BIT.bin.

           A welcome message with information about the installation appears.

Note: Stop all VMware Smart Assurance services and processes that use programs or libraries from the product being upgraded or installed before performing the installation.

User selections and navigation in CLI mode

  • During the patch installation process, at the end of each screen of text, you are prompted with a set of options. For example:

           type 'back' - to go to the previous step

           type 'quit' - to cancel anytime

  • Select a choice by typing the text and press Enter.
  • Accept the default choice, and press Enter.
  • Other screens have different choices. For example when the license agreement is displayed, the following prompt appears:

           Press any key to continue to read license agreement or press '0' to advance to end.

  • At the end of the license agreement, the installation process displays the first of several menus.

           Choose from the following (Y/N) options:

           Y - to accept the terms of the license agreement.

           N - not to accept the terms of the license agreement.

  • Type the desired selection and press Enter. In the case of the license agreement, you must accept the agreement by typing Y and pressing Enter.

           The screen is displayed with an Get User Input. Choose the base location by entering the correct number.

            For example, type 1 to choose the default location for installation and press Enter.

      Get User Input

      1) /opt/InCharge 10.1.2.*

           For example, if the product name is ESM and default install folder is /opt/InCharge, the installer displays:

           VMware Smart Assurance Server Manager Suite will be installed in the following location:

           Product Name: ESM

           Install Folder: /opt/InCharge

  • Press Enter to continue the installation.
  • Press Enter to exit the installer.

           When the patch installation is complete, reconcile the configuration files as described in Reconcile user-modifiable files.

Apply patch using Unattended (Silent) mode

Unattended mode installs the patch without user input or a response file. When invoking the install program, specify the location of the product suite to be patched.

In order to invoke an unattended installation of the patch, type the appropriate setup command from below table and then press Enter. Replace “xx” with the relevant product name, for example, ESM. For exact name, see the Patch Installation File section:

Setup command syntax for unattended mode (Linux):setup-IP-linux-10_1_2_11-20210730-64BIT.bin -i silent -DrpProduct.installLocation=/opt/InCharge.

Where xx represents the product name.

Note: You must provide the correct base installation location. For example: base10.1 build is installed inside /opt/InCharge.

Once the installation is completed inside /tmp ** log file will be created with the summary. When the patch installation is complete, reconcile the configuration files as described in Reconcile user-modifiable files.

Log Files

Patch report and log file locations, lists the files that the Installation software creates during the install process.

Patch report and log file locations:

Name Path File Name
Install log <BASEDIR>/smarts/setup/logs Install.<product>_SUITE. <patchversion>.log
Merged files log <BASEDIR>/smarts/setup/logs merge-summary-<patch version>.log

Install log

The installer creates an Install log file listing all actions performed by the installation. You need not read this file unless you suspect an installation failure.

If the installation process fails, the log files are located in a temporary directory, for example /tmp or C:\temp. A non-zero status indicates a failure.

Merged files Log

This log lists the files in the BASEDIR/smarts/local directory structure that were merged. For each merged file, the log lists the location and name of the file. If any file cannot be merged due to conflicts, this is also noted. In addition, the log lists the name and location for unmerged versions of all user-modifiable files that are included in the patch.

For example, in case of ESM: 

  • Summary of merge operation can be found at location: /opt/InCharge/ESM/smarts/setup/logs/merge-summary-10.x.x.x.log
  • For more detail logs: /opt/InCharge/ESM/smarts/setup/logs/detail-merge-10.1.0.5.log

If there were any conflict during the merge operation, the old local backup file will be saved as "File_Name.bkp" in its same location. These conflict files needs to be merged manually before starting the server.

Review the results of the reconciliation process

The results of the reconciliation analysis performed during the installation and all actions taken are included in the merged files log located in <BASEDIR>/smarts/setup/logs. The name of the log file is: install.merge.<patch version>.log

Reconcile User-modifiable Files

The Installation software is designed to preserve your changes to user-modifiable files when installing new versions of these files. Existing changes to user-modifiable files are always automatically merged. All files are merged by default.

The Installation software also creates a backup of all the versions of the user-modifiable files to ensure that you will not lose any configuration data.

Review the results of the reconciliation process

The results of the reconciliation analysis performed during the installation and all actions taken are included in the merged files log located in <BASEDIR>/smarts/setup/logs. The name of the log file is: install.merge.<patch version>.log.

Determine which files require action by reviewing the merged files log generated by the install process:

  1. Using any editor, open and review the log:

    <BASEDIR>/smarts/setup/log/Install.Merge.10.x.x.x.log.

  2. Review the log:

    1. Resolve conflicts in files manually. See Resolve the issue in conflict files.
    2. During the installation, the entries that indicate file merges without conflicts that resulted in automerge files.

Resolve issues in conflict files

If a conflict occurs for any file in the same local directory of the file location, you can find the below files:

  • One is the conflict file. For example, <filename>
  • Another file is .bak.001. For example, <filename>.bak.001

Review the conflict files and resolve issues using the following procedure:

  1. Open the user-modifiable file where the conflict occurs using sm_edit.

    For example, the conflict file for esm.param.conf is named esm-param.conf.

  2. Review and resolve the conflict manually.
  3. Save and close the file.

To use patch introduced file (for example, esm-param.conf):

  1. Rename the original conflict file. (For example, if the conflict file name is esm-param.conf, rename the file esm-param.conf to esm-param.conf_old).
  2. Rename the <filename>.bak.001 file to the original file name <filename> by removing .bak.001 extension.

    For example, if the patch file name is esm-param.conf.bak.001, rename it to the esm-param.conf to use the original file.

  3. Save and close the file.

Note: All the user-modifiable unmerged files before patch installation, are backed up in "<BASEDIR>/<Product Name>/smarts" location. By default, the backup directory is hidden.

Uninstallation

Uninstalling a patch removes all previously applied patches and returns the software to the baseline product version.

Note:Root privileges are required to uninstall a patch. Use either the uninstaller program to uninstall a patch. Failure to use one of these methods can result in an unstable system and/or inconsistent product directories.

Before uninstallation

You must complete the following task before uninstalling the patch:

  • Stop all VMware Smart Assurance services and processes that use programs or libraries from the product.

Roll back to a previous patch

If you want to revert to a previous patch, you must:

  • Uninstall the currently installed patch to return to the baseline version.

  • Reinstall the previous patch.

For example, to revert from Patch 2 to Patch 1, uninstall Patch 2, and then reinstall Patch 1.

Uninstall Patch Using the Uninstaller Program

Use the uninstaller program to uninstall a patch:

Note: Do not to use the uninstaller program in the _uninst directory because it will remove the entire product.

  1. Change the directory or use the file navigator to find the _rpuninst directory.

    For Example: /opt/InCharge/<Product>/_rpuninst on UNIX systems.

  2. Invoke the uninstaller program.

    For example: ./uninstaller on UNIX systems.

  3. Press Enter to continue the uninstallation.

Uninstall Patch Using Unattended (Silent) Mode

Use the uninstaller program to uninstall a patch.

Note: Do not to use the uninstaller program in the _uninst directory because it will remove the entire product.

  1. Change the directory or use the file navigator to find the _rpuninst directory.

    For Example: /opt/InCharge/<Product>/_rpuninst on UNIX systems.

  2. Execute the uninstaller program.

    ./uninstaller -i silent on UNIX systems.

  3. Press Enter to continue the uninstallation.

Resolved Issues

  • SMARTA-1309 / SR-21219804905

    Issue in monitoring of multiple Cisco ACI clusters.

    Resolution: Handled the use case of changes in controller node that responds to monitoring requests in scenarios where multiple Cisco ACI instances are discovered and monitored.

  • SMARTA-1283 / SR-21219804905

    Cisco ACI monitoring stops at a point in environment, where multiple ACI clusters are discovered and monitored.

    Resolution: Handled the use case of change in the controller node's IP, that responds to monitoring requests in scenarios where multiple Cisco ACI instances are discovered and monitored.

  • SMARTA-1336 / SR-21218148805

    Cisco APIC hosts are not discovered with seed name using the seedfile discovery

    Resolution: The host name (if already discovered) is being set as seed name for APIC instances during ACI discovery through seedfile then rediscovery/seedfile discovery will use the host name rather than discovering APIC hosts with IP addresses.

  • SMARTA-1088 / SR-20168937511

    Cisco ACI related switches are discovered via Cisco APIC are not showing real device name in the display name of its components, instead it shows "node-xxx" as the device name.

    Resolution: As Cisco APIC provides actual name for the leaf/spine switches, the DisplayName for components of the switches are extracted and populated from the DisplayName of the switches in the discovery post processor. The parameter 'CiscoACIComponentsRenameEnabled' (default value is TRUE) in tpmgr-param.conf controls the components renaming.

  • SMARTA-1209

    Cisco ACI Discovery Issue - Not all objects are  getting discovered when discovering more than one large-sized clusters.

    Resolution: Fixed code to handle discovery of more than one large-sized ACI clusters.

  • SMARTA-1167

    Cisco ACI discovery fails with NullPointerException while discovering network links.

    DSCV_MSG-*-DSCV_GENERIC-MSG ERR : [Thread-4 DiscoverCiscoACI]:Exception Type:java.lang.NullPointerException SVIF-E-NULLOBJECT-Null object passed

    SVIF-NULLPCONV-Null pointer passed

    The issue happens while creating link (TrunkCable) between ports of two switches. In some cases the Z-End device and port are as null or empty from Cisco APIC REST. Hence it throws the errors and discovery is failing.

    Resolution: The Cisco ACI discovery code has been enhanced to handle such scenarios.

  • SMARTA-1148

    Java Heap OutOfMemoryError at some point while monitoring both Cisco ACI and Viptela.

    Resolution: Cisco ACI discovery code has been enhanced to prevent abnormal termination of monitoring thread to avoid such issues.

  • SMARTA-1195

    Cable and TrunkCable instances are not getting created in Cisco ACI in some scenarios.

    Resolution: Cisco ACI post processing fails when Authentication Server instances present in the topology and that causes the issue in creating Cable and TrunkCable. Code has been fixed to handle such issues.

  • SMARTA-1157

    False ControllerNode Down event is generated when HostedBy host becomes unresponsive though actual ControllerNode responds to API requests.

    Resolution: Code has been fixed to handle the specific scenario.

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