Overview

These Release Notes document includes a list of new features introduced in this release of Heroix Longitude®, a list of known issues, and information about upgrading Longitude.

Product Packaging

Heroix Longitude can be packaged to exclude certain product capabilities. However, the documentation will include a description of the full capabilities of the product. If you have installed a package containing less than the full product, some of the capabilities described in the documentation will not be available to you.

Other Heroix Longitude documentation

Quick Start Guide

The Heroix Longitude Quick Start Guide gives a basic overview of the product, including instructions for installing and configuring the product. For more detail about Heroix Longitude, please see the online help. You can access the Quick Start Guide from the Help menu in the Heroix Longitude Web UI or by opening the following web page:

http://www.heroix.com/longitude/6.3/getting_started.htm

Online help

You can access the online help from the Heroix Longitude Web UI, by selecting Help Contents from the Help menu (or by clicking the Help link in the lower right corner of the Heroix Longitude banner).

The online help is context-sensitive - when you open the help, the page that is displayed will depend on what page of the Web UI you were on when you opened the help.

The Troubleshooting section of the online help includes additional known issues, not included in this document.

New Features

Major enhancements in V6.3

• A new NetFlow solution has been added to monitor detail network usage.
• The Cisco solution has been enhanced and renamed to NetworkDevice because it can monitor network devices from other manufacturers.
• The Oracle solution has been enhanced.
• Auto-discovery of computers and network devices has been re-designed. A new page allows you to search for computers and devices within a specific IP address range.
• There is a completely redesigned VMware solution that monitors VMware and VCenter 4.

Miscellaneous fixes and enhancements

• The Manage Applications page has been cosmetically re-designed.
• The Add Applications page has been cosmetically re-designed: The agent prompt is hidden if you do not have a remote agent.
• The event monitor has been cosmetically re-designed, and it now haas the ability to acknowledge events with a comment.
• In the Longitude UI, an underlined link changes color when you hover the mouse pointer over it.
• When monitoring a Windows computer, a Unix computer, or a network device, a Ping transaction is automatically set up for the computer or device.
• In the Network component of the Windows solution, the number of packets has been replaced with kilobytes.
• A problem computing SLA downtime when the SLA runs for only part of a day is fixed.
• When modifying rule parameters from the Event Monitor, you can specify up to 3 decimal places of precision.
• Data retention in the OpenManage and IBMDirector solutions has been changed to 14 days.
• A problem with some report queries generated by SNMP Studio is fixed.
• The host name for the US Cellular provider has been changed. This is used by the "Text message to phone" action.
• Annotations on time line graphs is fixed.
• A problem with the Unix network summary report is fixed. It was failing with very large values.
• Time of day selections have been removed from SLA reports.
• Better parsing has been implemented in the Unix Process transaction.
• A problem with the Agent installation from the 64-bit Management Station installer is fixed.
• A problem collecting WMI data from a 64-bit installation has been fixed.
• A problem displaying the component status on a 64-bit installation has been fixed.
• A problem detecting the local time zone on a 64-bit installation has been fixed.
• The installation now checks to make sure that the architecture (32-bit vs. 64-bit) of the installer matches the computer it is running on.
• Collection filtering for the SQL2005 and SQL2008 FailedJobs component is fixed.
• A problem with collecting duplicate SNMP traps has been fixed.
• Longitude now checks and restarts components that have stopped every 30 seconds. Previously, the check was performed every 5 minutes.
• A problem filtering the Syslog dump report has been fixed. Certain filtering selections were previously not working correctly.
• The SLA detail report now consistently uses the same date format everywhere.
• A problem causing errors from the Sql_HighCpuTimeProcesses rule in the Sql_Processes task of the SQL2000 solution has been fixed.
• View names are now displayed in alphabetical order in pull-down selections in the UI.
• A problem in the Citrix User Resources Summary Report has been fixed.
• A problem starting the Web UI service when there are no SLAs defined has been fixed.
• A problem with the uptime reported in the Web UI status display has been fixed.

Version Support Updates

Support has been added for the following:

• VMWare 4.0 monitoring is now supported.
• The Internet solution is now compatible with Firefox 3.6.

Product notes

Unable to perform Windows install after applying Windows 2003 SP1

Data Execution Prevention, which is installed with Windows 2003 SP1, is preventing the Windows installer from running.  To configure DEP to allow the installer to run:

• Right Click My Computer
• Select Properties
• Select the Advanced Tab
• Select Settings under the Performance Header
• Select the Data Execution Prevention Tab
• Select the Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select radio button
• Click the Add button and browse to the Longitude installer (e.g. HeroixLongitudebuild.exe, where build is the current build number of the installer - the agent installer will be HeroixLongitudeAbuild.exe)
• Click the Open button to add it to the list of allowed programs and click the OK button until the System properties applet closes
• Run the Longitude installer again

Install may fail on Windows if logged in with an account with non-alphanumeric characters

The install on Windows may fail if you are logged in with an account that includes non-alphanumeric characters. If this occurs, try logging in to the machine with an account that only includes alphanumeric characters and run the install again.

Email stops working using the internal SMTP server

By default, Heroix Longitude uses an internal SMTP engine, called Aspirin, to send email and does not require any configuration from the user. In many sites, this has worked correctly in a production environment, but some sites have experienced problems sending email. If you experience problems with the internal SMTP server, follow the instructions in the online help under "Configuring a User-Defined SMTP Server" to configure Heroix Longitude to use a different SMTP server.

Upgrading from Longitude V6.2 to V6.3

Note that upgrades are not supported from or to Beta releases.

Before upgrading

Upgrade remote Statistics Server(s) before Management Station

If a Management Station is using a remote Statistics Server, the remote Statistic Server must be upgraded before the Management Station. Initiating the upgrades interactively will allow you to ensure that the remote Statistics Server is successfully upgraded prior to the upgrade of the Management Station. For this reason, neither the Management Station nor the remote Statistics Server should be set to upgrade automatically. By default this is the case as the factory value of the "Upgrade Automatically" property is "no" – you can see the current value of this property in the Web UI’s Manage Upgrades function (>> Home >> Administration >> Component Management >> Manage Upgrades).

IMPORTANT: Backup the Longitude installation before upgrading

Heroix strongly recommends backing up the Longitude directory before upgrading the product. 

The Longitude V6.3 upgrade procedure backs up your existing database, installs a new database, then restores your data from this backup. Before upgrading, you must change the Destination specification in the backupDefinition.xml file located in the \appman\config\folder to contain an absolute path to where you want the database backup to be written. This path must not contain any spaces. After making this change, restart the Upgrade Manager service

Note: If there are no customized solutions in use, the Statistics Server agents need not be backed up.

1. Log into the WebUI and go to Administration -> Component Management -> Manage Longitude Properties
2. Select Upgrade Manager and then click Advanced
3. Set a time for the AdHocBackupTime
4. The backup by default is sent \Longitude\backup.

Note: If you want to make any changes to the backup or schedule regular backups, please edit the following file: Longitude/appman/config/backupDefinition.xml

5. If the backup fails you will get an email, give the backup about 10 minutes to complete, please check the following log file to confirm the backup completed:

   Longitude\appman\log\{today's date}_appman_server_01.txt

   Do a find on the file for "Finished adhoc backup." If you find this you can continue with the upgrade, if not check the log until you get this or the email of the backup failure.

Note: If you do have any custom application on your Statistics Server, please make a copy of the application folder, \Longitude\applications.

The V6.2 installation of Longitude is now backed up and you can proceed to download the upgrade to V6.3.

Replace Longitude's JRE

1. Stop all Longitude services.
2. Delete the contents of the Longitude\jre folder.
3. Obtain the zipped JRE from Heroix and extract its contents to Longitude\jre. Note that there is a different JRE for 32-bit and 64-bit installations.
4. Restart the Longitude services.

Performing the upgrade

The Manage Upgrades function in the Longitude Web UI (>> Home >> Administration >> Component Management >> Manage Upgrades) allows you to manage and install upgrades.

The Manage Upgrades function shows the following information for each Upgrade Manager (corresponding to each Management Station or remote Statistics Server that is performing collections for the local Management Station):

• Upgrade Manager name
• Installed Longitude Components where components followed by an asterisk have upgrades available
• Current Patch number that is installed
• New Patch number that has been downloaded from the Upgrade Server (but not yet applied)
• Upgrade Patch Description with notes about the changes that the patch will include
• Upgrade Server location
• Download Patch Status indicating if the last download was successful
• Upgrade Status indicating if the last upgrade attempt was successful
• Upgrade Automatically indicating whether or not upgrades are performed automatically, or must be initiated manually with the Upgrade Components button. If you are not set up to upgrade automatically, a New Patch number that is different from the Current Patch number indicates that there are upgrades available to you.

Downloading the V6.3 upgrade

To download the V6.3 upgrade, do the following for the Management Station and each remote Statistics Server listed in the Manage Upgrades function:

1. Click the Modify Properties button
2. Change the Upgrade Server on the Manage Upgrade Settings page to: http://upgrade.heroix.com/public/6.3/upgrade
3. Click the Save Changes button

Note: Patch downloads will only occur before 8AM and after 6 PM - according to the local time of the Upgrade Manager

If the download fails with a "license expired" error, restarting the Upgrade Manager component using the Start-up/Shutdown function should resolve the problem.

If the download fails because it is not allowed in your environment, please contact Heroix Support for a different method of obtaining the patch.

Initiating an upgrade interactively

To manually run an upgrade, click the Upgrade Components button (this button will only appear when updates have been downloaded and are ready to be installed).

You should upgrade any remote Statistics Servers before upgrading the local Management Station. The value in the Upgrade Manager field for the local Management Station will usually be 127.0.0.1, whereas the value of the Upgrade Manager field for remote Statistics Servers will be the name of the remote Statistics Server.

During the upgrade of a Management Station, the Web UI will be temporarily unavailable. The Management Station upgrade should take about 10-15 minutes. When an interactive upgrade completes, a success or failure email will be sent to the email address associated with the Longitude user who initiated the upgrade.

Upgrading remote Statistics Servers

Any remote Statistics Servers must be upgraded before upgrading the Management Station itself, as follows:

Upgrade the remote Statistics Server(s) that the Management Station is using.

Note: After you click the Upgrade Components button to upgrade a remote Statistics Server in the Manage Upgrades function, the Management Station may be unable to connect to the Upgrade Manager component on the remote Statistics Server, resulting in a Show Errors link on the Manage Upgrades page. This is expected and will be resolved once the Management Station is upgraded.

Wait until the upgrade of the remote Statistics Server(s) is complete.

Note: when an interactive upgrade completes, a success or failure email will be sent to the email address associated with the Longitude user who initiated the upgrade.

Confirm that the Statistics Server component has restarted (>> Home >> Administration >> Component Management >> Display Status) on the remote agents. 

4.Immediately after upgrading all of the remote Statistics Servers successfully, proceed with the Management Station upgrade. 

Setting Longitude to upgrade automatically

You may edit the Upgrade Automatically setting from the Manage Upgrades function by clicking the Modify Properties button.

Note: When a Management Station is using a remote Statistics Server, Upgrade Automatically should NOT be set to yes for either the Management Station or the remote Statistics Server.

Use the pull-down menu to turn on or off the automatic upgrade option. To save your changes, click the Save Changes button. The next time an upgrade is downloaded from the Heroix Upgrade Server it will be applied at 3 AM the following morning (according to the local time of the selected Upgrade Manager). You can configure Longitude to send an email when an automatic upgrade completes by using the Manage Longitude Properties function to enter an email recipient in the Upgrade Manager's MailToForAutoUpgrades property.

Troubleshooting

• Upgrade Manager TCP port blocked
  If the TCP port (7229) used by the Upgrade Manager is blocked between the Management Station and a remote agent (e.g. TCP port 7229 is not open on a firewall between the Management Station and the agent), you will need to uninstall Heroix Longitude from the agent and reinstall locally in order to get the new version.
  
• Linux upgrade failure
  If an attempt to upgrade the Heroix Longitude management station on a Linux machine fails because of an inability to stop one or more of the Heroix Longitude components, please reboot the Linux machine and try again.
  

After upgrading

• May receive e-mail about failure of transaction task shortly after upgrade
  The Transaction task may fail shortly after the upgrade due to a timing issue, which will resolve itself. If you receive an email about a transaction failure within five minutes of the upgrade completing, it can be safely ignored.
  
• Windows network report will not have pre-upgrade data
  If you run a Windows network report for a date range that precedes the date of the upgrade, you will not have data for this period of time. This is because the Windows network data collected has changed in the new version of Heroix Longitude.
  
• NetworkDevice bandwidth report will not have pre-upgrade data
  If you run a NetworkDevice bandwidth report for a date range that precedes the date of the upgrade, you will not have data for this period of time. This is because the NetworkDevice bandwidth data collected (previously Cisco) has changed in the new version of Heroix Longitude.
  
• New Oracle reports will not have pre-upgrade data
  If you run a new Oracle report for a date range that precedes the date of the upgrade, you will not have data for this period of time and the report will not be formatted accurately. This is because there are several new items of data in the new version of Heroix Longitude that did not exist pre-upgrade.
  
• Archived Cisco reports are not accessible
  Cisco reports archived before upgrading will not be accessible after the upgrade. This is because the Cisco solution is now named NetworkDevice and there is no longer a solution named Cisco.
  
• Re-register the VMware solution
  If you were monitoring VMware machines with the VMware solution prior to the upgrade, you will need to re-monitor them. This is because the VMware solution is completely re-designed and requires a different set of properties. Note that you can monitor multiple hosts by monitoring the VCenter server that is managing them.
  
• Monitoring the Internet Application
  The Internet application enables you to emulate the experience of a web site by executing synthetic transactions against a web site and evaluating the response time and content of the site. Firefox 2.0 or higher is required on the Longitude Statistics Server to record and execute the internet macros. Please note that Firefox 3.x requires a newer version of Selenium that will not work with the Longitude Internet application.
  
• Column pull-downs in the Event Monitor
  At times using Internet Explorer, the selection pull-downs in the Event Monitor columns do not work. This is very intermittent and can be remedied by selecting any event.
  
• Statistics Dashboard for VMware statistics
  Several of the VMware statistics can not be collected at the very short intervals used by the Statistics Dashboard (such as 10 seconds). If you create a Statistics Dashboard that includes VMware statistics, and the dashboard is not updated with new values each interval, you should use a longer interval.