Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal)

Upgrading to Focal (20.04 LTS)

The upgrade to release 14.0.0 with the OS upgrade to Ubuntu Focal is expected to take some time to be deployed to all devices.  Axcient will be releasing the upgrade in small batches to allow our support team time to monitor the upgrade process and respond to any issues encountered while upgrading devices.  We anticipate this upgrade to progress through several months, so it may be some time before your devices are targeted for automatic update.

What If I need the update sooner?

Partners who are eager to upgrade their devices immediately have several options:

Installation from ISO: The x360Recover ISO installation image has been updated to the 14.0.0 release.  Newly installed systems will be deployed natively on the Ubuntu 20.04 LTS release with Linux kernel version 5.15.0.

Perform a manual OS upgrade: There is a manual command-line option available to individually perform the software upgrade on each x360Recover device. If you have key systems that you require to be updated immediately to conform to compliance or other requirements, you may follow this procedure to update individual machines.

To perform a manual software update: 

 
a. Log in to the console of the device using the root user account

b. run the command install-replibit-package <version> (i.e., install-replibit-package 14.0.0)

Note: You can only upgrade by one major release version at a time.  If you unit is running 12.x.x, you must first upgrade to 13.0.0, then repeat the process to upgrade to 14.0.0

Note:  The update will be applied as follows:

First the x360Recover application update will be installed. This part of the upgrade takes the normal 20-30 minutes to complete and will reboot the device.  

Once the device has been updated to version 14.0.0 (or later) the Ubuntu OS upgrade will commence after the reboot.  The OS upgrade may take up to 3-4 hours to complete, but typically takes 30-60 minutes, depending on the underlying system performance.  

The system may reboot one or more times during the OS upgrade.  

x360Recover services will be disabled during the upgrade, backups and replication will not occur.  

You may monitor the OS upgrade progress from the device Web UI.

Perform an OS recovery

If something has gone wrong with the upgrade (either the automatic upgrade cycle or a manual software upgrade) you can perform an OS upgrade.

The OS Upgrade process involves reloading the operating system volume of the device from ISO image and then performing a recovery operation to restore the original identity and data from the previous installation.

Note: You CANNOT perform an OS Recovery on any Single-Disk / Nano style deployment of x360Recover.  Installation from ISO wipes all data from the first disk in the system and reinstalls the operating system.  Any data on a single-disk deployment will be destroyed.  OS Recover relies on the data being stored separately from the OS disk in the system. If something goes wrong with the upgrade of a Single disk / Nano style BDR appliance, you will have to wipe and reload the system as a new device and perform a recovery of backup data from the Vault.

IMPORTANT! Before beginning an OS Recovery you must retrieve the rbas encryption api key from the system before reloading the device from ISO.  Copy and save the contents of the file /etc/replibit/rbas_api_auth_token You will be asked to provide this rbas encryption key during the recovery process

Once you have retrieved the rbas api key refer to the following article for instructions on performing an OS Recovery: How to Perform an OS Recovery

Linux kernel versions

• The standard kernel version for Ubuntu 20.04LTS is 5.4.0, which is the same kernel available from the Ubuntu 18.04LTS hardware enablement release provided by the x360recover Bionic installation ISO.
• The Ubuntu 20.04LTS hardware enablement kernel version is 5.15.0. 
• Existing appliances upgrading from Ubuntu Bionic to Focal will have the 5.4.0 Linux kernel version.  
• Newly deployed appliances installed from ISO will have the Linux 5.15.0 kernel.
  
  

Why it matters

For the most part, partners need not be concerned with which Linux kernel is deployed on their devices.  Existing devices that were working on x360Recover 12.x with Bionic will continue to work on 14.x with Focal and will, in fact, have the same Linux kernel version after the upgrade.  

Newly deployed devices installed via the installation ISO will have the latest available kernel (5.15.0) for the best hardware support options.

However, please note: Partners wishing to perform backups for RedHat Enterprise Linux 9 (RHEL9) or other systems that are using XFS filesystems will be required to upgrade the underlying Linux kernel to 5.15. 

RHEL9 ships with Linux kernel 5.14.0 or newer, and the 5.14 kernel introduces breaking change into the XFS filesystem.  Systems running a kernel older than 5.14 cannot mount an XFS filesystem that was created under 5.14 or newer.  In this case, Backup Complete Checks and File recovery for the Linux protected system cannot be performed on an appliance using the 5.4 kernel, since the backup data from RHEL9 systems cannot be mounted.

To install the Hardware Enablement Kernel on an appliance after upgrading to release 14.0.0, login to the device as root via the console, IPMI, or ssh session and run the following:

apt install linux-generic-hwe-20.04

x360Recover 14.0.0 - April 20 2024

Release overview

x360Recover 14.0.0 is a maintenance release, focused on delivering the operating system upgrade to Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal), as well as providing security fixes and elimination of bugs

Summary of new features

• Ubuntu 20.04 LTS OS upgrade
• Backend support enhancements for virtualizing Linux protected systems (Future)
• Upgrade Mongo to version 3.6
• Upgrade ZFS
• Rebuilt all product packages on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

Summary of bug fixes

• Removed deprecated packages
• Fixed issues with failed upgrade reporting via Telemetry
• Hardened ZFS pool upgrade process

Linux Agent 3.5.0 - x360Recover - April 15 2024

 Release overview 

Linux for x360Recover Agent 3.5.0 is a feature release. The primary focus of this release is to add support for the latest Red Hat and Debian distributions, as well as address bugs found during support escalations. 

Summary of enhancements

• Snapshot driver updated to support Linux kernel 6.5 and 6.7
• Agent installer supports Red Hat Enterprise 9¹
• Agent installer supports Debian 12
• Agent installer supports ElementaryOS 6 and 7
• Agent supports backup and recovery of protected systems virtualized on Xen Server or XCP-ng
• Smart Recovery is enhanced to support Linux Virtualization²

¹Agent for Linux 3.5.0 supports Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions (RHEL) 7, 8, and 9, including Red Hat clone distributions like CentOS, AlmaLinux, Oracle, and Rocky.  

• Due to a Linux kernel compatibility issue, RHEL 9 distributions using XFS filesystems cannot currently be supported by the server backend. 
• The Linux kernel version 5.14 included with RHEL9 creates an XFS file system that cannot be mounted under previous Linux kernel versions. 
• Work is in progress to upgrade x360Recover appliances and vaults to Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, to be released in 2024 Q1, which will enable full support for RHEL9.

² Linux virtualization is hidden under a feature flag in the appliance and vault UI while we evaluate currently supported and unsupported Linux configurations.  Once testing is completed, this feature will be released in the UI.

Summary of bug fixes

• Fixed an issue where the backup will fail if the protected system is rebooted during a backup
• Fixed multiple issues with virtualization of CentOS, Debian, and Red Hat protected systems
• Fixed issue with backup freezing and spamming log files if EFI boot volume is dismounted during backup
• Fixed issue with backup failure is Local Cache volume runs out of space during backup
• Fixed issue where ‘Creating Snapshot’ message is logged when agent is idle
• Fixed issue with Agent update on Oracle Linux systems using the ‘Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel’ (UEK)

1638  |  1762

x360Recover 13.0.0 - April 10 2024

Release overview

x360Recover 13.0.0 is a maintenance release, focused on deliver stabilization and hardening in preparation for the upcoming upgrade to Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal), as well as providing security fixes and elimination of bugs.

Summary of new features

• All general availability features for agent for macOS (Currently hidden under a feature flag)
• Fixes to general stability and backend service hardening
• Removed deprecated alerting classes for email and ConnectWise integration
• Upgraded Mongo to version 3.4
• Upgraded DKMS network drivers to latest versions
• Hardened Upgrade Manager to no longer require Mongo be accessible

Summary of bug fixes

• Hide unsupported Agent Configuration settings for macOS and Linux agents
• Added retry request in case of 502-504 response from Service Manager
• Fixed ‘unsupported options’ error message when connecting to shell via Recover Manager
• Fixed long load time when displaying current package version in the UI
• Fixed issue where License credentials are not updated if reseller or customer names are changed in Recover Manager
• Fixed configuration of logrotate for nginx service
• Fixed race condition that might cause the update process to hang at ‘endupdates’ stage
• Fixed issue where replication might attempt to run for invalid snapshot timestamps
• Fixed issues in provisioning where unsupported characters might be entered for passwords
• Fixed rare issue with mounting snapshots with FTPS enabled
• Fixed issue where the OS Name appears blank for some macOS devices
• Fixed issue retrieving and displaying large screenshot images for Cloud AutoVerify
• Fixed issue where users might save a backup schedule with None selected for both Business hours and Non-business hours (effectively NO backups are scheduled)