Release Notes 5.0.0 Jaglion

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What's new in SEP sesam 5.0.0 Jaglion

New SEP sesam release 5.0.0 Jaglion introduces a more powerful and intuitive Web UI, handy new GUI functions, and more consistent and stable internal APIs.

Features at a glance

Improvements and bug fixes

This release contains a number of improvements and important fixes in various areas and resolves the issue with slow tape restore performance.

Extended SEP sesam REST API V2

The SEP sesam REST API V2 has been extended to support a wide variety of use cases. A large number of new endpoints have been added. For details, see SEP sesam REST API V2 Jaglion.

Enhanced Web UI

The more advanced and intuitive Web UI offers the following in addition to monitoring SEP sesam operations: Start backups immediately, restart failed jobs, lock backups, review alerts, set UI mode, and view job and data store details.

Backup & restore
  • Now also supported: Nutanix Acropolis Hypervisor (AHV) backup and restore. The Nutanix AHV module is supported on SEP sesam Linux Server and on SEP sesam Windows Server, using a Linux Client as a data mover.
  • To simplify backing up multiple VMs, you can automate the process by automatically generating tasks for VMs that are connected to the same host; in addition, you can also automatically create clients for VMs to which the generated tasks and ACLs can be assigned.
  • The new Oracle-VM task type is available to perform agentless snapshot-based backups of all OLVM virtual machines.
  • Si3 deduplication store has been improved; the new Si3 NG deduplication store enables significantly higher deduplication performance.
  • VFS (Sesam virtual file system) performance improvements enable 100x faster access to vSphere VMs booted directly from SEP sesam data store.
  • When browsing a VMware vSphere server for backup sources, VMs are displayed in the vCenter tree along with the host and clusters. The client browser for VMware now displays a description of the configured backup tasks and details of the VM-related metadata that can be copied.
  • For direct HPE backups and especially replications to the cloud, the new data store type HPE Cloud Volumes is available.
  • For Microsoft Windows Server 2016 or later, the Resilient Change Tracking (RCT) is supported to back up Hyper-V virtual machines.
  • Since Jaglion, the locked state is automatically applied to all backups in the chain of the selected backup.
  • When backing up Citrix Hypervisor VMs, it is possible to exclude individual virtual disk (VHD) from the backup.
Web Restore Assistant
Authentication & authorization

SEP sesam v. 5.0.0 authentication concept has changed. Now only a user with Superuser privileges can configure authentication and attach permissions (ACLs) to created users. The internal users can be authenticated via a signed certificate instead of a user password.

Media management

Expiring a tape provides a new option to delete all metadata, which erases all tape media metadata and initializes the tape (if the tape is loaded in a drive), removing access to all existing data on the tape.

New supported systems

SEP sesam Server 5.0.0 Jaglion now also supports the following:

  • Debian 11 (bullseye)
  • Nutanix AHV
  • HCL Domino 12

For a complete list of supported OS and databases, see SEP sesam Support Matrix.

Discontinued systems

Information sign.png Note
In SEP sesam Jaglion, SEP announced that it would no longer support:
  • Ubuntu 16.04
  • SLES11
  • Windows Server 2008 R2

For details on discontinued systems, see Unsupported OS. For a complete list of supported SEP sesam Clients, see SEP sesam Support Matrix.

SEP sesam Server requirements

Java xx

SEP sesam GUI is based on Java and requires a Java Runtime Environment (JRE). The required Java version depends on the SEP sesam version.

Information sign.png Note
Java 17 is not supported by SEP sesam. For a list of supported Java versions, see the Java Compatibility Matrix.

Installation and upgrades

SEP sesam Jaglion 5.0.0.1 beta was released (and available for testing) on 8th of November, 2021. Direct upgrade for versions 4.4.3.X to version Jaglion 5.0.0.1 beta is supported.

Latest released versions are:

  • SEP sesam 5.0.0.1 beta Linux Tux.gif – released: 8th of November, 2021.
  • SEP sesam 5.0.0.1 beta Windows Win7.gif – released: 8th of November, 2021.
Tux.gif Linux specific

In order to meet all required dependencies for the SEP sesam Client packages on SLES 15 SP1 or SP2, it may be required to activate the following package modules prior to SEP sesam installation:

Module-Basesystem
Module-Server-Applications
Module-Legacy

These modules are part of the installation DVD; in case no online subscription is available, they can be added via:

zypper ar dvd:/Module-Server-Applications DVD-Server 
zypper ar dvd:/Module-Basesystem DVD-BASE
zypper ar dvd:/Module-Legacy DVD-Legacy 
Win7.gif Windows specific

SEP sesam Server and Client components should be upgraded to the latest version during the upgrade process. This ensures that SEP sesam Clients are fully protected. Customers with a valid license are eligible for a free upgrade of SEP sesam to any new release for the duration of the license. See also Updating SEP sesam and Remote Installation of Windows Clients.


Previous release

Known issues and limitations

Information sign.png Note
Antivirus programs may disrupt network communication and cause SEP sesam processes, such as backup and replication, to fail. One program that is known to cause SEP sesam processes to terminate is Sophos Firewall with IPS (Intrusion Prevention System) enabled. Make sure that there are no antivirus, firewall, IDS or IPS programs preventing interaction with SEP sesam.
5.0.0 Jaglion known issues:

Severity: SECURITY

SEP sesam v. 5.0.0 – (Windows) STPD automatically disables the HTTPS port on Windows
  • (Applies only to Windows) The Sesam Transfer Protocol Server (STPD) automatically disables the HTTPS port if CPU instructions are missing due to unsupported AVX. Consequently, the SSL key and certificate cannot be created.
Workaround : Make sure that you use CPUs with supported AVX versions (AVX, AVX2 or AVX-512). They are listed in the article Advanced Vector Extensions.

Severity: MAJOR

SEP sesam v. 5.0.0.1 beta – STPD shutdown may hang
  • The Sesam Transfer Protocol Server (STPD) occasionally hangs during service shutdown due to incorrect signal function.
Resolution: Fixed with version 5.0.0.x.

Severity: MINOR

SEP sesam v. 4.4.3.86–5.0.0.1 betaInitial Seeding functionality temporarily removed
  • As using the Initial Seed option to set up a new Si3 deduplication store for replication resulted in an apparently successful setup, but no data was replicated, the Initial Seeding functionality is no longer available in version 5.0.0.1.
SEP sesam 5.0.0.1 beta – Backing up a VMware .vmx file may fail due to a line that is too long
  • Backing up VMware virtual machine configuration (.vmx) file may result in a Segmentation fault (core dumped) error if a line is too long. (The long line comes from the appInfo feature of the VMware tools.) Consequently, the backup of the VMware configuration fails.
Resolution: Fixed with version 5.0.0.x.
SEP sesam 5.0.0.1 beta – Unable to browse backup source for Oracle VM
  • It is not possible to browse Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager (OLVM) client to specify the source and select the object(s) to be backed up.
Resolution: Fixed with version 5.0.0.x.
SEP sesam 5.0.0.1 beta – Unable to perform Hyper-V single file restore from RDS due to a failed mount
  • When performing Hyper-V single file restore from an RDS, SEP sesam fails to mount Hyper-V VM VHD on Windows RDS due to the wrong path to .map file.
Resolution: Fixed with version 5.0.0.x.
SEP sesam 5.0.0.1 beta – No Exchange Recovery Pro shortcut (RPEX) created when mounting the saveset
  • When performing Exchange single item recovery, the saveset is mounted successfully, but no RPEX shortcut is created on the Windows server.
Resolution: Fixed with version 5.0.0.x.
SEP sesam 5.0.0.1 beta – Restoring vSphere COPY backups with single saveset option does not work
  • When restoring VMware COPY backups with selected GUI option When run with backup level 'COPY', write all data into single saveset, the restore fails.
Resolution: Fixed with version 5.0.0.x.

Important fixes

Fixed with SEP sesam Server 5.0.0 Jaglion:
SEP sesam v. 4.4.3.75 – Tape restore performance is slower than backup performance
  • When restoring from tape the performance is 2-3 times slower than the performance of the backup.
Resolution: Fixed; fill the second buffer while processing the first buffer, EOF handling adapted.
SEP sesam v. ≥ 4.4.3 – Si3S does not work in case of changed STPD port on the Client
  • SEP Si3 source-side deduplication (Si3S) backup of a client to a SEP Si3 deduplication store not work, if the STPD service TCP port on the client side (in sm.ini and/or stpd.ini) is changed from the default port.
Resolution: You can now set the STPD service TCP port on the client (client properties -> Options tab -> Listen port) to the new TCP port.

Enhancements and changes

Nutanix AHV

With Jaglion, SEP sesam provides efficient data protection for Nutanix AHV virtual machines (VMs). The Nutanix AHV module is supported on SEP sesam Linux Server and on SEP sesam Windows Server, using a Linux Client as a data mover. You can easily back up and restore Nutanix AHV VMs, as described in Nutanix AHV Backup and Nutanix AHV Restore.

Authentication and authorization

The authentication and authorization concept is enhanced with two new user types - superuser, which replaces the previous admin role, and backup user. Now only a user with Superuser privileges can configure authentication and attach permissions (ACLs) to created users. For details, see About Authentication and Authorization and Using Access Control lists.

Certificate-based authentication

Now it is possible to authenticate users via a signed certificate instead of a user password if a database-based authentication is enabled. Note that the users from external authentication sources (LDAP/AD) cannot be authenticated using a certificate (only by using a password). For details, see Configuring Certificate-Based Authentication.

Automating backup process

To simplify backing up multiple VMs, you can automate the process by automatically generating tasks for VMs that are connected to the same host; you can also automatically create clients for VMs that can be assigned the generated tasks and ACLs. It is recommended to use these features when a new hypervisor is added and many new VMs need to be backed up. For details, see Automating Backup Process.

HPE Cloud Volumes storage

In addition to HPE StoreOnce Catalyst stores and HPE Cloud Bank storage, you can now use HPE Cloud Volumes as backup storage. The HPE Cloud Volumes solution provides efficient direct backup, replication, and restore. Although you can use HPE Cloud Volume store for direct backups, it is recommended that you use it more as a secondary target repository for replication. For details, see HPE Cloud Volumes Backup.

Resilient Change Tracking for Hyper-V

For Microsoft Windows Server 2016 or later, the Resilient Change Tracking feature (RCT) is supported to back up Hyper-V virtual machines. Similar to CBT for VMware and Citrix, incremental backup technology RCT for Hyper-V detects block-level changes and backs up only the data that has changed since the last incremental backup. This allows you to back up VMs faster while saving storage space. See RCT for Hyper-V.

Oracle-VM task type

The new Oracle-VM task type is available to perform agentless snapshot-based backups of all OLVM virtual machines, regardless of their workload or operating system. See OLVM Backup.

New and improved with web Restore Assistant

The web Restore Assistant supports new task types and offers new features and an intuitive user experience that makes restoring data online quick and easy. For details, see Restore Assistant.

Web single file restore (SFR) for VMs

In the web interface Restore assistant, you can now restore individual files from VMware, Hyper-V, RHV/OLVM, Citrix Hypervisor, KVM/QEMU, OpenNebula and Nutanix AHV virtual machines online, if you have been granted the appropriate permissions. SFR for Proxmox VE VM is currently not supported. For details, see Web Single File Restore for Virtual Machines.

Web Exchange restore

Now it is possible to restore a single Exchange mailbox database using SEP sesam Exchange Recovery Pro via the web interface Restore Assistant. Exchange Recovery Pro is only supported on Windows systems and must be installed on the system serving as SEP sesam Server or SEP sesam RDS. See Web Exchange Restore.

Web VMware sandbox restore

Enhanced VMware sandbox restore via the web Restore Assistant can be performed in advanced restore mode. It provides improved functionality and usability of the recovery options, i.e. the use of run and execution commands of the VMware guest tools. See VMware Sandbox Restore.

Web MS SQL restore

Online restore of MS SQL Server databases is supported with specific recovery state options (leave the database ready for use by rolling back uncommitted transactions, etc.) and additional execution options (overwrite existing items with newer/older items from backup and skip ACL settings during restore). See Web MS SQL Restore.

Web UI enhancements

SEP sesam Web UI now provides a more detailed overview of jobs and tasks, improved monitoring of the SEP sesam environment, and the possibility of performing different operations, e.g., running or locking the backups, restarting failed jobs, etc. For details, see SEP sesam Web UI.

GUI enhancements

  • Under the Configuration -> Defaults -> General tab, two additional options are available. Now you can use Sort case insensitive option to ensure that upper- and lowercase letters are treated the same when sorting results. Additionally, new filter option allows you to set a delay for reloading data when changing the filter(s). For details, see Configuration: Defaults.
  • When creating a backup task on Linux, you can now set that deleted or modified files are not reported as errors. For details, see Creating a Backup Task.
  • Now you can start the replication immediately under the Activities -> Immediate Start -> Replication, see Activities.

Technical improvements

  • In previous SEP sesam versions, the backup locked state (savesets of the backup cannot be deleted) is applied to the selected backup only, so you have to lock all backups of a backup chain manually. As of Jaglion, the locked state is automatically applied to all backups in the backup chain. See Backups by State.
  • When backing up Citrix Hypervisor VMs, you can exclude individual virtual disk (VHD) from Full/Diff/Incr backup in the SEP sesam GUI to avoid storage occupancy. For details, see Citrix XenServer Backup.
  • Expiring a tape provides a new option to delete all metadata, which erases all tape media metadata and initializes the tape (if the tape is loaded in a drive), removing access to all existing data on the tape.

End of maintenance and support

Upcoming end of support

SEP sesam 4.4.3 Grolar -> October 2021

Discontinued SEP sesam Server OS

The following table lists the last available version of SEP sesam Server or RDS components for specified operating systems. You can continue using the last available version of SEP sesam on these operating systems, but SEP AG no longer provides updates or fixes for the specified versions.

For SEP sesam Client versions, backward compatibility is maintained and the last available versions for a platform are continuously supported. On older platforms you can use older versions of SEP sesam Client component, but it is recommended to combine such clients with the latest versions of SEP sesam Server and RDS components.

SEP sesam Release Versions

Operating system Last available version Release Notes
Windows Server 2012 5.1.0.7 Apollon 5.1.0 Apollon
RHEL 7 5.1.0.7 Apollon 5.1.0 Apollon
Debian 9 »Stretch« 5.0.0.15 Jaglion V2 5.0.0 Jaglion V2
SLES 11 SP2, SP3, SP4 4.4.3.x Beefalo V2, see notes 4.4.3 Beefalo V2 SEP announced that it would no longer support SLES 11 SP2, SP3, SP4 with SEP sesam Beefalo, but has re-established support for Beefalo V2, where all SEP sesam Beefalo V2 packages (Server, Client, etc.) can be used. However, Beefalo V2 is the last available SEP sesam release for SLES 11 SP2, SP3, SP4 .
Windows Server 2008 R2 4.4.3.x Beefalo V2, see notes 4.4.3 Beefalo V2 SEP announced that it would no longer support SEP sesam Server on Windows Server 2008 R2 with SEP sesam Beefalo, but has re-established this support already in Beefalo. This actually means that the last available SEP sesam Server release for Windows Server 2008 R2 is Beefalo V2.
Ubuntu 16.04 4.4.3.84 Beefalo V2 4.4.3 Beefalo V2
RHEL 6 4.4.3.64 Grolar 4.4.3 Grolar
Debian 8 »Jessie« 4.4.3.64 Grolar 4.4.3 Grolar
Debian 7 »Wheezy« 4.4.3.64 Grolar 4.4.3 Grolar Version 4.4.3.64 only available for sesam-cli on amd64
Windows Server 2008 4.4.3.64 Grolar 4.4.3 Grolar
Windows 7 4.4.3.64 Grolar 4.4.3 Grolar
Ubuntu 14.04 4.4.3.48 Tigon V2 4.4.3 Tigon V2
All 32-bit operating systems 4.2.2.40 4.2.2 For some operating systems SEP sesam client is still available in 32-bit.
SLES 10 4.2.2.40 4.2.2
RHEL 5 4.2.2.40 4.2.2
Debian 6 »Squeeze« 4.2.2.40 4.2.2 sesam-cli also available in version 4.4.1.22
Windows Server 2003 4.2.2.40 4.2.2
Debian 5 »Lenny« 4.2.1.34 4.2.1
SLES 11 ≤ SP1 4.2.1.34 4.2.1 Initial SLES 11 Release and Servicepack 1


Major fixes and changes

See also

SEP sesam Release Versions