Release Notes for LanSafe III / FailSafe III 4.0 (C) Copyright Exide Electronics, 1998 This document contains up-to-date information for LanSafe III/FailSafe III Release 4.0. Last Updated: March 10, 1998 ------------------------- How to View This Document ------------------------- This document was formatted to be read in Windows Notepad, MS-DOS Editor, or any plain text editor. To print the document, choose Print from the File menu. ****************************************************************** ======== Contents ======== Part Description ---- ----------- 1 New Features and Enhancements 2 Bugs Fixed 3 End of Life Platforms 4 Further Information ======================================================= Part 1: New Features and Enhancements ======================================================= * LanSafe SNMP Proxy Agents SNMP Proxy Agents were added for the following operating systems: Operating Version SNMP Agent System Supported Program Name -------------- -------------- ------------ Windows 95 4.0 and above LS3AGENT.DLL Windows NT 3.51 and above LS3AGENT.DLL Netware 3.12 and above LS3AGENT.NLM OS/2 2.1 and above LS3AGENT.EXE AIX 4.1 and above ls3agent HP-UX 9.7 and above ls3agent Solaris 2.4 and above ls3agent SCO OpenServer 5.x and above ls3agent UnixWare 2.x and above ls3agent The LanSafe SNMP Agents support the standard UPS MIB, RFC 1628. A text copy of the file, rfc1628.mib, is placed into the LanSafe installation directory at installation time. This file can also be used with all popular SNMP based network management systems. HP-UX and Solaris require the installation of the SNMP Extensible Agent product from Hewlett Packard. All other operating system platforms require installation of the native SNMP package available with the operating system or with its TCP/IP package. Setup of the SNMP system within the operating environment, such as trap receivers, community strings, and network masks, is solely the responsibility of the system administrator. TCP/IP is required for communication of the LanSafe SNMP agent with the LanSafe Power Monitor. * TCP/IP Protocol Support / Cross Platform Compatability The TCP/IP network communication protocol has been added to the LanSafe Power Monitors and Consoles for the following operating systems: Operating Version System Supported -------------- -------------- Windows 95 4.0 and above Windows NT 3.51 and above Netware 3.12 and above OS/2 2.1 and above TCP/IP protocol support has been available in the Unix operating system versions of LanSafe since initial release of the product. The operating systems listed above continue to support the networking protocols available in earlier versions of LanSafe. Windows 95 no longer requires one product for Netware Networks and another for Windows NT Networks. All networking protocols needed (TCP/IP, NetBIOS, and IPX/SPX) are supported within the LanSafe product for Windows 95. The availabilty of the TCP/IP protocol within all LanSafe III products ensures complete cross platform support for control and configuration of UPS devices within complex, heterogenous network environmnents. * NetFinity Alert Support Netfinity is a non-SNMP based network management product from IBM. The primary function of the product is to gather and process alert information from around the network. The ability to generate NetFinity UPS related alerts to a NetFinity management system running on the network has been added to the LanSafe III power monitors. The generation of Netfinity alerts is enabled and disabled for each LanSafe III alert using the customizable alerts dialog in the LanSafe III console. By default, the Netfinity alert check box is enabled for all alerts. All other interface by the user to the alerts is accomplished through the Netfinity management system. LanSafe III will generate Netfinity alerts using the GENALERT facility provided by IBM. This facility is automatically installed when the Netfinity service is installed on the computer. NetFinity alert support was added for the following operating systems: Operating Version System Supported -------------- -------------- Windows 95 4.0 and above Windows NT 3.51 and above Netware 3.1 and above OS/2 Warp 3.0 and above * Measurement Logging and Graphing UPS measurement logging capability has been added to all LanSafe III and FailSafe III power monitors. The LanSafe III and FailSafe III consoles have been enhanced with dialogs for controlling the logging rate and file size and to graphically display the logs locally and remotely. Log files are stored in a sub-directory named "Log" under the LanSafe III or FailSafe III installation directory. One file is created for each day. The log files are text based, comma delimited files that will easily import into any spreadsheet, database, or graphing program. The log file record format is as follows: "Date Time", "Input Volts", "Output frequency", "Output volts", "Load in Watts", "Battery Volts" Example: "12/01/96 08:30:00","56","60.1","120","500", "48.0" * SurfSafe Web Enabled Software SurfSafe has been added to the applications available on the LanSafe III/FailSafe III CD. It allows monitoring of networked computers running either OnliNet or LanSafe via your Web Browser. See the readme file in the SurfSafe directory at the root of the CD for further instructions on its use. * Miscellaneous Enhancements The following miscellaneous changes have been made to existing functions in the software: · The preventive maintenance reminder function has been modified to default to the disabled state. · The weekly schedule dialog has been modified so that the setup of this information is more user friendly and intuitive. · A version file is written to the installation directory to make it easier to install upgrades and reinstall over existing installations. · The Communications Port Setup dialog will show settings for IRQ and Address or Device Name style depending on Console’s connection to a Netware or some other type of server. · The Timed selection on the Console's Shutdown dialog has been changed to have the user input when they would like the system to come back up, instead of how long to have it stay off. · PERSIST option has been added to the Lansafe III Power Monitor that will allow control over unwanted stopping of the Power Monitor window (which controls graceful shutdowns) on Windows NT platforms. The option is turned off by default. · NONBIOS option has been added to the LanSafe III Power Monitor and Console for OS/2, Windows NT, and Windows 95. Customers are sometimes unhappy with NetBIOS network communication performance and may prefer to use only the TCP/IP protocol. Placing a file named NONBIOS into the LanSafe III installation directory (contents are insignificant) and restarting the software will cause the NetBIOS protocol support within LanSafe III to be disabled. * LanSafe III version 3.x Backward Compatability All LanSafe III version 4.0 Power Monitors and Consoles are capable of communicating with previous releases of LanSafe III. This capability enables system adminstrators to upgrade nodes on their network to the new release at their convenience. * Installation Programs Installation programs have been modified in the following ways: - to detect networking protocols available and handle any necessary support for them - to determine preferred networking protocol when setting up UPS Group Controllers and Members - to use a layered approach for installation of SNMP functionality - Install standard LanSafe III release 4.0 product - Determine if the target computer has an SNMP agent system and install SNMP agent support - to determine the correct path where Netfinity is installed. If unable to detect this path, the user is prompted for the location. - to add support for graphical periodic logs for measurement graphing and logging. - Windows 3.x and DOS installation programs for LanSafe will no longer install LanSafe onto a Netware server. - LanSafe is installed on Netware servers via an installation NLM, LS3SETUP.NLM, that is run from the Netware server console. ======================================================= Part 2: Bugs Fixed ======================================================= * Prestige UPSs (BCM protocol) two byte Shutdown Delay A one byte shutdown delay value had been assumed. Therefore LanSafe and FailSafe limited the shutdown delay to a maximum of 255 seconds (4 minutes and 15 seconds). LanSafe and FailSafe Power Monitors have been corrected to detect both one and two byte shutdown delay settings and behave accordingly. * Prestige UPSs (BCM protocol) Firmware Version LanSafe and FailSafe Consoles reported BCM firmware version incorrectly in the System or Node Information area. * Support for serial expansion products on Windows NT COM ports on serial expansion cards did not work on NT with UPSCode II protocol UPSs (NetUPS and PowerRite product lines). * System calls to CLIB.NLM functions replaced by "type in" method on Netware server consoles Netware NLMs have had their system calls to some functions within CLIB.NLM replaced with a method that types the needed command on the Netware console screen so that LanSafe doesn't have to rely on functionality within particular versions of CLIB.NLM. Older versions of CLIB.NLM were missing functions that the LanSafe NLMs expected to be able to use. * NT Operating System version greater than 4.0 supported Changed areas of code that checked specifically for NT version 4.0 to check for version 4.0 or greater. Now LanSafe and FailSafe run fine on Beta versions of NT 5.0. * Installation problems on some versions of Linux Linux uname -a command was returning unexpected results to the installation program on some versions of Linux. This is now detected and handled correctly. * Linux X/Motif runtime libraries problems MetroLink X11/Motif runtime libraries seem to have errors associated with their use. ls3conX and ls3X for Linux are now statically linked with these libraries to eliminate problems with the runtime versions. * HP-UX init file tries to stop itself ls3.init script was attempting to kill all ls3 processes including itself when running /sbin/init.d/ls3.init stop. It has been corrected so that errors are no longer generated. * Reboot selection from Shutdown dialog in LanSafe or FailSafe Console with Prestige (BCM protocol) UPSs caused UPS to stay off This problem has been fixed. Now the UPS stays off for one minute and then power is cycled back on, hence allowing the computer to reboot. * Email was not working consistently from LanSafe on Windows NT The email functionality available via the Customize Alerts dialog in the LanSafe console has been moved to a user level application, LS3EXEC.EXE, where it works very reliably. * Power Monitor Service starts Power Monitor Window on NT This is now set up by the installation program when it puts the LanSafe or FailSafe service into the registry. This allows the LanSafe or FailSafe Power Monitor Window to be running before a user has logged in, thus supplying orderly shutdown protection in the case of Windows NT computers used strictly as servers. * Extra computer on whole UPS caused Load Segment settings to be ignored It appeared that there was an extra computer on load segment 0 (whole UPS). This bug affected OS/2, Windows NT, and Windows 95 due to multi-threading coordination issues at start up. Multiple load segments were shutting down simultaneously (as if a computer was on whole UPS), regardless of separate shutdown timings. * Entries into Windows NT Event Logs were formatted incorrectly Events in the system event log were formatted incorrectly and differently for NT 3.51 and NT 4.0. This has been corrected. ======================================================= Part 3: End of Life LanSafe and FailSafe Platforms ======================================================= The following operating system platforms have been included on this release at their previous release versions: Operating Software Final Release System Product Version Number -------------- -------- -------------- Windows 3.x FailSafe 3.72 Windows 3.x LanSafe 3.72 DOS LanSafe 3.72 Interactive Unix LanSafe 3.72 Mac System 7 LanSafe 2.00 These platforms received none of the changes listed in the New Features and Enhancements and Bug Fixes sections of this document. LanSafe for Mac System 7 continues to support only UPSCode II protocol UPSs (NetUPS and PowerRite product lines). ======================================================= Part 4: Further Information ======================================================= For additional technical and user information, please consult the Online User Manual supplied in the Manuals directory at the root of the LanSafe III/FailSafe III version 4.0 CD. Several formats are supplied to meet the needs of all systems: Windows Help (manual.hlp), Rich Text Format (manual.rtf) which is importable into all popular word processors, and manual.pdf which is viewable with the supplied AcroRead executable, also found in the Manuals directory. Context sensitive online help is also available from within the LanSafe and FailSafe Power Monitors and Consoles. ------------------------------------------------------- LanSafe III is a registered trademark of Exide Electronics. FailSafe III is a registered trademark of Exide Electronics. SurfSafe is a registered trademark of Exide Electronics. OnliNet is a registered trademark of Exide Electronics. Windows NT and Windows 95 are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Netware is a trademark of Novell Corporation. OS/2 is a trademark of IBM Corporation. NetFinity is a trademark of IBM Corporation. AIX is a trademark of IBM Corporation. HP-UX is a trademark of Hewlett Packard. Solaris is a trademark of Sun Micro Systems. SCO OpenServer is a trademark of Santa Cruz Operation. UnixWare is a trademark of Santa Cruz Operation.