Release Notes : GLOBAL-SITE Controller PTF Note version 1.0PTF-02

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GLOBAL-SITE Controller

  • 1.0 PTF-02
Release Notes
Original Publication Date: 12/29/1999 Updated Date: 04/18/2019

Summary:

This product temporary fix (PTF) provides fixes for the global/SITE Controller, version 1.0 PTF-01.  The PTF includes all fixes released since version 1.0.

Contents:

Installing the PTF

Use the following process to install the PTF:

  1. Connect to the F5 Networks FTP site (ftp.f5.com).

    To find out how to download software from the F5 FTP site, see SOL167: Downloading software from F5 Networks.

  2. Download globalsitekit.tar file to the /var/tmp/ directory on the global/SITE Controller.
  3. Run the following command in the /var/tmp directory to install this PTF:

    gtar -xvf globalsitekit.tar

  4. While logged in as root, enter the following commands:

    cd /

    /var/tmp/upgrade

  5. Follow the instructions on the screen.

The checksums for this PTF are included in a file called sums which can be downloaded from the FTP site.


What's fixed in this PTF

The current PTF-02 includes the following fixes.

  • CR5448:  FTP connection reset hangs update (and presumably delivery)
    Corrected a problem when an FTP server disconnects from the global/SITE Controller in the middle of a session. With this PTF applied, the global/SITE Controller now attempts to reinitiate the session.
  • CR4525:  FTP hangs while waiting for response from the subscriber FTPD
    Corrected a problem that occurs when an FTP server does not respond to a global/SITE Controller request on a running session. With this PTF applied, the global/SITE Controller waits for a specified period of time for a response from the FTP server. If the controller does not receive a response, the controller then retries the operation.

Fixes released in prior PTFs

Fixes released in version 1.0PTF-01

  • CR4503:  Cannot purge section when different publication is not idle.
    The global/SITE Controller now checks for pub group state after the check for the section connection. You can now purge a section that is not being used in a publishing process, and still have protection against deleting versions while a pub group that uses the section is publishing.
  • CR4553:  Complete path should always be available at the top.
    Now, as the user views more details of a publication's components, he is always able to go to the top level for the screen he is viewing. For example, on the Test Connections screen, the user can click a link back to the publication he is testing the section for, as well as the link to the section he is testing.
  • CR4730:  When no subscriber had been copied successfully, and the user chose to continue, the error message shown (ERR_GSITE_CANCELED) was not helpful.
    When copy errors occur, global/SITE Controller does not continue publication to any subscriber with a failed path; and if no subscriber has a path that has not failed, then there is then nothing to continue. Now, the global/SITE Controller returns the more specific error code, ERR_GSITE_SUBCOPYINCOMPLETE (subscriber copy is incomplete), so that the user knows what has happened. (And global/SITE Controller also sets the f5errno, rather than simply returning an error number.)
  • CR4809:  When editing the section list, and attempting to remove several sections at one time, the global/SITE Controller removed only one section, and displayed the message "Object Already Exists".
    This has been corrected so that you can remove more than one section at a time from the Sections in... list.
  • CR4867:  The global/SITE Controller function Test Connection should check permissions.
    Added a read-only flag to tell whether the global/SITE Controller is testing a section or a subscriber. Now, when running a test connection on a section, it checks connectivity only; when running a test connection on a subscriber, it checks connectivity and also makes sure it can write to the path.
  • CR4869:  The Connection Test screen should have at least three fields.
    Added fields to the Connection Test screen to show separate answers to these three questions:
    1. Could the user contact the server?
    2. Could the user authenticate?
    3. Did the user have the correct permissions for each path?
  • CR4870:  The subscriber name may be erroneously replaced by the server:UID name pair.
    Added code to update the subscriber name whenever it is specified.
  • CR5089:  There were issues with the Copy phase when there was no completely successful subscriber.
    This has been corrected so that if the publishing process cannot continue, the state is set to CopyPhaseFailed.
  • CR5279:  Files that are locked by IIS may be corrupted by the global/SITE Controller when an edition is delivered; and no error is reported.
    This issue has been resolved so that new and old files are maintained without corruption. You may see that new directories being published in the copy phase are now visible in the main directory tree on the subscriber.

Known issues

  • If an interruption occurs in the commit phase, at just the wrong moment during an FTP rename (when the rename has started on the server), then the commit phase may fail. The failure message contains text similar to this: ftp command (RNFR /ptf2build2/config/##GS##/software.sav) failed.
    rename to new real file failed - hard error
    Status #00040304:FTPDir method :550 /ptf2build2/config/##GS##/software.sav:
    The system cannot find the file specified.
    From: ApplyToDir(Rename OldFile to New)

     
    The remedy, at this point, is to restart the entire publish process.

  • If the subscribers become out of sync with what the global/SITE Controller records them as having (if, for instance, you have manually deleted files), the recovery process is manual. You may need to recreate the subscriber and republish the files to it.

  • Attempting to select or open a file that is being used, or about to be used, in the global/SITE Controller publishing process, interrupts the process. This applies to both section and subscriber files.
    For instance, using Windows® Explorer to select a file in the staging server while you are updating sections can keep the update from succeeding.

  • All the files you want to publish must be viewable by FTP, or the directories may not publish to the content server. If you have hidden files, they will not be picked up by the global/SITE publishing process, nor published.

  • In Windows NT®, there may be problems with publishing files with long path/file names. NT has a restriction that path and file name combined cannot exceed 256 characters. The global/SITE Controller inserts special sub-directories during publishing that extend the path. Consequently, files with path/file names approaching the maximum length may be increased beyond the limit, and so fail to complete the publishing process.

  • The global/SITE Controller publishing process is constrained by the restrictions of your file system.
    For example:

    • There are device names reserved for use by Windows NT®. These include: AUX, CON, PRN, and NUL.

    • Be aware of issues with case-sensitivity on some file systems. For instance, on a UNIX server, you could have three different files: mygoodfile, MyGoodFile, and MYGOODFILE. If you published to an Windows NT® server, they would all be put to only one file, as NT is not case-sensitive.

    • If you have heterogeneous file systems, your file names must be able to work across the systems.

    • Be aware of the constraints on special characters in NT, and with Netscape. NT does not allow some special characters, shown here in brackets [ \ / : * ? " < > # | ].

    • The only special characters that global/SITE names can handle safely are the space and the underscore, shown in brackets [ ] and [ _ ]. Do not use other special characters in any global/SITE publication, section, or subscriber names: no double quotation marks, no apostrophes, no slashes, no question marks, no dashes.


  • There may be problems if you use the same file names in two or more sections that are publishing to the same subscriber and path. The global/SITE Controller attempt to publish may fail. You can avoid this by monitoring your file names.

  • Exercise care when setting up exceptions to sections. When you exclude directories in a section, any exception paths should be at a deeper level than the top-level path on the staging server.

    Be careful not to enter an exception that is the same as an existing path. The global/SITE Controller will permit you to do this, but you should avoid it. Doing so results in a section version that appears to be like any other section version, but that contains no files.

    For example, if the path is /server/section/directory, and the exception is also /server/section/directory, then nothing on that path will be updated. A more useful exception would be /server/section/directory/subdirectory; in that case, the /subdirectory would be excluded, but the rest of the content at that path would be published.

    To remove all files from a subscriber, create an edition using the special Remove Files section version, and publish that edition to the subscriber.

    Also, when setting an exception path, be careful to match exactly the case for the path in question on the staging server.

  • The global/SITE Controller has no process for cleaning up log files. You may want to monitor the global/SITE Free Space on the Publish Progress or Section Progress Display screen. If the free space becomes low, delete the files in the /gSITE/Data/GSID[ID number]/gsite/Logs to free up disk space. You may also monitor this directory directly, and regularly delete old files.

  • There may be issues involved in deleting sections on subscribers accessed through a distributor. The global/SITE Controller does not provide a method for deleting sections on either the publisher or the distributor.

    In order to recover space from a section:
    1. Delete the edition.
    2. Remove the unused versions (using the Section Detail screen, Section History tab).


  • When you add a new section to a publication with existing subscribers, you must explicitly include the new section on each of the subscribers you want to publish to, before it will publish to those subscribers.
    After adding a new section, use the Subscriber Detail screen and check the Include Section checkbox for the new sections you have created.

  • During installation, when you are asked to provide a password for the user gsite, you are creating a user who can access the global/SITE Controller through the browser only. You are creating a web account user, not a global/SITE Controller machine account.

  • The global/SITE Controller is not compatible with the Reflection FTP server for NT.

  • The Show Detail button may show "Publishing Started: ..." with the wrong date (such as December 1969), when checking on a new publication group with a section that has not yet been published.