Release Notes : GLOBAL-SITE Controller Release Note

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GLOBAL-SITE Controller

  • 3.0.0
Release Notes
Original Publication Date: 05/30/2002 Updated Date: 04/18/2019

Summary:

This release note documents version 3.0 of the GLOBAL-SITE Controller.  You can apply the software upgrade to existing systems running version 2.0 and later. We publish updated versions of these release notes on the AskF5 Technical Support Web Site.

Contents:

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New features and enhancements

The GLOBAL-SITE HTTP section
You can now use HTTP to map your web site and send files to the GLOBAL-SITE Controller to prepopulate your EDGE-FX Caches. The controller searches the web site and gathers data from the web-tree structure of the staging server (it must be a webserver). For publications that use HTTP sections, you can use the GLOBAL-SITE Controller to push content to your EDGE-FX Cache(s) instead of having the cache pull content from the origin servers. For more information, see the GLOBAL-SITE Controller Administrator Guide, Chapter 4, Increasing Control over Publishing.

Run the GLOBAL-SITE Controller as an option on an EDGE-FX Cache
If you purchase an EDGE-FX Cache, version 3.0, you may purchase a license to run the GLOBAL-SITE Controller on the same machine as the cache. With a GLOBAL-SITE Controller that runs on an EDGE-FX Cache you can create only non-archived publications. This is supported only for version 3.0 caches. (You cannot upgrade an existing 2.2 or earlier cache to support this.)

Enhanced publishing progress display
The default Publish Progress Display screen is now more concise, and displays just one line of status per subscriber. Therefore, the controller can display the publishing progress of large publications more quickly.

Browser support
The GLOBAL-SITE Controller supports Internet Explorer, version 6.0, and Netscape Navigator, version 4.7X.

Setup utility
Setup utility is the new name for the First-Time Boot utility.


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Required Configuration Changes

There are no required configuration changes for this release of the GLOBAL-SITE Controller.


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Fixes

The following issues are resolved in the current release.

Publishing unchanged content (CR17651)
You can now publish unchanged content after removing all content from a subscriber.

snmpd agent (CR17834)
The snmpd agent reliably restarts at reboot.


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Known issues

The following items are known issues in the current release.

Unsuccessful upgrade installation (CR21611)
If the GLOBAL-SITE Controller is not functioning properly after you upgrade it to version 3.0, it may not have had enough disk space to extract all of the upgrade files during the upgrade process. To check if the controller had enough disk space, open the /var/log/upgrade.log file. If this file indicates that a package did not install sucessfully due to lack of space, you must do the following:

  1. Using a text editor, open the /VERSION file.

  2. Change the Build number to one less than the /VERSION file indicates.
    For example, if the file indicates Build130, change it to Build129.

  3. Save the file and exit the text editor.

  4. Free some disk space on the affected partition by removing log files from the /var/log directory.

  5. From the /var/log directory, run the upgrade again by typing ./upgrade_install.

  6. After the upgrade process completes, check the /var/log/upgrade.log file to make sure there are no messages indicating an unsuccessful upgrade. You should see a message near the top of the file that states UPGRADE: Sufficient space found to extract all packages.

Caching and content delivery (CR20909)
During normal publication, errors that occur during content delivery result in the controller ceasing to publish to the cache. For example, a network error during publication between the controller and the cache stops the controller from transmitting files to that cache. This allows the GLOBAL-SITE Controller to retry the publication at the point at which it failed. However, if the EDGE-FX Cache cannot cache the content for some other reason (such as the content is not cacheable, or the cache has exceeded its capacity), the controller logs the error, skips that particular content, and continues to publish to the cache.

Using cache subscribers (CR17846 and CR17847)
To successfully populate or expire URLs on a cache subscriber, you must enable the corresponding section for at least one of the non-cache subscribers. This restriction does not apply to Windows® Media files using the mms:// scheme or when populating from HTTP sections.

Delivery path change, when you publish more than one section to the same path (CR11575)
When you set multiple sections to the same subscriber path, the controller delivers all the sections to the same directory (based on the path).  If you later decide that you do not want to publish all the sections that you assigned the same path, you cannot simply clear the check box for the section, nor can you just change the path in the Delivery Path box.  Doing so produces unpredictable results.  To get around this:

  1. Leave the check box for the section checked.

  2. Delete the entire path for the section(s) to which you do not want to deliver.

  3. Click the Update button.
    When the screen refreshes, the check box is cleared and the path is deleted.

  4. Proceed as usual with the delivery of the section(s).

Change in FTP-Push port configuration (CR20798)
In previous versions of the GLOBAL-SITE Controller, FTP-Push could use only port 21. Now FTP-Push can use any port that you configure when you run the Setup utility. You must use the port that you set to access this FTP account.

For Linux, the appropriate command is:
ftp <IPADDRESS> <PORT NUMBER>

For Windows NT, the appropriate command is:
ftp
open <IPADDRESS> <PORT NUMBER>

FTP-Push sections left in the Changing state on upgrade (CR17344)
If you update the GLOBAL-SITE Controller while an FTP session is active, then the state of the FTP-Push section after upgrade is Drop Zone Changing.  You can disregard this message; it causes no harm and the state corrects itself.

Publish Progress screen does not link to Distributor Detail screens (CR20731)
The Publish Progress screen should link to the Distributor Detail screen if you use distributors to deliver content. To see distributor detail, click the name of the distributor from the Distributor List screen.

Setting trap destinations (CR20746)
To set multiple trap destinations, you must use the Configuration utility, not the ITCMconsole CLI, because the CLI does not record multiple trap destinations in the snmpd.conf file.

If you use the CLI to add or change trap destinations, this overwrites the first line of existing destinations in the snmpd.conf file. It does not add a trap destination to the list. We recommend you use the Configuration utility to configure trap destinations.

Upgrading the GLOBAL-SITE Controller for use with BIG-IP version 4.0 or later (CR17392)
When you upgrade to the GLOBAL-SITE Controller, version 3.0 (from version 2.1 or earlier), and you run the BIG-IP, version 4.0 or later, you see that your virtual server addresses no longer appear on the Virtual Server Addresses list.  This happens because the GLOBAL-SITE Controller, version 3.0 communicates with the BIG-IP, version 4.0 through the iControl architecture, and therefore iControl needs more information to establish the connection.  To restore your virtual subscribers, you need to add the iControl user name and password pair for each BIG-IP. 

HTTP section on a redirecting web site gives an error (CR21011)
When configuring an HTTP section, make sure that it is pointing to the actual web server that contains the data, not a redirecting web server. If the HTTP section is pointing to redirecting web server, you get an error.

HTTP sections additional documentation (CR20972)
The following text should appear in the Section updates using HTTP section of the GLOBAL-SITE Controller Administrator Guide, Chapter 4, Increasing Control over Publishing.

The GLOBAL-SITE Controller does not count non-cacheable web objects when it gets new content from an HTTP section. While the GLOBAL-SITE Controller retrieves both cacheable and non-cacheable web objects when it checks an HTTP section for changes, it only increments the File and MByte counters for cacheable web objects. Non-cacheable web objects include objects without a content length field in the HTTP header, and objects marked as not cacheable. If the controller seems to take a long time getting new content from an HTTP section, but the controller retrieves very little data, you should check the web server configuration to make sure that it contains cacheable web objects.

The GLOBAL-SITE Controller uses a web robot to check whether an HTTP section has changed. Its web robot follows the restrictions that you set in the robots.txt file. If getting new content from an HTTP section does not return the amount of content that you expect, you should check the web server's robots.txt files to make sure they are not restricting the HTTP section's robot.

Powering down the controller (CR18174)
While the GLOBAL-SITE Controller is in service and running, do not power down the controller by unplugging it, or by using the power switch, as the controller could lose data.


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