Release Notes : WANJet version 4.0.0

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WANJet

  • 4.0.0
Release Notes
Software Release Date: 04/09/2006
Updated Date: 04/18/2019

Summary:

This release note documents the version 4.0 release of the WANJet Appliance. To review the features introduced in this release, see New features in this release. For existing customers, you can apply the software upgrade to 3.1.1 and later. For additional information about installing the software, please refer to Installing the software.

For information about installing the software, please refer to the WANJet User Guide.

Contents:


Supported platforms

This release supports the following platforms:

  • WANJet 200
  • WANJet 400

To verify your hardware platform type, click the About link from any screen in the WANJet appliance's Web UI.

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Backing up your current configuration

To back up your current configuration before installing the software upgrade, complete the following steps.

  1. Log in to the WANJet Web UI, by typing the following address into a browser's Address line.

    https://<your WANJet 200 or WANJet 400 appliance IP address>:10000

  2. In the navigation pane, expand System and click Backup & Restore.
    The WANJet Configuration Backup screen displays.

  3. Click the word, here.
    The browser opens a File Download window for you to save the backup file to your local computer. This default backup file is Settings-<ServerName>.NTCL.

  4. Save the backup file to your local hard disk.

  5. Rename the backup file to identify the specific WANJet appliance that you are backing up and the current date.

 

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Installing the software

For an initial upgrade installation of WANJet version 4.0 software, you must complete the following procedures:

  • Perform the upgrade
  • Activate the license
  • Save the WANJet appliance system serial number to the compact flash

Important: For the WANJet appliance to function properly, TCP ports 3703, 3702, 3701, 10000, and 10001 must all be open on a firewall. Any firewalls separating the WANJet appliances must have these ports open. For specific information about configuring ports, refer to the WANJet User Guide .

Important: Version 4.0 introduces a new licensing procedure. To use version 4.0, you must first obtain a Base Registration Key. Do not proceed with the upgrade process until you have the Base Registration Key. If you did not receive an email with a Base Registration Key, contact F5 Networks Technical Support before attempting to install a software upgrade.

To install the software upgrade, perform the following steps.

  1. Log in to the WANJet Web UI, by typing the following address into a browser's Address line.

    https://<your WANJet 200 or WANJet 400 appliance IP address>:10000

  2. Verify that a disk image of the new version of the WANJet software is accessible from the local computer on which you are viewing the WANJet Web UI (on CD-ROM, for example).

  3. In the navigation pane, expand System and click Upgrade & Boot Menu.
    The WANJet Boot Menu screen displays.

  4. Click the Upgrade button.
    A confirmation message displays.

  5. Click the OK button to continue.

  6. Click the Browse button and locate the upgrade file on your computer.

  7. Upload the upgrade file to the WANJet appliance.

  8. Click Upgrade WANJet.
    The WANJet appliance restarts automatically when the upgrade process is complete.

Performing a remote upgrade from versions 3.1.1 or 3.1.2

Note: For specific instructions about the following procedures, refer to the WANJet User Guide .

You can perform a remote upgrade to version 4.0 from version 3.1.1 or later. If you are upgrading remotely from version 3.1.1 or 3.1.2, you must also complete the following procedures.

  1. Switch the operational mode of all WANJet appliances to inactive.

  2. Install the software upgrade on all of the WANJet appliances.

  3. One at a time, change the status for all of the WANJet appliances to active.

To activate the license using the manual method

  1. In a web browser, access the Web UI using HTTPS and port 10000.
    For example, if the IP address of the appliance is 192.168.168.102, type https://192.168.168.102:10000 in the web browser.
    The welcome screen displays.

  2. Type the user name and password.
    The default user name is admin and the default password is admin.

  3. Click the Log On button.
    The WANJet Status screen displays.

  4. Click the Not Entered link, next to License.
    The WANJet License Detail screen displays.

  5. Into the Base Registration Key box, type or paste your Base Registration Key.

  6. Click the Manual button, located next to the Activation Method.

  7. Click the Next button.

  8. Select and copy the entire contents of the Dossier box.

  9. Click the Click here to access the licensing server link, located below the dossier.
    The Activate F5 License screen displays in a separate browser.

  10. Into the Dossier box, paste the dossier that you copied.

  11. Click the Next button.
    The WANJet License Details screen displays with the current license date.

  12. In the navigation pane, expand Reports and click Status.
    The license should now display as OK.

Saving the WANJet appliance system serial number to the compact flash

Note: You must perform the following procedure only once, when you upgrade from a previous version of the WANJet appliance to version 4.0.

  1. At the top right of the screen, click the About link.

  2. In the Chassis serial number box, type the serial number as it appears on the F5 serial number sticker, located on the back of the WANJet appliance.

  3. Click the Save button.
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New features and fixes in this release

This release includes the following new features and fixes.

New features

This release includes the following new features.

Management Port
You can now manage the WANJet appliance through the management network interface port. You can configure the management network interface port parameters from the LCD panel or from the serial console port.

Common Internet File Sharing (CIFS)
The WANJet appliance now accelerates CIFS file copies (read and write), directory browsing, and remote file access for a variety of document formats. For the WANJet appliance to accelerate CIFS files, the Optimization Policy must have the following settings for ports 139 and 445:

  • The Processing Mode is set to ACM5.
  • Connection Intercept is enabled.

Adaptive compression
The WANJet appliance maximizes WAN throughput automatically for all WAN link speeds by detecting the speed of the WAN link and adjusting its compression algorithm accordingly. High compression ratios are achieved for low-bandwidth links where the link is the bottleneck, whereas CPU cycles are not wasted on achieving these high rations on high-bandwidth links where CPU cycles are the bottleneck.

Non-transparent proxy
The WANJet appliance uses its IP address as the source address when connecting to hosts on the LAN, rather than using the remote host originating the connection.

Optimization of General Routing Encapsulated (GRE) data
You can apply the WANJet appliance's optimization techniques to data encapsulated in GRE tunnels.

Increased capacity
The previous limits on connections that the WANJet appliance can optimize concurrently have changed as follows:

  • WANJet 400 appliance has increased from 1000 to 14000 concurrent connections
  • WANJet 200 appliance has increased from 200 to 1000 concurrent connections

When the WANJet appliance receives connection requests beyond these limits, it passes them through without optimization.

Default password
The default password is admin.

Fixes

This release includes the following fixes.

WANJet appliance reboot when system snapshot is taken (BUG3167, 25272)
The WANJet appliance no longer reboots when a system snapshot is taken.

TDR-2 and heavy load (BUG3262)
The WANJet appliance no longer resets connections when under sustained heavy load while TDR-2 is enabled.

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Known issues

The following items are known issues in the current release.

Upgrading a one-arm configuration (CR61967)
Upgrading a WANJet appliance in a one-arm configuration may disable IP forwarding. To resolve this issue, set the value for ip_forwarding to 1. For instructions, see Enabling IP forwarding  in the Workarounds for known issues section.

WANJet Links light (CR61710)
The WANJet Links light on the dashboard does not monitor WANJet appliances that are set up as redundant peers; it displays only the status of the active peer.

VLAN configuration on a local WANJet (CR61557)
After using the VLAN Settings link to add a VLAN to a local WANJet appliance, you cannot reach the IP address configured in the WANJet appliance virtual IP through the VLAN interface.

Real Time Traffic report (CR61437)
The amount of network traffic shown in the Real Time Traffic report appears to repeatedly spike to twice the actual amount, in 30-second intervals.

Passthrough sessions (CR60178)
After a high volume of traffic passes through the WANJet appliance, the dashboard may temporarily display more Passthrough Sessions than are actually occurring.

TDR-2 optimization for concurrent connections (CR60126)
The limit of concurrent connections that TDR-2 can optimize is lower than the overall connection limit.

  • WANJet 400 appliance can optimize up to 1500 concurrent connections using TDR-2 optimization.
  • WANJet 200 appliance can optimize up to 200 concurrent connections using TDR-2 optimization.

 

SSL encryption implementation
SSL encryption is currently implemented only for optimized TCP traffic. In future releases, we plan to support TCP and UDP protocols for SSL encryption.

VLAN traffic and LAN router value configuration
If you want to process VLAN traffic, do not configure a LAN Router value in the Local WANJet link of the Web UI.

SNMP support
We have disabled SNMP support for this release and expect to reinstate it in a subsequent version.

CIFS connections (CR61513)
The WANJet appliance can prematurely terminate CIFS connections. This issue causes Lotus Notes users to receive delayed write error messages.

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Workaround for known issues

The following section describes the workaround for the corresponding known issue listed in the known issues section.

Enabling IP forwarding (CR61967)

To enable IP forwarding
  1. To enable IP forwarding, type the following command:

    sysctl -w net.ipv4.ip_forward=1

  2. Verify that IP forwarding is properly enabled by typing the following command:

    sysctl -a | grep ip_forward

    The output should appear as follows:

    net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1

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