Version V8, build SW_BUILD_NUMBER
SW_BUILD_DATE

Synchronous replication
Fixed spurious replication failure.

Version V8, build 14947
2023-02-08

Synchronous replication
Fixed slow full synchronization issue.

Version V8, build 14869
2022-12-28

Core
Excluded asynchronous replicas, LSFS and LWC from the project.
Encrypted secret passwords for chap authentications.
Fixed the crash during the creation of the replica.
Fixed the crash for time-outed I/O requests.
Fixed the spurious lost connection.
Update TLS version to 1.2 used for email notifications.
Minor fixes and updates.

Synchronous Replication
Added synchronization journal places on a disk with two working strategies:
	- Best Performance: The strategy provides better I/O performance while all device nodes are in a healthy state. But it can't guarantee fast synchronization in all cases
	- Fast Recovery: The strategy provides faster recovery in all cases but requires an overhead I/O for each write operation.
Fixed the node majority logic during storage degradation.

Version V8, build 14398
2021-11-24

Core
Fixed the memory leak in the VSA-based version that could be caused by the clocks changing.

Version V8, build 14338
2021-10-13

Core
Fixed the crash for client write request handling.
Fixed the deadlock for the processing of SCSI persistent reservation during client session registration.
Fixed the issue with the service getting stuck when the log file would be located on the storage that had degrading performance.

StarWindX PowerShell module
Fixed memory leak on getting information for HA devices.

Version V8, build 14314
2021-09-20

Core
Fixed issue with hang-up on service stopping. On service stop it could get stuck on device closing in configurations with paramater "QueueWorkersCount" value more than 1.
Fixed issue with hang-up on service stopping. In some cases, service could not close client connection gracefully. Now service closes it forcibly. 
Fixed issue with hang-up operations on uderlying storage. Some RAID could produce hang-up operations which never complete. Now service completes such operations with timeout as a workaround. Timeout default value is 60 seconds.
Fixed crash for client session closing.
Fixed issue when email notification could cause HA device timeouts and fail of the network connection between partners.
Fixed issue for STARTTLS authentication on SMTP  compatibility issues with some servers.
Performance optimization for the VSA-based version.

Management Console
Fixed control connection issues and improved logging and diagnostics abilities.
Fixed issue with service events flooding.
Fixed minor issues in device creation wizards and dialogs.

StarWindX PowerShell module
Fixed issue with size conversion while RAM device creation.

Version V8, build 14120
2021-05-24

Synchronous replication
Fixed issue with HA node synchronization rejection after service restart. When the service is restarted on one node, the synchronization procedure was not starting in some cases.
Fixed crash in case when underlying storage or network connection between partners has performance degradation.

VTL and Cloud Replication
Fixed crash while tape export in case when cloud replication is configured with option "Create new empty tapes automatically when existing tape removed from VTL for replication". When the option is enabled, program could crash after creation of one of new virtual tapes.

Version V8, build 14033
2021-03-25

Core
Performance optimization for VSA-based version.
Fixed issue with processing the close session operation in the state when system resources are extremely low. 
Fix for processing of the control connection close operation. In some cases, this error could lead to massive notification generation and make the management console unresponsible.
Changed session close procedure on service stopping. In case if a session can not be closed gracefully, the service closes it forcibly. Service could hang-up waiting for session closing in previous versions.
Fixed an issue with Management Console hang-up when a free license is applied on the server without Internet access.

Synchronous replication
Fix for Node Majority failover strategy implementation. Failover routine was working incorrectly if the network connection between partner nodes was broken only in one direction.
Fixed for the auto restore procedure for three-way synchronous replication. Now node can be restored if all three nodes are up and running. Previous versions could be restored with only two nodes available, which is incorrect, as the cluster has no complete state information about data consistency in this case.
Fixed issue with losing the partner connection during the extend size operation. On some types of storage, this operation can take a long time. The waiting procedure has been changed to not cause partner disconnection.
Fixed error which led to full synchronization instead of fast synchronization in some cases.
Fixed error on processing IO requests that have stuck on underlying storage on one node in a device with three-way synchronous replication. This error led to the state when all three nodes worked incorrectly when the underlying storage on one of the nodes does not respond in time.

VTL and Cloud Replication
MS Azure support: Added the option to upload virtual files to Archive tier directly without uploading to Hot/Cool tier and then moving it to Archive tier in the cloud.
Added Write Protect option for virtual tapes.
Fixed error on restoring the tape split into parts from a cloud. When tape is split into parts, some parts could not be downloaded from a cloud during the restore procedure.
VTL file operation mode changed to close unused virtual tape files by default. If there are too many tape parts in use, keeping files open can lead to system resource exhausting. This mode can be changed back to keep files open with the closedatafiles option in StarWind.cfg file.
Auto-create option improved. Now it uses size and block size parameters of the previous tape to create the new tape automatically.
The minimum tape size is limited to 50MB.

StarWindX PowerShell module
Physical devices are reported in the device list. It allows using PowerShell for exporting physical tape devices.
MaintenanceMode property added to HA Device.

Version V8, build 13861
2020-10-07

Core
Default value for the iScsiPingCmdSendCmdTimeoutInSec setting is updated to 5 seconds on software update on existing StarWind Virtual SAN installation.
Fixed logging for e-mail notifications: message with quotes from the mail server could be added to the internal log message and break the string format.
Improved the service stop operation. In some cases a client may keep the connection open even after the logical iSCSI connection shutdown. This prevents the normal stopping of the service. Now Server closes the connection forcefully in these cases.
Set of fixes and updates to implementation of the SCSI  protocol. Fixed reporting the size of MODE_SENSE length field in the response.  MODE_SENSE10 command is reported as unsupported by flat devices. Flat devices report the Resource Provisioned type instead of Thin Provisioned type on the Logical Block Provisioning VPD page. Resource Provisioned type suits better, as flat devices allocate all blocks at the start of the operation. UNMAP/TRIM commands are processed correctly as before and release blocks of underlying storage devices.

Synchronous replication
Added the option to use the SMB share as a witness resource for devices with synchronous replication and node majority failover strategy.
Processing of persistent reservations is fixed for devices with synchronous replication. At the moment when the reservation state is being updated on one node, another node could report old reservation values to the client.
Fix for updating the partner state from cases when the device has been restored after the split-brain issue.

Management Console
Fixed crash in a case when StarWind Event log contains records with incorrect string format.
Updates for the e-mail notification settings dialog. Added validation for the list of e-mail addresses in the "Send to" field. Login/Password fields are hidden in the case when Authentication is set to none.

StarWindX PowerShell module
Added functionality to create HA device with Node Majority configuration. StarWind node or SMB Share can be used as a witness resource. See sample scripts CreateHAPartnerWitness.ps1 and CreateHASmbWitness.ps1.
Fixed processing of the ALUA parameter for HA device creation commandlets.

VTL and Cloud Replication
Cloud Replicator, Backblaze: updated error processing for the Backblaze HTTP client.
Cloud Replicator, MS Azure: fixed performance statistics records in the cloud replicator log for MS Azure replication.
Cloud Replicator, Amazon S3:  China (Ninghia) region removed from the list.

Version V8, build 13586
2020-05-06

Core
Fixed processing for EXTENDED COPY(LID4) command. It was returning an error to the client on the previous build, thus making the client use non-VAAI commands.

Notifications 
Text file notification changed to open and close text file on each message instead of keeping the file open constantly.
E-mail notification: a minor fix for secured authentication on SMTP - compatibility issues with some servers.

Version V8, build 13569
2020-04-20

Synchronous replication
Full synchronization with CRC check, which has been added in the previous release, is now used only for cases when underlying storage is MS Storage Spaces. Synchronization type (Full or Full hash) is shown in the Management Console. For generic storage types old algorithm with data copy without additional CRC check is used due to better performance. 
Memory alignment fixed for data CRC request.  Compatibility fix for VSA build.
Fixed bug for the Node Majority configuration with two nodes and Witness node. Data corruption may occur in case when failure is caused only by the loss of the sync channel, and the failing node has the ability to process client requests at the moment when a loss of sync channel is detected.

Installer
The number of files for log rotate is updated to the new value of 20 during the update of existing installations.

Flat Storage
Improved the processing of responses to UNMAP/TRIM commands from the underlying storage system for ReFS: functionality to suppress log error on failed Trim call for the error 312 (ERROR_NO_RANGES_PROCESSED) added.

Management Console
Fixed error messages from Event Log display in the notification area. In some cases, notifications have not been displayed when the option is configured.

StarWindX PowerShell module
Added sector size check for new Flat Image: it is not allowed to create Flat Device with a sector size of 512 bytes on disk with a physical sector size of 4096 bytes.
Added parameter value validation for parameter "format" in Add-RamDevice call. Allowed values are fat16, fat32, ntfs, raw.
Added "force" parameter for "remove" command.
Added option to use custom barcode for new VTL Tape. See AddVirtualTapeCustomBarcode.ps1 sample.
Added property CreateTapeOnExport for the VTL ApplyReplicationSettings() call. See VTLReplicationSettings.ps1 sample.

E-mail notifications
Fixed bug: sending e-mail notifications using the SMTP server without authentication has been broken in the previous build.

Version V8, build 13481
2020-02-25

Core
StarWind Log Collector wizard added. Logs pack for support request can be collected on the server using the Management Console. Use the corresponding context menu item for the Server to prepare an archive with logs and download it to the machine where the Management Console is running.
Fixed error - when the device header file is referenced from the config file but does not exist on disk, service could crash on start.
Improved output of event log records for time ranges when the system time has been changed.
Improved the processing of responses to UNMAP/TRIM commands from the underlying storage system. In case when UNMAP/TRIM operation returned an unexpected result code, disk error is not reported to the client. In previous versions, disk error was reported to the client, which showed up as a wrong "Bad block" error record in the client's logs.
Added implementation for processing of Header and Data iSCSI digests on CPUs without the SSE4.2  command set.
The default number of log files in log rotation settings increased from 5 to 20.

Synchronous replication
Improvement: full synchronization procedure is reworked to omit unneeded data movement. Instead of executing the full copy, it compares the CRC for data on partner devices block-by-block and copies the data only if blocks on HA partners are different.
Fixed error: the server could crash on partner channel operation.
Default value for "ping partner" operations (iScsiPingCmdSendCmdTimeoutInSec) increased from 1 second to 3 seconds. 
Fixed memory leak for the state when one node has RDMA configured and tries using the iSER for partner connection and other node have no RDMA and doesn't accept the iSER connections.

E-mail notifications
Implemented support for SSL/STARTTLS SMTP connections.
Added the option to use SMTP Authentication.
Added the option to test the current SMTP settings with the "Send Test Message" command in the "Modify Event Notification Rule" dialog for the Send E-Mail action type.

VTL and Cloud Replication
List of regions for all replicators moved to an external JSON file and can be easily updated in case of changes on the side of the provider.
Fixes for processing barcodes with non-default lengths (more or less than eight characters).
Fixed crash on attempt to upload the tape split into a large number of parts (order of thousands).
Fixes for replicator settings management. Some controls in CloudReplicator Settings dialog were tied to incorrect parameters.

StarWindX PowerShell module
AddVirtualTape.ps1 - updated to use case-insensitive string comparison for a device name search.
Remove-Device command extended to use optional parameters for force disconnect, keep service data, remove stored data on device remove operation.
IDevice::EnableCache method added to enable/disable cache, PowerShell support added too. See FlashCache.ps1, FlushCacheAll.ps1 samples.
Added option to create HA device with failover strategy. Use parameter $failover=0/1, see CreateHA*.ps1 samples.
VTLReplicationSettings.ps1 - sample changed to use numeric values for replication destination types.
"Valid" property added to HA channel.
MaintenanceMode.ps1 - better processing for boolean parameters when running from the command line.
LSFS device type - AutoDefrag parameter removed, always true.       

Management Console
Minor fixes and updates.

Version V8, build 13279
2019-10-15

Core
Fixed error in license validation: for licenses with a limited storage capacity of replicated devices, single node devices were taken into account too. 

Synchronous replication
Fixed error with processing the "force remove" operation on the HA device. It could lead to service crash in specific conditions.

VTL and Cloud Replication
Fixed issue with barcode generation: when new tapes are created at the same time in several tape drives of the same VTL device, the same barcode could be assigned to different tapes.

Version V8, build 13182
2019-08-16

Core
Added support for iSCSI Header Digest and iSCSI Data Digest. These features add CRC control for data in iSCSI headers and PDUs, respectively. It can be enabled by setting corresponding options in iSCSI Initiator on the client.
Fixed memory leak in Flash Cache on multiple device add-delete operations.
Performance optimizations for the case when more than three sessions are connected to target.
SMI-S management for HA has been fixed to report HA devices correctly.
Added log message for error on session reinstantiation due to the stuck old session.
Fixed issue in cache deinitialization. In some cases, devices with disk cache could be preventing normal service shutdown. 

VTL and Cloud Replication
Added option to cancel current cloud upload or cloud download operation.
The replication process now can process several objects in parallel to remove the performance limitation of a single data object (for MS Azure, see "Target throughput for single blob", https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-subscription-service-limits).
Wasabi replicator: eu-central-1 region added.
Added functionality to manage Cloud Replicator settings using UI (Server - Configuration - Cloud Replicator Settings).

Synchronous Replication
Added option to change ALUA settings of an existing device.
Optimized processing of failover to minimize response time in the case when partner server has gone offline without proper shutdown. See KB for more information.
Fixed processing of sync channel loss. Failover procedure involved requesting some extended status fields from partner nodes, which could take too much time and exceed command processing timeout. This state could occur in some cases when operating under Windows Server 2019 and lead to data loss.
Failover procedure changed to process sync channel loss without extended interaction with partners.
Performance optimisation for NUMA systems. There was an issue with correct NUMA-node binding in the previous build. 

Management Console
UI performance optimizations.

StarWindX PowerShell module
Added option to set parameters for most of the sample scripts.

Log Write Cache (experimental)
Autostart for snapshot migration procedure added. In previous builds snapshots have been kept on the log without moving to the base device, filling up the disk where LWC log resides.

LSFS
Fixes for issues related to device start after incorrect server shutdown.
Fixes for device operation after updates from previous versions.

NVMe-of Target Demo
Demo target updated, fix for processing Max Queue Size option added.


Version V8, build 12767
2019-01-18

Core
SMI-S management functionality has been fixed to work correctly with single-node and multi-node devices.
Fixed issue with deadlock in service management module, which could occur in rare cases when service core creates device with L2 cache and UI requests device information at the same time. This deadlock when occurred, was blocking any subsequent operations like device creation/deletion, session registration etc.
Fixed issue with incorrect processing of session disconnection during the iSCSI Login stage. When iSCSI Initiator breaks connection in the middle of iSCSI login procedure, service could crash.

VTL and Cloud Replication
Added support for Azure Government storage in replicator.
Added option to delete replicated virtual tape files from cloud by schedule.
Added option to delete virtual tape files from local storage and from cloud storage by command in UI.
Added support for signature version 2 for S3-compatible Cloud Storage replicator.
Fixed error for Backblaze replicator: in some cases, replication process could stuck after receiving unexpected message from server. After this error replication progress freezes at the same value and status of the tape also remains unchanged. Log is filled with records "Inner exception message: Exception of type 'System.Net.Http.HttpRequestException' was thrown."
Fixed error with updating list of available replicators when new build is installed over existing installation of the previous version. This error showed up as disabled options for S3-compatible cloud storage and Wasabi Cloud storage in replication settings of build 12658.

Synchronous replication
Added improvement to procedure of disconnecting client connections on operations like switching to Maintenance mode and processing of synchronization status change. When client sessions was executing long-time operation, it could become disconnected slightly after the device status is changed.

NVMf Target Demo
Fixed the NVMf Target Service update procedure: during installation of build 12585 over the existing installation of the same version, NVMf Target was not reinstalled correctly. Now, NVMf Target config is reset by the installer to avoid any possible issues due to NVMf Target misconfiguration.

Version V8, build 12658
2018-11-21

Synchronous Replication
Fixed issue with incorrect processing of storage hardware failures that has been introduced in build 12393. In some cases when disk storage fails on one HA node, this fails could be left unprocessed. When the hardware issue is resolved, and HA node restarted, no full correct sync process was done, thus leading to possible data loss.
Updating is strongly recommended for systems that are running V8 build 12393 and later versions!

VTL and Cloud Replication
Added support for Wasabi Cloud Storage in replicator.
Added support for S3-compatible Cloud Storage in replicator. Signature version 4 is supported now, Signature version 2 support will be added in upcoming update.
Fixed restore functionality for replica in MS Azure Cloud: if data resides in archive tier at the time of restore, restore process never ended.

NVMf Target Demo
Fixed Management Console connection error for case when NVMf Target Demo service is not installed on server.
Fixed NVMf Target Service update procedure: during installation of build 12585 over existing installation of the same version, NVMf Target was not reinstalled correctly. Also, NVMf target config is reset by the installer now to clean possible issues with NVMf target misconfiguration.

Version V8, build 12585
2018-10-18

VTL and Cloud Replication
Added support for LTO8 tape devices.
Added PowerShell commands for managing VTL devices and Cloud Replication settings. See samples for more information.
Fixed restore functionality for replica in MS Azure Cloud: if data resides in archive tier at the time of restore, restore process never ended.

NVMf Target demo
Added option to create simple NVMf Target for technology demonstration. Existing NVMf initiator can be used to connect the target.
Simple RAM Disk and Flat Storage devices are supported. Mellanox RDMA-enabled network adapters with latest drivers from manufacturer are recommended. 
Other adapters that provide NetworkDirect API layer may be used. 
Please take into account that install process overwrites NVMf Target configuration file. Old nvmf.conf file, if it exists at the start of installation process, is saved as nvmf.conf.bak.
Update license to access this feature, free/trial licenses work too.
Check our Web site for more information.

Synchronous Replication
Fix for 100% CPU load issue: in some cases when HA device starts working under irregular workload, sync channel transport could load one CPU core by 100%. In case when number of sync channels is comparable to number of CPU cores in the server, it could lead to unresponsive service operation.

Management Console
Help moved to Web site, see https://www.starwindsoftware.com/help/
Other useful links added to Help menu.

Core 
Fixed service start on systems where NVMe devices present. In some cases, service could crash on start.

Version V8, build 12393
2018-08-16

VTL and Cloud Replication
Added support for MS Azure Cloud Storage in replicator.
Fix for performance issue that was present in 12146, 12166 builds: VTL write performance was affected by non-buffered file operation mode.
Implemented support for offline pre-seed scenario. If tape backup has been added to cloud storage using offline data transfer service or other methods, tapes can be registered on offline shelf to make them available for restore commands. Use Restore from Cloud dialog, select tapes and check Add tape record from cloud to shelf without downloading it option.

Core
Notifications: Event ID code added to message string for notifications to text file.
Fix for processing un finished iSCSI Tasks: when iSCSI session terminates in non-graceful way, last commands could remain unprocessed, preventing session termination. These sessions prevent the service from correct shutdown with log message like Waiting for 5 seconds for clean up to complete (XX refs)...
Fix for operating with ProxMox Virtual Environment. Fixed processing of WRITE_SAME16 SCSI command. StarWind Service was crashing on virtual disk initialization when used with ProxMox VE and VAAI commands enabled.

Synchronous Replication
Fix for PowerShell command to enable setting two or more synchronization or heartbeat channels for HA device.
Fix for processing configuration change when network interface is being removed from the node and then added back immediately using Replication Node Interfaces wizard. When HA device is configured in Node Majority mode, this issue could lead to data corruption.
Fix for processing configuration change when non-active HA node is being removed from 3-node HA device configuration with some client load present. When HA device is configured in Heartbeat mode, this issue could lead to loss of one of two remaining nodes: service becomes irresponsible.

Log Write Cache
Log Write Cache functionality added as experimental feature. Log cache works as L2 write-back cache with data logging. This helps increase write speed in some workloads. In scenario with synchronous replication LWC helps processing incorrect node shutdown:
-	eliminates need for full synchronization after incorrect node shutdown;
-	allows auto-sync with correct HA partner after full blackout state.
Use Add Device Advanced wizard, "Thick-provisioned with Write Log" option to create flat device with write log.
This functionality is not for production use yet.
Check our Web site for more information.

Version V8, build 12166
2018-05-07
Flat Storage
Fixed issue with processing of Trim/Unmap commands. This error was introduced in previous build. Symptoms of the error are "Bad Block" error messages in Windows System Event log on client system and messages in StarWind log files at the corresponding time:
IMG: *** ImageFile_FileLevelTrim: FileLevelTrim: FSCTL_FILE_LEVEL_TRIM failed (err 6).
These messages indicate error in processing of Trim/Unmap command on virtual device, no data is lost and no disk errors are present.

LSFS
Fix for issue on pre-V8R6 devices. When LSFS-based 3-node synchronous replication that has been created in V8R5 version (build 11456 or earlier versions), upgraded to new build, synchronization could fail. 

Management Console
Added support for upcoming StarWind VSA 2.0.

Version V8, build 12146
2018-04-23
VTL and Cloud Replication
Added support for Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage in replicator.

LSFS 
Fix for issue on pre-V8R6 devices: when user data size is greater than 1.2 TB, data corruption could occur on restart of the service.
Fix for excessive storage usage under high load: defragmentation procedure changed.

Synchronous replication
Event log messages made clearer to identify the source of performance issues:
- (id 809) Underlying device response time is longer than expected.
- (id 824) Partner "%s" request response time is longer than expected.
- (id 825) Request execution time is longer than expected.

Maintenance mode message changed to use to different event for on and off:
- (id 821) Maintenance mode is turned ON.
- (id 822) Maintenance mode is turned OFF.

Fix for processing HA device configuration changes with Node Majority strategy. When two HA partner devices are deleted manually on server, remaining partner, which stays without majority, was staying online and processing requests. Now it goes to "not synchronized" state, as it has not enough votes for majority.
Fix for operation with Node Majority strategy with Witness node. When one data node is offline and Witness node goes offline and then returns back online, HA device was not returning to online state, even having majority with nodes.

E-mail notifications
Removed 30 second pause between sending separate messages.
Fix for issue when SMTP port number couldn't be changed.

Flat Storage
Improvement: when device is created on storage that reports physical sector size incorrectly, service allows to create device with warning.

StarWindX PowerShell module
Added VTL management functionality to StarWindX PowerShell module, see samples:
\StarWindX\Samples\powershell\CreateVirtualTapeLibrary.ps1
\StarWindX\Samples\powershell\InsertVirtualTape.ps1
\StarWindX\Samples\powershell\RemoveVirtualTape.ps1
Powershell module: Fix for reporting tape barcode in device.Slots object.

Added sample for 3 node LSFS-based HA device:
\StarWindX\Samples\powershell\CreateHA_3_LSFS.ps1

Fix for processing "SectorSize" parameter, now it is possible to create devices with 4k sector size.
Fix for HA device creation with COM-object and PowerShell scripts.
Fix for snapshot creating functionality in COM-object and PowerShell scripts.


Version V8, build 11818
2017-12-14
Synchronous replication
Node majority failover strategy implemented in addition to existing heartbeat mode. It is usable in case when it's not possible to provide second physical channel for heartbeat between the nodes. Odd number of nodes is required for operation in this scenario. Witness node without storage can be used in case when third storage node with own copy of data is excessive. Please check online documentation for more information.

Maintenance mode for devices with synchronous replication added. When device is set to maintenance mode, device nodes can be switched on/off freely and full synchronization is not required when device is returned to operational mode. Clients must be disconnected before switching device to maintenance mode.

LSFS 
LSFS engine has been improved to get better performance, faster initialization time after graceful shutdown and after incorrect shutdown. Added ability to keep metadata on SSD storage instead of RAM. It is recommended to re-create LSFS devices and migrate data to new devices.

Cache
Cache performance improved in both Write-back and Write-through mode.

E-mail notifications
Timestamp added to message text in e-mail.

VTL and Cloud Replication
Added support for AWS GovCloud (US) Region in replicator.
Improved processing of timeouts and connectivity issues on operations with Cloud Storage.

Core
General performance improvements and fixes.
Improved processing of task queues on high load and on loss of connection.


Version V8, build 11456
2017-07-27
Core
Fixed issue with hang-up on service stopping. On service stop it could stuck with repeating messages in log: "Waiting for 5 seconds for cleanup to complete (XX refs)...". Messages are repeated without changing the number of references and without actual stop of execution.

Synchronous replication
Fixed issue with incorrect processing of time-outs for commands on synchronization channel. Error in processing of timed-out commands could lead to crash of the service.
ODX performance optimizations.

Version V8, build 11404
2017-07-13
Cache
Fixed processing of TRIM/UNMAP command. When cache memory allocation is still in progress, but virtual devices has already set to functional state, service could crash on receiving TRIM/UNMAP command.

Synchronous Replication
Fixed issue with "Synchronization request will be refused" state in logs. In some cases, devices with synchronous replication could not start synchronization after server reboot. Message "Synchronization request will be refused" appears in service logs.

StarWindX
Functionality for creating HA device with 3 nodes fixed, sample updated.

Known issue:
LSFS-based devices with synchronous replication may lose synchronization when disk load grows significantly due to replica synchronization or cache flushing.

Version V8, build 11156
2017-05-24
Cloud Replicator for VTL
Amazon S3 integration libraries updated.

Licensing
New license type added: Cloud VTL. Please check web site for more information.

Synchronous Replication
Fix for processing of ODX commands when ODX support is disabled in configuration file. In case when ODX is disabled in configuration file and client sends ODX commands, service could crash on processing command errors.

Version V8, build 11071
2017-05-11
Virtual Tape
Added functionality for replicating Virtual Tape files to cloud. Amazon S3 with migration to Glacier are supported now.
Please check Web site for more information on this feature.

StarWindX PowerShell module
Extend command added for HA devices.

LSFS
Fixed issue with saving metadata in close device procedure. On large amounts of user data in some cases, this error could lead to issues with mounting LSFS device on following open device procedure.
Fixed crash in case when service has both LSFS device and its snapshot mounted and user removes source LSFS device.

Free License
Fixed issue: service was blocking iSCSI connections when trial period expires.

Version V8, build 10927
2017-04-19
StarWindX (PowerShell module and COM-object)
Fix for operating on Core versions of Windows. PowerShell commandlets generated errors on Core 64-bit versions of Windows OS.

Version V8, build 10914
2017-04-13
Cache
Improved procedure of memory allocation for cache on device creation. Now this process executes when device is already created and functioning, so adding device with large cache completes fast.

Management Console
Fixed issue with setting NUMA node for new device and target. This parameter remained not set. This error was introduced in build 10768.

Version V8, build 10833
2017-03-28
Cache
Fixed error with processing read requests with write-back cache. In case when cache is large enough (gigabytes), read operation started after long period of write load may be processed with significant delay.
This error was introduced in build 10547.

Virtual Tape
Fixed error with processing position of virtual tape in Tape Library with several virtual tape drives. Service could crash on start when rebooted with tape inserted in virtual tape drive.

Version V8, build 10811
2017-03-24
Core
New license type added: Free Core. Please check web site for more information.

Synchronous replication
Added compatibility for old device configurations from V6 without ALUA settings. In previous builds service was crashing while reading such device configuration strings.

Fixed detection of network connection loss. After sequence of disconnect and connect operations executed by HA node on sync channel, synchronization channel status could be displayed incorrectly as functional when connection was lost.

iSER protocol
Fixed issue: when service is started, iSER protocol support is enabled and user disables network adapter, service could crash. Now this operation is processed correctly by service.

Version V8, build 10768
2017-03-03
Management Console
Fixed issue with non-default target name for new device.
When user created new device and set target name other than default, this setting was ignored and target name was set to default value.

Fixed issue with using replication manager on devices that are created on StarWind Virtual SAN V6.
When new synchronous replica is being added to existing device, that has been created on version 6, operation resulted in error.

Fixed issue with adding replica to device with size greater than 16TB. 
When new replica is being added to device with size greater than 16TB, operation resulted in error with message "There is not enough space on the disk".

LSFS
Added implementation for XCOPY command for LSFS-based devices. This command is part of VAAI command set.
Changed operation of LSFS device with write-back cache in low disk space circumstances. Disk write operations are throttled to speed up journal defragmentation process.

Synchronous replication
Synchronization using snapshots (for LSFS devices) changed to take snapshots synchronously. 
Preparation before snapshot has been added into fast snapshot synchronization routine. It reduces time into "start synchronization guard" scope and prevent fail of network connection between partners due to timeout.

Fixed issue: in case of storage fail on one node, this node is moved to offline mode. This process includes flushing cache to disk. When cache has a large size, this operation takes significant time. In previous versions node moved to offline mode after flush cache operation has finished, in a result client could send requests to non-functional node during this period of time. Now this behavior is changed and node is switched to offline mode before flushing cache to disk.

iSER protocol
Fixed issue: HA devices could lose synchronization under high load when iSER protocol is used for sync channel.

Version V8, build 10695
2017-02-15
Core
Fixed bug: When StarWind service starts after Windows updates are installed and some Windows features/components are in the state "Waiting for restart", StarWind service hangs up on start.

Synchronous replication
Compatibility with V6 device headers returned. V6 had device headers in binary format, and starting from V8 StarWind use XML format for swdsk device header files. HA device converts V6 format top V8 format on start automatically.
We recommend to check with StarWind Support and Knowledge base before upgrading from old versions.

Version V8, build 10547
2017-01-26

Core
Extended support for NUMA architecture: option to set NUMA node for Virtual Device and Target, automatic distribution of devices and targets on NUMA nodes.

Added support for ODX commands (Windows Offloaded Data Transfer). ODX performs certain data transfer operations on storage side without moving data through the client machine.
(https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831628(v=ws.11).aspx)

Performance optimizations for VAAI WRITE_SAME command.

iSER protocol support added as experimental functionality. Network cards with RoCE v2, RoCE v1 RDMA protocols support are required for the protocol to work.
Use Server - Configuration - Network section in Management Console to enable iSER support.
iSER can be used for client connections and for synchronous replication. Mixed scenarios are supported: iSCSI access for client connections and iSER protocol on HA synchronization channel. Please join our forums for discussion.

VMWare Virtual Volumes
Added support of the HA devices to the StarWind VASA Provider as experimental functionality. HA devices presented as HA VVols. VASA Provider allows administrators to configure StarWind Virtual SAN storage resources as storage containers for virtual machines and enables storage policy-based management (SPBM) of virtual machines. Use WMI to configure VASA Provider. Documentation available on the Web site.

Cache
Statistics for cache operations: cache hits rate, cache usage percent. This statistics is being accumulated starting from device creation or service start and can be reset for checking the exact time period.

Flash Cache
Added performance optimizations for flash cache module.

Synchronous Replication
Traffic priority management for sync channel has been reworked. Now it provides a more precise control of client traffic/sync traffic ratio on sync channel during nodes synchronization. For existing devices this parameter will be re-set to 50% after software update.

Tape Redirector
SPTD mode added for accessing physical tape device on the server. This mode bypasses user applications on the server. It suits the cases when the user software locks access to physical tapes for Tape Redirector module or breaks operations of remote clients that use iSCSI connection to physical tape device.
SPTD driver installation is required for this mode. SPTD mode is used automatically as soon as the driver is installed.

LSFS
Long device initialization issue has been fixed. Initialization of LSFS device with data after service start could take too much time, even after clean shutdown. Now the initialization time for device with data is significantly reduced.
Experimental version of LSFS module included. This version contains a lot of performance optimizations and the capability to store metadata on Flash storage instead of RAM. 

Virtual Tape 
Added integration with Windows Deduplication feature for volumes where Virtual Tape Files reside.
Added option for storing Virtual Tape files on custom path.

Known Issues
When using StarWind with Synchrnous Replication feature inside of Virtual Machine on VMWare ESXi server, please stop StarWind service manually before pausing or taking snapshot of virtual machine where StarWind service runs.
Pausing the VM with running service under load may lead to split brain issues in devices with synchronous replication and data corruption.

Version V8, build 10355
2016-12-21
Core
Fixed bug: issue with reading physical disk parameters. With some types of USB disks this error could lead to service hang up on start or when USB-disk attached to server.

Version V8, build 10158
2016-10-24
Synchronous replication
Fixed bug: service could crash on start when opening header files with large number of snapshot records.

Version V8, build 9996
2016-08-25
Asynchronous Replication
Fixed issue with Management Console crashing when adding asynchronous replica to existing device with synchronous replication, which has an old (V6) configuration format.
Old format assumes direct reference to .img file from HA device. Starting from V8 version HA devices use simple device as a storage.

Version V8, build 9980
2016-08-16
Virtual Tape Library
Fixed issue with incorrect reporting of tapes in library for backup software. Device identifiers generator changed to use unique identifiers for new devices. Before the fix, IDs could be reused and client software could obtain incorrect information about VTL tapes in some cases.

Flat Storage
Device properties reporting changed to allow Bitlocker encryption.

Version V8, build 9781
2016-06-30
Cache
Fixed issue with service crash on deleting the device with large cache under load. Service could crash in some cases, when device has RAM cache in write-back mode and device is loaded with writes and size of cache is relatively large, several gigabytes, and user deletes device using Management Console.

Flash Cache
Experimental version of cache module added to this build. This module contains optimizations, which significantly improve performance of L2 cache.
Service can be switched to experimental cache module with Management Console: select the server, switch to Configuration page, Experimental Features section.
Switching to experimental cache module affects operation of L1 cache as well.
Experimental features are not recommended for use in production environment.

Flat Storage
Size limitation of 16TB for single device is removed. Now size of flat storage device is limited by size of file on the underlying filesystem.

Core
Fixed issue with processing of network configuration changes on server.
In case when network interface is being turned on and off periodically during certain period, service could crash on processing changed list of network interfaces for iSCSI server.

Web access to Management Console
Please check our web site for more information on StarWind Web Console feature.

Version V8, build 9568
2016-05-19
Asynchronous replication
Asynchronous replication implementation reworked to use scheduled snapshots.
Source node creates snapshots by schedule and these snapshots are replicated to remote node. Local snapshots that has been replicated are deleted.
Number of snapshots that have to be kept on synchronous and asynchronous node are configured at the stage of replica creation.
Source device can be Flat storage or LSFS storage, replica is always created as LSFS device.
In case when source node is Flat device, additional disk space for write log is required.
Minimum network speed required for asynchronous replication operation is 100 MBps.

Note: existing asynchronous replicas must be re-created after update to this version to ensure proper operation.

Synchronous replication
Added cases when fast synchronization is used instead of fast synchronization.
Fix for processing of underlying storage failures for case when Flat devices are used with synchronous replication. In some cases client could get disk error in when storage failed on one node and is healthy on other node.

Cache
Fix for issues that occurred during creation and removing of devices with large cache size (several gigabytes and larger). 
In case when there were other devices under load on the same server, those devices could process client requests with delays during creation or removing of device with large cache.

Tape Redirector
CDB length now set to 12 for vendor-defined SCSI opcodes (0xC0-0xDF) - to fix issues with SPTI access to some tape drives.
	
Version V8, build 9052

Core
Fixed error in cache module: cache memory could be paged to swap file in cases when cache size is more than 4GB.
Check for 

Version V8, build 8730

Management Console
Fix for error on processing Cluster configuration records. If previous version was installed and it had configured Clusters in Management Console and installation had been updated to build 8716, Management Console may crash in a short time after start.

Version V8, build 8716

Core
Service now requires 64-bit OS for installation. Management Console, VSS provider and StarWindX can be installed to 32-bit OS or to 64-bit OS.

Management Console
Files of devices are stored to separate folders to make management more simple.
L2 cache settings for synchronous replica can be set up on replica creation without issues.
Health Status section added to properties of devices with synchronous replication to make sync channel status monitoring more simple.
Cluster section has been removed. It will be part of new management functionality, which is being developed now.
Minor changes.

Synchronous replication
Solved issue where RAID rebuild on one node, which is being synchronized, affected performance of other nodes.
If active node is being synchronized and its partner detects that is has limited performance, it stops synchronization and retries synchronization attempt after certain timeout.
Optimizations for operation with LSFS devices.

Cache
Cache size limit of 600GB removed.

LSFS
Fixes for processing errors on mounting device from existing files.
Performance optimizations.
Fixed issues for snapshots management. In some cases, like removing device with mounted snapshot, it could lead to service crash.
Processing of errors of underlying disk fixed to translate these errors to client correctly.
Added command that starts forced defragmentation of device.
Important: It is recommended to move data from existing LSFS devices, which had been created on previous versions of the software to newly created devices after update due to changes in internal data structures.

Flat storage
Performance fix. Disk access mode changed to use internal disk cache more efficiently. On some SSD drives and some RAID controllers, this error caused lower write speed on small packets.

Core
Service now requires 64-bit OS for installation. Management Console, VSS provider and StarWindX can be installed to 32-bit OS or to 64-bit OS.

Known issues
For case of replicated devices, VAAI command may introduce overhead due to additional data synchronizations between replicas.
It is recommended to remove CHAP authentication settings before converting single-node device to replicated device. CHAP settings can be applied again when replica is added.


Version V8, build 8502
License updated.

Version V8, build 8289
L2 Cache
Deadlock on disk requests for devices with l2 cache on some hardware configurations fixed.

Cache
Size of cache (L1 or L2) is limited by 600GBs.

Version V8, build 8198
Licensing
Added support for new license type (StarWind Virtual SAN 2 Nodes Free).

Version V8, build 8116
2015-06-04

Core
Fix for error with ACL management: when access rights are edited in management console and service is rebooted after that, some access rights disappear.

Management Console

Fix for error with empty Browse window. It relates to old installations, which have been updated from version 5.8 to v8.
In some dialogs, where management console shows browse window to open the file or select file name for the new file, open dialog is empty and does not contain files and directories of the server. 
It was caused by changes in default access rights for file browser in v5.8.

Virtual Tape Library

Added new virtual device type, MSL8096 (4 tape drives and 96 slots)
Added option to split virtual tape image file to parts for more effective file management. Native Microsoft Windows deduplication works more effectively with files of size less than 1TB (https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh769303%28v=vs.85%29.aspx).
Added option to set custom size for virtual tape image.
VTL management functionality added to StarWindX (PowerShell module and COM-object).

Replication

3-node replication on LSFS: fix for issue when nodes do not synchronize correctly after fail in some cases.

Licensing

Error reporting for license registration procedure has been extended to make it more informative.

Cache
L2 cache: stability issues are fixed, library works as expected now.


Version V8, build 7929
2015-04-10

Licensing

Fix for process of license registration for ESX-based and Hyper-V based licenses. In some cases license registration during installation failed with error.

Known Issues

3-node replication on LSFS: in some cases nodes do not synchronize correctly after fail. This issue is localized fix is planned for the next update.
L2 cache: stability issues found in current implementation. Fix is planned for the next update too.


Version V8, build 7852
2015-03-25

Virtual Tape Library

Fix for error, which led to service crash on tape unload in some conditions.

LSFS

Deduplication option enabled. There was an issue with referencing deduplicated blocks, now it is fixed.

RAM Cache

Several optimizations to make cache working with optimal performance in cases of cache miss.
Implemented asynchronous processing of  SYNCHRONIZE_CACHE command, now it doesn't block command queue during execution.



Version V8, build 7774
2015-02-23

Core

Added support for new license types (check the Web site for more information).

Fix for processing device records that reference missing header files. Now they are shown in device list as non-active.
If device files are removed from disk manually while service is not running, they was not showing in device list after the service is started. 
This could lead to error, when configuration file contains several records with the same device name (for example, several "ImageFile1" records).

Replication Manager

Fix for issue with switch partner operation. If device has been created in V6 or older version of StarWind, and partner is changed with V8 replication manager, new partner received wrong Vendor ID and Product ID. 
It was needed to change these values in new partner's header files manually. Now the issue is fixed.

LSFS

Performance optimizations.
Defragmentation issues fixed. In some cases, defragmentation process could stop, and device files take more disk space then required. Currently during the normal operation, device files can take disk space up to 3.5 times more compared to nominal device size. Snapshots increase disk space requirements by unique data size in snapshot.
Deduplication option temporarily disabled for new devices.

Version V8, build 7509
2014-12-22
Fixes

Core:
Fixed processing for UNMAP/TRIM commands. Client system reported errors to Event Log in cases when underlying storage doesn't support UNMAP/TRIM commands, but client use these commands to manage storage.
Windows system that is connected to Target with iSCSI Initiator was reporting to system log event with ID 7: "The device, <devicename>, has a bad block".

Version V8, build 7471
2014-12-09
Fixes

Core:
Fixed processing for UNMAP/TRIM commands. Virtual device was failing in cases when underlying storage doesn't support UNMAP/TRIM commands, but client use these commands to manage storage.

Version V8, build 7351
2014-11-03

Improvements

Core: 
Fix for issue with service stopping. In some cases service could hang up when stopped under high load.
In case of update from build 7145 it's recommended to disconnect clients before update to prevent old version from hanging up.
Fix for processing VAAI XCOPY command. When used with VMWare vSphere, virtual device could fail during migration of virtual machines.
Performance optimizations for SSD-based flat devices.

Caching:
Fix for working with extremely small cache size.

Management console:
Fix for error on managing target groups.

Replication:
Fix for saving changes in list of network interfaces.

Virtual Tape Library:
Fixes for reporting device properties to client software. Now different serial IDs are used for tape drive and changer devices.
Tape barcode values changed to not use equal barcodes for tapes in different VTLs.
Listing of device tapes is changed.


Version V8, build 7145
2014-09-05

New Features and Improvements

Flat storage: 
Performance optimization. Performance improved for cases when files of virtual disk are stored on RAID or SSD disks.

VSA Builder:
Fixed error with required disk space calculation for system disk of virtual machine. 
In some cases this error led to errors on the step of loading disk images to VMWare vSphere server during creation of VSA VMs.

Virtual Tape Library:
Fixed operation with MS DPM. MS DPM couldn't find tape drive on VTL.

Replication:
Asynchronous replication in 2+1 scenario, when one of synchronous replicas is used as source for asynchronous replication to third node.


Version V8, build 2014-05-11

New Features and Improvements

New Log-structured File System container:

It implements thin-provisioning, snapshots, optional deduplication.  
Synchronous and asynchronous replication can be configured for a LSFS device. 
LSFS device is flash-friendly. It eliminates multiple rewrites of same data blocks.
LSFS provides high performance for random write access patterns, eliminating I/O blender effect in virtualized environments.
LSFS requires disk space overprovisioning, in 2-3 times for worst case, and even more if snapshots are used.

Flash cache:
Accelerate your LSFS or flat storage device with L2 cache. 
L2 cache can be used with LSFS or flat storage devices for acceleration.
Its recommended to use write-through mode for L2 cache. Example of storage configuration: L1 cache in write-back mode, L2 cache on SSD in write-through mode, flat storage on spinning disks.
Be aware that setting of write back mode for L2 cache makes all writes go through L2 storage. When L2 cache is stored on SSD, it results in additional wearing of flash memory.

Scale-out architecture and management console:
User interface has been reworked to provide simple and clean user experience.
StarWind Management Console allows managing StarWind clusters to create multi-node devices across the cluster easily.
Single-node virtual device with target can be created in three steps.
Default storage pool path can be set up for the server. This path will be used for all new devices.
Synchronous and asynchronous replication can be added to any existing device by adding replication partner through replication manager.

NAS Configurator utility helps to export storage as SMB or NFS network share by means of StarWind High Availability and MS Cluster.

NAS Configurator utility helps to export storage as SMB or NFS network share by means of StarWind High Availability and MS Cluster.

V2V Converter utility added to StarWind Management console. It is a V2V conversion tool for virtual machines.You can use it to convert VMDK to VHD files and VHD to VMDK as well as to IMG file, which is a native StarWind format.

Asynchronous replication:
Asynchronous mode added to replication engine. Asynchronous replication can be used to replicate data to remote site. Information on snapshots that are stored on the primary storage is replicated too. Snapshot history can be stored on replica while primary storage keeps only short list of snapshots. 
Slow replication channels are supported too. Replication channel bandwidth doesnt affect the performance of primary storage which is replicated. State of the primary storage can be easily restored from replica. 
Heartbeat channel is not required for asynchronous replication.

High-availability:
High-availability devices now support snapshots.
Network settings for replication can be changed on fly without rebuilding replication partners.

Virtual Tape:
New VTL plugin provides virtual devices with functionality of tape library.

Core:
VAAI commands are supported.
NUMA - aware resource management.
SMI-S and VSS functionality is supported on single-node and multi-node devices.

Installation notes:
Installation: Previous versions can be updated by installing this version over the existing installation.
Warning: Mirror, IBV and Deduplication devices of version 6.x and earlier versions are not supported in v8.0! 
Data from existing Mirror, IBV and Deduplication devices must be migrated to new ImageFile or LSFS devices after installation.
Use replication manager to add synchronous/asynchronous replication functionality for your device. Use LSFS virtual device type when thin-provisioning and snapshots features are needed.

Please, take the following steps to update the existing HA devices from previous builds of V8:
	1.	To prevent data loss disconnect clients from HA (if it is possible).
	2.	Run the StarWind v8 installer on the first node.
	3.	Install the v8 license key in the installation wizard if requested.
	4.	Wait until StarWind service starts and the synchronization process begins.
	5.	Wait until the synchronization process is over.
	6.	Connect the client machines to the first node.
	7.	Repeat the same step on all the rest StarWind nodes one-by-one.
Please check the reference page if you are updating from older versions:
https://knowledgebase.starwindsoftware.com/guidance/upgrading-from-any-starwind-version-to-any-starwind-version/


Version 6.0, build 2013-07-09
High Availability:
- Fix for processing distributed critical section in specific situations.

Version 6.0, build 2013-05-27
Installer: 
- Fix for issue with installing PowerShell extension. Installation finished with errors, when PSModulePath environment variable contained paths to more than one module.

Version 6.0, build 2013-05-16

High availability:
- Fix for CHAP support on HA devices. There was a bug which prevented normal functioning of HA device with CHAP authentication.
Builds affected: 6.0.5437 (20130329), 6.0.5275 (20130131).
- Event notifications fixed. Some events were reported without parameters. Now all the parameters are filled in properly.

Version 6.0, build 2013-04-12

High availability:
- Fix for processing time-outs on partner's storage device. In previous versions very slow command processing on partner's storage device could lead to loss of synchronization state on HA device.

Version 6.0, build 2013-03-20

Core:
- Fix for memory leak on processing connection to non-existing targets.
- Accelerator for local connections. It is actual in scenarios when StarWind iSCSI Target and client (iSCSI Initiator) are located on the same machine.
For example, in Native SAN scenario. This is experimental feature, it is available only for Windows 2012 Server OS.

High availability:
- Fix for synchronous replication transport for processing large data packets from Xen hypervisor. 
This error affects only previous release build 20130131. Older versions are not affected.
This issue could lead to unstable functioning of Xen virtual machines.
- Fix for processing "add partner" command in replication manager. In cases when node had several network interfaces in the same network, this operation could be finished with error.

Version 6.0, build 2013-02-20
Core: 
- Service functionality for SMI-S provider: report device IDs for virtual devices, report pool names for virtual devices. 

Version 6.0, build 2013-01-16
Core:
- Fixes and enhancements for iSCSI protocol processing. Task queue management, processing for incorrect parameters from client initiators and command sequences.

Version 6.0, build 2013-01-15
High availability:
- Fix for ALUA functionality. When client Windows Server 2008 R2/2012 is connected to three-noded HA device,
it could crash to blue screen when user opens "Devices" dialog in MPIO settings of MS iSCSI Initiator.

Version 6.0, build 2012-12-18

Management Console:
- Localizations added. French, German, Japanese, Russian languages.

High availability:
- Fix for ALUA functionality. ALUA has not been working properly with VMware ESX Server 5.1.

Version 6.0, build 2012-11-13

Installer:
- Unified installer for iSCSI SAN & NAS and Native SAN for Hyper-V products.

Snapshot and CDP device, RAM Disk, Deduplication:
- Fixes for compatibility with Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012. 
Virtual devices could appear as read-only when connected to Windows 2012 machine.

Caching:
- Issue with memory management has been fixed. In some cases free memory has not been reported to system properly after the device has been deleted.

Version 6.0, build 2012-10-04

Snapshot and CDP device:
-	iSCSI Boot functionality fix for IBV devices based on existing ImageFile device.

Version 6.0, build 2012-09-27

Snapshot and CDP device:
-	iSCSI Boot functionality with IBV devices in ROW mode has been fixed.

Core: 
-	Buffer alignment for several commands has been added. Unaligned buffer could lead to errors during command execution in some rare cases.
-	Fix for reservation commands processing to conform Windows Server 2012 requirements. Now virtual devices pass "Storage Spaces Persistent Reservation" test on Windows Server 2012 with success.

Version 6.0, build 2012-08-23

StarWind iSCSI SAN Version 6.0

New Features and Improvements

High availability: 
-	3-node HA configuration. Synchronous mirroring between 3 nodes of an HA storage cluster. Such storage architecture ensures higher uptime and higher performance compared to a 2-node HA configuration. 
- 	HA device nodes manager. You can add, remove, or switch nodes of HA cluster on the running device instead of the creation of a new HA device from scratch.
-	An HA device can now use other types of StarWind devices (deduplicated, thin-provisioned IBV, or DiskBridge devices) for storing data. Thus, you can apply deduplication, thin provision, snapshot technologies, etc., for the data stored on the HA device. Experimental feature.
-	ALUA. Asymmetric logical unit access is required for cases when individual nodes use very different by performance metrics storage types like SATA on one node and SSD on another. With ALUA enabled most of I/Os are served by faster node resulting less latency for I/O intensive applications.

Deduplication: 
-	Asynchronous replication to remote iSCSI Target over WAN as an experimental feature.
-	Data deletion support. Unused data blocks are overwritten by the new actual data.
-	Memory usage reduced by 30%. When the dedupe block size is set to 4kb, 2MB of memory are required per 1GB of stored data.

iSCSI Boot:
-	StarWind can be used to build and configure environment for iSCSI boot.
-	Two modes added for Snapshot and CDP device: redirect on write and redirect on write with discard. These options can be used for booting multiple clients from one image.

Event notifications:
-	Free space low watermarks are now reported for thin-provisioned and deduplicated volumes.

StarWind SMI-S agent: This is now available as a separate download.

Backup Plug-in for Hyper-V virtual machines:
-	Incremental backup and delta data saving features added.

Backup Plug-in for ESX virtual machines (experimental feature):
-	Full and incremental backup of virtual machines.
-	ESX VMs management.
-	Backup archives are saved in the native VMware format  VMDK.

Installation notes

Installation: Previous versions can be updated by installing this version over the existing installation.
Warning: The existing HA devices from version 5.7 cannot be upgraded to version 6.0 without bringing the storage offline for a short time.
Please, take the following steps to update the existing HA devices:
1.	To prevent data loss, disconnect clients from HA (if it is possible).
2.	Update StarWind service on the first HA node. Wait until the service starts. At this step the HA node is unable to synchronize its HA devices and is not accepting the client connections. Client requests are processed by the second HA node. The next step will disconnect the existing client connections.
3.	Update the StarWind service on the second HA node. Wait until the service starts.
4.	Start synchronization on the first HA node. The second node changes its state to ready and starts processing client connections. Now, you can safely connect to the HA device.
5.	Wait for synchronization to finish. Now the first HA node can process the client connections too.

Version 5.8 build 2012-02-29

High Availability: 
- Fix for processing HA device image files from previous versions in "switch partner" command.
Partner's size checking during switch partner operation could fail if there is pre-5.8 file format on one partner and 5.8 file format on the other partner.

Backup plugin: 
- Backup server is added to backup servers list automatically after successful installation to remote machine.
- Fix for processing localized host names and support for localized Windows versions.

Mirror plugin: 
- Issue with available disk free space detection has been fixed. When new mirror device is being created with existing .img file for local mirror, disk free space size was checked incorrectly.

Version 5.8 build 2012-02-02

Installation script: 
- Fixed issue with DeleteFile failed; code 5. error message while updating the service file. It could show up when Windows Event Log viewer is open during installation.

Backup plugin: 
- License information extended: licensed server count and trial expiration date are shown in server information.
- Fix for Hyper-V backup plugin installation functionality. Install command could be finished with authentication error message.

Version 5.8 build 2012-01-10

Core: Multi-LUN support has been added for non-HA targets.

Deduplication: 
-	Plug-in has been reworked to support data journaling. 
-	Snapshots support has been added.
-	Replication has been added as an experimental feature.

High availability: 
The new plug-in version has been developed. The plug-in ensures:

-	Standard raw image files can be used for creating HA devices.
-	MS iSCSI transport for sync channel has been substituted by StarWinds own transport.
-	Several network interfaces can be used for synchronization and heartbeat channel.
-	Heartbeat channel setting is required. Its recommended to use a client network as the heartbeat channel. This channel is used for transfer of service messages only, so it doesnt produce any substantial network traffic.
-	Switch partner feature. A new partner node can be assigned to the existing HA device node. The old partner should not be used after switching HA device to the new partner node. Client MPIO connections should be reconfigured to use the path to the new partner instead of the old one.
-	Automatic HA device synchronization after the both nodes were down. If the HA device can identify the node that has the most recent and correct data, it brings this node online automatically and synchronizes the other node. If the device cache mode is write-back and at least one node has not been turned off normally (for example, both nodes were down at the same time after power loss), the HA device cannot run the synchronization procedure automatically.
- 	The new option has been added that allows marking an unsynchronized HA device as synchronized without actual data synchronization. This command can be used in a disaster situation when the both HA nodes failed. Example: When the both nodes are turned on after the failure and you found out that some hardware was damaged on the second node and you are unable to replace/fix the hardware immediately. In this case, you can mark the undamaged node as "synchronized" and continue the working process. As soon as the other node is fixed and returns online, it starts copying (synchronizing) the data.
-	The new option has been added for extending the size of an HA device on fly.

Hardware VSS provider for Deduplication and CDP devices: This is now available as a separate download.

StarWindX: COM-object and set of PowerShell commandlets that allow management of the StarWind virtual devices by the third-party scripts and software. This is now available as a separate download.

RAM disk: Serial ID generation algorithm has been changed. Now, serial ID is unique across different machines on the network. You can still add predefined IDs to a configuration file for RAM devices.

SPTI: Buffer alignment parameter is used when checking the device properties during the service initialization.

Backup Plug-in for Hyper-V virtual machines

-	Agentless architecture
-	VHD archives format
-	Network Centralized Management
-	Single-click backup
-	Global Deduplication
-	Restore for the entire virtual machine
-	Sandbox mode for VM test
-	VM cloning

Installation notes

Installation: Previous versions can be updated by installing this version over the existing installation.
Warning: CHAP authentication is not supported for HA device images created in 5.4 and older versions of the software.

Warning: The existing HA devices cannot be upgraded to version 5.8 without bringing the storage offline for a short time.
Please, take the following steps to update the existing HA devices:
1.	To prevent data loss, disconnect clients from HA (if it is possible).
2.	Update StarWind service on the first HA node. Wait until the service starts. At this step the HA node is unable to synchronize its HA devices and is not accepting the client connections. Client requests are processed by the second HA node. The next step will disconnect the existing client connections.
3.	Update the StarWind service on the second HA node. Wait until the service starts.
4.	Start synchronization on the first HA node. The second node changes its state to ready and starts processing client connections. Now, you can safely connect to the HA device.
5.	Wait for synchronization to finish. Now the first HA node can process the client connections too.

Version 5.7 build 2011-09-16

Added product StarWind Native SAN for Hyper-V.

Version 5.7 build 2011-08-17

High Availability: device icon in GUI now shows that current node is being used for synchronization of the other node.

Core: fixed processing of incorrect ISIDs on connection. Sessions could be processed incorrectly when initiator connects several sessions with the same ISID to the same target simultaneously.

Installation: fixed update procedure for IBV devices of version. IBV devices could remain not active after update.

Installation: fixed update procedure for server records in GUI of version 5.6. If server address is saved as host name (not IP address), target name was generated incorrectly for new targets.

Version 5.7 build 2011-08-01

High Availability: fixed support for two-node configuration where Hyper-V cluster and HA nodes reside on the same pair of servers.

Core: Connectivity issue fixed. Session could be disconnected when response time of initiator is longer than the certain value.

GUI: Fixes for French and Japanese translations.

Version 5.7 build 2011-07-21

High availability: added option to set traffic priority on sync channel during device synchronization. Device synchronization process can generate high load to disk system and partner. It affects performance of client requests processing. Now you can set priority for device synchronization traffic. Select Sync channel priorities option in HA device context menu.

High availability: added option to set several sessions inside sync channel. Using several sessions can speed up synchronization on fast (10GBe) connections.

Deduplication: Metadata caching has been made optional. Can be turned off when fast SSD drive is used for storing metadata. Data deletion support added.

Snapshots/CDP: issue with large (>2TB) cached devices fixed. When thin provisioned or snapshotted device has size greater than 2TB and uses write-back or write-through cache, data corruption could occur.

GUI: several small tweaks and fixes.

Version 5.7 build 2011-06-09

Deduplication: Added ability to use separate disk storage (SSD) for storing metadata.

Deduplication: Added option for setting deduplicated cache size.

Deduplication: Minor fixes for deduplication engine.

GUI:  Some small fixes.

Version 5.7 build 2011-05-19

High Availability: Added asynchronous device operation mode. Speed optimization.

Version 5.7 build 2011-05-06

Performance monitor feature added. From StarWind management console you can monitor disk transfer rates, average number of I/O operations on targets, CPU and memory load on StarWind server.

Snapshot manager feature added. It allows viewing, deleting and merging exiting snapshots with convenient and simpleGUI. Select Snapshot manager option in context menu of device with snapshots support. 

Event log: Notifications about new records in StarWind event log in system tray.

GUI: Targets and servers can be arranged in groups.

High availability: added option to set traffic priority on sync channel during device synchronization. Device synchronization process can generate high load to disk system and partner. It affects performance of client requests processing. Now you can set priority for device synchronization traffic. Select Sync channel priorities option in HA device context menu.

Deduplication: new version of experimental deduplication plugin. Added ability to set deduplication block size (512bytes-256kB). Deduplication device implements low-level data deduplication. It allows saving disk space significantly when user data contains several copies of similar data.
Deduplication device is in testing stage, use it on your own risk!

ImageFile, DiskBridge: added support of the Mode Sense page 0x3 for compatibility with Solaris iSCSI initiator.

Core: fixed LUN Reset command processing.

Version 5.6 build 2011-02-28

CDP/Snapshots: Plugin operation for devices over 2TB fixed.

CDP/Snapshots: Issue with high memory usage on switching snapshots has been fixed.

Deduplication plugin updated.

Version 5.6 build 2011-02-10

Event log feature added. Select Server node and switch to "Events" tab to view server event records.

Event notifications feature added. StarWind can send event notifications by e-mail, add event records to Windows Event Log, and write messages to text files.
Event notifications can be configured on the server "Configuration" tab.

Core: Log rotate functionality added.

CDP/Thin provisioning: data corruption on EXT3/EXT4 file systems issue fixed. When thin provisioned or snapshotted device has been used for storing Linux EXT3/EXT4 file systems, data corruption could occur.

CDP/Thin provisioning: snapshot cloning process optimized for speed-up.

GUI: Save server password feature added.

GUI: Management Console updates and optimizations.

GUI: Open dialog now displays total disk space and free disk space.

Deduplication: experimental feature "Deduplication device type" added. Deduplication device implements low-level data deduplication. It allows to save disk space significantly when user data contains several copies of similar data.
Deduplication device is in testing stage, use it on your own risk!

Version 5.5 build 2010-11-24

High Availability: Added heartbeat feature for synchronization channel state tracking.

High Availability: Performance improvements.

High Availability: Fast sync support for devices with write-back cache mode added.

High Availability: If both nodes were down and then full sync has been initiated, device becomes available for client connections immediately. Requests are processed by the node which is selected as synchronization source.

High Availability: CHAP authentication support added.

CDP/Snapshots: GPT disks support fixed.

Virtual Tape: Image file changing fixed. Device properties information now shows correct image file name. If no Virtual Tape image file is currently loaded in the device, it reports the file name as "None - Virtual Tape device is not loaded", and the file size as zero.

GUI: Management Console updates.

Version 5.4 build 2010-09-03

Mirror: Plugin operation for devices over 2TB fixed. Mirror synchronization and write-back caching could malfunction if device size is over 2TB.

Version 5.4 build 2010-08-05

Core: Device identifiers processing for GUI commands has been fixed. Device management from GUI Console could fail when service virtual memory size is over 4GB on x64 systems.

Core: Fix for registration of new sessions for target's LUN reservations.

Version 5.4 build 2010-07-22

Licensing: New license types added. License format changed.

Version 5.4 build 2010-07-02

High Availability: Caching added. Write-Through and Write-Back modes are supported.

High Availability: Autosync functionality added. When HA node becomes active, it is synchronized and binged online automatically if autosync option has been set.

IBVolume: Maximum device size limit of 2TB has been removed.

Core: allow responses to SendTargets=All to be greater than 8kb, up to initiator's parameter MaxRecvDataSegmentLength.

Installation: Allow rule for StarWind service is being added to Windows firewall on product install.

Version 5.3.5 build 2010-05-31

High Availability: Problem with moving cluster shared volumes between nodes in Hyper-V cluster has been fixed.

IBV: VSS snapshots fixed. 

Core: Task reusing fixed. Service could crash while processing connection from certain hardware initiators.

Version 5.3 build 2010-04-08

SPTI: Tape changers support was added to Export physical tape device wizard.

Version 5.3 build 2010-04-02

New features and improvements

High Availability: File format checking added. It helps to eliminate the threat of data corruption due to the use of simple disk images as HA device image files.

Core: TCP/IP interface settings changes are recognized automatically now. When host obtains new IP address or has new network interface enabled StarWind service automatically opens port on the new interface.

Mirror: Background synchronization mode added. When device initialization mode has been set to synchronize for new mirror device new device becomes available immediately. Synchronization is done at the background. Synchronization progress is displayed in mirror device properties.

RAM disk: SerialId support for the drive added. No more pseudo-MPIO issues with VMware ESX/ESXi.
 
High Availability: Synchronization status icon added to Management Console for HA devices.

GUI: Help file has been updated.

Fixed bugs

High Availability: HA device node BSOD issue fixed. If HA device is under heavy load and one of HA nodes hard reset other matching node could crash with BSOD under certain circumstances.

High Availability: Issue with Hyper-V cluster fixed. If HA device is used for hosting Hyper-V virtual machine and is connected to cluster using Round-Robin policy virtual machine could become unstable or crash with BSOD after HA node hard reset and following fast sync process.

High Availability: Persistent reservation processing fixed.

Caching: Hyper-V virtual machine data corruption issue fixed. This issue appeared during installation of Windows Server 2008 R2 to Hyper-V virtual machine hosted on StarWind virtual disk with Write-Back cache enabled.

Caching: Aborted tasks issue when using Write-Back cache under heavy load. Request queue processing was fixed. Under certain patterns of disk load disk requests could be stalled in the queue for a while.

Mirror: Wrong mirrors status display fixed for Mirror devices with Write-Back mode caching enabled.  After the mirror had failed its status was displayed as "valid" in Management Console for some period of time.

Note for  ESX/ESXi users: Please be sure to install  ESXi400-201003401-BG patch from VMWare. This patch fixes some iSCSI-related issues in VMWare ESX/ESXi.
Download link to ESX patch: <http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1019492>
Download link to ESXi patch:
<http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1019497>

Installation notes

Install: Previous versions can be updated by installing this version over existing installation.

Warning: existing HA devices cannot be upgraded to this version without taking storage offline.
To update existing HA devices from previous version, please follow the steps below:
-	take storage offline (disconnect both HA nodes from the client)
-	create backups of data files and StarWind config file (starwind.cfg)
-	update StarWind on the both HA nodes
-	perform full synchronization for HA devices.

Version 5.2 build 2010-02-11

- Core: implemented load order group settings
- GUI: Fixed some minor issues in Management Console
- HA: Fixed fast sync handling


Version 5.2 build 2010-02-02

- Core: CHAP permission fixes
- Core: fixed some issues with ESX task aborts
- CDP: fixed datastor disapearing problems with Vmware ESX clients in some conditions
- Plugins: caching mode is implemented for Snapshot and CDP
- Lic: Licensing has been changed to allow trial period

Version 5.2 build 2009-12-28

- Core: ACL module fixes
- Core: fixed issues with ESX task aborts
- Mir: 2TB limit is removed
- Plugins: caching mode is implemented for ImageFile, DiskBridge, Mirror
- GUI: Fixed some minor issues in Management Console
- GUI: New languages were integrated: German, French, Japanese
- GUI: StarWind manuals were integrated into the help

Version 5.0 build 2009-10-30

- HA: plugin implemented
- New StarWind Management Console


Version 4.2.3 build 2009-09-14

- Core: several code updates
- Core: new ACL module
- Plugins: caching mode is implemented
- Fixed some minor issues in plugins


Version 4.2.2 build 2009-08-17

- Core: fixed a problem with iSNS server list
- Fixed several minor issues 


Version 4.2.1 build 2009-08-03

- Core: new iSCSI listener logic that allows multiple ports and interfaces to be listened
- CDP: compact and remove old snapshot  journals online
- CDP: performance optimization


Version 4.2 build 2009-07-02

- iVTL: supports compression and encryption and implements several features for better compatibility with client software
- Several minor and cosmetic fixes


Version 4.1 build 2009-05-15

- CDP: fixed problems with data corruption of snapshots in some conditions
- CDP: fixed issues with device performance
- Setup: added support for Win2008 Core installations
- Mir: size checking corrected for remote mirrors
- Core: fixed an issue with long Data-in sequences
- iVTL: updated modules with several issues fixed
- Lic: the free license now allows unlimited client hosts to use ImageFile virtual devices up to 2TB each
- Lic: no trial license is included into the installation. Request StarWind Software for a trial license!


Version 4.0 build 2009-02-26

- Core: Licensing has being changed to allow free licenses with limited capabilities
- Core: fixed issues with aborted requests
- GUI & Core: filenames with single quotes are now allowed
- Core: fixed crashes with non-iSCSI connections and failed connections
- Core: buffer overflow conditions fixed in the config file management code
- IMG: fixed an issue with freeing of non-closed critical section
- IMG: fixed online extending and copying of image files
- IBV: fixed crash on failed volume open
- IBV: fixed many issues related to the disk full conditions to protect the structure of IBVolumes from corruption
- IBV: fixed alignment of memory allocation
- Plugins: fixed heap corruption in SCSI_MODE_SENSE with short data buffer
- Browse: fixed several issues. Now it doesn't show hidden and system files and dirs
- SPTI: Added Securom DVD protection support
- Mirror: caching modes changed: write-thru, write-back, replicator
- Many minor features and enhancements 


Version 3.5.6 build 2008-10-06

- Core: Added support of not active removable devices
- Core: closing of control connections fixed for clean server shutdown
- Core: enhancements in the Plugin API
- SPTI,DSK: changed to use PnP device ids
- SPTI,DSK: added support of 1394 disk drives (SCSI type 14)
- GUI: fixed a problem with parsing of the device list received from the service


Version 3.5.5 build 2008-09-04

- Core: TcpKeepAlivePeriod config parameter added to allow TCP/IP keep alive feature for iSCSI connections
- Core: fixed a problem with loading of Access options after service restart
- Core: allowed clustering by default for all target types
- Core: removed the old ISID workaround for the MS initiator
- Core: fixed the ExpCmdSn increment's behavior in some situations
- Core: iSCSI negotiation fixed to allow bigger data packets
- Core: added Config parameters for tuning of the iSCSI negotiation
- Core: enhancements in the StarWind Plugin API
- IMG: fixed an issue with online extending of image files
- MIR: changed the Online synchronization algorithm
- MIR: fixed an issue with memory allocation
- IBV: fixed problem with child devices (snapshot-based)
- IBV: fixed MaxStoredSessions behavior
- IBV: speed up for read requests to data in old journals
- IBV: fixed issues with Vmware ESX clients when snapshots happened during large write operations
- Control: fixed issues that led to crashes in some situations


Version 3.5.4 build 2008-05-27

- Core: negotiation of session parameters fixed for clients that skipping the security stage
- Core: fixed an issue with incorrect disk buffer size reported by HBA that prevented the disk from being used
- Core: Task management functions updated (abort of tasks)
- Core: allocate an extra task when the queue is full instead of dropping the iSCSI request (ESX clients)
- Core: "initiators" access control elements tree added to starwind.cfg
- Core: added access control by targets, ACL can be set up by initiator names or by device names now
- Core: fixed problems with XenServer 4.1
- Core: fixed some issues with iSCSI command order and completion
- IMG: Fixed problems with opening of image files in Win2000
- IBV: added a recover utility for broken volumes
- IBV: implemented persistent serial IDs for volumes
- MIR: fixed an issue with log level verbosity
- iVTL: an evaluation module of NexiTech iVTL is a part of the installation now


Version 3.5.3 build 2008-02-29

- IBV: The core logic redesigned to fix problems with data corruption
- IBV: Added protection against power off of the host that led to missing data
- IBV: fixed problems with request sequencing (the logic redesigned)
- IBV: fixed problems with failed sessions
- IBV: Fixed issues with multi-initiator access
- IBV: the core journal switching logic has been reworked and bullet-proofed
- IBV: Enhanced creation of manual snapshots
- IBV: Cleanup of old  journals fixed and enhanced
- IBV: Added protection against power off of the host that led to missing data
- IMG: Fixed a problem with some disk controllers when ImageFiles were erroneously recognized as hard drives
- RAM: fixed issues with formatting to FAT32
- VDVD: some enhancements in the MODE_SENSE handler
- Core: work around for incoming MaxConnections=0 on negotiation


Version 3.5.2b build 2007-12-25

- IBV: Fixed the issue with invalid journal path on creation of new volumes


Version 3.5.1 build 2007-11-30

- Core: Fixed the Shutdown Handler to flush modified data reliably
- Core: Device access control for initiators added (LUN masking functionality)
- Core: License clean up feature added
- GUI: Some icons and splash screen added
- GUI: Fixed crashes on connect to some addresses
- Plugins: Request queuing allowed for the MS initiator v2.*
- MIR: Fixed crashes of the replicator module when StarPort driver is not found
- IBV: Implemented periodical flushing of modified data to disk
- IBV: Fixed a problem that could lead to data losses on server reboot
- VDVD: Fixed problems with access of virtual DVDs from Vista
- VDVD: fixed a problem with very long file names


Version 3.5 build 2007-08-09

- Core: Fixed the leaks of handles (corrected closing of sockets on client disconnect)
- Core: Implemented forced remove of targets with connected initiators
- GUI: Added forced device remove function (if the normal remove operation failed)
- IMG: Fixed fast creation of image files
- IMG: 'Extend Size' function corrected to return errors if failed
- IMG: 'Copy' function corrected
- IMG, MIR, IBV, RAM - added a new "geometry" parameter
- IMG: Fixed creation of encrypted image files in Windows 2000
- MIR: Mirror synchronization state added to the device's properties dialog
- MIR: State information added to the device properties dialog
- IBV: Flushing of data added
- SPTI: Support of tape devices fixed


Version 3.5 RC3 build 2007-07-05

- Core: SCSI-3 Persistent Reservations implemented


Version 3.5 RC2.5 build 2007-07-01

- Plugins: fixed the bug with returning of empty SCSI sense data on errors
- MIR: Corrected mirrors size checking on new mirror device creation
- MIR: Added actual progress display for mirrors synchronization operation
- IMG: crypted drive creation corrected
- IMG: Fixed bug with extending ImageFile size by more than 4 Gb
- Core: CtlInterface+CtlPort config parameters added to support binding of the control channel to a different NIC/port
- Core: fixed network license checking: it's allowed to use one license instance by several service instances
  on the same host (if the license allows unlimited client hosts)
- File browser: file creation times are displayed as server local times now (was UTC)


Version 3.5 RC2 build 2007-05-27

- Core: fixed crashes of the service on invalid session attempts (telnet to port 3260, etc)
- DSK: added support for Windows 2000
- IMG: NTFS compression allowed
- MIR: synchronization of mirrors corrected


Version 3.5 RC1 build 2007-05-16

- Config: Update algorithm corrected to copy all devices and all authentication options to new config file
- CHAP: Generation of challenge values has been fixed and optimized
- SPTI: Fixed a bug with multiple sessions
- SPTI: Fixed a bug in burner recognizer code
- SPTI: Allowed access to unclaimed devices from local iSCSI initiators
- IMG,DSK: SCSIOP 'sync cache' added
- IMG: File extending fixed
- IMG: Fixed a bug with 100% CPU load on session unregister
- IMG: Fixed bugs with incorrect sector offset in read/write requests
- MIR: Switch Active Mirror and Synchronize functions added to the plugin
- MIR: Synchronization corrected: added mirrors comparison by MD5 checksum of sectors block
- MIR: Added synchronization of mirrors control request executions


Version 3.2.2 build 2007-03-28

- IMG: Buffer alignment issues fixed
- DSKBR: Buffer alignment issues fixed
- Help updated


Version 3.2.2 RC2 build 2007-03-04

- DSKBR: Fixed issues with some eSATA RAID adapters.
- DSKBR: Full support of Vmware ESX 3 in Vmware Infrastructure 3 (VI3)
- IMG: Creation of file images is optimized.
- Online Help: Updated. Added documentation on Mirror replication and DiskBridge plug-ins.


Version 3.2.2 RC1 build 2007-02-20

- DSKBR: plugin implemented. It does mapping of whole hard drives with volume protection.
- DSKBR: disk vendor/product/rev/serail are assigned to the target
- IMG: fixed an issue with creation of image files
- Mirror: Fixed a critical bug with writing to a failed mirror.
- Install: Changed EULA & installation types
- Config: removed default RamDisk target
- Config: DiskBridge plug-in added


