Release Notes for Azure Application Consistent Snapshot tool

This page lists major changes made to AzAcSnap to provide new functionality or resolve defects.

Download the latest release of the binary for Linux or Windows and review how to get started.

For specific information on Preview features, refer to the AzAcSnap Preview page.

Jul-2024

AzAcSnap 10 (Build: 1B55F1*)

AzAcSnap 10 is being released with the following fixes and improvements:

• Features added to Preview:
  • Microsoft SQL Server support adding options to configure, test, and snapshot backup Microsoft SQL Server in an application consistent manner.
• Features moved to GA (generally available):
  • Windows support with AzAcSnap now able to be run on supported Linux distributions and Windows.
  • New configuration file layout.
    • To upgrade pre-AzAcSnap 10 configurations use the azacsnap -c configure --configuration new command to create a new configuration file and use the values in your existing configuration file.
  • Azure Large Instance storage management via REST API over HTTPS.
    • This allows the use of Consistency Group snapshots on supported Azure Large Instance storage.
• Fixes and Improvements:
  • New --flush option which will flush in memory file buffers for local storage, useful for Azure Large Instance and Azure Managed Disk when connected as block storage.
  • Logging improvements.
• Features removed:
  • AzAcSnap installer for Linux.
    • AzAcSnap is now downloadable as a binary for supported versions of Linux and Windows. This simplifies access to the AzAcSnap program allowing you to get started quickly.
  • Azure Large Instance storage management via CLI over SSH.
    • CLI over SSH replaced with the REST API over HTTPS.

Download the binary of AzAcSnap 10 for Linux or AzAcSnap 10 for Windows.

Apr-2024

AzAcSnap 9a (Build: 1B3B458)

AzAcSnap 9a is being released with the following fixes and improvements:

• Fixes and Improvements:
  • Allow AzAcSnap to have Azure Management Endpoints manually configured to allow it to work in Azure Sovereign Clouds.
    • Added a global override variable AZURE_MANAGEMENT_ENDPOINT to be used in either the .azacsnaprc file or as an environment variable set to the appropriate Azure management endpoint. For details on configuration refer to the global override settings to control AzAcSnap behavior.

Download the AzAcSnap 9a installer.

Aug-2023

AzAcSnap 9 (Build: 1AE5640)

AzAcSnap 9 is being released with the following fixes and improvements:

• Features moved to GA (generally available):
  • IBM Db2 Database support.
  • System Managed Identity support for easier setup while improving security posture.
• Fixes and Improvements:
  • Configure (-c configure) changes:
    • Allows for a blank value for authFile in the configuration file when using System Managed Identity.
• Features added to Preview:
  • None.
• Features removed:
  • Azure Key Vault support removed from Preview. It isn't needed now AzAcSnap supports a System Managed Identity directly.

Download the AzAcSnap 9 installer.

Jun-2023

AzAcSnap 8b (Build: 1AD3679)

AzAcSnap 8b is being released with the following fixes and improvements:

• Fixes and Improvements:
  • General improvement to azacsnap command exit codes.
    • azacsnap should return an exit code of 0 (zero) when run as expected, otherwise it should return an exit code of non-zero. For example, running azacsnap returns non-zero as there's nothing to do and shows usage information whereas azacsnap -h returns exit-code of zero as it's performing as expected by returning usage information.
    • Any failure in --runbefore exits before any backup activity and returns the --runbefore exit code.
    • Any failure in --runafter returns the --runafter exit code.
  • Backup (-c backup) changes:
    • Change in the Db2 workflow to move the protected-paths query outside the WRITE SUSPEND, Storage Snapshot, WRITE RESUME workflow to improve resilience. (Preview)
    • Fix for missing snapshot name (azSnapshotName) in --runafter command environment.

Download the AzAcSnap 8b installer.

May-2023

AzAcSnap 8a (Build: 1AC55A6)

AzAcSnap 8a is being released with the following fixes and improvements:

• Fixes and Improvements:
  • Configure (-c configure) changes:
    • Fix for -c configure related changes in AzAcSnap 8.
    • Improved workflow guidance for better customer experience.

Download the AzAcSnap 8a installer.

AzAcSnap 8 (Build: 1AC279E)

AzAcSnap 8 is being released with the following fixes and improvements:

• Fixes and Improvements:
  • Restore (-c restore) changes:
    • New ability to use -c restore to --restore revertvolume for Azure NetApp Files.
  • Backup (-c backup) changes:
    • Fix for incorrect error output when using -c backup and the database has ‘backint’ configured.
    • Remove lower-case conversion for anfBackup rename-only option using -c backup so the snapshot name maintains case of Volume name.
    • Fix for when a snapshot is created even though SAP HANA wasn't put into backup-mode. Now if SAP HANA can't be put into backup-mode, AzAcSnap immediately exits with an error.
  • Details (-c details) changes:
    • Fix for listing snapshot details with -c details when using Azure Large Instance storage.
  • Logging enhancements:
    • Extra logging output to syslog (for example, /var/log/messages) on failure.
    • New “mainlog” (azacsnap.log) to provide a more parse-able high-level log of commands run with success or failure result.
  • New global settings file (.azacsnaprc) to control behavior of azacsnap, including location of “mainlog” file.

Download the AzAcSnap 8 installer.

Feb-2023

AzAcSnap 7a (Build: 1AA8343)

AzAcSnap 7a is being released with the following fixes:

• Fixes for -c restore commands:
  • Enable mounting volumes on HLI (BareMetal) when the volumes are reverted to a prior state when using -c restore --restore revertvolume.
  • Correctly set ThroughputMiBps on volume clones for Azure NetApp Files volumes in an Auto QoS Capacity Pool when using -c restore --restore snaptovol.

Download the AzAcSnap 7a installer.

Dec-2022

AzAcSnap 7 (Build: 1A8FDFF)

AzAcSnap 7 is being released with the following fixes and improvements:

• Fixes and Improvements:
  • Backup (-c backup) changes:
    • Shorten suffix added to the snapshot name. The previous 26 character suffix of "YYYY-MM-DDThhhhss-nnnnnnnZ" was too long. The suffix is now an 11 character hex-decimal based on the ten-thousandths of a second since the Unix epoch to avoid naming collisions, for example, F2D212540D5.
    • Increased validation when creating snapshots to avoid failures on snapshot creation retry.
    • Time out when executing AzAcSnap mechanism to disable/enable backint (autoDisableEnableBackint=true) now aligns with other SAP HANA related operation timeout values.
    • Azure Backup now allows third party snapshot-based backups without impact to streaming backups (also known as "backint"). Therefore, AzAcSnap "backint" detection logic is reordered to allow for future deprecation of this feature. By default this setting is disabled (autoDisableEnableBackint=false). For customers who relied on this feature to take snapshots with AzAcSnap and use Azure Backup, keeping this value as true means AzAcSnap 7 continues to disable/enable backint. As this setting is no longer necessary for Azure Backup, we recommend testing AzAcSnap backups with the value of autoDisableEnableBackint=false, and then if successful make the same change in your production deployment.
  • Restore (-c restore) changes:
    • Ability to create a custom suffix for Volume clones created when using -c restore --restore snaptovol either:
      • via the command-line with --clonesuffix <custom suffix>.
      • interactively when running the command without the --force option.
    • When doing a --restore snaptovol on ANF, then Volume Clone inherits the new "NetworkFeatures" setting from the Source Volume.
    • Can now do a restore if there are no Data Volumes configured. It only restores the Other Volumes using the Other Volumes latest snapshot (the --snapshotfilter option only applies to Data Volumes).
    • Extra logging for -c restore command to help with user debugging.
  • Test (-c test) changes:
    • Now tests managing snapshots for all otherVolume(s) and all dataVolume(s).
• Features moved to GA (generally available):
  • None.
• Features added to Preview:
  • Preliminary support for Azure NetApp Files Backup.
  • Db2 database support adding options to configure, test, and snapshot backup IBM Db2 in an application consistent manner.

Download the AzAcSnap 7 installer.

Jul-2022

AzAcSnap 6 (Build: 1A5F0B8)

Important

AzAcSnap 6 brings a new release model for AzAcSnap and includes fully supported GA features and Preview features in a single release.

Since AzAcSnap v5.0 was released as GA in April 2021, there has been eight releases of AzAcSnap across two branches. Our goal with the new release model is to align with how Azure components are released. This change allows moving features from Preview to GA (without having to move an entire branch), and introduce new Preview features (without having to create a new branch). From AzAcSnap 6, we have a single branch with fully supported GA features and Preview features (which are subject to Microsoft's Preview Ts&Cs). It’s important to note customers can't accidentally use Preview features, and must enable them with the --preview command line option. Therefore the next release will be AzAcSnap 7, which could include; patches (if necessary) for GA features, current Preview features moving to GA, or new Preview features.

AzAcSnap 6 is being released with the following fixes and improvements:

• Features moved to GA (generally available):
  • Oracle Database support.
  • Backint integration to work with Azure Backup.
  • RunBefore/RunAfter command line options to execute custom shell scripts and commands before or after taking storage snapshots.
• Features in Preview:
  • Azure Key Vault to store Service Principal content.
  • Azure Managed Disk as an alternate storage back-end.
• ANF Client API Version updated to 2021-10-01.
• Change to workflow for handling Backint to re-enable backint configuration should there be a failure when putting SAP HANA in a consistent state for snapshot.

Download the AzAcSnap 6 installer.

May-2022

AzAcSnap v5.0.3 (Build: 20220524.14204) - Patch update to v5.0.2

AzAcSnap v5.0.3 (Build: 20220524.14204) is provided as a patch update to the v5.0 branch with the following fix:

• Fix for handling delimited identifiers when querying SAP HANA. This issue only impacted SAP HANA in HSR-HA node when there's a Secondary node configured with "logreplay_readaccss" and is resolved.

AzAcSnap v5.1 Preview (Build: 20220524.15550)

AzAcSnap v5.1 Preview (Build: 20220524.15550) is an updated build to extend the preview expiry date for 90 days. This update contains the fix for handling delimited identifiers when querying SAP HANA as provided in v5.0.3.

Mar-2022

AzAcSnap v5.1 Preview (Build: 20220302.81795)

AzAcSnap v5.1 Preview (Build: 20220302.81795) is released with the following new features:

• Azure Key Vault support for securely storing the Service Principal.
• A new option for -c backup --volume, which has the all parameter value.

Feb-2022

AzAcSnap v5.1 Preview (Build: 20220220.55340)

AzAcSnap v5.1 Preview (Build: 20220220.55340) is released with the following fixes and improvements:

• Resolved failure in matching --dbsid command line option with sid entry in the JSON configuration file for Oracle databases when using the -c restore command.

AzAcSnap v5.1 Preview (Build: 20220203.77807)

AzAcSnap v5.1 Preview (Build: 20220203.77807) is released with the following fixes and improvements:

• Minor update to resolve STDOUT buffer limitations. Now the list of Oracle table files put into archive-mode is sent to an external file rather than output in the main AzAcSnap log file. The external file is in the same location and basename as the log file, but with a ".protected-tables" extension (output filename detailed in the AzAcSnap log file). It's overwritten each time azacsnap runs.

Jan-2022

AzAcSnap v5.1 Preview (Build: 20220125.85030)

AzAcSnap v5.1 Preview (Build: 20220125.85030) is released with the following new features:

• Oracle Database support
• Backint Co-existence
• Azure Managed Disk
• RunBefore and RunAfter capability

Aug-2021

AzAcSnap v5.0.2 (Build: 20210827.19086) - Patch update to v5.0.1

AzAcSnap v5.0.2 (Build: 20210827.19086) is provided as a patch update to the v5.0 branch with the following fixes and improvements:

• Ignore ssh 255 exit codes. In some cases the ssh command, which is used to communicate with storage on Azure Large Instance, would emit an exit code of 255 when there were no errors or execution failures (refer man ssh "EXIT STATUS") - then AzAcSnap would trap this exit code as a failure and abort. With this update extra verification is done to validate correct execution, this validation includes parsing ssh STDOUT and STDERR for errors in addition to traditional exit code checks.
• Fix the installer's check for the location of the hdbuserstore. The installer would search the filesystem for an incorrect source directory for the hdbuserstore location for the user running the install - the installer now searches for ~/.hdb. This fix is applicable to systems (for example, Azure Large Instance) where the hdbuserstore was preconfigured for the root user before installing azacsnap.
• Installer now shows the version it will install/extract (if the installer is run without any arguments).

May-2021

AzAcSnap v5.0.1 (Build: 20210524.14837) - Patch update to v5.0

AzAcSnap v5.0.1 (Build: 20210524.14837) is provided as a patch update to the v5.0 branch with the following fixes and improvements:

• Improved exit code handling. In some cases AzAcSnap would emit an exit code of 0 (zero), even after an execution failure when the exit code should be non-zero. Exit codes should now only be zero on successfully running azacsnap to completion and non-zero if there's any failure.
• AzAcSnap's internal error handling is extended to capture and emit the exit code of the external commands run by AzAcSnap.

April-2021

AzAcSnap v5.0 (Build: 20210421.6349) - GA Released (21-April-2021)

AzAcSnap v5.0 (Build: 20210421.6349) is now Generally Available and for this build had the following fixes and improvements:

• The hdbsql retry timeout (to wait for a response from SAP HANA) is automatically set to half of the "savePointAbortWaitSeconds" to avoid race conditions. The setting for "savePointAbortWaitSeconds" can be modified directly in the JSON configuration file and must be a minimum of 600 seconds.

March-2021

AzAcSnap v5.0 Preview (Build: 20210318.30771)

AzAcSnap v5.0 Preview (Build: 20210318.30771) is released with the following fixes and improvements:

• Removed the need to add the AZACSNAP user into the SAP HANA Tenant DBs, see the Enable communication with database section.
• Fix to allow a restore with volumes configured with Manual QOS.
• Added mutex control to throttle SSH connections for Azure Large Instance.
• Fix installer for handling path names with spaces and other related issues.
• In preparation for supporting other database servers, changed the optional parameter "--hanasid" to "--dbsid".

Next steps

• Get started with Azure Application Consistent Snapshot tool
• Download the latest release of the installer