An Unstructured Data Storage Newsletter – ECS – November 2021

An Unstructured Data Storage Newsletter – ECS – November 2021

ECS SUPPORT
HIGHLIGHTS
NOVEMBER 2021

Content
Highlights .........................................................................................................................................................................2
Target Code ....................................................................................................................................................................2
Code Recommendations, Published End of Standard Support (EOSS), and Versioning Information .............2
Release Information – ECS 3.6.1.3 (Target Code) & ECS 3.6.2.0 (Latest Code) ...............................................4
Dell Technical Advisories (DTAs) ................................................................................................................................5
Dell Security Advisories (DSAs) ...................................................................................................................................5
ECS Troubleshooting Guide 1.12 ................................................................................................................................6
xDoctor Tool ....................................................................................................................................................................6
Disks as Customer Replaceable Unit (CRU) .............................................................................................................6
New Knowledgebase (KB) Articles ..............................................................................................................................7
Top Services Topics ......................................................................................................................................................7

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 An Unstructured Data Storage Newsletter – ECS – November 2021
Highlights

- ECS 3.6.2.0 is available (RTS August 2021).

- ECS 3.6.1.x family is announced as target code.

- ECS Troubleshooting Guide is now available for customers.

- xDoctor tool is customer downloadable and installable.

Target Code

Target Code
Dell Technologies Total Customer Experience (TCE) team regularly monitors the quality and stability of
supported code versions across the active customer install base. This data is used to guide what code version
is recommended for customers to run in order to be most stable with the lowest risk. Customers on older code
should upgrade to the target code version (or later).

ECS 3.6.1.x declared target code

The TCE team, comprised of key Engineering and Services leadership, recommends the adoption of ECS
3.6.1.x, which achieved target code status in May 2021. It continues to be the best performing code across all
actively supported code versions. The recommendation is to upgrade to the latest patch of the target code,
which is currently ECS 3.6.1.3, or to the newest ECS release which is currently ECS 3.6.2.0.

You can find a full list of Dell product target codes at: https://support.emc.com/docu39695_Target-Revisions-
and-Adoption-Rates.pdf

For information on how upgrades are performed, please refer to the following Knowledge Base (KB) article:

• KB 14729: ECS Upgrade Planning

Code Recommendations, Published End of Standard Support (EOSS), and Versioning Information

Have you upgraded to the Target Code (or newer) yet?

Upgrading to the Target Code (or newer) is important.

Customers on newer code enjoy greater functionality
and fewer outages/service requests.

Upgrading to the Target Code (or newer) ensures that

you can take advantage of the newest features,
functionality, fixes and security enhancements. For
ECS that means code level 3.6.1.x or greater.

To learn more about the Target Codes/Latest Codes,

please refer to the Target Revisions document.

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 An Unstructured Data Storage Newsletter – ECS – November 2021

Published End of Standard Support (EOSS)

This table provides the published EOSS dates for all ECS versions:

General Availability Published EOSS

Version
(GA) Date
3.6.2.0 August 2021 August 2024

3.6.1.3 September 2021 February 2024

3.6.1.2 June 2021 February 2024

3.6.1.1 April 2021 February 2024

3.6.1.0 February 2021 February 2024

3.6.0.1 January 2021 November 2023

3.6 November 2020 November 2023

3.5.1.x September 2020* September 2023

3.5.0.x May 2020* May 2023

3.4.0.x September 2019* September 2022

3.3.0.x February 2019* February 2022

3.2.x.x and below Various EOSS

*Various GA dates for patches.

Additional information on EOSS dates for Dell products can be found by searching for the specific Dell product
within the Support by Product section from the Online Support site.

Versioning Information
This table provides information on the ECS versioning convention:

Release Digit Release Type Description

Release with functionality that provides a

First (X.x.x.x) Major substantial generational or architectural changes in
the product.

Release that delivers new incremental functionality

Second (x.X.x.x) Minor to the existing product generation, in addition to
fixes for defects.

Release that delivers fixes for important defects,

Third (x.x.X.x) Service Packs fixes to Security Vulnerabilities, and included fixes
delivered by preceding patches and hotfixes.

Release that cumulatively delivers fixes to security

Fourth (x.x.x.X) Patches
vulnerabilities and critical customer found issues.
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 An Unstructured Data Storage Newsletter – ECS – November 2021

Release Information – ECS 3.6.1.3 (Target Code) & ECS 3.6.2.0 (Latest Code)

ECS 3.6.1.x/ECS 3.6.2.x Release Highlights:

Reasons to Upgrade:
• Improved Stability
• Improved Performance
• Improved Security
• Tech Refresh Enhancements
• Node evacuation
• Node extend

Key Features in 3.6.2.x: (in addition to the existing features from the previous versions)
• S3 Object Lock Support

Key Features in 3.6.1.x: (in addition to the existing features from the previous versions)

• ECS Alert
• FIPS-140-2 enhanced support
• 8 TB NVMe drive support
• Installer upgrade - certificate renewal
• Enhanced hardware support
• Firmware support for EX300, EX500, and EXF900

Key Features in 3.6.0.x: (in addition to the existing features from the previous versions)

• S3 service to connect with multiple Data IPs

• Limit for Maximum Object Version Count
• Restrict user IP addresses that can access a CAS bucket
• Delete a replication group
• EXF900 Hardware
• Cloud DVR
• Security Administrator
• EKM support for KeySecure 8.11
• Tech Refresh Enhancements
• Node Extend using Service Console
• Lower rate of false alerts sent using SRS
• AWS SDK Compatibility Report
• Retention Enhancement
• ISG Product Telemetry Software Notice

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 An Unstructured Data Storage Newsletter – ECS – November 2021
Release Notes:

• ECS 3.6.1.3 Release Notes

• ECS 3.6.2.0 Release Notes

Online Support pages:

• ECS Appliance

Additional Resources:

• Dell EMC ECS 3.6.x Product Documentation Index

• ECS technical white papers and videos

Dell Technical Advisories (DTAs)

Dell published the following ECS DTAs in the last 90 days:

DTA Title Date

DTA 187004: ECS : Cross-zone Shallow Copy may September

DTA 187004
lead to silent Data Loss (DL) 2021

DTA 189609: ECS : Reaching File Descriptor (FD)

limit on ECS versions less than ECS 3.5.1.1 may September
DTA 189609
cause Directory Table (DT) data to be impacted and 2021

may result in ECS Data Unavailability (DU)

Dell Security Advisories (DSAs)

Dell published the following ECS DSAs in the last 90 days:

DSAs Title Date

DSA-2021-162: Dell EMC ECS Security Update for

DSA-2021-162 August 2021
Multiple Third-Party Component Vulnerabilities

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 An Unstructured Data Storage Newsletter – ECS – November 2021

ECS Troubleshooting Guide 1.12

This new customer document will assist in basic troubleshooting steps for ECS. It will walk through what to
look for in the UI initially (not all inclusive), as well as some basic CLI read-only commands. It also covers the
Advanced Monitoring (Grafana) UI that was introduced in ECS 3.4.0.0.

To download the latest version of the ECS Troubleshooting Guide:

1. Log into the Dell Support Site and search for “ECS Troubleshooting Guide” using the top search bar.
2. To download the guide, click "Manuals & Documentation " under "Resources" section on the left side of
the page, and the “ECS Troubleshooting Guide” will appear for download.

xDoctor Tool

xDoctor is a tool used by Dell Customer Support to monitor, report on, and troubleshoot the health of your
ECS Appliance. Keeping xDoctor updated to the most current version enables Dell Customer Support to more
quickly detect and resolve issues with your ECS Appliance.

To download the latest version of xDoctor:

1. Log into the Dell Support Site and search for xDoctor using the top search bar.
2. To download the xDoctor code: Click "Downloads & Drivers" under "Resources" section on the left side of
the page, and the latest xDoctor version xDoctor4ECS 4.8-xx will appear for download.
3. To download the xDoctor release notes: Click "Manuals & Documents" under "Resources" section on the
left side of the page, and "xDoctor Release Notes 4.8-xx" will appear for download.

A new version, xDoctor 4.8-78.2, has been released in November 2021. It is recommended to upgrade
to the latest xDoctor version at the earliest opportunity.

Disks as Customer Replaceable Unit (CRU)

A new feature starting with ECS 3.5.x.x is disks as Customer Replacable Unit (CRU) for Gen3 racks. This
new feature enables customers to replace failed disks without having to schedule an onsite visit with a Dell
Technologies technician to manually remove the disks from the ECS VDC. Customers are now able to
manage failed disks from the ECS user interface anytime.

Additional Resources:

• CRU Video: ECS: How to replace EX300 Disk

• CRU Video: ECS: How to replace EX500 Disk
• CRU Video: ECS: How to replace EX3000 Disk
• How to replace ECS EXF900 Appliance NVMe SSD

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 An Unstructured Data Storage Newsletter – ECS – November 2021

New Knowledgebase (KB) Articles

Article Number Title

190777 ECS: GeoDrive creates _$folder$ within a directory
192694 ECS: Drive Replacement in ECS 3.5 and later

Top Services Topics

Article Number Title

189245 ECS: xDoctor: RAP127: DTA Detected
ECS: Transformation Reconciliation phase is showing
190985 CENTERA_SDK_CLIP_NOT_FOUND_ERR errors
189158 ECS: How to find out the serial number of an ECS
ECS: xDoctor reports an error when upgrading to version 4.8.76.0 or higher
190062 from versions lower than 4.8.75

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 An Unstructured Data Storage Newsletter – ECS – November 2021

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 An Unstructured Data Storage Newsletter – ECS – November 2021

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Published December 2021

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The information is subject to change without notice.

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