This release of the BlueXP Connector includes minor security improvements and bug fixes.

At this time, the 3.9.39 release is available for standard mode and restricted mode.

Two additional permissions are now required to create a Connector in AWS from BlueXP:

These permissions are required to enable IMDSv2 on the EC2 instance for the Connector.

We have included these permissions in the policy that displays in the BlueXP user interface when creating a Connector and in the same policy that's provided in the documentation.

Learn how to set up AWS permissions to create a Connector from AWS.

We have updated Docker Engine requirements to specify the maximum supported version on the Connector, which is 25.0.5. The minimum supported version is still 19.3.1.

View Connector host requirements.

A new private mode release is now available for BlueXP. This release includes the following versions of the BlueXP services that are supported with private mode.

This new release is available to download from the NetApp Support Site.

You have had the ability to view Azure Blob Storage on the BlueXP Canvas for quite a while. Now you can add new storage accounts and change properties for existing storage accounts directly from BlueXP. See how to add new Azure Blob storage accounts.

You can no longer create a volume from a template. This action was associated with the BlueXP remediation service, which is no longer available.

A new Application Templates service enables you to set up a volume template for Azure NetApp Files. The template should make your job easier because certain volume parameters will already be defined in the template, such as capacity pool, size, protocol, VNet and subnet where the volume should reside, and more. When a parameter is already predefined, you can just skip to the next volume parameter.

You can now dynamically change the service level for a volume to meet workload needs and optimize your costs. The volume is moved to the other capacity pool with no impact to the volume.

Learn how to change a volume's service level.

You have had the ability to view Amazon S3 buckets on the BlueXP Canvas for quite a while. Now you can add new buckets and change properties for existing buckets directly from BlueXP. See how to add new Amazon S3 buckets.

Previously, when you enabled ransomware detection in a backup policy, scans occurred automatically when the first backup was created and when you restored a backup. Previously, the service scanned all Snapshot copies and you could not disable the scans.

With this release, you can now enable or disable ransomware scans on the latest Snapshot copy by using the option on the Advanced Settings page. If you enable it, scans are performed weekly by default.

Refer to the following information for details:

Now you can perform a quick restore of a volume from cloud storage to an on-premises ONTAP destination volume. Previously you could perform a quick restore only to a Cloud Volumes ONTAP system. The quick restore is ideal for disaster recovery situations where you need to provide access to a volume as soon as possible. A quick restore is much faster than full volume restore; it restores the metadata from a cloud snapshot to an ONTAP destination volume. The source could be from AWS S3, Azure Blob, Google Cloud Services, or NetApp StorageGRID.

The on-premises ONTAP destination system must be running ONTAP version 9.14.1 or greater.

You can do this using the Browse and restore process, not the Search and restore process.

For details, see Restore ONTAP data from backup files.

Previously, you could restore files and folders only from backup copies in AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Services. Now, you can restore files and folders from local Snapshot copies and from replication copies.

You can perform this feature by using the Search and restore process, not by using the Browse and restore process.

This release provides support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux v8.8 and v9.3 in addition to previously supported 9.x, which requires Podman, rather than the Docker engine. This is applicable to any manual on-premises installation of BlueXP classification.

The following operating systems require using the Podman container engine, and they require BlueXP classification version 1.30 or greater: Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 8.8, 9.0, 9.1, 9.2, and 9.3.

Learn more about BlueXP classification deployments overview.

The option to activate audit log collection has been disabled.

Scan performance on secondary scanner nodes has been improved. You can add more scanner nodes if you need additional processing power for your scans. For details, refer to Install BlueXP classification on a host that has internet access.

If you deployed BlueXP classification on a system with internet access, the system upgrades automatically. Previously, the upgrade occurred after a specific time elapsed since the last user activity. With this release, BlueXP classification upgrades automatically if the local time is between 1:00 AM and 5:00 AM. If the local time is outside of these hours, the upgrade occurs after a specific time elapses since the last user activity. For details, refer to Install on a Linux host with internet access.

If you deployed BlueXP classification without internet access, you'll need to upgrade manually. For details, refer to Install BlueXP classification on a Linux host with no internet access.

If you want BlueXP classification to exclude scanning data that resides in certain data source directories, you can add these directory names to a configuration file that BlueXP classification processes. This feature enables you to avoid scanning directories that are unnecessary, or that would result in returning false positive personal data results.

Learn more.

If you need BlueXP classification to scan more than 250 million files, you can use an Extra Large instance in your cloud deployment or on-premises installation. This type of system can scan up to 500 million files.

Learn more.

The filtered results in the Investigation page now shows the total size of the items in addition to the total number of files. This can help when moving files, deleting files, and more.

Now you can configure Group IDs in NFS to be considered as "Open to Organization" directly from BlueXP classification if the group had not initially been set with that permission. Any files and folders that have these group IDs attached will show as "Open to Organization" in the Investigation Details page. See how to add additional Group IDs as "open to organization".

The following regions now support HA multiple availability zone deployments in Azure for Cloud Volumes ONTAP 9.12.1 GA and later:

For a list of all regions, see the Global Regions Map under Azure.

The Johannesburg region (africa-south1 region) is now supported in Google Cloud for Cloud Volumes ONTAP 9.12.1 GA and later.

For a list of all regions, see the Global Regions Map under Google Cloud.

You can no longer create a volume from a template or edit a volume's tags. These actions were associated with the BlueXP remediation service, which is no longer available.

In AWS, Cloud Volumes ONTAP, the Mediator, and the Connector now support Amazon Instant Metadata Service v2 (IMDSv2) for all functions. IMDSv2 provides enhanced protection against vulnerabilities. Only IMDSv1 was previously supported.

If required by your security policies, you can configure your EC2 instances to use IMDSv2. For instructions, refer to BlueXP setup and administration documentation for managing existing Connectors.

BlueXP can now deploy and manage Cloud Volumes ONTAP 9.14.1 General Availability release in AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.

You can now manage Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud directly from BlueXP:

It's now easier to navigate between Cloud Manager and Spot.

A new Storage Operations section in Spot enables you to navigate directly to Cloud Manager. After you're done, you can get back to Spot from the Compute tab in Cloud Manager.

By leveraging Spot's Cloud Analyzer, Cloud Manager can now provide a high-level cost analysis of your cloud compute spending and identify potential savings. This information is available from the Compute service in Cloud Manager.

Learn more about the Compute service.

The data broker is now supported on hosts running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.9.

View Linux host requirements.

Users now have the option to filter directories using regex.

Learn more about the Exclude Directories feature.

The cold storage Azure Blob tier is now available when creating a sync relationship.

Learn more about creating a sync relationship.

Tel Aviv is now a supported region when creating a data broker in AWS.

Learn more about creating a data broker in AWS.

All new data brokers will now use node version 21.2.0. Data brokers that are not compatible with this update, such as CentOS 7.0 and Ubuntu Server 18.0, will no longer work with BlueXP copy and sync.

The older version of Upgrade Advisor is now deprecated. You can use the enhanced version of Upgrade Advisor to generate upgrade plans for a single cluster and multiple clusters. Learn how to view upgrade recommendations and generate an upgrade plan.

The timeline for technical cases is enhanced to view the complete case history for 6 or 12 months.

You can now create a watchlist based on Keystone subscription numbers and search for a Keystone subscription using the first three characters of a subscription number or watchlist name.

The BlueXP digital wallet now enables you to manage licenses for BlueXP disaster recovery. You can add licenses, update licenses, and view details about licensed capacity.

Learn how to manage licenses for BlueXP data services

Several improvements to the Cloud Volumes ONTAP usage reports are now available:

For more information about the usage reports, refer to Download usage reports.

The BlueXP digital wallet now identifies Google Cloud Marketplace subscriptions that are associated with a private offer and shows the end date and term of the subscription. This enhancement enables you to verify that you've successfully accepted the private offer and to validate its terms.

Now you can find out what you're being charged for when you're subscribed to capacity-based licenses. The following types of usage reports are available for download from the BlueXP digital wallet. The usage reports provide capacity details of your subscriptions and tell you how you're being charged for the resources in your Cloud Volumes ONTAP subscriptions. The downloadable reports can be easily shared with others.

For more information about the usage reports, refer to Download usage reports.

Email notifications are now supported with the BlueXP digital wallet.

If you configure your notification settings, you can receive email notifications when your BYOL licenses are about to expire (a "Warning" notification) or if they have already expired (an "Error" notification).

Learn how to set up email notifications

When viewing capacity-based licensing for Cloud Volumes ONTAP, the BlueXP digital wallet now shows the licensed capacity that you purchased with marketplace private offers.

Learn how to view the consumed capacity in your account.

You can now discover your E-Series systems directly from BlueXP. Discovering E-Series systems provides you with a complete view of data across your hybrid multicloud.

A new "Edge Cache" license is available when deploying a Cloud Volumes ONTAP system in Google Cloud. You are entitled to deploy one Global File Cache Edge system for each 3 TiB of purchased capacity on the Cloud Volumes ONTAP system.

Learn more about the Edge Cache license package.

The previous minimum requirement of 10 licenses, or 30 TB of storage, has been removed. One Global File Cache license will be issued for every 3 TB of storage.

An offline, or dark site, License Management Server (LMS) is most useful when the LMS does not have an internet connection for license validation with license sources. An internet connection and connection to license source is required during initial configuration. Once configured, the LMS instance can become dark. All Edges/Cores should have a connection with LMS for continuous validation of licenses.

A single Global File Cache Edge instance can serve up to 500 users per dedicated physical Edge instance, and up to 300 users for dedicated virtual deployments. The maximum number of users used to be 400 and 200, respectively.

You have had the ability to view Google Cloud Storage buckets on the BlueXP Canvas for quite a while. Now you can add new buckets and change properties for existing buckets directly from BlueXP. See how to add new Google Cloud Storage buckets.

You can no longer create a volume from a template. This action was associated with the BlueXP remediation service, which is no longer available.

If you're managing a cluster with a Connector, you can now create FlexGroup volumes using the BlueXP API.

You can now discover on-premises ONTAP clusters from Canvas > My estate by selecting a cluster that BlueXP pre-discovered based on the ONTAP clusters that are associated with the email address for your BlueXP login.

Learn how to discover clusters from the My estate page.

You can now replicate data from an Amazon FSx for ONTAP file system to Cloud Volumes ONTAP.

Learn how to set up data replication.

You can now replicate data from an Amazon FSx for ONTAP file system to the following destinations:

Learn how to set up data replication.

You can now replicate data from a Cloud Volumes ONTAP system or an on-premises ONTAP cluster to an Amazon FSx for ONTAP file system.

Learn how to set up data replication.

You can now discover your StorageGRID systems directly from BlueXP. Discovering StorageGRID provides you with a complete view of data across your hybrid multicloud.

In the past you needed to use the default "fabric-pool" prefix when defining the bucket name, for example, fabric-pool-bucket1. Now you can use a custom prefix when naming your bucket. This functionality is available only when tiering data to Amazon S3. Learn more.

If you are using multiple Connectors to manage all the storage systems in your environment, some clusters on which you want to implement tiering may be in different Connectors. If you are not sure which Connector is managing a certain cluster, you can search across all Connectors using BlueXP tiering. Learn more.

When you activate BlueXP tiering, ONTAP can use an unlimited amount of network bandwidth to transfer the inactive data from volumes in the cluster to object storage. If you notice that tiering traffic is affecting normal user workloads, you can throttle the amount of bandwidth that can be used during the transfer. Learn more.

The tiering event "Tier additional data from cluster <name> to object storage to increase your storage efficiency" now appears as a notification when a cluster is tiering less than 20% of its cold data - including clusters that are tiering no data.

This notification is a "Recommendation" to help make your systems more efficient and to save on storage costs. It provides a link to the BlueXP tiering total cost of ownership and savings calculator to help you calculate your cost savings.

The Licensing tab has been removed from the BlueXP tiering interface. All licensing for Pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) subscriptions are accessed from the BlueXP tiering On-Premises Dashboard now. There is also a link from that page to the BlueXP digital wallet so that you can view and manage any BlueXP tiering bring-your-own-licenses (BYOL).

The "Clusters Dashboard" tab has been renamed to "Clusters", and the "On-Prem Overview" tab has been renamed to "On-Premises Dashboard". These pages have added some information that will help you evaluate if you can optimize your storage space with additional tiering configuration.