BlueXP backup and recovery enables you to back up, restore, verify, and clone Microsoft SQL Server databases and availability groups. From the workload factory console, you can access and use BlueXP backup and recovery to protect Microsoft SQL Server workloads.

Learn how to protect Microsoft SQL Server workloads via the workload factory console.

For details about BlueXP backup and recovery, refer to the Protect Microsoft SQL workloads overview with BlueXP backup and recovery.

The well-architected analysis now includes validation for high-availability clusters. This validation checks all cluster-related configurations from the server side, including disk availability and configuration on both nodes, Windows cluster configuration, and failover readiness. This ensures that the Windows cluster is properly set up and can successfully failover when needed.

Implement well-architected database configurations in workload factory

The workload factory console now includes a multi-level menu for instances. This change provides a more organized and intuitive navigation structure for managing instances. Menu options for instance management include viewing the instance dashboard, viewing databases, creating a database, and creating a sandbox clone.

When the NT Authority\SYSTEM user doesn't have sufficient permissions on the Microsoft SQL Server, you can authenticate with SQL Server credentials or add the missing SQL Server permissions to NT Authority\SYSTEM.

Explore potential savings for your database environments with Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP

We've added several new columns to the replication relationships table to give you more information about your replication relationships in the Replication relationships tab. The table now includes the following columns:

This release introduces the updated term "NetApp Autonomous Ransomware Protection with AI (ARP/AI)" to better reflect the integration of artificial intelligence in our ransomware protection capabilities.

In addition, the following enhancements have been made to ARP/AI:

Protect your data with NetApp Autonomous Ransomware Protection with AI (ARP/AI)

Workload factory now analyzes your FSx for ONTAP file systems for the following configurations:

View the well-architected status of your FSx for ONTAP file systems

You can now dismiss one or more configurations from the well-architected analysis. This allows you to ignore specific configurations that you don't want to address at the moment.

Dismiss a configuration from the well-architected analysis

You can now use Terraform from the Codebox to create a link for association with an FSx for ONTAP file system. This functionality is for users who create links manually.

Connect to an FSx for ONTAP file system with a Lambda link

The following new regions are now supported for exploring savings for Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS), FSx for Windows File Server, and Elastic File Systems (EFS):

You can now create SMB/CIFS shares which point to directories within a volume. Within the volume, you'll be able to see which shares exist, where the shares are the pointing to, and the permissions granted to specific users and groups.

For data protection volumes, the flow of creating an SMB/CIFS share now includes the creation of a junction path to the volume for mounting purposes.

Create a CIFS share for a volume

The Amazon Elastic VMware Service migration advisor now supports automatic deployment and mounting of your Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP filesystem. This enables you to begin deploying your VMs on FSx for ONTAP filesytems when migration to the Amazon EVS environment is complete.

Create a deployment plan for Amazon EVS using the migration advisor

You can now explore the potential savings for migrating your VMware workloads to Amazon Elastic VMware Service (EVS). The savings calculator enables you to compare costs of using Amazon EVS with and without Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP as underlying storage. The calculator displays potential savings in real-time as you adjust characteristics of your environment.

Explore savings for Amazon Elastic VMware Service with BlueXP workload factory

If chatbot query results contain structured data, GenAI can store the results in an Amazon S3 bucket. When these results are stored in an S3 bucket, you can download them using the download link within the chat session.

Create a GenAI knowledge base

NetApp now provides a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server with BlueXP workload factory for GenAI. You can install the server locally to enable external MCP clients to discover and retrieve query results from a GenAI knowledge base.

NetApp workload factory GenAI MCP server

The BlueXP workload factory notification service enables workload factory to send notifications to the BlueXP alerts service or to an Amazon SNS topic. Notifications sent to BlueXP alerts appear in the BlueXP alerts panel. When workload factory publishes notifications to an Amazon SNS topic, subscribers to the topic (such as people or other applications) receive the notifications at the endpoints configured for the topic (such as email or SMS messages).

Configure BlueXP workload factory notifications

Workload factory provides the following notifications for Databases:

Workload factory for Databases has improved its onboarding process for registering instances running on Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP storage. You can now select instances in bulk for registration. Once an instance is registered, you can create and manage database resources within the workload factory console.

Instance management

The well-architected status for your database instances now includes the analysis and the fix for the Microsoft Multipath I/O (MPIO) timeout setting. Setting the MPIO timeout to 60 seconds ensures FSx for ONTAP storage connectivity and stability during failovers. If the MPIO setting isn't set accordingly, workload factory will provide a fix to set the MPIO timeout value to 60 seconds.

Implement well-architected database configurations in workload factory

From the instance inventory screen, various resource utilization graphs like throughput and IOPS now display 7 days of data so that you can monitor performance of SQL nodes from the workload factory console more efficiently. The performance metrics gathered from the SQL nodes will be saved in Amazon CloudWatch which can be used for Logs Insights or integrating with other analytic services in your environment.

From the Instances and Databases tabs within the inventory, we've enhanced the description and visualization for protection.

Now workload factory supports SQL Server authentication using Windows authenticated users to register instances and benefit from management features.

Register instances in workload factory for Databases

The BlueXP workload factory notification service enables workload factory to send notifications to the BlueXP alerts service or to an Amazon SNS topic. Notifications sent to BlueXP alerts appear in the BlueXP alerts panel. When workload factory publishes notifications to an Amazon SNS topic, subscribers to the topic (such as people or other applications) receive the notifications at the endpoints configured for the topic (such as email or SMS messages).

Configure BlueXP workload factory notifications

The Storage dashboard in the workload factory console includes new cards for savings opportunities. The card at the top of the dashboard displays the number of savings opportunities for storage environments running on Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS), Amazon FSx for Windows File Server, and Amazon Elastic File Systems (EFS). At the bottom of the dashboard, three new cards display savings opportunities by Amazon storage service - EBS, FSx for Windows File Server, and EFS. From all cards, you can explore the savings opportunities in more detail.

From the FSx for ONTAP protection coverage card and replication relationship health card, you can investigate if there are any partially protected volumes in your FSx for ONTAP file systems as well as investigate issues with replication relationships. In both cases, you can take action to resolve the issues.

The Volumes tab in the workload factory console has been enhanced to provide a more comprehensive view of your FSx for ONTAP file systems. The enhancements include new cards for SSD capacity, Capacity pool, and NetApp Autonomous Ransomware Protection with AI (ARP/AI). These cards summarize capacity utilization and ARP/AI protection for all volumes in the file system.

Workload factory now supports second-generation Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP file systems. You can create, manage, and monitor second-generation file systems in the workload factory console. All new commercial regions are supported.

Create a second-generation file system in workload factory

FlexVol volumes are discoverable within the workload factory console. You can check the balance of your FlexVol volumes and rebalance FlexVol volumes to redistribute the capacity when imbalances develop over time due to the addition of new files and file growth.

Rebalance the capacity of a FlexVol volume

The term "Autonomous Ransomware Protection" (ARP) has been updated to "NetApp Autonomous Ransomware Protection with AI" (ARP/AI) in the workload factory console.

When you create a new volume in the workload factory console, NetApp Autonomous Ransomware Protection with AI (ARP/AI) is enabled by default if the file system has an ARP/AI policy. This means that the volume is automatically protected against ransomware attacks using AI-driven detection and response capabilities.

Create a volume in workload factory

Workload factory supports replicating immutable volumes from one FSx for ONTAP system to another FSx for ONTAP file system to protect critical data from accidental deletion or malicious attacks like ransomware. The target volume and its host file system will be immutable, or locked, and any data in the target file system can't be modified or removed until the retention period ends.

Learn how to create a replication relationship

Now you can manage the IAM execution role and its attached permission policy when you create a link in the workload factory console. A link establishes connectivity between your workload factory account and one or more FSx for ONTAP file systems. You have two options for assigning the IAM execution role and link permissions - automatically or user-provided. Managing the execution role and its attached permissions policy in workload factory means that you don't need to use third party code any longer.

Connect to an FSx for ONTAP file system with a Lambda link

BlueXP workload factory for VMware now supports Amazon Elastic VMware Service. You can rapidly migrate your on-premises VMware workloads to Amazon Elastic VMware Service using the migration advisor, optimizing cost and enabling more control over your VMware environment without needing to refactor or re-platform your applications.

Create a deployment plan for Amazon EVS using the migration advisor

You can now add a data source from a generic SMB or NFS share. This enables you to include files that are stored on volumes hosted by filesystems other than Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP.

Add data sources to a knowledge base

Add data sources to a connector

The following permission is now available in read-only mode for Databases: cloudwatch:GetMetricData.

Permissions reference change log

The BlueXP workload factory notification service enables workload factory to send notifications to the BlueXP alerts service or to an Amazon SNS topic. Notifications sent to BlueXP alerts appear in the BlueXP alerts panel. When workload factory publishes notifications to an Amazon SNS topic, subscribers to the topic (such as people or other applications) receive the notifications at the endpoints configured for the topic (such as email or SMS messages).

Configure BlueXP workload factory notifications

You can now clone a project in BlueXP workload factory for Builders. When you clone a project, Builders creates a new project from a snapshot, with the same configuration as the original. Cloning is useful for quickly creating similar projects or for testing purposes. You can mount the new project clone by following the instructions in Builders.

Manage versions of BlueXP workload factory for Builders projects

Automatic capacity management for FSx for ONTAP file systems is now included as a configuration analysis in the well-architected status dashboard.

Additionally, workload factory now supports fixing the following configuration issues:

Fix configuration issues

The Tracker monitoring capability is now available in GenAI. You can use Tracker to monitor and track the progress and status of pending, ongoing, and completed operations, review details for operation tasks and subtasks, diagnose any issues or failures, edit parameters for failed operations, and retry failed operations.

Monitor workload operations with Tracker in BlueXP workload factory

You can now increase the relevance of reranked query results by selecting a specific reranker model to use with a knowledge base. GenAI supports the Cohere Rerank and Amazon Rerank models.

Create a GenAI knowledge base

This release of BlueXP workload factory for VMware features the following improvement to the Amazon EC2 migration advisor experience:

NetApp Data Infrastructure Insights as a data source: Workload factory now connects directly with NetApp Data Infrastructure Insights to gather VMWare deployment information when you use the EC2 migration advisor data collector.

Create a deployment plan for Amazon EC2 using the migration advisor

The workload factory user interface and documentation now use "read-only" to refer to read permissions and "read/write" to refer to automate permissions.

When using BlueXP workload factory CloudShell, you can start typing a command and press the Tab key to view available options. If multiple possibilities exist, the CLI will display a list of suggestions. This feature enhances productivity by minimizing errors and speeding up command execution.

The workload factory user interface and documentation now use "read-only" to refer to read permissions and "read/write" to refer to automate permissions.

The workload factory user interface and documentation now use "read-only" to refer to read permissions and "read/write" to refer to automate permissions.

When using CloudShell, each time you issue an ONTAP CLI command and an error occurs, you can get AI-generated error responses that include a description of the failure, the cause of the failure, and a detailed resolution.

Use CloudShell

Now you can manage the iam:SimulatePrincipalPolicy permission from the workload factory console when you add additional AWS account credentials or add a new workload capability such as the GenAI workload.

Permissions reference change log

BlueXP workload factory for Builders simplifies software version consumption and access, eliminating the need for custom tools or scripts. It enables you to consume software versions as instant clones integrated with Perforce Helix Core as a convenient workspace for your development processes, saving time and resources.

The initial release includes the capability to manage projects and workspaces, and automate actions with Codebox. You can also integrate Builders with Perforce Helix Core, so that you can manage different versions of each project and switch between them quickly.