• CLI: A powerful new command line syntax, unified across Oracle, SQL Server and PostgreSQL configurations, allows for simple, standardized and automated management of our DR product.

• API: Featuring the ability to control StandbyMP fully remotely from any third-party tool or software suite, our new API allows for streamlined integrations into complex workflows never previously possible.

• New license key format: from v12.1 onwards, StandbyMP is switching to a new format license key. Please see the detailed notes linked below.

• postgresql The WAL File Shipping replication mode for PostgreSQL is deprecated. Existing configurations using the WAL File Shipping replication mode will continue to function, but no new configurations using this mode can be created. All support for the WAL File Shipping replication mode will be removed in a future release, at which point all configurations using the WAL File Shipping replication mode will need to be recreated using the WAL Archiving or WAL Streaming replication modes.

PROJECT-1651: Many improvements have been made to performance and responsiveness when dealing with hundreds of SQL Server configurations.

A limit has been placed on the number of simultaneous backup or restore operations started on each instance, so it is now feasible to start hundreds of operations at once without overloading the system. This limit defaults to 10; if you need to change it, please contact Dbvisit Support.

PROJECT-1834: It is now possible to control whether backup compression is used for the database backups created when initially creating or re-synchronizing a standby database and for the log backups created when keeping a standby database up to date. This feature is only available if the primary SQL Server instance supports it, which is the case for Standard and Enterprise Editions, but not Express or Web Editions.

PROJECT-1323:When creating multiple SQL Server configurations at once, validation of custom backup locations could fail, preventing creation of the configurations, even if the locations were valid. This bug has been fixed and creation of the configurations will now succeed.

PROJECT-1330: Memory consumption during service startup has been greatly reduced.

PROJECT-1386:Some minor bugs relating to the scheduled read-only mode feature have been fixed: if the database is offline at the scheduled switch time, a warning event is created; if the Observer triggers an automatic failover while the standby database is in read-only mode, the icon on the dashboard that indicates scheduled read-only mode was left incorrectly activated; if the standby database was already in the target mode at the time of scheduled mode switch, the event incorrectly stated that it had been switched, when in fact it had simply been left as is.

PROJECT-1753:A confusing message related to scheduled read-only mode was added to the end of Graceful Switchover tasks even if the scheduled read-only mode feature was not in use. This message has been reworded to be less confusing and is suppressed when the feature is not in use.

PROJECT-1888:Transaction log backups could fail to be applied when Standby Update Delay is enabled and the SQL Server instance used a non-English default locale. This feature has been fixed to work in all locales.

PROJECT-1892: In rare cases, a transaction log backup could not be read immediately after creation due to an unknown process having to file open. When this happens, the operation is now retried after a short delay.

PROJECT-1905: When there were two standby databases for one primary, and one of the configurations was switched over, transaction log backups could be deleted before being applied to both standby databases. This has been fixed and transaction log backups are now only deleted once they have been applied or transferred for all relevant configurations.

PROJECT-1906: A component process of the dbvagentmanager service could exit unexpectedly shortly after startup if the Control Center could not be reached, potentially causing problems with Automated Standby Update. This has been fixed.

PROJECT-2060: When there were many unapplied transaction log backups on the standby host, a very large number of debug messages were written to the trace log file on the standby host, leading to increased CPU usage. The debug log messages have been reduced in both number and size.

PROJECT-2070: When there were two (or more) standby databases for one primary, and one of the configurations was switched over, events were created saying that Automated Standby Update had failed, even though it was working correctly. These false failure events are now no longer created.

PROJECT-2079 When a large number of configurations exist between a single pair of instances, the button to collapse and expand the instance pair on the dashboard was missing, leaving the configurations permanently collapsed in some cases. This button has been restored.

PROJECT-1909: The dbvagentmanager activate command was not working. This command has been fixed. Note that this command (and some others) are deprecated in this release.

PROJECT-2072: The contents of the conf directory from the StandbyMP installation and a detailed listing of all files in the StandbyMP installation directory are now included in all support packages. This will help Dbvisit Support to diagnose problems.

PROJECT-2095 Creating a time-based support package for Oracle configurations was not possible when the language was set to Japanese or Chinese due to an issue with time formats. This has been corrected and support package creation is now functional for all languages.

PROJECT-1554: Configurations where either the primary or standby database is hosted in Oracle Base Database Service are now fully supported.

PROJECT-1154: It is now possible to disable the application of archived logs on the standby database while still shipping them from the primary.

PROJECT-1835: When using our DR Testing functionality, it is possible to use Intelligent Activation to choose how many archived logs to apply to the standby database prior to activation.

PROJECT-1837: General Reminder notifications are now sent if you have a license key that will expire soon.

PROJECT-1959: Oracle Intelligent Activation is now an option when activating the standby database whenever there are unapplied archived logs present on the standby host. Previously, this was only available when Standby Update Delay has been configured.

PROJECT-1898: A check performed during Graceful Switchover that could cause the switchover to fail in some circumstances has been removed. The check related to the temporary tablespace of the XS$NULL user and was found to be unnecessary.

PROJECT-957: The COMPRESS and UNCOMPRESS DDC parameters need to be changed together so that we can verify that they match. The GUI for editing them now allows them both to be changed in one operation. Also, the value “Y” is now accepted, with the same meaning as “dbvisit”, which is to use our default compression method.

PROJECT-1001: Warnings in the dbvagentmanager.log file relating to the Snapshots functionality could appear even if Snapshots are not in use. These spurious warnings have been removed.

PROJECT-1050: The “Archived Source sequence #” field on the Detailed Log Gap Report was unpopulated when the source database was RAC. This field is now shown correctly.

PROJECT-1435: When using archive log compression (via the COMPRESS and UNCOMPRESS DDC parameters), the Intelligent Activation feature didn’t offer unapplied compressed archive logs as possible activation points. Compressed archive logs are now recognized as possible activation points.

PROJECT-1456: When there is more than one Oracle configuration with Automated Standby Update enabled on a host, and that host is restarted, one or more of the configurations could fail to start the Automated Standby Update daemon process after the restart. This was caused by the presence of a stale PID file. These stale files are now cleaned up when the dbvagentmanager service is started, fixing this problem.

PROJECT-1652: In some cases when many configurations exist on one host, defunct processes could be left after starting the dbvagentmanager service. These processes didn’t cause problems other than consuming a small amount of system resources, but we have fixed the code to clean these processes up immediately.

PROJECT-1845: If the license key for a configuration was updated while the standby database was activated for DR testing, the DR Test status could be lost, leading to the need to manually restore the standby database. This rare problem has been fixed.

PROJECT-1887: When upgrading from Dbvisit Standby v10, some bookkeeping information could be lost, leading to a warning in the history log file. This has been corrected.

PROJECT-1893: Detailed information about Oracle versions from 18c is now properly extracted. This only affects some internal processing.

PROJECT-1894: While a DR Test is in progress, including the backup of the standby database, the time period during which the standby database is activated, and the restore of the standby database, archived logs now continue to be shipped from the primary to the standby. This reduces the potential for data loss if the primary database becomes unavailable during a DR Test.

PROJECT-1895: Some fields on the “Archive Log Management” settings page were enabled for editing even if the current user didn’t have permission to change these settings. It was not possible to save the changes made in these fields. These fields are now properly disabled for users in the “Monitor” role.

PROJECT-1822: The code that cleans up processes left over from previous executions of the dbvagentmanager service could kill unintended processes in rare situations. The logic has been tightened up so that only the appropriate processes are killed.

PROJECT-1823: The process for identifying the relevant trace files when creating an Oracle support package has been changed to be based on a time period rather than a PID or tracefile name. This should make it easier for users to provide the information needed by Dbvisit support.

PROJECT-1844: Support packages now include information about the license keys in use. This will allow the support team to identify issues related to licensing more quickly.

PROJECT-1911: Files included in support packages now preserve their modification times. This will allow the support team to provide better support in some cases.

PROJECT-1912: When upgrading the agent from a previous v11 or v12 version, the existing host name configuration was not pre-populated as the default value for the new installation, as was done for other fields. This has been fixed for both Windows and Linux installers.

PROJECT-1961: The time zone shown when configuring the Observer heartbeat time was incorrect when the product was switched to a Chinese language. This has been fixed and the correct time zone is now displayed for all languages.

PROJECT-1966: The list of new features shown on the login page has been updated.

PROJECT-1967: Perpetual license keys were shown as having an expiry date in the year 2099. The display has been changed to indicate that these are perpetual licenses.

PROJECT-1972: The timestamp shown when clicking on an event in the GUI was incorrect. This has been corrected.

PROJECT-1990: The documentation link shown on the Create Configuration page has been updated to the latest documentation.

PROJECT-1997: If the dbvagentmanager service was started from an interactive shell using nohup as an OS user that does not have password-less sudo access, a sub-process could hang when performing pre-checks for Graceful Switchover, causing the Graceful Switchover task to fail. The hang has been fixed.

SQL Server:

PROJECT-2013: A cosmetic issue with the form for editing detail of an existing SQL Server instance has been fixed.

PROJECT-1823: Changed parameters for dbvcli and API

PROJECT-1967: Change to API response for perpetual licenses

PROJECT-1154: New parameter for dbvcli create-standby and dbvcli auto-update edit

PROJECT-1554: New parameter --tde-wallet-password for dbvcli create-standby and API

PROJECT-1835: dr-test start and dr-test/start/oracle: The --activate-point/activate_point flag is now required when Standby Update Delay is enabled
dr-test resume and dr-test/resume/oracle: The --activate-point/activate_point flag is now required when Standby Update Delay is enabled

PROJECT-1959: dbvcli activate and activate/oracle: The --activate-point flag is now required when Standby Update Delay is enabled

PROJECT-1710: Several dbvcli commands, when run on the same host as the database being operated on, could fail to display details of the operation. The affected commands include activate, send-logs, apply-logs, start, stop, restart. This has been fixed.

PROJECT-1803: The dbvcli command doesn’t work on Windows Server 2012R2 (and earlier) due to missing virtual console support. It now exits with an informative error message instead of an obscure error message.

PROJECT-854: The “maximum number of failed checks” Observer setting now also applies to checks of the standby database, allowing you to limit the number of notifications received when the standby database is not in the expected state.

PROJECT-1442: It is now possible to configure the domain name used in the HELO/EHLO message sent while talking to the SMTP server when sending email. This is necessary in some situations to prevent email sent by StandbyMP from being rejected as spam.

PROJECT-1760: The “Dismiss Task” button on task details displays has been renamed to “Hide Task” to better reflect its purpose. It is only available for tasks that have finished running.

PROJECT-1818:A new license key format has been introduced. This will allow you to have more confidence that your software is correctly licensed.

PROJECT-1145:Dismissing a task whose configuration has since been deleted could result in an error. This has been fixed so that tasks for deleted configurations can be dismissed from the timeline without error.

PROJECT-1307:Some of the data files that StandbyMP uses to store information about its operations could grow large over time, potentially leading to disk space exhaustion and performance degradation. These data files are now automatically cleaned of data that is no longer needed.

PROJECT-1428:The Windows installer now always creates a log file, in the %TEMP% directory, to assist support to debug problems with installation.

PROJECT-1642:The command to reset tasks and events did not include events created by the Observer. This command should only be used at the request of the support team, and will now include Observer events.

PROJECT-1830:The Observer check interval now has a minimum value of 10 seconds, enforced consistently in the Control Center, API and CLI.

PROJECT-1833:When testing email notification sending, if the debug output is large, the Control Center could fail to show the close button. This has been fixed.

PROJECT-1836:The OpenAPI document describing our public API is now installed under the docs directory.

PROJECT-1896:A non-functional “add new” link has been removed from the settings page for product users. This link didn’t do anything except cause confusion.

PROJECT-1772:The Standby Activation Test could fail when a Standby Update Delay is configured, leaving the standby database requiring manual intervention to recover. The Standby Activation Test is now not available if a Standby Update Delay is configured. The feature will be re-enabled in a future version.

PROJECT-689:Incorrect validation of input parameters when creating a standby database on SEHA meant that it was not possible to specify the use of ACFS. This validation has been removed.

PROJECT-777:Creating a standby database where the log_archive_dest_* database parameters contain commas (such as occur in attributes like VALID_FOR=(ALL_LOGFILES,ALL_ROLES)) could result in an error. These parameters now have special handling so that values containing commas can be used.

PROJECT-1000:When validation failed for some standby database parameters, the validation was not re-run, leading to the validation error persisting even if the error was resolved. This has been fixed so that parameters are always re-validated each time.

PROJECT-1142:When restarting a RAC database, only one instance was restarted. This has been fixed so that the entire database is restarted, making it consistent with the start and stop database actions.

PROJECT-1299:In some cases, actions involving more than one database on the same host could interfere with each other, leading to, for example, a failure to activate all databases at once. This has been fixed so that simultaneous actions on different databases on the same host do not interfere with each other.

PROJECT-1301:An error could occur when create an Oracle standby database on Windows using the dbvctl command line. This error has been fixed.

PROJECT-1310:Some email notifications included a broken image link. The broken image link has been removed from these email notifications.

PROJECT-1339:Setting up a configuration using SEHA could fail if a non-English locale was used. A fix has been made to force the output from srvctl into English when automated by StandbyMP.

PROJECT-1502:After importing an existing DDC, problems could occur if hostname scripts were required but were not present. This affects systems where the host name of the database host doesn’t match the SOURCE or DESTINATION parameter in the DDC, for example when using RAC. To fix this, hostname scripts are created during the import process using the configured SOURCE and DESTINATION parameters.

PROJECT-1545:Configurations using Reporting Replicas required manual intervention following a StandbyMP upgrade in order to upgrade the “dbvsnap” configuration file. This upgrade is now performed automatically.

PROJECT-1559:When activating a standby database using the dbvctl command line, a confusing prompt relating to custom scripts was shown. This prompt has been removed. To use custom scripts during activation, please use the Control Center or the new dbvcli command line tool.

PROJECT-1701:In some cases, upgrading from Standby v10 on Windows could fail to copy existing DDC files. The upgrade process has been made more robust.

PROJECT-1702:Upgrading from Standby v10 on Windows while the v10 dbvserver service is running could fail. The installer will now stop the dbvserver service and continue.

PROJECT-1821:The user interface for creating many SQL Server configurations at once has been streamlined.

PROJECT-1709:Events were not created for failures of Automated Standby Update for SQL Server configurations. This has been fixed, and events will now appear in the Control Center if log backup or restore fails.