Big Brother Professional Edition

Version 4.30

Release Notes

November 20, 2009

 


Contents

Welcome to Big Brother Professional Edition

New in this Release

Resolved Issues and Enhancements

Known Issues

Third Party Known Issues

System Requirements

Global Operations

Getting Started

Upgrading notes

For More Information

 


Welcome to Big Brother Professional Edition

 

These Release Notes do not include installation or upgrade instructions. Please refer to the appropriate Getting Started Guide for complete installation and upgrade information. You can download the Getting Started Guides as well as the Big Brother software from the Quest Software Web site: www.quest.com/bigbrother.asp

 

In addition to these Release Notes, the documentation consists of:

 

• Four Big Brother Getting Started Guides: one each for the UNIX Server, the Windows Server, the UNIX Client, and the Windows Client. These guides describe how to install, start, and perform the initial configuration for the indicated part of the Big Brother software. The installation instructions include procedures for updating from an earlier version of Big Brother without losing your customized settings. The Getting Started Guides are provided as PDF files.

• An online help system covering both the UNIX server and the UNIX client. This includes complete configuration information for all aspects of Big Brother, including defining hosts and servers, setting up notification, and more. It also includes instructions for using the features available while viewing the Big Brother status display Web page. You can access this file by clicking the Help icon on the Big Brother Web page while connected to a Big Brother UNIX server.

• An online help system covering the Windows server. This includes complete configuration information for all aspects of the Big Brother server, including defining hosts and servers, setting up notification, and more. It also includes instructions for using the features available while viewing the Big Brother status display Web page. It does not include information on configuring a Big Brother Windows client host.

• You can access the Windows server help file by clicking the Help icon on the Big Brother Web page while connected to a Big Brother Windows server. You can also access the help from the Windows Start menu on the Big Brother server by selecting Programs, Quest Software, Big Brother Professional Edition, Server, Help.

• An online help system covering the Windows client. This includes only information about the various options and settings available on Windows client hosts. You can access the help from the Windows Start menu on the Big Brother client by selecting Programs, Quest Software, Big Brother Professional Edition, Client, Help.

 

 


New in This Release

 

 

For more information about any of the enhancements described briefly below, please see the Big Brother online help.

 

New Features in Big Brother Professional Edition 4.30

 

 


Resolved Issues and Enhancements

The following is a list of issues addressed and enhancements implemented in this release of Big Brother Professional Edition.

 

 

Feature

Resolved Issue

Change Request

Windows client

Error Messages not being reported to Big Brother after time change

233713

 

 

730448

 

Windows client adding 2 hours to event viewer file

735161

735162

 

Disabling individual tests

204116

 

CPU state in error after reboot

234952

 

 

 

Windows server

Multiple concurrent SMS notifications fail

758496

 

Connectivity tets fails on Windows 2000 Professional Server

769003

 

Invalid return IP address in Ping test

234960

 

Connectivity testing failed on Windows 2000

235302

 

https:// URL with nocert returns yellow

235367

 

 

 

Unix server

Symbolic link to top level BB directory creates incorrect pages/subpages URL references

235216

 

 

 

Unix client

TMP directory full

234779

 

 

 

All platforms

 

 

 

 

 

Windows/Unix server

Big brother trending limitation

736587

 

Hardcoded enable CGI location

235043

 

Tredning graph unreadable if too many lines on a single graph

235152

 

 

 

Flash Display

 

 

 

 

 


Known Issues

The following is a list of issues known to exist at the time of Big Brother Professional Edition release.

 

 

Feature

Known Issue

Change Request

Windows client

 

 

Windows server

mailrelay tag can only be defined using the IP address

234200

 

Notification fails over an ISDN line

233539

 

Network tests turn to purple on certain Windows 2003 server installations

235360

Unix server

bbprune zeroed out data

234950

Unix client

 

 

All platforms

 

 

Windows/Unix server

.bbcd logs saved in bbvar/logs

235099

Flash display

Increase font size

234530

 

 

 

 


Third Party Known Issues

The following is a list of third party issues known to exist at the time of release.

 

 

Feature

Known Issue

Change Request

 

 

 

 


System Requirements

 

Before installing Big Brother Professional Edition, ensure your system meets the following minimum hardware and software requirements:

Platform Intel x86, PPC, Sparc, Itanium, PA-RISC
Memory 2GB
Hard Disk Space 1GB for installation

10GB (enabling the performance/trending and using  a database  will require significantly more disk space)

Operating System Red Hat Enterprise Server 3.0/4.0/5.0 (x86)

SUSE Enterprise Linux 9.0/10.0/11.0 (x86)

Solaris 8 and greater (Sparc and x86)

HP-UX 11.0 or 11i (PA-RISC client & server) (Itanium, client only)

AIX 5.2, 5.3 or 6.1 (PPC, client only)

MAC OS X (x86 darwin 9.7, client only)

Windows 2000 Server or Professional, 2003 server, Windows XP with most recent Service pack, Windows 2008, Windows 7

Additional Software Web browser

Adobe Flash player 9 or higher

 


Global Operations

 

This section contains information about installing and operating this product in non-English configurations, such as those needed by customers outside of North America. This section does not replace the materials about supported platforms and configurations found elsewhere in the product documentation.

 

This release was not enabled, or, tested for international operation. Only U.S. English configurations of this product and U.S. English datasets are fully supported. Support for non-ASCII characters or non-English configurations may work appropriately, but, these configurations have not been tested and this release should be used with caution in these environments.

 

This release has the following known capabilities or limitations:

 

 


Getting Started

 

Installation Instructions

Refer to "UNIX Client Getting Started Guide", "UNIX Server Getting Started Guide", "Windows Client Getting Started Guide" and "Windows Server Getting Started Guide" for installation or upgrading instructions.

 

Please note that an installation on Windows 2008 requires that all IIS7 "Management Tools" be installed prior to installing "Big Brother Professional Edition" otherwise the installation will fail and rollback.  Also make sure that the CGI snap-in has been installed for the IIS server.

 

If you are installing on a Windows 2008 server, make sure that IIS has the CGI module installed.  Also on Windows 2008, if you intend to use SQL Server has a data store, make sure that when you configure ODBC with BBPE, to use the 32 bit driver and not the 64bit driver.

 


Upgrading Notes

 

If you enabled saving data to a database in Big Brother 4.00 or 4.10, you'll need to alter the DB tables immediately after the upgrade to version 4.30. During the upgrade, do not start the BB server immediately.  After the completion of the upgrade procedure, locate the SQL upgrade script found in <BBHOME>\etc\database\<dbtype>_upgrade_2_420.sql, and execute it against your BB database.  We strongly suggest you make a backup of your database before performing the DB upgrade.  After the upgrade completes, start the BB server.

 

If you upgrade the Big Brother clients to 4.30 before the Big Brother server, do not turn on the Performance data tag until the Big Brother server 4.20 or higher has been installed.


For More Information

Get the latest product information at http://www.bb4.com.

 

 

 

Contacting Quest Software:

Email info@quest.com
Mail Quest Software, Inc.
World Headquarters
5 Polaris Way
Aliso Viejo, CA 92656
USA
Web

http://www.quest.com

Refer to our Web site for regional and international office information.

Contacting Quest Support:

Quest Support is available to customers who have a trial version of a Quest product or who have purchased a commercial version and have a valid maintenance contract.
Quest Support provides around the clock coverage with SupportLink, our web self-service. Visit SupportLink at http://support.quest.com/.

From SupportLink, you can do the following:

View the Global Support Guide for a detailed explanation of support programs, online services, contact information, and policy and procedures.
The guide is available at: http://support.quest.com/pdfs/Global%20Support%20Guide.pdf.

 

 

 


© 2008 Quest Software, Inc.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

 

This document contains proprietary information protected by copyright. The software described in this document is furnished under a software license or nondisclosure agreement. This software may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of the applicable agreement. No part of this guide may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording for any purpose other than the purchaser's personal use without the written permission of Quest Software, Inc.

 

If you have any questions regarding your potential use of this material, contact:

Quest Software World Headquarters
LEGAL Dept
5 Polaris Way
Aliso Viejo, CA 92656

 

http://www.quest.com/

Email: legal@quest.com

Refer to our website for regional and international office information.

 

Trademarks

Quest, Quest Software, the Quest Software logo, Aelita, AppAssure, Benchmark Factory, Big Brother, DataFactory, DeployDirector, ERDisk,   Foglight, Funnel Web, I/Watch, Imceda, InLook, IntelliProfile, Internet Weather Report, InTrust, IT Dad, JClass, Jint, JProbe, LeccoTech, LiteSpeed, LiveReorg, NBSpool, NetBase, Npulse, PerformaSure, PL/Vision, Quest Central, RAPS, SharePlex, Sitraka, SmartAlarm, Spotlight, SQL LiteSpeed, SQL Navigator, SQLab, SQL Watch, Stat, Stat!, StealthCollect, Tag and Follow, Toad, T.O.A.D., Toad World, Vintela, Virtual DBA, Xaffire, and XRT are trademarks and registered trademarks of Quest Software, Inc in the United States of America and other countries. Other trademarks and registered trademarks used in this guide are property of their respective owners.

 

 

Third Party Contributions

Copyright 1996, 1998-2000 The Regents of the University of California

Copyright (c) 2001-2003, Networks Associates Technology, Inc All rights reserved.

Portions of this code are copyright (c) 2001-2003, Cambridge Broadband Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2003 Sun Microsystems, Inc., 4150 Network Circle, Santa Clara, California 95054, U.S.A. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2003-2006, Sparta, Inc All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2004, Cisco, Inc and Information Network Center of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) Fabasoft R&D Software GmbH & Co KG, 2003 oss@fabasoft.com Author: Bernhard Penz

Disclaimer

The information in this document is provided in connection with Quest products. No license, express or implied, by estoppel or otherwise, to any intellectual property right is granted by this document or in connection with the sale of Quest products. EXCEPT AS SET FORTH IN QUEST'S TERMS AND CONDITIONS AS SPECIFIED IN THE LICENSE AGREEMENT FOR THIS PRODUCT, QUEST ASSUMES NO LIABILITY WHATSOEVER AND DISCLAIMS ANY EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY WARRANTY RELATING TO ITS PRODUCTS INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL QUEST BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE, SPECIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION OR LOSS OF INFORMATION) ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THIS DOCUMENT, EVEN IF QUEST HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. Quest makes no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this document and reserves the right to make changes to specifications and product descriptions at any time without notice. Quest does not make any commitment to update the information contained in this document.