Enterprise File Fabric v2006 Release Notes

Major version released: 25th September 2020

Document last updated: July 6, 2023

New Features

Nasuni Connector

A new connector is now available for Nasuni UniFS file systems, delivering web, mobile and desktop access for users in-office and out-of-office. The Nasuni connector supports single-sign-on and real-time permission synchronization in addition to standard File Fabric features including real-time refresh and content search.

Documentation: Nasuni Connector

Multi-User SMB Connector

A new multi-user connector SMB connector is now available offering consolidated access management and more efficient shares.

Backblaze Connector

The new Backblaze connector provides access for you and your users into the Backblaze B2 storage platform, through their S3-compatible APIs.

Documentation: Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage

A brand new, tile-based view is now supported in the Web File Manager.

Read more: https://blog.storagemadeeasy.com/announcing-the-beta-availability-of-our-new-media-asset-gallery/

New Amazon S3 Region Support

Support for three new Amazon S3 regions has been added:

  • Asia Pacific (Osaka-Local) - ap-northeast-3
  • Europe (Stockholm) - eu-north-1
  • Middle East (Bahrain) - me-south-1

Video Transcoding

The File Fabric now provides transcoding between a range of video formats customers with a Media and Entertainment license.

The File Fabric's Remote Office / Branch Office (ROBO) sitelink has been updated to support locking of files between the deployed instances.

Jibe on-demand metadata ingestion

Jibe, a new infrastructure feature, can now be deployed for Amazon S3 / Cloudian or SMB infrastructures to support real-time metadata ingestion when files are accessed directly (bi-modal) so that the File Fabric is always instantly up-to-date. Jibe can be deployed as requested / needed for S3 / SMB Object/files estates.

Keycloak access control framework

Keycloak provides access control and single-sign-on for applications and services. Although many companies who use the File Fabric use their own IAM solutions Keycloak can be useful for external contractor validation and can be used as a secure mechanism for other external user authentication, whilst also offering strong multi-site federated authentication options. More information on Keycloak integration can be found on our blog.

Other New Features and Improvements

  • [SME-5398] - Tokens for OAuth based providers are now stored in a more durable location.
  • [SME-5397, SME-5380] - Locking has been added for files being edited on SiteLink providers.
  • [SME-5390] - The ApplAdmin welcome screen has been redesigned to provide easier access to frequently used pages.
  • [SME-5387] - Up to 500 users can now be imported in a single action from CSV or Excel files.
  • [SME-5367, SME-5038] - The File Manager's file preview feature has been extended to allow previewing of .txt, .eml and .msg files.
  • [SME-5021] - Audit logs for creation of file and folder sharing links now now detail the shared links' constraints (password set, download limits, expiration).
  • [SME-4999] - The File Manager's image previewer now provides a larger view, supports panning and zooming and, on mobile devices, responds to gestures.
  • [SME-4996, SME-4965] - Machine ingestible audit log streams are now available.
  • [SME-4981] - Browser session management has been improved.
  • [SME-4975] - SCIM 2.0 Protocol is now supported for SAML Authentication Systems.
  • [SME-4972] - Permalinks for Files can now be created.
  • [SME-4961] - The Web File Manager Notepad now supports Ctrl+F to find text.
  • [SME-4942] - Group import restrictions are now supported for SAML Authentication systems.
  • [SME-4941] - Improvements have been made to the reporting in the Daily Status Email.
  • [SME-4669] - The getFile API method has been made faster.
  • [SME-3712] - The look and feel of the API documentation page have been improved.

Other New or Improved Features

  • [SME-5340] - The user deletion delay control in site settings is now honoured at the org. level when the org admin deletes users.
  • [SME-5334] - The SingleProviderSync API function now provides more granular error reporting.
  • [SME-5322] - Files can now be previewed when using the File Fabric's Slack integration.
  • [SME-5303] - A new File and Folder creation button is available in the File Manager's toolbar.
  • [SME-5258] - When restoring files from trash, an option is now provided to restore the Shared Links for the files.
  • [SME-5257] - Handling of conflict files when files cannot be moved to trash has been improved.
  • [SME-5253] - The size limit on files being uploaded with Direct Upload has been increased for various clouds.
  • [SME-5252] - Google Drive shortcuts are now ignored by the File Fabric.
  • [SME-5248] - Upon clicking the invitation to a Group, the user is now taken to the group's workspace.
  • [SME-5239] - Internal download logs are rotated more regularly.
  • [SME-5236] - References to Google Authenticator have been changed to “TOTP”.
  • [SME-5234] - The restrictions on the number of concurrent downloads by a user have been lifted.
  • [SME-5233] - CoudDAV can no longer be added to a package unless file locking has been added.
  • [SME-5232] - Cleanup of hidden files after file transfer failures has been improved.
  • [SME-5223] - Admins can now change the size of the home page widgets.
  • [SME-5222] - A GoToMeeting widget is now available for home pages.
  • [SME-5217] - The presentation of assigned roles on the Users page has been improved.
  • [SME-5214] - The File Fabric now sends email notifications to users when their Provider credentials have expired.
  • [SME-5212] - The LDAP authentication system Admin Group mapping now accepts a full DN.
  • [SME-5206] - The mobile web pages now support directory list paging.
  • [SME-5203] - Performance of date searches of the audit logs has been improved.
  • [SME-5196] - Azure SAS URLs are now supported for connecting to Azure Blob Storage
  • [SME-5189] - CloudFTP now clears abandoned connections without user intervention.
  • [SME-5168] - The SAML Authentication System now supports Admin Role Mappings.
  • [SME-5162] - M-Stream is now used for qualifying uploads to and downloads from SiteLink providers.
  • [SME-5161] - A new command line tool is provided for editing the File Fabric's main configuration file.
  • [SME-5158] - Org. admins can now authorize org. members to browse audit logs relating to themselves.
  • [SME-5157] - New CCPA + FINRA categories are available in the Content Detection module
  • [SME-5151] - Improved handling of rate throttling has been added to the Dropbox Connector
  • [SME-5131] - Org. admins can now create reports showing which roles have been assigned to which members.
  • [SME-5101] - Keycloak is now bundled with the File Fabric, providing new options for external authentication.
  • [SME-5091] - Provider icons can now be shown in Search Results.
  • [SME-5047] - A Trash management permission modifier is now available for Shared Team Folders.
  • [SME-5043] - The Dell EMC Atmos S3 Connector now supports encoding options when used as Appliance Default Storage.
  • [SME-5039] - An option to prevent audit logs from being generated for successful actions during initial provider sync is now available.
  • [SME-5020] - Paging is now provided for active tasks on the File Manager's Tasks tab.
  • [SME-5017] - Reporting by the API's getUploadStatus method now includes M-Stream uploads.
  • [SME-5008] - Improved API support has been provided for counting versions and sidecar files.
  • [SME-5006] - A policy option is now available to hide the File Manager's Filter Search feature.
  • [SME-4986] - Handling of Duplicated Folders discovered on Google Drive has been improved.
  • [SME-4953] - The Organization statistics page can now be turned off by setting a value in the File Fabric's main configuration file.
  • [SME-5115] - The File Fabric's legacy One Drive connectors (SkyDrive and OneDrive for Business) have been marked as Deprecated in favour of the File Fabric's newer “OneDrive” Connector.
  • [SME-4940] - The following Connectors have been deprecated: Amazon Drive, Copy.com, Google Apps Email, Google Docs, Google Sites, HPE Helion, iDisk/MobileMe, Livemesh, Mezeo, Mirantis, SkyDrive and Ubuntu One.
  • [SME-4918] - The process of removing org members has been improved to interfere less with other concurrent operations.
  • [SME-4867] - Org. members to whom the Admin role has been assigned can now set quotas on folders that belong to the org.
  • [SME-4842] - Improvements have been made to the displaying of users with long user names.
  • [SME-4837] - Personal encryption can now be applied to text files created in the File Manager.
  • [SME-4827] - The Download/Upload Resume package option has been removed.
  • [SME-4805] - Administrative options have been removed from the ApplAdmin Package screen.
  • [SME-4595] - Version 5 of the PHP programming language has been replaced with version 7.

Resolved Defects

  • [SME-4820] - Spurious characters were sometime shown when tags were display. This has been resolved.
  • [SME-4828] - The doDeleteInvitation API method previously allowed any invitation to be deleted. Now it allows deletion only of invitations belonging to the caller.
  • [SME-4959] - The wrong page was displayed after a user following a link logged in. This was resolved.
  • [SME-4964] - Several defects in the File Fabric's Amazon S3 Glacier integration have been resolved.
  • [SME-5030] - Underscores ('_') are now substituted for forward slashes in subjects of emails backed up with Email Backups, preventing problems accessing the the email messages.
  • [SME-5064] - A defect that sometimes caused the local time associated with a file to be incorrect has been resolved.
  • [SME-5068] - Two defects related to the way that the File Fabric retrieves file information from OpenStack Swift storage have been resolved.
  • [SME-5105] - Removing members to whom the Admin role had been assigned could result in some files being hidden. This has been resolved.
  • [SME-5114] - A defect that impeded removal of providers with large numbers of files has been resolved.
  • [SME-5135] - Solr indexing did not work properly when it encountered empty files, causing it to consume too much of the available processing power. This has been resolved.
  • [SME-4952] - Folder names containing tildes ('~') are now ignored by sync and cloud refresh actions for WebDAV Providers, preventing infinite looping.
  • [SME-4950] - The Shared File Download notification email now includes the user's full name.
  • [SME-5235] - A defect related to how the File Fabric read long directory listings from Azure Blob Storage has been resolved.
  • [SME-5329] - A defect in the caching of Package options updates sometimes led to anomalous results and has been resolved.
  • [SME-5404] - In certain conditions, incorrect suffixes could be added to M-Stream Uploads that replaced existing files. This has been resolved.
  • [SME-5402] - In certain conditions, a duplicate file appear when renaming a file on Appliance Default Storage. This has been resolved.
  • [SME-5395] - Removal of Trash item directly from storage could result in a “Key does not exist” message when another file with the same name had been moved to trash. This has been resolved.
  • [SME-5386] - Importing a large user list via CSV could yield and out-of-memory error. Imports are now capped at 500 per file and the error no longer occurs.
  • [SME-5385] - Trying to add a OneDrive provider using account that did not have a 'username' prevented the provider from being added. Providers can now be added with such an account.
  • [SME-5378] - The toolbar for Moving To Trash was not available for related/sidecar files. It is now available.
  • [SME-5377] - The OneDrive connector could not display large directories due to pagination restrictions. This has been resolved.
  • [SME-5365] - Indexing of OpenStack directories (prefixes) containing more than 6,000 of files (objects) was incomplete. Very large directories are now accommodated.
  • [SME-5355] - In certain conditions, M-Stream copies to Azure Blob storage failed. This has been resolved.
  • [SME-5353] - In certain conditions, fewer than the configured maximum number of concurrent provider syncs were allowed by the File Fabric. The configured number will now run concurrently when appropriate.
  • [SME-5342] - The Web File Manager did not show previews for images when the size limit was set to unlimited (0). Previews are now shown.
  • [SME-5339] - In certain conditions, special characters in the SMTP and Filebox settings could have been stripped on form submission. This has been resolved.
  • [SME-5338] - Cloud Refresh sometimes returned an error when run on the Appliance Default Storage. It now runs without error.
  • [SME-5331] - In certain conditions, a restarted Re-sync could incorrectly report the number of processed files. The reported number of files is now correct.
  • [SME-5308] - Running a DB Upgrade (a step in the installation/upgrade process) on a freshly seeded DB caused errors. These will no longer occur.
  • [SME-5300] - In certain conditions an out-of-memory error occurred when a large provider was being removed. That error will no longer occur.
  • [SME-5299] - In certain conditions, an org member with the ability to manage permissions could not manage permissions on specific directories. The defect has been resolved.
  • [SME-5282] - In certain conditions, the Web File Manager toolbar would not show the deletion button for folders. The button is now shown.
  • [SME-5279] - A Cloud Refresh would not display new files where a user's default quota was overridden by an effective quota and the aggregate size of the files on the storage exceeded the effective quota. Files detected on the storage are now displayed regardless of the effective quota setting.
  • [SME-5268] - The File Manager's Filter Search checkbox for searching in subfolders would not reset when unchecked. It now resets.
  • [SME-5266] - In certain conditions the Last Sync time for a provider was not fully updated. The time is now updated correctly.
  • [SME-5264] - In certain browsers, selecting a value from the Auth System Auto Provisioning drop-down prevented other fields from being displayed. Those fields are now displayed.
  • [SME-5211] - In certain circumstances the completed time for a task could be incorrect if it was restarted. The completion time is now recorded correctly.
  • [SME-5204] - In certain conditions the “Show more folders” button could be mis-positioned in the File Manager. This has been resolved.
  • [SME-5192] - In certain circumstances a JavaScript error occurred when a Team Folder became visible to an org-member. This error now longer occurs.
  • [SME-5160] - In certain conditions the WebDAV connector misinterpreted messages from the server indicating that a connection had been closed. It now interprets and responds to these messages correctly.
  • [SME-5149] - Sometimes an import from a FTP or SFTP Provider failed with an error. This condition has been resolved.
  • [SME-5103] - In certain circumstances the report for a failed move operation could not be opened. Now these reports can be opened.
  • [SME-5094] - In certain conditions a JavaScript error could be raised when using the WYSIWYG editor with a French locale. These errors no longer occur.
  • [SME-5078] - In certain conditions the name of a file that contained special characters was changed when the file was uploaded through the File Manager using drag-and-drop. The correct file names are now retained.
  • [SME-5062] - In certain conditions images could not be previewed in specific versions of Internet Explorer. Previewing is now possible.
  • [SME-4782] - Uploading an SLO to OpenStack Swift failed if the container name included a space. These uploads will now complete successfully.
  • [SME-4730] - Admins were be able to edit a document locked by another user without first unlocking the document. Now the admin must first unlock the document.
  • [SME-4672] - A JavaScript error occurred in the File Manager when an OpenStack Swift bucket name contained special characters. This has been resolved.
  • [SME-4662] - File names were sometimes displayed incorrectly when the right hand panel of the File Manager was expanded. They are now displayed correctly.
  • [SME-5003] - Sometimes the getDocumentAnnotationsUrl API incorrectly returned a 400 status code. This has been resolved.
  • [SME-4988] - In certain conditions including when JPEG images were being uploaded, an action that should have caused a file to be replaced on Google Drive instead caused a duplicate file to be created. Now the file will be replaced.
  • [SME-4937] - A 404 error was sometimes returned incorrectly by the API when a thumbnail file was being retrieved. Thumbnails are now retrieved without error.

2006.01 Service Pack

  • [SME-5471] - AWS S3 calls now solely use Virtual Host style addressing
  • [SME-5468] - Improvements for moving files to Trash
  • [SME-5467] - Improved handling of Azure Blog and Folder Stub objects
  • [SME-5464] - Resolves issue removing Smart Folder on Azure Blob
  • [SME-5463] - Improved handling or parallel file copies with M-Stream
  • [SME-5386] - Improved handling of out-of-memory errors on user importing
  • [SME-5287] - Nasuni/Multi-User CIFS - New users will now gain automatic access to shares where they have permission.

2006.02 Service Pack

  • [SME-5598, SME-5570, SME-5562] - API - SyncOnProviderEvent improvements.
  • [SME-5597] - Improves move operations in Google Team Drives.
  • [SME 5271, SME-5586, SME-5595] - SMB Locking Support (beta).
  • [SME-5585] - In certain circumstances, Dropbox providers could not be added.
  • [SME-5583] - Updated name of the Multi-User CIFS/SMB connector.
  • [SME-5581] - Local time is now preserved when moving folders.
  • [SME-5580, SME-5455] - Improvements to Contact File handling.
  • [SME-5577] - CloudSFTP - Improvements to interactions with Transmit client.
  • [SME-5559] - File and Folder counts are now displayed on the Folder Information pane.
  • [SME-5558] - Improved caching in the Multi-User SMB connector.
  • [SME-5557] - Improved TLS support for various connectors.
  • [SME-5556] - Improved conflict file handling when original file cannot be renamed.
  • [SME-5518, SME-5517, SME-5546] - Configurable option for removing duplicates on re-sync and Cloud Refresh
  • [SME-5543, SME-5495] - File Local Time is preserved when file is renamed.
  • [SME-5542, SME-5501] - SAML/MS Teams improvements
  • [SME-5531] - Improvement to error handling in SMB rename operations.
  • [SME-5530] - API - DoCopyFile now supports copying to the same directory without preserving the extension.
  • [SME-5496] - API - Copy Folder API now supports copying to the same directory with a different name.
  • [SME-5528] - Improved error handling with the WebDav connector.
  • [SME-5525] - API - Improved error reporting when renaming a file is not successful.
  • [SME-5524] - Improved loading of SIDS from LDAP.
  • [SME-5519] - Improved error handling in the SMB connector.
  • [SME-5507] - Improvements to the Download toolbar.
  • [SME-5503] - Improved reporting of available space in daily status email.
  • [SME-5502] - Resolves error message shown in certain circumstances when moving a folder.
  • [SME-5492] - In certain circumstances hidden folders were be included with folder counts.
  • [SME-5491] - In certain circumstances, SAML login would not update group membership.
  • [SME-5489] - Resolves socket sometimes being left open on downloads.
  • [SME-5488] - Resolves memory consumption error when generating re-sync reports.
  • [SME-5486] - SMB connectors now support changing SMB version through the UI.
  • [SME-5484] - Errors were generated when email backups were being recorded in audit logs. This has been resolved.
  • [SME-5475] - In certain circumstances, descriptions could not be assigned to a folder.
  • [SME-5474] - Improved handling of importing large number of users via CSV.
  • [SME-5456] - Improved error code handling for operations with Amazon S3.
  • [SME-5452] - Improved handling of timeouts in CloudFTP.
  • [SME-5450] - Range reads of first byte now work correctly.
  • [SME-5437] - Removed superfluous options from Backblaze connector
  • [SME-5432] - Improved handling of upload response information.
  • [SME-5429] - CloudFTP - Improved handling of HTTP 550 status cases.
  • [SME-5073] - Users now can choose to whether or not receive shared file download notification emails for each link they create.

2006.03 Service Pack

  • [SME-5646, SME-5626, SME-5478] - Microsoft Teams integration available.
  • [SME-5640] - Provides the ability to add an S3 provider with a single bucket when S3 permissions don't allow the buckets in the account to be listed.
  • [SME-5701, SME-5696] - Tweaks to the S3-compatible connector to enable it to work with NetApp StorageGRID
  • [SME-5658] - Adds support for OneLogin with SCIM.
  • [SME-5510] - The SMB connectors' provider settings now display the UNC path used to connect the storage. The path cannot be changed.
  • [SME-5440] - Secure Link expiration and download limits established as organization policies now function as a maximum allowed values for end users, rather than being fixed.
  • [SME-5670, SME-5532] - Cloud Refresh options now exposed for Shared Folders.
  • [SME-5699] - Resolves upload issue within Office 365 connector following Microsoft change.
  • [SME-5690] - Messaging in File Manager when a file could be moved to trash or deleted permanently now aligned with provider settings.
  • [SME-5677] - Resolves issue transcoding MXF files where extension is not lowercase.
  • [SME-5671] - Secure Link downloaded email notification now contains the name of the downloader where appropriate.
  • [SME-5649, SME-5634, SME-5625, SME-5624, SME-5613, SME-5605, SME-5604] - API improvements to SyncOnProviderEvent.
  • [SME-5647] - Improvements to parallel Cloud Refreshes.
  • [SME-5644, SME-5608] - Improved handling in the Azure connector around randomly closed connections (edge case).
  • [SME-5622] - API - getUserInfo now reports the extra_resume flag.
  • [SME-5614] - Search can now support searching for multiple file names.
  • [SME-5611] - Printing, downloading and annotating now blocked when WebView Only permission is in force.
  • [SME-5606] - Improves handling of SSL certificate checks on video transcoding.
  • [SME-5527] - Improves memory handling for video transcoding.
  • [SME-5520] - In certain scenarios, file download counts were not incrementing. This has ben resolved.
  • [SME-5472] - Preservation of extension character cases on operations.

2006.04 Service Pack

released on April 26, 2021
  • [SME-5770] - Folders can now be uploaded to File Fabric folders that have been shared as Drop Folders.
  • [SME-5779] - Issues with adding tags when uploading multiple files have been resolved.
  • [SME-5719] - Video Transcoding now better handles variations in file extension case.
  • [SME-5720] - Video Transcoding's “High”, “Medium” and “Low” presets have been adjusted.
  • [SME-5737] - A problem that could cause thumbnail images to disappear after a folder refresh has been resolved.
  • [SME-5744] - Under some circumstances the File Fabric would incorrectly indicate that successful downloads from S3 and OpenS3 providers had failed. This has been resolved.
  • [SME-5765] - A nondestructive error sometimes occurred when a file was being shared with a link. This has been resolved.

2006.05 Service Pack

released on May 17, 2021
  • [SME-5837] - An internal library has been upgraded to a newer version.
  • [SME-5731] - Accelerated file uploads to Swift storage did not work as expected. Those uploads now work as expected.
  • [SME-5859] - Unsuccessful login attempts are handled more cleanly.
  • [SME-5857] - Folders could not be uploaded to drop folders on Nasuni or SMB Multi User providers. Now folders can be uploaded.
  • [SME-5818] - Background tasks acting on folders with names containing certain characters did not run. They are now executed as expected.

2006.06 Service Pack

released on June 18, 2021
  • [SME-5871] - Several issues with the Shared Team Folders Full Permissions Report have been resolved including slow operation, incomplete exports and excessively large content.
  • [SME-5887] - Improvements have been made in the notification of users about new comments.
  • [SME-5892] - Tags and descriptions sometimes remained associated with the old version of a file when a new version was uploaded. Also, in some cases descriptions were not indexed for content search. Both of these issues have been resolved.
  • [SME-5901] - The cause of a memory exhaustion error has been corrected.
  • [SME-5886] - Previously private cloud names could not be duplicated between members of an org. This restriction has been removed.
  • [SME-5736] - The BackBlaze connector now uses v4 signatures only. Also, a defect in the BackBlaze, OpenS3, Cloudian, Scality and similar S3-compatible connectors that was triggered by bucket names which contained uppercase characters has been resolved.
  • [SME-5119] - An error in the way the S3 connector communicated with Amazon S3 has been resolved.

2006.07 Service Pack

released on October 6, 2021
  • [SME-6046] - Under certain conditions duplicate metadata entries were created during the initial synchronization of providers. This will no longer occur.
  • [SME-6102] - Shared links to files and folders on SMB providers sometimes did not work correctly when the link creator's credentials changed. This has been resolved.
  • [SME-6141] - Under certain conditions thumbnail images were not displayed for search results on the File Manager's Search tab. They are now displayed as expected.
  • [SME-6183] - Under unusual circumstance the metadata for buckets could be removed by a provider re-sync or a Cloud Refresh. This will no longer occur.