Release Information for All Supported Portal Releases
Licensing CTERA Portal
A Cloud Drive Connect license is available which is a subset of the existing full license for users who do not need to collaborate on shared documents and folders with other users, for mobile users, and for zero-minute disaster recovery.
Security Considerations
CTERA Networks Ltd. is constantly looking at ways to improve security, for example by resolving external threats. CTERA recommends using the latest portal release.
Installing or Upgrading CTERA Portal
For full installation details, refer to your environment installation documentation.
Before changing the IP address for the portal server instance you must wait until all the portal services, such as Nomad and Consul, have loaded. Loading the portal services take at least 5 minutes.
Upgrading the CTERA Portal
When upgrading from 8.2.x, you must upgrade from version 8.2.1500.58 or later.
The CTERA Portal is upgraded as described in:
- 8.4: Upgrading a CTERA Portal.
- 8.3.x: Upgrading a CTERA Portal.
- 8.2.x: Upgrading a CTERA Portal.
Upgrading the portal image also upgrades the portal software.
Portals that only have one NIC can be upgraded to this version and continue with a single NIC. Portals configured to run with dual-NICs (some versions of 8.3.3300.x and 8.4.X) can also continue to function with dual-NICs.
Pre-upgrade Requirements
If SHA-1 certificates are in use, they must be replaced with SHA-2-based signatures before starting the upgrade.
You cannot upgrade the portal while running a storage node migration.
General Considerations
If you are using the Thumbnails service, after upgrading the portal, from the from 8.2.1500.58 or later, you must disable and then re-enable the service.
After the first server boot at the end of the upgrade, portal components are loaded on to the data pool. Only after these components have successfully been loaded will the user interface become available.
Storage Node Considerations
You cannot upgrade the portal while running a storage node migration.
When storage nodes are deprecated and a deprecated storage node is being used, the upgrade stops with an error message.
When storage node names are changed. The upgrade includes updating the names in the user interface.
Branding Considerations
CTERA recommends branding the portal using the Palette Generator. The CSS files generated can then be incorporated in the branded skin.
Refer to CTERA Portal Customization Guidelines for more details. Contact CTERA support for help branding your portal.
Checking the CTERA Portal Cloud File System (FSCK)
In order to check the consistency between the CTERA Portal database and the actual data in the storage node, CTERA has a utility, FSCK, similar to the Linux FSCK utility. CTERA FSCK must only be run with approval from CTERA support.
Portal 8.4.x
Portals configured with a single NIC must add a second NIC to use the MCP and n8n services. Both NICs can be on the same VLAN but the internal NIC must have a different IP than the external NIC and they must be on a different network. CTERA strongly recommends a separate VLAN or proper firewall rules.
Portal 8.3.3300.x
Portals configured with a single NIC must add a second NIC to use the MCP service. Both NICs can be on the same VLAN but the internal NIC must have a different IP than the external NIC and they must be on a different network. CTERA strongly recommends a separate VLAN or proper firewall rules.