Infrastructure Improvements
The portal requires networks to support both internal and external IP addresses for servers. This division increases security. Upgrading a portal to this version requires adding another network and configuring the portal for this second network.
Global Administration
New Dashboard
The dashboard has been redone to provide more portal monitoring as well as a section detailing the new features.
The Notifications section has been changed to provide the same look and feel that the edge filer administrator has.
You can hide the new features to display the following:
- Users and devices registered on the portal.
- The number of storage nodes for the portal, the physical storage used, the cloud storage used, and the last time that the storage summary was generated.
- An overview of the Cloud Storage over time.
- A summary of the number of users and new users over time. In the Period drop-down, select the time period to display.
- A holistic view of the total storage used.
- A summary of each license, what is licensed and the license quotas and current use and what is remaining.
- License usage.
- The status and activity of the portal sservices. The activity graphs for the server displayed in the server window are now displayed in the dashboard.
MCP Server
The Model Context Protocol (MCP) in CTERA lets AI assistants and agents securely interact with the CTERA platform as a framework for defining and managing a variety of context-based configurations across the platform. This feature facilitates dynamic policy enforcement and adaptive user experiences by leveraging contextual data to tailor services, enhancing both security and efficiency.
Embedding MCP support directly into the CTERA Portal enables LLMs, whether commercial tools like Claude and Cursor, or internally developed agents, to securely:
- Summarize file uploads in a shared folder.
- Retrieve document versions based on content.
- Generate and distribute a public or internal file link without a graphical user interface (GUI).
- Manage files using natural language instead of scripts or dashboards.
The CTERA MCP Server provides a natural language ability to perform actions that can be done using the CTERA SDK. The natural language used to talk to the agent that uses the MCP Server is internally mapped to an API in the CTERA SDK.
These tasks are executed securely control, enforced by encryption, permissions, and audit logging. There’s no need to copy data to external AI systems or learn new APIs.
Storage Nodes
The names of storage nodes that support the S3 protocol have been standardized.
The following new storage nodes are supported:
- DataCoreSwarm (S3)
- Dell ObjectScale (S3)
- Dell PowerScale (NFS)
- Dell PowerScale (S3)
- PureStorage Flashable (S3)
- VAST Data (S3)
Generic (NFS) has been renamed to NFS-Compatible and Generic (S3) has been renamed to S3-Compatible.
The following storage nodes have been deprecated:
- Caringo S3
- DDN Web Object Scaler
- EMC ECS (S3)
- EMC Isilon (S3)
- HGST Active Archive
- HGST Active Scale
- Hitachi HCP
- Isilon (S3)
- NetApp StorageGRID
NetApp StorageGRID Webscale (S3) has been renamed NetApp StorageGRID (S3)
The Use S3 Object Lock option is now also supported for Cloudian and Wasabi Cloud Storage (S3) storage nodes.
Continued Improvements to the Look and Feel
Additional improvements to standardize the look and feel. For example, to manage a storage node.
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Team Administration
New Dashboard
The dashboard has been redone to provide more portal monitoring as well as a section detailing the new features.
The Notifications section has been changed to provide the same look and feel that the edge filer administrator has.
You can hide the new features to display the following:
- Users and devices registered on the portal.
- The number of files and folders and the cloud storage used.
- An overview of either the storage or folder type over time.
- A summary of the number of users and new users over time.
- A summary of the number of files over time.
- A summary of what is licensed and the license quotas and current use and what is remaining.
- License usage over the last week showing both the provisioned licenses and actual licenses in use for the cloud drive or for edge filers.
Folder and Subfolder Quota Management
Folder and subfolder quotas can now be managed centrally, automatically propagating changes to all connected edge filers.
Quota management is only applied to edge filers connected to the portal that use the next generation file system. The CTERA Messaging service must be enabled to manage cloud drive folder quotas. However, it is not required to manage subfolder quotas.
File Types that Support Global File Locking
You can edit the Supported file types list with the file types you want locked.
All files in the folder with an extension in the Supported file types list are locked when opened for editing so that only one user at a time can edit the file. Locking applies to files that were already in the folder when the locking was applied as well as to files added to the folder after locking is applied. A message is displayed that the file can be opened only for viewing when other users try to open a locked file.
Zones are Enabled By Default
Additional improvements to standardize the look and feel. For example, to manage a storage node.
Continued Improvements to the Look and Feel
Additional improvements to standardize the look and feel. For example, to manage a storage node.
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Upload Only File Sharing Permission
A new permission has been added to file sharing, via public links and collaboration: Upload Only, set in Managing Collaboration. Upload Only share recipients are able to upload content to the folder but cannot see any of the content that is in the folder.
End User
Upload Only File Sharing Permission
A new permission has been added to file sharing, via public links and collaboration: Upload Only, 
. Upload Only share recipients are able to upload content to the folder but cannot see any of the content that is in the folder.
My Files Not Implemented By Default
New deployments do not include the My Files cloud drive folder by default.
