Alacritech Release 7.1.1.0 Release Notes Date: Tue. April 26, 2005 ====================================== Contents - Introduction - Content List + File Versions - Caveats - Features + Supported Hardware + Supported Platforms + Existing Features + New Features + Discontinued Features - Windows Logo - Known Issues + Open Bugs + Integration Issues - Resolved Issues - Users Guide - Support and Feedback Mechanism - Incident Reports Introduction ============ This is the official release of the 7.1.1.0 driver package for Alacritech Accelerators on Windows platforms. This is a bug fix release and adds no new features that were not available in the previous (7.1.0.1) release. This release only supports Alacritech Gigabit products. 100 Mbit products continue to be supported through the 6.x.x.x drivers. This general release is intended for all Alacritech customers. This file provides details on known outstanding bugs, support issues and feedback mechanisms for this release. Content List ============ This release contains the following file and directories: autorun.inf Launches the installation process on a Windows system if it is located on CD media. bin Contains tools for reading documentation in PDF format. a.k.a Adobe Acroread [TM]. doc Files and documentation associated to Alacritech's hardware and software products. This includes the Alacritech Server and Storage Accelerator Users Guide setup.exe The Alacritech Accelerator Setup application, which allows the Alacritech drivers and libraries to be installed properly on your system. readme.html Front end introduction to the driver readme_files Folder containing files referenced by readme.html RelNotes.txt This file. w2k The software drivers, libraries, and utilities for Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. File Versions: -------------- File Version Description ------------------------------------------------------------------------- slic100.sys 7.1.1.0 Network Miniport Driver atcp.sys 7.1.1.0 TCP Offload Driver slicteam.sys 7.1.1.0 Link Aggregation (Teaming) Driver Caveats ======= Supports only gigabit products Features ======== Supported Hardware ------------------ This release continues supports the following products: Part Number Product Description ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 2000-100007 PCI Gigabit Copper 1-port Network Accelerator 2000-100009 PCI Gigabit Fiber 1-port Network Accelerator SES1001T PCI Gigabit Copper 1-port iSCSI Accelerator SES1001F PCI Gigabit Fiber 1-port iSCSI Accelerator SEN2001XT PCI-X Gigabit Copper 1-port Network Accelerator SEN2001XF PCI-X Gigabit Fiber 1-port Network Accelerator SES2001XT PCI-X Gigabit Copper 1-port iSCSI Accelerator SES2001XF PCI-X Gigabit Fiber 1-port iSCSI Accelerator SEN2002XT PCI-X Gigabit Copper 2-port Network Accelerator SEN2002XF PCI-X Gigabit Fiber 2-port Network Accelerator SES2002XT PCI-X Gigabit Copper 2-port iSCSI Accelerator SES2002XF PCI-X Gigabit Fiber 2-port iSCSI Accelerator Supported Platforms ------------------- This release is supported only for IA32 compatible architecture running selected Microsoft Windows operating system versions: Supported Windows Versions -------------------------- Windows 2000 (all versions) Windows XP (Service Pack 1 or later) Windows Server 2003 (all versions) This driver is not compatible with Virtual PC 2004. Existing Features ----------------- - Basic NIC Functionality - TCP Offload - TCP Checksum Offload (Only when TCP Offload is enabled) - Large Memory Support (/PAE) - Limited support for TCP performance tuning. See http://www.alacritech.com/html/nettunables.html for more detail - Link Aggregation (Teaming) + 802.3ad/(Fast/Gigabit) EtherChannel compatible mode + Hot Standby Failover mode - Jumbo Frames - Membership in a single tagged vlan - Checksum offload in dumb NIC mode. - Segmentation offload in dumb NIC mode. New Features ------------ No new features are introduced in this release. Discontinued Features --------------------- No features are removed by this release. Windows Logo (Designed for Microsoft Windows) ============================================= These drivers are digitally signed and the Alacritech Accelerator hardware meets the Designed for Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Designed for Microsoft Windows 2000 Server logo requirements. The Designed for Windows logo associated with Alacritech's products applies to the base level networking functionality supported by the SLIC100 driver as well as the link aggregation functionality supported by the SLICTEAM driver. Known Issues ============ This section contains a list of currently understood issues. Both open bugs and known integration issues are documented based on this specific release. Please review the current open bugs and known issues before filing a bug report. See the Support and Feedback section below for details on reporting bugs. Open Bugs --------- Bug 00678 [w2k,XP,2k3] Alacritech behavior does not match Microsoft for network tunables Some tunables for Windows are not evaluated and interpreted by the Alacritech drivers, particularly TcpMaxDataRetransmissions. Workaround - Please see the Alacritech Accelerator FAQ (http://www.alacritech.com/html/accelerator_FAQ.html#s4p1q7 ) for more details. Bug 00807 [XP] Uninstall leaves trash in registry After uninstalling Alacritech cards errant entries left in registry will cause any subsequent installation of any NICs to start Local Area Connection numbers to skip, as if the Alacritech cards were still installed. Workaround - If you encounter this problem, use the 'remove' program (run in a cmd window) included in the w2k directory of the Alacritech distribution to clean up the errant registry entries. Bug 00979 [ALL] slic reports incorrect data to Network Object Network Performance Object Total Bytes/Sec shows spurious peaks during data transfer through Alacritech interfaces Workaround: Use the fastpath total bytes/sec and slowpath total bytes/sec components of the SLIC object to measure performance for Alacritech cards. Bug 00984 [w2k] ATKPERF fills application log with annoying messages On some systems with the SNMP agent installed, atkperf.dll puts in an eventlog message at critical priority every time it opens or closes the event log. Workaround - None yet. :( Bug 00989 [ALL] ATCP will not enforce "Require Kerberos Trust" policy When windows IP Security Policy "Require Kerberos Trust" is in place, connections via Alacritech interfaces bypass this policy, allowing connections to untrusted hosts. Workaround - Disable "Alacritech TCP fastpath driver" on interfaces that require this policy. Bug 01018 [all] ATCP will not hand out in half closed state Half closed connections will not get the benefit of TCP offload. Workaround - No customer workaround. Developers don't send large amounts of data while in half close. This is a fairly rare condition in real world, and Alacritech has no plans to fix this bug. Bug 01098 [All] Asynchronous I/O that polls via TDI_RECIEVE fails. Kernel mode applications that use socket polling rather than Windows callbacks for asynchronous I/O will not work with TCP Offload enabled. Hummingbird Maestro NFS and ADIC SNFS fall in to this category. Workaround - No end user workaround, but developers can modify their code to register a callback that simply returns STATUS_DATA_NOT_ACCEPTED in order to avoid hitting this bug. Resolved Issues =============== Resolved since 7.1.0.1 ---------------------- Bug 01170 [2k3] Can't install on Windows 2003 SP1 The coinstaller (atkcoin.dll) fails to load on SP1, causing all installs and upgrades of Alacritech drivers to fail. Bug 01166 [2k3] Crashes with MS iSCSI 2.0 initiator and persistent disks If the Microsoft iSCSI initiator is used and there are persistent disks, the system will crash after reboot. Bug 01145 [All] File shares on iSCSI disks do not reappear after reboot The long initialization time of the Alacritech interface may cause services that depend on the iSCSI disks to fail after a reboot. The iSCSI disks themselves will appear, but services that depend on them may not operate as expected. Readme ====== The readme.html contained with distribution should be used as the starting point for learning about this driver. Users Guide =========== There is a Users Guide contained in the doc directory provided to customers for use with Alacritech Accelerators. For details on installation, management, teaming, and interoperability issues, please review the Users Guide, as full details have been provided there. The users guide is also available online at http://www.alacritech.com/support/docs/7_1_0_1/Users_Guide.pdf Support and Feedback Mechanism ============================== Before Contacting Customer Support, please browse the troubleshooting section of the Users Guide, as well as the resources available though online support: http://www.alacritech.com/html/techsupport.html Should you need to contact customer support, please gather all of the information requested in the Incident Reports section (below) before initiating contact. To contact Alacritech customer support you may use one of the following options: Web Site (preferred): The URL is http://www.alacritech.com/html/techsupport.html. Click the Customer Care Center button to register and file a support request. Phone: Phone number for the United States is 408-287-9997. Select option 2. E-mail: The address is support@alacritech.com. Incident Reports =========== Please include the following information when sending in a incident request: Hardware: CPUs Amount of memory PCI busses Number of Alacritech accelerators Other network interfaces Software: Windows Version (2000, XP, 2003) Windows Service Pack version Version of Alacritech drivers Log information Event Viewer details related to Alacritech Windows dump files (if there is a crash) Testing environment What software is being tested What types of tests reproduce the problem Where is the failure occurring What has been done to try and solve the problem Patents ======= One or more U.S. and international patents apply to Alacritech products, including without limitation: U.S. Patent Nos. 6,226,680, 6,247,060, 6,334,153, 6,389,479, 6,393,487, 6,427,171, 6,427,173, 6,434,620, 6,470,415, 6,591,302, 6,658,480, 6,687,758, 6,697,868, 6,751,665, 6,757,746 and 6,807,581. 900125 Rev 2