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Stratusphere 6.7.0 Released

Glen Porter
  • Updated

With the general availability and launch of Stratusphere UX 6.7.0, Liquidware announces the following enhancements and developments in this latest version:

 

Version 6.7.0 released April 17th, 2024.

New Features

  • Reorganized Tab Navigation: The Web UI has been reorganized for a more intuitive layout by placing functionality where it is expected. Users now see Overview Dashboards when they log into Stratusphere UX. Custom Dashboards and Reports have their own top-level tabs. UX Profile, FIT Profile, and Alerting have been moved under the Administration section.
  • Overview Dashboards: These are top-level, summarized, card-based dashboards showing key metrics of your environment with the ability to drill down into them. The dashboards can be filtered by Machine Groups, User Groups, and Date Ranges. They can be sorted in several ways including by Severity (High to Low) so that the areas of concern or metrics performing poorly are displayed at the top of the page. Any area of Good, Fair, or Poor can be selected to filter the entire page. If drilldowns are available, it provides more context of the metric by providing different areas of breakouts based on allocation of resources or types. Liquidware aims to further develop these Overview Dashboards and encourages our end users to send in their feedback.
  • Diagnostics > Individual Views: These views are meant to investigate a single user on a single machine type scenario. Within a single tab, the end user can investigate all the different metrics with trending for that user on that machine between the selected time. In this version we display a Summary view followed by details of CPU, RAM, Disk, Network, and Application Processes. These Individual Views will be continuously expanded and enhanced to provide all the detailed information available within the Stratusphere database for that one user on that machine. Liquidware aims to further develop these Individual Views and encourages our end users to send in their feedback.
  • Diagnostics > Detailed Views: Detailed Views is a modern, intuitive redesign of our Advanced > Inspectors using API v1 with a focus on empowering end users to customize and create their own views of information that suits their needs. End users can save and load their custom views and favorite any view they like. They can select from a list of recommended Views, along with a list of Recommended Columns with categories to only display data they are interested in. It has an easier to use, intuitive workflow, and easy to find UI elements to add Group by columns or metric columns and controls to show/hide columns. Intuitive context menus make it easier to know what to expect when you drill down. Each table's API v1 is available to export and it accepts importing API v1 calls to display the data as a table with its Share functionality. Liquidware aims to further develop these Detailed Views and encourages our end users to send in their feedback.
  • Postgres 16: Liquidware has updated Postgres to version 16 as all current Stratusphere UX versions are using Postgres 12 which reaches End of Life in November 2024. Liquidware strongly recommends migrating to new 6.7.0 appliances when they become available to get the best performance and stay current on security and patches.
  • User Sentiment Surveys (Digital Employee Experience - DEX): Liquidware introduced quantification of User Experience 15 years ago with UX Profiles. Liquidware now introduces User Sentiment Surveys to close the feedback loop to allow desktop end users to opt in and send their user experience feedback using the new Liquidware User Sentiment Survey tray application on Windows. End users will be surveyed using Windows Notification Subsystem to provide their feedback on their user experience and depending on their response it could be configured to ask one or two follow-up questions at a configurable frequency (Default = once in 24 hours). This information is available under Advanced > Inspectors > Users & Machines tab under the Summary | DEX Insights View and under Diagnostics > Detailed Views using the Users & Machines Preset and DEX Insights View.
  • Machine Internet Connectivity (Speed Test): To complete our collection of metrics related to the "Work from Anywhere" culture, Stratusphere UX now collects Speed Test data at a configurable frequency from specific subnet/CIDR locations during specific days and times of business. It collects the Download and Upload speed in Mbps, Latency to the nearest server on the Internet, ISP, External IP / Host address. It also collects the latencies to your home or remote office location's DNS servers and Default Gateways to get a complete picture of your workspace connectivity. This information is available under Advanced > Inspectors > Users & Machines tab under Summary | Network View and under Diagnostics > Detailed Views using the Users & Machines Preset and Network View.
  • CID Key for Dell Wyse Thin Client: Liquidware adds support for Dell Wyse ThinOS based Thin Clients.
  • Profile Container metrics: Stratusphere UX now collects details on user profile containers from its own ProfileUnity ProfileDisk and FSLogix Profile Container. It collects the average and peak space used, mount times, allocated sizes, and whether profile compacting is needed. This information is available under Advanced > Inspectors > Users & Machines tab under Summary | Profile Container View and under Diagnostics > Detailed Views using the Users & Machines Preset and Profile Container View.
  • Logoff Breakdown: Stratusphere UX was the first to release a detailed Login Breakdown followed by what is running on the machine all the time. To complete the picture, Stratusphere UX now collects the Logoff Breakdown in similar level of detail as Login Breakdown with the same machine and process level detail of data. This information is available under Advanced > Inspectors > Login tab where if this feature is enabled, you can drill down into any Logout time to get similar Logoff Breakdown information.
  • Dizzion Frame Display Protocol metrics: In its quest to provide all round visibility, Stratusphere UX adds full support to collect Dizzion Frame Display protocol metrics to add to its impressive list of display protocol metrics such as RDP/RFX, PCoIP, ICA/HDX, BLAST, etc. This information is available under Advanced > Inspectors > Browser tab and under Diagnostics > Detailed Views using the Browser Preset.
  • Process Write metrics: Liquidware recognizes that disk writes are more expensive than reads and any latency and congestion in the storage subsystem can lead to severe degradation of user experience. Thus, Stratusphere UX now collects information on each process that is writing to a location and can be configured to collect destination folder to a depth of 9 folders (recommend between 4-6). This feature would name which process is writing where and at what rate, with what latency, and the amount written to which disk and/or folder. This information is available in the Advanced > Inspectors > Applications & Processes tab under Summary | Process File Writes View and under Diagnostics > Detailed Views using the Applications Preset and Process File Writes View.

  • Important: This feature does require a significant amount of space on the database and Liquidware strongly recommends using the Stratusphere Sizing Guide before enabling this feature.

  • Process Status: Orphan & Zombie Process metrics: In addition to collecting process stats, Stratusphere UX now identifies and tags whether the process is an orphan or a zombie. Simplistically, orphans may be legitimate processes whose parents have exited; zombie processes however are processes that have exited but are being accessed by other processes thus cannot free the resources they have used. This feature identifies the number of resources used by these orphan and zombie processes which may have gone unreported in the past. This information is available in Advanced > Inspectors > Applications & Processes tab by adding the Basis/Lookup by: Process Type where expected values are normal, orphan, and zombie. In addition, we have also added Basis/Lookup by: Process Category that tags Windows processes as application, background, and windows.
  • Mozilla Firefox Browser Extension: Stratusphere UX adds a Mozilla Firefox Browser Extension to get deeper visibility within the Firefox browser just like it did for Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge Chromium browsers. The data collected by this extension is available under Advanced > Inspectors > Browser tab and under Diagnostics > Detailed Views using the Browser Preset.
  • Stratusphere UX UI Preview: Liquidware has added Custom Dashboards under the Dashboards category in the left-hand side navigation bar. It is a modern, intuitive, redesign of Custom Dashboards displaying all existing Custom Dashboards with easy-to-use workflows and UI elements. This version of Custom Dashboards within the Stratusphere UX UI Preview section is for display-only purposes. It is provided as a Preview and will be further refined and released will full read/write capability in a future version. Liquidware aims to further develop these Custom Dashboards and encourages our end users to send in their feedback.

Enhancements

Advanced Inspectors & API

  • Enhanced usability by moving Advanced > Preferences to Advanced > Inspectors > Preferences. The Advanced > Trends & Top Consumers tab has been deprecated and all its useful information will be transitioned to the Overview Dashboards.
  • Enhanced usability and flexibility by adding a sort order lock to a column which is displayed next to the column. When clicked, the sort order is locked and if the user navigates to another view, it includes the column in the same sort order even if that column does NOT exist within the view table.
  • Stratusphere API v1 now supports Industry standard 2 letter language codes where you can specify "use_language":"ja" for Japanese as an example. After release of 6.7.0, Liquidware will release a language pack for Japanese, Korean, French, and German languages. The API v1 will also support the browser's default language if it is one of the languages available within Stratusphere. The Column names and descriptions will appear in the selected language.
  • Enhanced visibility by adding some metrics to API v1 such as CPU Model in Inventory and Wi-Fi Channel within Users & Machines. They are available as Lookup by or Basis.

CID Key

  • Enhanced 64-bit installer on Windows that now places all software in the 64-bit Program Files folder instead of the Program Files (x86) folder. The new installer also accepts GROUP and MACHINEGROUP as options to specify the default machine group that the CID Key should register the machine in.
  • Enhanced visibility and consistency of application processes reported where if the CID Key detects that application process was not part of the application software inventory, it performs a quick lookup of the registry to get more information. Additionally, the CID Key now performs an application software inventory every 24 hours by checking for and reporting in any new applications that may have been installed since the last time a full software inventory was performed.
  • Enhanced detection of Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware software on Windows machines by including support for Windows Defender performing Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware functions.
  • Enhanced flexibility by providing CID Key updates on Thin Client OEM portals for IGEL Application Portal Cosmos, 10Zig, and Dell Wyse.
  • Enhanced visibility across platforms by adding support for Apple macOS M2 platform.
  • Enhanced flexibility by asking the CID Key to check for updates to the machine group registry keys after every callback in case any changes are made post registration.
  • Enhanced usability and consistency by adding AWS AppStream based Published Apps to the Lookup By dropdown under Advanced > Inspectors > Remote Display like XenApp Published Apps.
  • Enhanced consistency of CID Key being able to detect changes to the Hub's IP address/DNS address and being able to interpret the difference between certificates to upload data for machine and user consistently.
  • Enhanced visibility by identifying real GPUs versus software-based display drivers such as Microsoft Basic Display Adapter, Microsoft Basic Renderer Driver, Microsoft Remote Display Adapter/Driver, etc. GPU metrics will only be collected for real GPUs.
  • Enhanced visibility by adding support for AMD physical GPUs as well we AMD MxGPUs deployed on Cloud platforms such as AWS.
  • Enhanced visibility of USB Devices by collecting the Vendor ID (VID), Product ID (PID), Revision (REV), and Hardware ID of USB devices connected to the machine.
  • Enhanced visibility by displaying the status of each service that is part of the CID Key within the Control Panel applet.
  • Enhanced visibility, flexibility, and security related to collection of CPU and GPU temperatures using third-party library called OpenHardwareMonitor library. Initially, based on security concerns we removed usage of this library from our software and used just native WMI counters to collect this information. However, due to unreliable results, some customers requested that we re-introduce usage of this third-party library. To satisfy security concerns of some customers and the requirement of this library by other customers, the CID Key by default does NOT install this library anymore. However, if some customers opt-in, the CID Key downloads this library from the Hub/Collector and begins using it. If security becomes a concern, customers can opt-out and the library will be completely removed from the machine again.

Hub, Database, & Collectors

  • Enhanced visibility on the Console by highlighting whenever the appliance does NOT have SWAP space in RED to aid identifying issues while using instances on certain cloud platforms that do not provide SWAP drives.
  • Enhanced security by closing access to TCP/5501 and TCP/5502 ports which were used by legacy 5.8.x Stratusphere CID Key and Network Stations. Earlier versions of 6.x would support auto-upgrading 5.8.x version of the CID Key but since 6.7.0 does not listen on legacy ports of TCP/5501/5502, it will no longer accept data from 5.8.x CID Keys and Network Stations. Please refer to the Migration Guide for the process of migrating legacy systems to the latest 6.7.x version.

Reports

  • Administration > Alert If Observed Machines for Last Hour Drop by Percent: Added a new exception report that will alert Administrators when the number of machines observed drops more than a configurable percentage threshold in the last full hour when compared to the same hour in the previous day and/or same hour for that day of week in the past 7 days. The report does NOT consider weekends for comparisons and does NOT support different locales yet. The report is not scheduled by default, and Stratusphere Administrators need to pick the days and times when they would like to be automatically alerted.

Web UI

  • Enhanced flexibility and security by adding support for authenticated mail relay server settings such as customizable port numbers, encryption, and user or service authentication credentials to send out email-based alerts and scheduled reports.
  • Enhanced ease of use and security adding the ability to assign users and user groups directly as Stratusphere Administrators or Dashboard Users while importing them from AD/LDAP Directories. A minus sign ("-") can also be used to specifically not add the user/group to the Stratusphere Administrator or Dashboard User roles.
  • Enhanced security by being able to hide a synced AD/LDAP Directory from being displayed within the dropdown on the Login page.
  • Enhanced security by adding support for RSA SecurID Two Factor Authentication that integrates with existing RSA infrastructure.
  • Enhanced flexibility and usability by adding "Set as Dashboard User" option to the "More actions..." dropdown under Inventory > Users tab.

Security Updates for Appliances

This upgrade addresses Common Vulnerability and Exposure (CVE) items CVE-2007-4559, CVE-2019-13224, CVE-2019-16163, CVE-2019-19012, CVE-2019-19203, CVE-2019-19204, CVE-2020-12762, CVE-2020-22217, CVE-2020-28241, CVE-2021-3468, CVE-2021-35937, CVE-2021-35938, CVE-2021-35939, CVE-2021-43975, CVE-2022-3094, CVE-2022-3545, CVE-2022-3594, CVE-2022-3640, CVE-2022-4269, CVE-2022-4285, CVE-2022-4378, CVE-2022-4744, CVE-2022-28388, CVE-2022-30698, CVE-2022-30699, CVE-2022-38457, CVE-2022-40133, CVE-2022-40433, CVE-2022-40982, CVE-2022-41858, CVE-2022-42895, CVE-2022-44638, CVE-2022-45869, CVE-2022-45884, CVE-2022-45886, CVE-2022-45887, CVE-2022-45919, CVE-2022-48337, CVE-2022-48339, CVE-2022-48468, CVE-2023-0266, CVE-2023-0386, CVE-2023-0458, CVE-2023-0590, CVE-2023-0597, CVE-2023-0800, CVE-2023-0801, CVE-2023-0802, CVE-2023-0803, CVE-2023-0804, CVE-2023-1073, CVE-2023-1074, CVE-2023-1075, CVE-2023-1079, CVE-2023-1118, CVE-2023-1192, CVE-2023-1206, CVE-2023-1252, CVE-2023-1382, CVE-2023-1838, CVE-2023-1855, CVE-2023-1989, CVE-2023-1998, CVE-2023-2162, CVE-2023-2163, CVE-2023-2166, CVE-2023-2176, CVE-2023-2513, CVE-2023-2602, CVE-2023-2603, CVE-2023-3138, CVE-2023-3141, CVE-2023-3161, CVE-2023-3212, CVE-2023-3268, CVE-2023-3341, CVE-2023-3390, CVE-2023-3446, CVE-2023-3609, CVE-2023-3611, CVE-2023-3772, CVE-2023-3812, CVE-2023-3817, CVE-2023-4016, CVE-2023-4128, CVE-2023-4132, CVE-2023-4155, CVE-2023-4206, CVE-2023-4207, CVE-2023-4208, CVE-2023-4527, CVE-2023-4622, CVE-2023-4623, CVE-2023-4641, CVE-2023-4732, CVE-2023-4806, CVE-2023-4813, CVE-2023-4863, CVE-2023-4911, CVE-2023-4921, CVE-2023-5178, CVE-2023-5388, CVE-2023-5678, CVE-2023-5717, CVE-2023-5868, CVE-2023-5869, CVE-2023-5870, CVE-2023-5981, CVE-2023-6135, CVE-2023-6356, CVE-2023-6535, CVE-2023-6536, CVE-2023-6606, CVE-2023-6610, CVE-2023-6817, CVE-2023-7104, CVE-2023-20593, CVE-2023-20900, CVE-2023-22067, CVE-2023-22081, CVE-2023-23455, CVE-2023-23583, CVE-2023-26545, CVE-2023-27522, CVE-2023-27536, CVE-2023-28321, CVE-2023-28328, CVE-2023-28484, CVE-2023-28486, CVE-2023-28487, CVE-2023-28772, CVE-2023-29469, CVE-2023-29491, CVE-2023-30456, CVE-2023-30630, CVE-2023-31084, CVE-2023-31130, CVE-2023-31436, CVE-2023-31486, CVE-2023-32324, CVE-2023-32681, CVE-2023-33203, CVE-2023-33204, CVE-2023-33285, CVE-2023-33951, CVE-2023-33952, CVE-2023-34058, CVE-2023-34059, CVE-2023-34241, CVE-2023-34410, CVE-2023-34969, CVE-2023-35823, CVE-2023-35824, CVE-2023-35825, CVE-2023-37369, CVE-2023-38197, CVE-2023-38408, CVE-2023-38469, CVE-2023-38470, CVE-2023-38471, CVE-2023-38472, CVE-2023-38473, CVE-2023-38710, CVE-2023-38712, CVE-2023-39417, CVE-2023-39418, CVE-2023-39615, CVE-2023-40217, CVE-2023-40283, CVE-2023-42465, CVE-2023-42753, CVE-2023-45871, CVE-2023-46813, CVE-2023-48795, CVE-2023-50387, CVE-2023-50868, CVE-2023-51385, CVE-2024-0553, CVE-2024-0646, CVE-2024-0985, CVE-2024-20918, CVE-2024-20919, CVE-2024-20921, CVE-2024-20926, CVE-2024-20945, and CVE-2024-20952.

For more information, refer to http://cve.mitre.org/index.html.

Please see:

https://docs.liquidware.com/stratusphere/en-us/670/release-notes/release-notes-670-1.htm

 

 

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