****************************************************************************
*              Vinca StandbyServer for Windows NT - README.TXT             *
*                            Version 1.21c 6/4/97                          *
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****************************************
Introduction
****************************************

Thank you for choosing Vinca's StandbyServer 1.21 for NT, the newest add-
ition to the StandbyServer family of fault-tolerant solutions. This document
provides a quick glance into the StandbyServer for NT product and its
installation. It also contains information about this release that may not
be included in the manual. However, please see the enclosed manual for more
complete details and information.


This readme file covers the following topics:

     *     Introduction
     *     What's new in StandbyServer 1.21c
     *     Upgrading from a Previous Version 
     *     Installation Overview 
     *     Notes on Running StandbyServer for NT
     *     Vendor-Specific Tips
     *     Files
     *     Troubleshooting
     *     StandbyServer Version History 
     *     Technical support


****************************************
What's New in StandbyServer 1.21c
****************************************

Intel made some firmware changes to the latest revision of their Pro/100 PCI
card that prevented VInca's link driver from establishing a link.  Version
1.21c has a new driver that works with the new cards while maintaining back-
wards compatibility with the old cards.


****************************************
Upgrading from a Previous Version
****************************************

StandbyServer 1.21 does not require an uninstall and reboot before installing
a new version.  SETUP detects previously-installed versions, and allows that
version to be updated or replaced.  Update overwrites existing files in the
StandbyServer directory, but leaves registry settings intact.  Replace over-
writes existing files and replaces registry settings, which allows the service
login account to be changed as well as the card used for the Vinca link.


****************************************
Installation Overview
****************************************

Windows NT version 3.51 or higher is required, along with Service Pack 4 or
later. Windows NT service packs are available from Microsoft.

The following list is a basic overview of steps required to successfully
install StandbyServer for NT.  For more detailed information on any of the
steps, refer to Chapter 1 in the manual, "Installing StandbyServer for NT".

1.  Install the PRO/100 cards in each machine (don't install the network
    driver that comes with the card)
2.  Determine whether the primary server and standby machine are domain
    controllers.  If one is, they both must be (i.e. one a PDC and one a BDC
    or both BDCs), and the primary machine cannot be the PDC.  If one is not
    a domain controller (i.e. a regular server in the domain), the other
    cannot be a domain controller either.
3.  Connect the Vinca link cable.
4.  Install StandbyServer for NT on the standby machine.
5.  Export the disk devices in the standby machine that data will be mirror-
    ed to from the primary server.
6.  Install StandbyServer for NT on the primary server.
7.  Mirror the partitions from the primary server to the disk devices
    exported from the standby machine.
8.  Configure failover options and set up applications for failover as
    needed.
9.  Test the installation by running a test failover to verify you have a
    working configuration.

 
****************************************
Notes on Running StandbyServer for NT
****************************************

1. If the Disk Administrator status bar displays "Broken" when a mirrored
   set is selected immediately after establishing the mirrored set and
   committing changes, the server must be shutdown and restarted, and the
   mirrors manually broken and re-established. 

2. After a failover has occurred, the partitions in the standby machine are
   the ones with valid data.  When the original primary server is brought
   back up as the primary, its mirrors are out of synchronization and need
   to be manually broken and re-established.
  
3. When a mirrored partition is broken, Windows NT creates two partitions
   with different drive letters.  One of these partitions must be deleted
   in order to re-establish the mirror.  The partition with the valid data
   will retain the drive letter the mirrored partition had.  The partition
   given a different letter has the invalid data and must be deleted in
   order to re-establish the mirror.  

   For more information on recovering from a failover, see "Recovery
   Procedures" in the User's Guide or the online Help.


****************************************
Vendor-Specific Tips
****************************************

Compaq ProLiants and ProSignias
Hard drives obtained from Compaq may have a small partition at the beginning
of the drive that contains the EISA configuration files.  This partition
should be on the boot drive, but not on the remaining drives, because it
prevents Windows NT from properly mirroring the partitions on those drives.
If this partition exists on any non-boot drives, it should be deleted before
mirroring partitions between the primary server and standby machine.

IBM PC Server 704
Make sure that the Intel Pro/100 LAN adapter is installed in PCI bus 0.
The slots on bus 0 are those nearest to the top of the machine.

Unisys Aquanta DS/6
Make sure that the Intel Pro/100 LAN adapter is installed in PCI bus 0.
Refer to the inside cover of the server's case for information on which
slots are on bus 0, and which slots are on bus 1. 

Unisys Quad 4
The Intel Pro/100 LAN adapter will not work in PCI bus 0 (the 4 slots near-
est the top of the machine).  Install the Pro/100 cards in bus 1, which
includes the 4 PCI slots nearest to the bottom of the machine.


****************************************
Files
****************************************

The following list shows the proper size and time and date stamp of the
files installed by StandbyServer for NT.  Refer to Appendix A in the manual
for an explanation of each file and its location in the directory structure.

Filename	  Size	      Date        Time
-----------------------------------------------
- Device Drivers -		
VncComIP.sys    40,448       5/27/97     12:31p
VncComIE.sys    49,664       9/20/96     10:35a
VncDisk.sys     40,096        9/3/96      2:57p

- Services -			
VncSBMgr.exe    92,160        5/7/97      6:50p
VncSBSrv.exe    41,472      11/27/96      1:10p

- Programs -			
VncSBCfg.exe   489,984        5/7/97      9:51a
VncSBDsk.exe   178,176        5/7/96     10:59a
LinkTest.exe    25,660      11/27/96      3:45p

- Help -
VNCSBCFG.CNT       812       1/23/97     10:56a
VNCSBCFG.HLP   119,560       1/23/97     12:47p


****************************************
Troubleshooting
****************************************

For troubleshooting help, please see Appendix A of the user's guide.


****************************************
StandbyServer Version History
****************************************

StandbyServer 1.21b

Features
An "After Revert to Standby" command file event has been added to allow the
execution of a custom command file after the standby machine has finished
reverting to the standby role.  This increases the flexibility of failover
configurations.  For example, if a program that normally runs on the standby
machine needs to be stopped while it is operating as the primary, it can be
configured to stop in the "On Failover" command file, and configured to
start again in the "After Revert to Standby" command file.

Bug Fixes
1.  StandbyServer now properly validates an evaluation installation of
    StandbyServer when a license is purchased and serial number received.
2.  StandbyServer now stores the primary server's hostname in lowercase, to
    adhere to the TCP/IP convention of using lowercase for hostnames.
3.  Version 1.21b fixes a 1.21a change that prevented the "TCP/IP Failover
    Only" feature from working correctly.
4.  If two member servers were used as a fault-tolerant pair, the primary
    server would occasionally be unable to authenticate to the domain after
    a failover and subsequent revert to standby.  1.21b corrects this.


StandbyServer 1.21a

It is now possible to evaluate the StandbyServer product by typing in
"Evaluation" for the serial number during SETUP.  This activates an
evaluation version that will function normally until the 30-day eval-
uation period expires.  When the evaluation period expires, the standby
machine's disk drives are no longer exported to the primary machine,
and failover will cease to function.  An evaluation version can be up-
graded to a full version by purchasing a serial number, and typing it
into the Validate dialog box under the File menu. 


StandbyServer 1.21

SETUP
1.  If a previous installation is detected, SETUP offers the option to
    Update or Replace the existing installation.
2.  Creating a Vinca account before running SETUP is no longer required.
    The account the installer is logged in as is used by default.
3.  SETUP detects whether the service logon account exists, and if it has
    administrative rights.
4.  If an incorrect password is used for the service logon account, SETUP
    returns to the account screen to enable re-entry of the password.
5.  SETUP detects all PRO/100 cards installed in a machine, and allows any
    of them to be chosen.  All cards which are currently in use by another
    driver (such as a network driver) are marked as "IN USE" to indicate
    that they are not available.
6.  SETUP detects whether Disk Administrator has been run at least once
    before starting.

Interface
1.  A "TCP/IP Failover Only" checkbox has been added to Failover Options.
    This allows for near-instantaneous failover of TCP/IP-based applicat-
    ions, such as web servers.
2.  Two command file times have been added to Failover Options.  "On Fail
    Detect" runs a command file as soon as the failover criteria have been
    met and before Failover Delay starts.  "On Revert to Standby" runs a
    command file before reverting to standby.

Functional
1.  Services are no longer started or stopped in alphabetical order. They
    now start and stop in the order they were configured.
2.  The number of services that can be displayed in the Installed Services
    box has been expanded.

Link Driver
1.  The VncComIP.sys driver can now be started and stopped on the fly. This
    allows a standby machine install to be done without requiring a reboot.
2.  The VncComIP.sys driver can now share an interrupt with another device.

Bug Fixes
1.  If there was more than one network card with an IP address, every time
    a failover occured bogus IP addresses were being inserted into the
    second card's IP address list.
2.  During Failover and Revert, Windows NT's SERVICES.EXE was being started
    and stopped every time a service was started or stopped.  It is now
    started only once, then stopped only once after all services have been
    started and stopped.  This speeds up the failover process slightly and
    reduces memory usage.


StandbyServer 1.2

StandbyServer for NT no longer requires that one of the machines in the
StandbyServer pair be the Primary Domain Controller (PDC) while the other
be the Backup Domain Controller (BDC).  StandbyServer can now function with
a pair of regular servers in the domain, or a pair of BDCs in the domain.


StandbyServer 1.1

SETUP
1.  Intel PCI and Intel EISA installs have been combined, and there is no
    Vinca EISA install for version 1.1
2.  The Ethernet Address (PCI) or slot number (EISA) of the Intel Pro/100
    card is now asked for before requesting the role of the machine.
3.  SETUP now adds the Log On As a Service right to the Vinca account.
4.  SETUP has been modified to work correctly on Windows NT version 4.0.
5.  The new Vinca logo has been added to SETUP and replaces the old
    bitmaps (the Cog and black "Vinca").

Interface	
1.  Online Help has been added
2.  An activity meter has been added to the main StandbyServer screen
3.  Machine status has been added to the main StandbyServer screen
4.  The Help|About screen has the new Vinca logo.

Functional	
1.  TCP/IP address switching is now possible
2.  Contents of the sample .CMD files have been commented out to prevent
    unwanted broadcast traffic on the network every time a switchover
    occurs.
3.  Any custom .CMD files must be placed in the CMDFILES directory in order
    to run.
4.  An error number is printed in the Failover Status window when a service
    fails to start or stop.

Link Driver	
1.  An Intel EISA Pro/100 driver has been added
2.  The Vinca link drivers are more tolerant to severe server loads.
3.  The Vinca link drivers now resend a packet if no acknowledgement is
    received, or a partial or bad packet is received.
4.  The default registry entry for Request has been changed to 1 (was 2)
5.  The default registry entry for NumTCB has been changed to 20 (was 10)
6.  The Vinca link drivers now register the resources they use with NT
    (interrupt, port address, etc), minimizing potential hardware conflicts
    with other devices attempting to use the same resources.

Bug Fixes	
1.  In rare cases when PhysicalDrive0 did not contain the Windows NT system
    files and was exported, the CD-ROM drive letter (and all drive letters
    D: through Z:) were removed.


****************************************
Technical Support
****************************************

Information on obtaining Technical Support is contained in the introduction
of the StandbyServer user's guide.
