The Beta will run for the next few months until approximately the end of June. During this time, we will be gathering your feedback (and adding it to our own considerable development and testing), making changes, and getting Version 8 into a release-ready state. For the best Beta experience, you should read this post in its entirety.
We'll start with the disclaimer of a sort - ASG V8 is a BETA and not final, production-ready software. This is a work-in-progress; there will be bugs, broken areas of functionality, and parts where things just do not work as expected or planned. If you decide to use this someplace in production and it causes things to go horribly wrong, well...you were warned. [[:)]] By offering you the chance to test the product early you need to be aware that you will see stability and completeness issues. We use this opportunity to discover and quash bugs that we might not have otherwise discovered during our own testing. We also greatly appreciate your feedback and comments and will use them to further shape our product. The V8 Beta is also not yet complete, there are still features and areas of functionality we are working on which are not yet ready for you to test, we will make additions and add more to play with as the Beta progresses!
Being a Beta, be aware that much of the documentation and associated collateral's, online-help, language translations, and other written support information are not yet available. But, you can rely on an active and and helpful community right here in our Beta forums! We already have lots of good things to test and play with, and I will outline some of the areas here which might attract your testing attention. Keep in mind full release-notes and documentation on all the new features won't be available until much closer to GA release. We will also have a contest of sorts to reward your efforts. Happy testing!
[SIZE=3][SIZE=4]ASG V8 Quick-Feature Overview[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2][SIZE=2]How To Test[/SIZE]
[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=3][SIZE=2]We'd suggest you read all this lovely documentation, but if you like, skip to the bottom and get downloading. [[:)]] The V8 Beta is easy to test, just download, install the ISO image to your platform of choice, and then build your configuration from scratch or restore a backup file from ASG 7.500+ and test away!
[/SIZE][/SIZE] [SIZE=3][Major New Things]
[/SIZE]
- New Kernel
An updated version of the Kernel allows for both 64-bit and 32-bit versions. Among other things, this noticeably adds support for installations using more than 4GB of memory. During installation of ASG, by default we will detect and choose the kernel most appropriate for your system. In some situations virtualized hardware doesn't report correct the capabilities, so there is a new installer screen where you can see what kernel is selected and opt to choose a different one if you need. There is no disadvantage to using a 64-bit kernel when you can, and we recommend you use it if your hardware supports it. This also gives us a benefit of much smaller ISO and Up2Date sizes by ~40% - New Hardware Compatibility
Added support for thousands of devices. With the updated Kernel also comes new support for thousands of new hardware components. We have available for you a new HCL which we are still working on; the site itself is still in Beta, but we'd love for you to try it out and see it now in correlation with the V8 Public Beta launch. It is part of our upcoming new Knowledge Base, and we invite you to give it a look at [URL="https://kb-beta.astaro.com/support/index.php/Hardware:CompatibilityList"]https://kb-beta.astaro.com/support/index.php/Hardware:CompatibilityList
- New Installer
The installer itself has been extensively reworked. There is an updated UI and a streamlined installation process. It now offers better error handling so if anything goes wrong with the process due to hardware compatibility or other reasons, you get detailed information on what has went awry. Also new is the option to output the installation logs to a USB stick for sending to support or debugging yourself directly. This should be a welcome new addition if you do a lot with the Software installation of ASG on different hardware and occasional need to troubleshoot. - IPv6 Support
Support for the next-Iteration in IP Addressing is here. After enabling IPv6, you will options for its use throughout the ASG for interfaces, definitions and more. You can now create host definitions with IPv6 addresses and use them in most places where you can use IPv4 addresses. You have to enable IPv6 support globally under "Network >> IPv6" before you can use it. This way we avoid cluttering the interface for users that do not use IPv6 (which probably will be the vast majority for quite a while). In this tab you can also set up tunnels to get IPv6 connectivity if you don't get it natively from your ISP. Not all services will support IPv6, which may change as the Beta progresses and in future versions of ASG V8. - HTTP Reverse Proxy/Web Application Firewall
Still in an early stage, this totally new area of ASG lets you protect your Web Servers from attacks and malicious behavior. Using the Web Application Firewall (WAF) you can define external addresses (Virtual Servers) which should be translated into the "real" machines in place of using the DNAT rule(s). From there, servers can be protected using a variety of patterns and detection methods, and using this feature you can stop things like Cross Side Scripting (XSS), SQL Injection, Directory Traversal, and other potent attacks against your server. In simpler terms, this area of ASG allows the application of terms and conditions to requests which are received and sent from the web server. It also offers load balancing across multiple targets. - Updated WebAdmin
We've done some research and have updated the WebAdmin with a new theme and associated visuals. You will see new, more readable fonts and fresher colors, and during a later Beta we will be updating the WebAdmin menu structure with many changes to make it better-categorized. There are new icons, a bit more eye-candy, and lots of goodies to see. - WebAdmin Change Tracking
See what Admin changed/touched something along with a history of activity. Start by seeing whats new in the WebAdmin "Management" overview. - VPN Remote Access Reporting
See reports and activity for your VPN users, including the amount of connects/disconnects and information on session activities. You can find this in the Reporting section. - Web Content Filter Override
Bypass the categorization filter and view reports on when this feature was used. You can configure this in the WebSecurity-->HTTP-->URL Filtering Tab.
[SIZE=3][Minor New Things][/SIZE]
- WebAdmin Menu Search
Locate the tab or section you need quickly. At the top of the WebAdmin navigation, simply type the name or any part of the section or area you are trying to find. - WebAdmin Error Handling
Better information to the Admin when trying to save erroneous settings. We will attempt to give exact information why your settings cannot be saved when an error is encountered like entering an invalid IP address or entering something which doesn't make sense to WebAdmin. - Flash-Based Reporting Charts
Offers better visualizations for most reporting charts and graphs. If you don't want to use this feature, you can disable it in "Management >> WebAdmin Settings >> User Preferences". - Syslogging
Support added for multiple Syslog servers, giving you more options for keeping those precious log files save across diverse resources. - Reverse DNS
When creating static DNS mappings you can now choose to create a reverse mapping as which will then map from the IP address to the name. - IPSec VPN PSK Enhancements
Added support for multiple site-to-site connections in respond-only mode using different PSK's. (Known as PSK probing) - Intrusion Prevention Exceptions
With this enhancement you can build much more detailed IPS exception rules, allowing for the use of "and" / "or" as well as in combination. - Intrusion Prevention Updates
There is now a more seamless process for IPS updates which should better retain connection-sessions during their application. - Updated Online Help
More changes for this coming as the Beta progresses.
[SIZE=3][Download Information][/SIZE]
The first public Beta release dubbed V7.900 is available for both ASG Appliances and your own hardware. If you were using a past release of the V8 alpha, you will notice your installation has the 7.900 available as an Up2Date. To use the V8 Beta ISO image, you need to download it, burn it to a CD, and install it, then restore a backup or build anew.
Please see the the latest "Beta Update Release" posting for download information for the latest Beta release.
As always, we are here to help. If you need anything, have feedback to report, and otherwise want to participate in the V8 Beta feedback, post away here in this forums!
Cheers,
Myself and the entire Astaro team.
