This release provides several improvements for Netskope’s Virtual Appliance, such as new features, enhancements, known issues, and fixed issues.
Overview for Virtual Appliance Version 103.0.0.338
The Netskope Virtual Appliance can be used to steer traffic, as a log parser to discover cloud apps in your environment, or as a Dataplane appliance (DPoP) to act as a proxy server.
Requirements for Virtual Appliance Version 103.0.0.338
Upgrading to version 103.0.0.338
Before downloading the upgrade package, ensure the following:
- Rollback from 103.0.0.338 is not supported.
- You are running a minimum version of 96.0.0. If you are running appliance versions older than 96.0.0, or if the root (/) partition is less than 64 GB, you must deploy a new Virtual Appliance and import configurations from the old appliance. To learn more: Install a Virtual Appliance.
Note
If your Virtual Appliance uses a 64 GB root (/) partition, then you must ensure that at least 8 GB of free space is available before upgrading.
- There is at least 25 GB of free space on the
/opt/ns/upgradespartition where the upgrade package is downloaded. You can delete older versions of the appliance from theupgradesfolder to free up disk space.To learn more: Upgrade the Virtual Appliance.
- All the dhcp interfaces on the appliance are configured with a static IP, netmask and gateway.
- Export the current appliance configurations to a different host. To learn more: Exporting Configurations.
- To verify that the host is reachable, run the following telnet command.
nsappliance> telnet host cz.archive.ubuntu.com port 80 Executing telnet as: ['telnet', 'cz.archive.ubuntu.com', '80'] Trying 217.31.202.63... Connected to mirror-r-01.nic.cz. Escape character is '^]'.
The following are the minimum hardware requirements to install and run the Virtual Appliance.
| Component | Requirements |
|---|---|
| Physical RAM | 32 GB |
| Processor | 8-Core |
| Hard disk space | 400 GB is the total disk space required across all partitions. This includes 96 GB for storing and processing logs and 304 GB for the root partitions which store the Netskope software, configuration files, and data files. You must increase the disk capacity depending on the size of the logs that are processed daily. For information on increasing the partition size, see “Increase the Size of the Partition” under Optional Configurations topic on the Knowledge Portal. Note Netskope recommends that you increase the disk capacity by 5 times the expected daily log collection size. |
Appliance Software Version Support
Netskope Appliance software releases are available every 4-months and will have Netskope support up to two previous versions. Direct software upgrades are supported as long as the “from” and “to” software releases are within two versions apart.
Netskope appliance releases are numbered in the form of X.X.X where the Xs represent the major, minor, and build release numbers, respectively. For example, appliance release 93.1.0 and older releases are deprecated when appliance release 103.0.0.338 goes live. Release numbers are not sequential like 101, 102, and 103. Instead, release numbers jump numerically, like 96.0.0, 99.0.0, and 103.0.0.338, to reflect parity with the Netskope Cloud Releases.
The following table provides the upgrade path to the latest software version.
Note
If you configured the appliance to act as a DPoP appliance and manually deleted the URL database package, you must first disable DPoP before you install the upgrade. Use the following command to disable DPoP:
set dataplane forward-proxy enable false
save
Once you install the upgrade, use the following command to re-enable DPoP:
set dataplane forward-proxy enable true
save
| Current version | Upgrade to version |
|---|---|
| Any version before 96.0.0 | 96.0.0 |
| 96.0.0 | 103.0.0.338 |
| 99.0.0 | 103.0.0.338 |
Releases that are outside the Netskope support period:
- Are not guaranteed to work with the latest cloud releases.
- Are no longer tested by Netskope.
- Do not receive hotfixes.
- Do not receive new feature updates.
At our discretion, we may provide support for releases outside our support period. If a customer encounters an error in a version of software that is other than the latest release, Netskope may require the customer to upgrade to a specified later version to obtain a correction of the error.
For information about end-of-life and end-of-support for appliance releases, refer to EOL/EOS for DPoP r99.
Hash values for Virtual Appliance Installation Files
The following table provides the md5sum and sha256sum values for the Virtual Appliance installer files on VMware ESX, Microsoft Hyper-V, and Linux KVM platforms for version 103.0.0.338.
| File Type | md5sum | sha256sum |
|---|---|---|
| ESX OVA | 39a3615d1540afb5ff28c7e0801c5968 | 56b5756f90a6f175dcfbcc5675885344010c0477ed03017322be32322bcf5a91 |
| Hyper-V Image | 519b1545022cef420e1bb07d6d07aff1 | 7d3e23007a56c09c5a8118da0409ad0c485302fc52781372a11cb804568fd0f8 |
| KVM Image | 2a28a5e0dc51f92d83204934c3f5e2b1 | 3298797d857347e60faaa9071509d216e802429e7dfbfd304339fc97ed92c375 |
Requirements for Virtual Appliance Version 103.0.0.338
Upgrading to version 103.0.0.338
Before downloading the upgrade package, ensure the following:
- Rollback from 103.0.0.338 is not supported.
- You are running a minimum version of 96.0.0. If you are running appliance versions older than 96.0.0, or if the root (/) partition is less than 64 GB, you must deploy a new Virtual Appliance and import configurations from the old appliance. To learn more: Install a Virtual Appliance.
Note
If your Virtual Appliance uses a 64 GB root (/) partition, then you must ensure that at least 8 GB of free space is available before upgrading.
- There is at least 25 GB of free space on the
/opt/ns/upgradespartition where the upgrade package is downloaded. You can delete older versions of the appliance from theupgradesfolder to free up disk space.To learn more: Upgrade the Virtual Appliance.
- All the dhcp interfaces on the appliance are configured with a static IP, netmask and gateway.
- Export the current appliance configurations to a different host. To learn more: Exporting Configurations.
- To verify that the host is reachable, run the following telnet command.
nsappliance> telnet host cz.archive.ubuntu.com port 80 Executing telnet as: ['telnet', 'cz.archive.ubuntu.com', '80'] Trying 217.31.202.63... Connected to mirror-r-01.nic.cz. Escape character is '^]'.
The following are the minimum hardware requirements to install and run the Virtual Appliance.
| Component | Requirements |
|---|---|
| Physical RAM | 32 GB |
| Processor | 8-Core |
| Hard disk space | 400 GB is the total disk space required across all partitions. This includes 96 GB for storing and processing logs and 304 GB for the root partitions which store the Netskope software, configuration files, and data files. You must increase the disk capacity depending on the size of the logs that are processed daily. For information on increasing the partition size, see “Increase the Size of the Partition” under Optional Configurations topic on the Knowledge Portal. Note Netskope recommends that you increase the disk capacity by 5 times the expected daily log collection size. |
Appliance Software Version Support
Netskope Appliance software releases are available every 4-months and will have Netskope support up to two previous versions. Direct software upgrades are supported as long as the “from” and “to” software releases are within two versions apart.
Netskope appliance releases are numbered in the form of X.X.X where the Xs represent the major, minor, and build release numbers, respectively. For example, appliance release 93.1.0 and older releases are deprecated when appliance release 103.0.0.338 goes live. Release numbers are not sequential like 101, 102, and 103. Instead, release numbers jump numerically, like 96.0.0, 99.0.0, and 103.0.0.338, to reflect parity with the Netskope Cloud Releases.
The following table provides the upgrade path to the latest software version.
| Current version | Upgrade to version |
|---|---|
| Any version before 96.0.0 | 96.0.0 |
| 96.0.0 | 103.0.0.338 |
| 99.0.0 | 103.0.0.338 |
Releases that are outside the Netskope support period:
- Are not guaranteed to work with the latest cloud releases.
- Are no longer tested by Netskope.
- Do not receive hotfixes.
- Do not receive new feature updates.
At our discretion, we may provide support for releases outside our support period. If a customer encounters an error in a version of software that is other than the latest release, Netskope may require the customer to upgrade to a specified later version to obtain a correction of the error.
For information about end-of-life and end-of-support for appliance releases, refer to EOL/EOS for DPoP r99.
Hash values for Virtual Appliance Installation Files
The following table provides the md5sum and sha256sum values for the Virtual Appliance installer files on VMware ESX, Microsoft Hyper-V, and Linux KVM platforms for version 103.0.0.338.
| File Type | md5sum | sha256sum |
|---|---|---|
| ESX OVA | 39a3615d1540afb5ff28c7e0801c5968 | 56b5756f90a6f175dcfbcc5675885344010c0477ed03017322be32322bcf5a91 |
| Hyper-V Image | 519b1545022cef420e1bb07d6d07aff1 | 7d3e23007a56c09c5a8118da0409ad0c485302fc52781372a11cb804568fd0f8 |
| KVM Image | 2a28a5e0dc51f92d83204934c3f5e2b1 | 3298797d857347e60faaa9071509d216e802429e7dfbfd304339fc97ed92c375 |
EOL/EOS for DPoP r99
Netskope announces the end-of-life and end-of-support dates for DPoP (Data Plane On-Premises) r99 and earlier versions. This announcement does not impact any OPLP, CDPP, or DLP EDM/Fingerprint hashing VA deployment. Please refer to the table below for milestones, definitions, and dates for DPoP R99 and earlier versions:
| Milestone | Definition | Date |
|---|---|---|
| End-of-Life Announcement Date | The date the end-of-sale and end-of-life of a product is announced to the general public. | May 11, 2023 |
| End-of-Life Date | After this date, no urldbz package will be provided to any r99 or earlier release for DPoP appliances. The urldbz package provides the website categorizations service for real-time protection policy match and enforcement for the Netskope Secure Web Gateway (NG SWG). | Nov 15, 2023 |
| End-of-Support Date | The last date to receive applicable service and support for the DPoP r99 and earlier releases. The product becomes obsolete. The old website categorization service will no longer be available for policy enforcement for any appliances running R99 or earlier versions. After this date, all DPoP appliances must upgrade to r103 or newer versions to avoid DP (Data Plane) service degradation. | Jan 14, 2024 |
For more information on upgrading the virtual appliance, go to: /en/upgrade-the-virtual-appliance.html
For the physical appliance software upgrade process, please refer to /en/upgrade-the-appliance-software.html
For the most current information, refer to: End-of-Life/ End-of-Support for DPoP R99 and Earlier Versions on our Support site.
Contact Netskope Support if you have any questions.
EOL for the Secure Forwarder Steering Function
Netskope announces the end-of-life and support for the Secure Forwarder steering function. The Secure Forwarder steering function will not be available on physical and virtual appliances effective October 31, 2023.
Netskope recommends that you migrate to other steering mechanisms that are suitable for your use case as outlined in Netskope’s Traffic Steering documentation. Please contact your Customer Success Manager to discuss your migration plans or for any guidance. We value your feedback and are happy to learn about your migration plan and provide assistance.
For the most current information, refer to: End of Support for Secure Forwarder Steering Function on our Support site.