AppLogic Release Notes

These are the release notes for AppLogic 2.0.5. Other versions.

Note: This release is the official AppLogic 2.0 beta release; it is suitable for customer deployments

Overview

AppLogic is the first grid operating system that runs and scales existing web applications. It converts a set of commodity servers into a scalable grid that's easy to manage. With AppLogic, you can:

• Deploy existing web applications on a grid without changing any code
• Scale each application from a fraction of a server up to the whole grid
• Manage whole racks of servers easier than a single server today
• Handle hardware failures automatically without losing data
• Add or remove servers and storage without disrupting applications
• Manage all applications, servers and storage with just a browser

AppLogic does not require a SAN or other expensive hardware, and is open and vendor-neutral. It supports Linux and all popular open-source middleware including Apache, MySQL, JBoss and Ruby on Rails, so there is no learning curve.

What's so special about AppLogic?

AppLogic does for web applications what Apache does for web content. By separating the application from the datacenter infrastructure required to run it, AppLogic makes it possible to:

• Deploy the same web application on different grids
• Run multiple different web applications on the same server
• Scale a web application to multiple servers, up to the whole grid
• Manage applications and hardware easily

Just like the web servers made it possible to run web sites without owning a datacenter and servers, AppLogic makes it possible to run and scale web applications without the enormous expense of owning and operating scalable IT infrastructure. With AppLogic, you can host any web application on commodity servers rented on a month-to-month basis from your favorite hosting provider.

What is new in AppLogic 2.0

The AppLogic 2.0 release includes the following key features which were not available in previous releases (AppLogic 1.2 and prior):

• Application Monitoring: Provides visibility in the operation and performance of AppLogic applications. Every appliance within an application can be monitored using the new MON appliance. Simply insert the new MON appliance into your application, connect the appliances to MON and start your application. Appliances are monitored by using the new monitoring GUI accessed by clicking on the monitor button in the main GUI. Appliances are monitored by using visual graphs that display the values of various counters within the appliances. The following counters are examples of what can be monitored for each appliance; please see CatMonitoringMon for the full list of supported counters and AdvCustomCounters for how to define your own custom counters:
  • Key statistics: CPU, memory, scheduler; total/used CPU, total/used/free memory, number of running processes
  • Network statistics: Packets sent and recieved, total bytes sent and recieved
  • Virtual volume statistics: total bytes read/written, completed read/write requests
  • Appliance specific statistics:
    • WEB: number of active requests, number of hits per second
    • MYSQL: number of queries, number of connections
• Support for modern hardware: AppLogic now supports modern SMP-style servers with the following features:
  • Dual CPUs, dual core for each CPU
  • Large physical memory support (>2GB, 8GB has been tested)
  • SMP Linux Appliances: Appliances can have more than 1 CPU and >2GB memory enabling them to take advantage of higher-end hardware
  • Multiple harddisks (spanned using LVM)
• GUI Enhancements: AppLogic contains several new GUI enhancements:
  • Web Shell: The AppLogic GUI now contains a web shell used for accessing the grid controller's AppLogic shell and for accessing individual appliances (through SSH sessions)
    • Grid controller access: the main dashboard page contains a new "Shell login" button used for logging into the grid controller (also accessible through the application editor)
    • Appliance access: right click on an appliance and click on the new "Login" menu item; this will log the user into the appliance (bash shell)
  • Branding: The grid maintainer can now customize various aspects of the AppLogic GUI (see GuiBrandingConfig for customizing your grid GUI):
    • specification of the logo displayed when a user logs into the AppLogic GUI
    • replacement of various links available from the grid dashboard: terms of use and AppLogic help
    • support page customizations: support icons and links
  • Balloon connections: The AppLogic application editor now supports balloon connections. Balloon connections make an application diagram less cluttered by allowing the user to connect terminals without drawing connection lines on the diagram. See the new Lamp application for an example of how balloon connections look on a diagram.
• System catalog update: The system catalog now includes the following new/updated appliances:
  • INSSL: HTTP gateway with SSL support providing a firewalled entry point for network traffic into an AppLogic application
  • WEBx4/WEBx8: Scalable web server appliances for heavy traffic loads
  • MON: Monitor appliance used to collect counters from appliances within an application and displays them using visual graphs integrated into the AppLogic GUI
  • WEB: Added a new net output terminal used for subnet access, added real IP logging plus other minor changes
  • NAS: Added a new nfs input terminal used to access storage using the NFS/3.0 protocol
• New reference applications: AppLogic contains the following new reference applications which makes it easier to port your existing application onto AppLogic:
  • Lamp: Reference of a basic 2-tier non-scalable WEB application, includes the following appliances:
    • WEB for serving web content
    • NET for subnet access from within WEB
    • NAS for web content storage
    • MYSQL for database storage
    • INSSL to provide firewalled access to the web application
    • MON for monitoring the application
  • LampX4: A scalable Lamp application, uses 4 WEB servers with a load balancer (HLB) for heavy traffic load
• Various other new features:
  • Multi-user safe operation: The AppLogic grid is now safe to use by multiple users concurrently. This includes application build/start/stop, volume creation, volume repair, etc.
  • Unmanaged appliance support: An appliance can now be unmanaged; meaning that the appliance may not have/use any AppLogic-specific software such as the virtual machine agent or event generator (VMA/VME). In this case, the unmanaged appliance is started right away (AppLogic does not depend upon VMA/VME for boot and shutdown notifications). Managed appliances are required to use VMA/VME and will not start properly if it is missing or not used. Unmanaged appliances are denoted by using a field engineering code of 4.
  • New volume file system types: AppLogic now supports the following new file system types for AppLogic volumes. When creating a new volume, the user can specify any of these new file system types (for example: "create vol myapp:myvol size=100MB fs=reiserfs"):
    • reiserfs
    • fat32
  • Appliance shutdown timeout: Just like the current appliance boot timeout, now the shutdown timeout can be controlled on a per-appliance or system-wide basis:
    • For each appliance, the shutdown timeout can be configured through the GUI the same way as with the boot timeout (appliance attribute settings)
    • The default system-wide shutdown timeout can be controlled through the /etc/applogic/applogic.conf file on the grid controller (maintainer access is required). The com_shutdown_tout parameter controls the shutdown timeout (specified milliseconds, default is 15 minutes). All appliances use the configured boot/shutdown timeout unless the appliance-specific timeout setting is overridden.
  • Forced appliance shutdown: AppLogic supports a new --force flag for comp stop that is used to force an appliance to stop right away - the appliance is destroyed immediately bypassing the normal appliance shutdown (like a Linux halt -f). This is used in cases where an appliance is hung, stuck or does not respond and may refuse to shutdown. Keep in mind that forcing an appliance to stop may corrupt its file system; this command should be handled with care.
    • Example: stop my-app:comp1 --force
  • Application CPU capping: The amount of CPU that an application uses can be capped by using the new --cap_cpu option when the application is started using app start. This means that each appliance of the application cannot use more than its assigned CPU; for example if an appliance is assigned 30% CPU, then it cannot use more than 30% CPU even if the CPU has available cycles. In contrast, not capping the CPU allows the appliances use as much CPU as available on the server.
    • Example: start my-app --cap_cpu
  • Updated Linux Kernel: AppLogic now uses Linux Kernel 2.6.16.33, adding stability to the system and a wider variety of device support
    • When upgrading from AppLogic 1.2.14+ to AppLogic 2.x, all branched appliances must be updated to use the new Linux kernel or else they will fail to start on AppLogic 2.x. Please see the next section on how to update your branched appliances for AppLogic 2.x.

Hotfixes for AppLogic 2.0

This section describes all of the available hotfixes for the AppLogic 2.0.x release. Make sure that your AppLogic 2.0.x grid is updated with the mandatory hotfixes to ensure a properly working AppLogic grid.

Mandatory Hotfixes

• Hf2192 - Eliminates a vulnerability in AppLogic that allows properly authenticated grid users to obtain grid internal data
• Hf1910 - Patches a potential security hole in AppLogic where it is possible for a logged in user to elevate his rights to maintainer
• Hf1687 - Resolves an issue causing appliances to occasionally fail to boot
• Hf1659 - Resolves an issue in the MON appliance where its data volume may run out of space causing the creation of new views to fail

Optional Hotfixes

• e1720 - Adds one hop application migration to a grid, makes application migration significantly faster

Installation and Upgrade issues for AppLogic 2.0

This section describes various issues related to AppLogic 2.x installation and upgrades. Carefully read and follow the instructions for each issue to ensure a properly working AppLogic 2.x grid.

• AppLogic 2.0.5 uses a newer Linux kernel version 2.6.16.33 (same as AppLogic 2.0.2) - When importing applications from AppLogic 1.2.14c to AppLogic 2.0.5, all branched appliances must be updated to use this new kernel (with related modules) as well as newer versions of VMA/VME (AppLogic's virtual machine agent and event generator). The AppLogic 2.0.5 release provides a script that automates the process of updating all branched appliances on a grid with the latest Linux kernel, modules and AppLogic binaries. In addition, the script updates your applications to use the updated WEB and NAS appliances. Please follow the steps below in order to update your grid after importing all of your applications:
  • From within your AppLogic 2.0.5 distro (must be a maintainer), execute the following:
    • ./upgrade_apps.sh controller-IP vmlinuz-2.6.16.33-xenU [--force]
    • Be sure to specify the correct controller IP address
  • By default, the script will prompt you to confirm all changes to the appliances on your grid. To surpress the prompting, use the --force option.
  • After the script has completed, your new grid is ready for use.

• Defect SCR 1553 - After upgrade or new install, email notification settings may not be correct : After completing an upgrade or new install, the email notification settings may not be correctly configured and the user may see a warning displayed on the dashboard. After the install/upgrade is complete, use ALD to set all of the email notification settings for your grid. It is recommended to reset all of the email notifications to be sure that it is configured properly. Please see Email Notification Parameters for how to configure the email notification settings using ALD.

What is new in AppLogic 2.0.5

This is an update to the official AppLogic 2.0 beta release. It is identical to AppLogic 2.0.2 except it has been updated to use CentOS 4.4. It is intended only for preferred partners. This release is suitable for customer deployments.

AppLogic 2.0.5 does not support grid upgrades - only new grid installations. Please see the installation section of these release notes on how to re-install your grid.

What's Included

This release of the AppLogic grid operating system includes the following key components.

Distributed Kernel

The AppLogic distributed kernel provides a set of system services required to support the distributed infrastructure and application model of AppLogic. The four most important system services include:

• Global volume store: a scalable, distributed volume store using the built-in hard disks of the grid servers. The volume store keeps volumes mirrored across two or more servers, ensuring high availability and improved read performance. The hierarchical volume space is structured along applications and catalogs, so volumes become integral part of those entities.
• Distributed virtual machine manager: a runtime component that virtualizes the hardware resources used by applications.
• Logical connection manager: a runtime component that provides the virtual network bindings between components of an application without the need to configure any IP addresses and network settings for distributed applications
• Application scheduler: a runtime component that selects and assigns hardware resources to applications, based on available grid resources, application constraints and user-provided configuration

Grid Dashboard

The grid dashboard provides:

• At-a-glance summary of the grid state, including resource use, server states, messages, settings, etc.
• List of currently installed applications, with the ability to create new apps, copy existing apps, etc.
• Support page with important links to user documentation, bug tracking database, forums, etc.

Application Configurator

The application configurator is a control panel for configuring application parameters: setting their hardware resources, network resources, tuning and other parameters. It is a single property sheet that includes all configurable parameters.

The application configurator can also be accessed through the command line shell or scripts using the app configure command.

Infrastructure Editor

The infrastructure editor is a visual tool that makes it easy to create, assemble and troubleshoot disposable infrastructure for AppLogic applications.

The user interface of the editor is highly interactive and is modeled after popular drawing programs: you assemble infrastructure by dragging components onto the canvass, wiring them together and configuring each component using a property sheet.

Command Line Shell

The command line shell gives you control of all aspects of an AppLogic grid. The shell runs on the AppLogic controller and can be accessed over SSH using any suitable SSH client package.

The shell commands are designed with the following objectives in mind:

• make the shell easy to use by human users
• provide simple means for scripting automation

All commands have a "batch" form of their output that makes it easy to parse programmatically, while the command's default output is structured for convenient interactive operation.

Application Infrastructure Build System

The infrastructure build system compiles the application infrastructure, producing a single entity for the application. It verifies resource and configuration constraints for each appliance and for the application as a whole, builds instance images and enforces the integrity of the application infrastructure. The infrastructure linker binds the application instance to the grid hardware resources just in time for application start, producing a ready-to-run application from the portable application format.

The infrastructure build system is automatically invoked when starting applications and is transparent for the grid operator.

Application Monitoring System

See RefMon for details.

System Catalog

The system catalog contains 13 appliance classes, ready to use in applications.

• WEB: Apache-based web server with plug-in content/scipts volume
• WEBx4, WEBx8: Scalable web servers
• MYSQL: MySQL-based database server
• HLB: Session-aware http load balancer
• NAS: Network attached storage / file server appliance (http and cifs file access)
• INSSL, IN, OUT, NET: Firewalled network gateways based on iptables
• LUX, LINUX: A tiny and a minimal Linux appliances that can be used as basis for new appliances
• MON: Application Monitor used to monitor running applications (collects and displays counters using visual graphs)

The system catalog is a global catalog, containing appliance classes that can be used by all applications on the grid. You can see the full documentation for each appliance in the catalog reference. The system catalog is read-only for AppLogic users and can be changed only by the grid maintainer.

AppLogic also includes an empty global catalog called the user catalog, for your own production-level appliances.

AppLogic also includes a proto global catalog for prototyping new appliances. Each AppLogic release may provide new appliances in this catalog.

The user and proto catalogs are freely modifiable by AppLogic users.

Sample Applications

The AppLogic release also includes the following 6 sample applications:

• TWiki: web-based collaboration platform
• SugarCRM: customer relationship management system
• GSC: grid server
• Lamp: basic 2-tier non-scalable WEB application
• LampX4: scalable Lamp
• LampCluster: scalable Lamp cluster
  • This application is not installed by default on grid install/upgrade. It is available for download in the extras download section on the 3tera download server.
  • rsync -v --progress applogic@download.3tera.net:/home/applogic/extras/LampCluster/* /root/applogic-2.0.5/

The applications are ready to run, requiring only network settings to be configured. You can find details on each application in the Sample Applications reference.

Note: The cPanel reference application is no longer distributed with AppLogic.

AppLogic Grid Distribution System

The AppLogic Grid Distribution System (aldo) installs and configures the AppLogic grid operating system, the appliance catalogs and sample applications.

Aldo easily installs multiple grids from a single distribution server. It can also add and remove servers from existing grids, change grid configuration and upgrade AppLogic. In addition, aldo can "clean" servers, removing AppLogic and any user data stored on AppLogic volumes.

For more information on aldo, see Aldo Reference and Aldo Tutorial.

Installation

Pre-requisites

To install AppLogic, you need a set of servers (1-32) connected with a gigabit Ethernet network and a designated distribution server. See HardwareConfig, AldTutorial and RefAldSetup for more information.

Please read at least AldTutorial before choosing and setting up your servers and resources. Not reading or not following this document will likely result in a trial-and-error process which can be long and expensive. We want to make sure your installation is successful from the first time - please contact Technical Support if any of the requirements is unclear.

In addition, you will need an ssh keypair to be used to authenticate the grid maintainer. The public key must also be provided to 3tera, so that you can gain access to the 3tera download server. Please e-mail your public key to 3tera Technical Support

We support - but do not require - PGP signatures. If you sign your ssh public key (or the e-mail with which you sent it), we will verify your signature before installing the key.

For more information on ssh keys, please see the man page on ssh-keygen or the Appendix in RefAldSetup.

Downloading the release

As user root from your chosen distribution server, run the following command:

rsync -v --progress beta@download.3tera.net:/home/beta/2.0.5/* /root/applogic-2.0.5/

Make sure you are running ssh agent with the key that you provided to 3tera for downloads. If you don't have a key or would like to use a different key, please contact Technical Support.

Installing a grid

AppLogic 2.0.5 does not support grid upgrades - only new grid installations (due to the new CentOS 4.4 support). Follow these steps in order to install your AppLogic 2.0.5 grid:

• If you are installing AppLogic 2.0.5 over an older grid (you will need to do this if you need to upgrade an existing grid to AppLogic 2.0.5):
  • Export your custom applications and catalogs onto a separate server that is not part of your current grid.
  • Uninstall your current grid using Ald.
• If installing AppLogic 2.0.5 for the first time on new servers:
  • Make sure your servers have a version of CentOS installed on them; either 4.3, 4.4 or 5 (minimal or full).
• On your distro server, install and run the AppLogic OS installer on each server that is going to be part of your new AppLogic 2.0.5 grid. See the AppLogic OS Installer documentation for details on how to do this. The OS installer is available for download in the extras download section on the 3tera download server.
  • rsync -v --progress applogic@download.3tera.net:/home/applogic/extras/svp/* /root/svp/
  • This will download the ald-svprep-x.y.tar.bz2 file. Uncompress the file (tar -xjf ald-svprep-x.y.tar.bz2) and then follow the OS installer documentation and re-install the OS on all servers.
• Install AppLogic 2.0.5 on your servers using Ald as you normally would.
• After the installation is complete, you can now import your custom applications and catalogs onto your grid.
• After importing your custom applications and catalogs, from within your AppLogic 2.0.5 distro (you must be a maintainer), execute the following:
  • • ./upgrade_apps.sh controller-IP vmlinuz-2.6.16.33-xenU [--force]
      • This script will automatically port your applications and appliances so that they can be used on AppLogic 2.0.5
      • Be sure to specify the correct controller IP address
    • By default, the script will prompt you to confirm all changes to the appliances on your grid. To surpress the prompting, use the --force option.
• Your new AppLogic 2.0.5 grid is ready for use.

See AldTutorial for a quick step-by-step guide to installing a grid in its default configuration. See RefAldSetup for details on the various options available when setting up a grid (e.g., installing your logo, setting up defaults for installing multiple grids, etc.).

Product Characteristics

Dimensions

Key System Dimensions

• 96 servers per grid (3tera has tested only up to 12 servers)
• 31 grids per back-end LAN
• 1024 applications per grid, up to 128 applications running simultaneously
• If you need different dimensions, give us a call

Other Dimensional Limits

• Per application
  • 512 network interfaces per application

• Per appliance
  • 8GB RAM
  • 4 CPU (400%)
  • 2000 Mbps bandwidth
  • 12 volumes
  • 15 network interfaces/terminals (including external and default interfaces)
  • 1 external network interface
  • 1 default network interface

• Per server
  • 255 virtual volumes (counting each mirror as a separate virtual volume)
  • 255 shares (counting each mirror as a separate share)
  • 128 mounts (counting each mirror mounted as a separate mount; i.e., 64 if mirroring by two)
  • 40 appliances (AppLogic internal limit)

• Per virtual volume
  • volumes larger than 4 GB are supported (430GB volume tested)

• If you need different dimensions, give us a call

Hardware Compatibility

• Single CPU, Multi-CPU (SMP). dual core
  • Certified: Pentium P4, Intel Xeon, AMD Opteron, AMD Athlon64
  • Supported: Intel Pentium P4 or better; AMD Athlon or better
  • Note: Intel hyperthreading is automatically disabled by AppLogic and is not used

• Minimum 512 MB RAM (2 or 4 GB recommended, 8GB tested)

• 80 GB IDE/SATA HDD (120 GB or larger SATA drive recommended)
• HDD controllers
  • Certified:
    • Intel Corp. 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R)
    • Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 5513
    • Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] AMD-8111 IDE
  • Supported: all IDE, SATA and SCSI devices supported by CentOS 4.4 (excl. Adaptec AHA-15xx). Details.

• Dual Gigabit Ethernet adapter (Intel or Broadcomm recommended)
  • Certified:
    • Intel Corp. 82541GI/PI Gigabit Ethernet Controller
    • Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5704 Gigabit Ethernet
    • Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (as external 10/100 NICs)
  • Supported: all Gigabit Ethernet network adapters supported by CentOS 4.4. Details.

• Any single non-blocking gigabit Ethernet layer 2 switch (for private network; all ports must be on the same switch, no cascading)

• If you have different network or storage devices, give us a call

Software Compatibility

• Server
  • CentOS 4.4, 32-bit

• Appliances
  • 32-bit Linux OS
  • Kernel 2.6.16 with Xen 3.0.4 support (included in AppLogic installation)
  • Tested: Fedora Core 3, CentOS 4.3
  • Supported: all 32-bit RedHat-compatible Linux distros with Xen support, CentOS 4.3/4.4, Debian, and SuSE

• Appliance volumes
  • File systems supported: ext2, ext3, reiserfs, fat32
  • Swap volumes are supported and optional for appliances
  • Integration services for other file systems are available

• If you are interested in other Linux distros, file systems and software infrastructure, give us a call.

Important Notes

1. Shell access requires ssh and uses public/private key authentication. For increased security, password-based logins are not supported except during grid installation. It is recommended to use the new web shell provided with the AppLogic GUI.
2. When accesssing the grid over ssh, the login user name is always root, regardless of the AppLogic user name. For the purpose of ssh logins, users and their roles are uniquely identified by their public ssh keys.
3. Web browser's Javascript and pop-ups must be enabled to use the web-based graphical user interface (dashboard, editor, documentation)
4. Users are responsible for allocating, assigning and use of externally visible IP addresses for applications; AppLogic takes care of all internal network assignments
5. While the AppLogic distribution system sets up all grid servers and controllers with carefully pre-configured firewalls and disables unnecessary network services, users and maintainers are encouraged to verify the security settings of their systems.
6. Network performance between servers on the private network used for volume and inter-appliance communication is measured to approximately 900 Mbps. The TCP network performance measured between appliances residing on different servers is measured as 720 Mbps.
7. Resource limits on appliance hardware resources are enforced differently for different types of resources (CPU, memory, bandwidth). CPU is "no less than", memory is "exactly that much" (includes VM overhead), bandwidth is enforced only to the degree of not scheduling components requiring more bandwidth than available (at appliance start time).
8. Grids in which linear scalability of performance is important should be built using servers that are as uniform as possible in CPU type/speed, memory size and disk capacity. AppLogic will work correctly in grids assembled from servers with different amounts of hardware resources; however, on such grids you may experience sub-linear performance.

Known Problems and Limitations

Limitations

1. Grid size is limited to 96 servers per grid

This is a limitation of the current AppLogic release. This release has only been tested with 12 servers.

2. AppLogic's web based user interface requires Firefox 1.5 or Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.x browser to operate

Javascript, pop-ups and cookies should be enabled for the grid controller's host for proper operation of the user interface. Please use the latest available bugfix versions of these browsers, as they correct a number of browser defects needed for AJAX applications. Firefox 1.0 browsers are also supported, with some minor known problems (printing and image caching).

3. The private network Ethernet switch is a single point of failure in the grid

If the Ethernet switch dies or loses power, the grid will stop operating and will need to be restarted after the switch is restored to operation or replaced.

4. Protocols are not enforced on appliance terminals, only endpoints are enforced

This means that an appliance can only talk to appliances connected to it (plus its own server and the grid controller). Nevertheless, protocols on new appliances should be properly specified in order to ensure application design integrity and compatibility with future versions of AppLogic.

5. The total available disk space does not take volume mirroring into account

The total available disk space reported by the grid info command is a raw estimate and does not take volume mirroring into account. The true available disk space is the reported available amount divided by the number of mirrors (2 mirrors by default). For example, if there is 1000GB of available disk space and the grid was configured for mirroring of 2, the available disk space is 500GB. Also, in order to successfully mirror volumes, there must be enough disk space on at least X servers where X is the number of mirrors (AppLogic will not fail to create a volume if any one of its mirrors cannot be created, it will display a warning that the volume could not be mirrored).

6. A server failure during application start may cause the application start to fail

If an application is started and one of the grid's servers fails, the application start will fail if one or more of the application's appliances were scheduled to run on the failed server. If this situation occurs, simply restart the application.

Contact Information

For questions about this release and its operation, please contact Technical Support:

Self-help Resources

• http://doc.3tera.net -- AppLogic product documentation
• http://support.3tera.net -- AppLogic discussion and support forum
• http://www.3tera.com/grid_university.html -- Grid University: free interactive and recorded training sessions

These links are also accessible through the Support Tab of your grid dashboard.

3Tera Partner Resources

3Tera partners and direct licensees can also obtain contract-based support and additional information resources.

On-line

• http://wiki.3tera.net -- 3Tera partners wiki
• https://helpdesk.3tera.com -- 3Tera partners support portal
• http://bugs.3tera.net -- AppLogic change tracking system

Live Support

• e-mai: support@3tera.com
• phone: (888) 492-4738
• fax: (949) 305-0160, ATTN: Technical Support

Support hours are Monday through Friday, 9:00am to 6:00pm Pacific Time (GMT-0800). We may be able to respond outside these hours. Please mark urgent messages as such.

When calling the emergency phone support, please e-mail to support first -- this will ensure that all support engineers will have access to your information. Keep in mind that the phone support rings several engineers in sequence; don't hang up while it is ringing.

Interactive Sessions

We can set up interactive help sessions using WebEx. To reach our WebEx site, go to http://3tera.webex.com/. You should also receive from us a meeting number to set up a successful session.

We have verified access with the following browsers/OS combinations:

• Windows XP: MS Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox
• Linux: Mozilla Firefox with Java plug-in

WebEx sessions require Java or ActiveX to work. For more information on system requirements and to test whether your browser can access WebEx, go to http://developers.webex.com/api/jointest/index.php.