Changes compared to 23.8.0

Enhancements  

• Updated language translations

Bug Fixes​

• Fixed an issue with the caching layer used by the “Prefer temporary files instead of RAM (slower)” setting using more memory than expected

Changes compared to 23.9.1 

Enhancements​

• Updated language translations
• Improved Comet Server behavior when it fails to start due to license issues. It now starts successfully with limited functionality and displays an error message indicating how to identify the issue
• Added logging of the reason the job started at the beginning of backup job logs
• Added option to aggregate usage by Account Name for Gradient PSA integration
• Added automatic cancellation of running jobs using a Storage Vault when that Storage Vault is deleted
• Improved the appearance of the “About” window in the Comet Server Service Manager

Changes compared to 23.9.0

Bug Fixes ​

• Fixed an issue with Storage Vault configuration if the Object Lock duration was set to zero days
• Fixed a cosmetic issue with displaying the wrong file path syntax for Windows devices when editing a Protected Item in the Comet Server web interface

Changes compared to 23.8.0

New Features ​

• Feature: Added a lobby option to the Comet Backup desktop app installers, allowing for silent installation with fully-remote device authentication via the Devices page in the Comet Server web interface.
• Feature: Updated the name of the Connected Devices page to Devices in the Comet Server web interface and redesigned the page to show all devices.
• Feature: Added bulk actions to the Devices page in the Comet Server web interface.

Enhancements​

• Enhancement: Protected Item types that are not compatible with the device operating system will now be greyed out and disabled in the Comet Server web interface
• Enhancement: Added the ability to mark jobs that are stuck in the running state as abandoned if they are unable to be cancelled in the Comet Server web interface

• Enhancement: Changed clients on Linux platforms to log to stdin/stderr for background services
• Enhancement: Improved the performance of restoring data from backups which contain large amounts of blank data, such as Disk Images

Bug Fixes​

• Fixed an issue with Files and Folders Protected Items being configurable through the Comet Server web interface while restricted by policy

• Fixed an issue with Linux client uninstall jobs remaining in a running state indefinitely, even when the client has finished uninstalling
• Fixed a cosmetic issue with selecting symlinks for backup in the Comet Backup desktop app on macOS and Linux
• Fixed a cosmetic issue with pixelated text in the Comet Backup desktop app on multi-screen setups
• Fixed a cosmetic issue with the ‘Configure’ text being in the wrong location in the Comet Backup desktop app

• Fixed an issue with browsing and restoring one or more files from HyperV backup
• Fixed an issue with the Open Folder button displaying in the Comet Backup desktop app when restoring from an Office 365 backup to a custom cloud location

• Fixed a cosmetic issue with very long usernames and account names in the Comet Server web interface
• Fixed a cosmetic issue during restores in the Comet Server web interface when the ‘Allow administrator to view file names remotely’ user setting is disabled

Breaking Changes​

• User and account names can no longer be created with more than 255 characters

Adrastea is the latest entry in our quarterly rollup series. It branches off from our main rolling Voyager development into a fixed target for our partners to qualify and build upon. 

Like Comet’s previous recent quarterly software releases, Adrastea is named after a moon of Jupiter, which in turn takes its name from an ancient Greek mythological figure. Adrastea is the smallest of Jupiter’s four inner moons and has an irregular shape measuring 20 x 16 x 14 km across. A surface area estimate would be between 840 and 1,600 (~1,200) km².

It was discovered by the Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1979, but owing to its small size and position, almost nothing more could be discovered until the next spacecraft Galileo visited two decades later. Scientists believe it contains water ice.

As for the software, Comet 23.8.0 Adrastea brings 7 new features and 29 enhancements, including a new design for the Comet Backup desktop app, support for single sign-on for Comet Server admin users via OpenID Connect 1.0, significant improvements to restore speeds, and more.

As always for a new quarterly release, there are two changelogs for 23.8.0 Adrastea depending on whether you are coming from the previous quarterly release or the previous Voyager release:

Changes compared to 23.5.3

Notices​

• The “Run when PC Starts” option will now also apply to devices waking up from sleep
• macOS Versions 10.11 and 10.12 are no longer supported. The last releases that can be run on macOS 10.11 and 10.12 are 23.5.3 and 23.6.1
• New, simpler configuration may be required for PKCS11 Authenticode codesigning with a hardware dongle

New Features​

• Redesigned the Comet Backup desktop app

• Added support for using OpenID Connect 1.0 for single sign-on for Comet Server admin users. This allows admin users to authenticate themselves to Comet Server using their existing credentials at an external Identity Provider, such as Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD), Google, or other OIDC providers

• Added the ability to push changes to Protected Items defined in policies to client devices where the policy has already been applied. In previous versions of Comet, once a device was registered for a user changes to that user’s policy would not affect the existing devices; this change allows an admin to push a new policy change even to previously registered devices
• Added support for performing backups to a WebDAV-based Storage Vault
• Added several new admin permissions to allow a global admin to help prevent a tenant admin from seeing the Comet branding or storage provider types in use. The global admin can hide server history and server info widgets on the dashboard, prevent creation of Storage Vaults via Storage Templates or Custom Storage Vaults, and restrict the list of allowed cloud storage providers
• Added an option to use temporary files instead of RAM during a restore
• Added a partial data recovery option to zero over unreadable data chunks during a restore (Comet will not abandon the job when it finds an unreadable chunk)

Enhancements​

• Added Live Browse support for configuring the Application Aware Writer, Hyper-V, or Microsoft Exchange Protected Item types
• Improved performance of starting restore jobs remotely from the Comet Server web interface
• Added tracking of detailed information about the operating system of Comet Backup client devices
• Added support for restoring file creation time metadata on Windows
• Updated the appearance of the quick search results area in the Comet Server web interface
• Added logging of the required BIOS mode to the job log for Disk Image backups and restores
• Improved the entrypoint/startup script for the Comet Server Docker container
• Improved error logging for failures during MSSQL backups and restores
• Added support for searching for user email addresses, device / Protected Item / Storage Vault / job IDs to quick search in the Comet Server web interface
• Changed incremental backups for local file paths to estimate backup size instead of scanning
• Added a caching layer to speed up index lookups when using on-disk indexes. This improves the performance of all jobs which are run with the “Prefer temporary files instead of RAM (slower)” setting enabled
• Added readahead capability to the MySQL and MSSQL restorer. This will improve restore performance when network latency is present
• Removed the glibc requirement for Authenticode codesigning on a Linux ARM64 Comet Server
• Improved Microsoft 365 message batch processing to better handle unexpected network issues
• Improved formatting for Microsoft 365 errors in the job log
• Added “Account Name” as a toggleable field to the Recent Activity page in the Comet Server web interface
• Improved page load performance of the Settings page of the Comet Server web interface for limited-permission admins
• Added support for macOS client notarization using notarytool (Xcode 13 or later) with a fallback to altool if not installed. Note: Apple’s notary service will not accept uploads from altool or Xcode 13 or earlier starting November 1, 2023. See this link for details
• Added the ability to verify if versioning is enabled on the bucket when setting up Object Lock on supported S3-backed Storage Templates
• Improved performance when accessing Storj.io Storage Vaults
• Adding caching of snapshot contents to speed up loading of snapshots, e.g., when using the restore dialog
• Improved the performance of large snapshot lists in the restore dialog of the Comet Backup desktop app
• Improved performance of cleaning up Object Lock delete markers during retention passes for S3-compatible Storage Vaults
• Improved initial startup performance of browsing files to restore from a Disk Image backup

Changes compared to 23.6.12

Enhancements​

• Further improved the new design of the Comet Backup desktop app

Bug Fixes​

• Fixed an issue causing Comet to crash when restoring from a Disk Image backup if the VHDX file was not a directory