We are providing this statement to our customers who would like to know the status of SNS products before upgrading a workstation to macOS High Sierra, which was officially released on September 25, 2017.
Prior to upgrading, you should also verify that your other (i.e. non-SNS) software and hardware products are compatible with this new OS from Apple. (But then, if you're reading this statement you probably already know this, and you know that a backup is also recommended!!)
The following product statements cover whether or not something major is affected simply by the process of upgrading to High Sierra.
Important note regarding all SNS software in High Sierra
macOS High Sierra introduces a new security feature that requires user approval before loading new third-party kernel extensions. You must allow these signed kernel extensions to be used (Security & Privacy System Preferences Pane) for the SNS software you've installed. If you don't allow kernel extensions you can expect to see warning or error messages such as:
- System extension blocked
- The incorrect version of SANmp components are installed.
- System software from developer "Studio Network Solutions" was blocked from loading. (This will only be present in the Security & Privacy preferences pane for 30 minutes after a blocked load attempt.)
More information about this change can be found in Apple's Technical Note TN2459.
August 1 update: We have confirmed an issue as of High Sierra Public Beta 3/Developer Beta 4 (build 17a315i): Certain KEXTs may not load even after being enabled. This issue has also been reported by developers other than SNS, and it is unclear if this symptom is a bug that may be corrected in a future build of High Sierra, or if this will require changes to macOS applications to work properly in High Sierra. A workaround is to disable SIP.
August 8 update: macOS High Sierra 10.13 Developer Beta 5 (17A330h) does not exhibit the problem noted in the August 1 update (above). The KEXT loads successfully once allowed in Preferences, so it appears that the problem noted in the August 1 update was an anomaly in Developer Beta 4 (Public Beta 3).
SANmp and iSANmp
Before upgrading to High Sierra (or installing SANmp on a new High Sierra installation), you should unmount SAN volumes and physically disconnect your computer from the SAN, then install/allow kernel extensions (see important note above) before re-connecting to the SAN. v.4.3.0.311 -- no issues to report with various developer releases from Apple. APFS volumes are not supported as SANmp volumes.
globalSAN iSCSI Initiator
v.5.3.1.555 -- no issues to report with various developer releases from Apple.
Xtarget
v.5.3.1.555 -- Some USB storage may go offline when used as a target. Use of USB-connected media as an iSCSI target is not currently supported in High Sierra.
EVO Mount Utility
This application was shipped with some EVO v.4.x systems; it is now obsolete and superseded by ShareBrowser. This utility is no longer supported.
ShareBrowser Desktop Client
v.4.4.x -- No significant issues found with HFS+ and APFS volumes during basic tests.
However, we expect there will be carryover with certain known issues that are present in El Capitan regarding SIP. Please see our El Capitan announcement for more information.
EVO Shared Media Storage System
There are many different methods to connect a workstation to EVO, and some of these methods, such as Fibre Channel and 10GbE, may require a third-party piece of hardware or software. Also, upgrading has the ability to affect Ethernet and/or Fibre Channel performance of your workstation. Therefore...
- Backup your macOS system before upgrading!
- Review the list above to check the status of other SNS products you may be using with your EVO.
- If you are connecting directly from your workstation's built-in GbE port, then basic connectivity can be expected.
- If you are using any other NIC, Fibre Channel HBA, iSCSI initiator, or Thunderbolt adapter or chassis, specific video drivers or capture cards, etc., please confirm with the manufacturer of that product to verify compliance with those products.
- If you are using any business-critical application (which is 99.9% of EVO customers!) or similarly-critical drivers, please confirm with the manufacturer of that product to verify that their products are compliant with Apple's newest operating system.