PA File Sight Change History

Updates in 2013

5.1.1.24 * Fix for non-Latin characters in some reports
* Fix for Support & Maintenance not being honored when copied via Copy Computer Configuration
* Charts show up for reports when HTTPS is turned off (to just HTTP)
* Properly escaping some text in the All Servers report
* Fix for embedded Python crash, also upgraded Python to 3.2.4
* Shows 127.0.0.1 for access coming from local machine
5.1.0.119 * User IP - track the user's IP address and computer name when they access a file
* Access Control - control who gets to see what
* Fail Over - setup a second Central Service to act as a hot standby with automatic failover (Ultra only)
* Chromium-based browser in the Console
* Added new Action List
* Putting local computer name into CommonName (CN) field of certificate instead of "{app} on {server}"
* Console tries to detect and warn about SSL certificate-hostname mismatch errors
* Updated to ExtJS 4.1.1
* Setting to disable password export functionality when exporting configurations
* Automatically adds server's hostnames to generated SSL certificate
* Added missing index for MS SQL Server users
4.2.2.107 * New HTML5-based charts (instead of Flash-based)
* Fix to Syslog Facilities (now correctly Local0 to Local7)
* More feedback during database upgrades
* Fix for aliases containing single quote
* Quicker database updates during upgrades
* Better Satellite Down alert title
* New ADD_GROUP and DELETE_GROUP External API calls
* Individual file activity can be reported separately (via email, Syslog, SNMP Trap, etc)
* Fixed Direct Send test button
* Object Finder (in Bulk Config, etc) better shows selected nodes
* Can start and end maintenance for a group by right-clicking the group
* Configuration to turn off links in emailed reports
* Mailed reports and PDFs default to not having links
* Better diagnostic messages for SSL certificate errors
* Added CallURL and SNMP Trap actions
* PALowPriorityHelper will wait longer for active requests
* Better clean up of file name structures in driver (\Device\Afd from WinHTTP)
* Network connection logging
* Fixed socket leak in Tunnel
* Added ability to alert when a user deletes X files in Y time
* Added HttpOnly to session cookies
* Fix for Satellites resending data to Central Monitoring Service
* Avoiding duplicate database key problem
* Very large CSV reports generate quicker
* Backup service:port switching enhanced
* Fix for reports that filter on owning computer

Updates in 2012

4.2.1.44 * Optimizations to monitor much heavier loads with less CPU and buffer usage
* Increased default buffer sizes to further increase handled load levels
* SQL Native Client can be optionally installed during Easy Deploy
* Weak SSL encryption ciphers disabled by default
* Better chance for driver upgrade to succeed on 64-bit Windows
* Increased monitoring efficiency
* Console's embedded browser will use latest installed IE version
* Satellites initialization delayed a few seconds for server to settle down
* Analysis and reporting of heaviest processes and files when File Sight buffers fill
* Satellites will only ever clean up their own data in the database
* Better ignore list handling
* Ignored Users and Programs show at top of lists
* File Sight has new 'Max expected records per day' threshold to help validate config
* File Sight Central Service will do deletions based on database server time
* Menu tabs removed from group reports when creating PDF
* Process names collected for Satellites forwarding data
* Upgrade is skipped for Satellites if version already matches Central Service
* Better SSL error handling in embedded browser
* View-only sessions can't acknowledge errors
* Write to Log File action will create folder if needed
* Fix to ErrorHistory - trims alert text to fit if needed
* Satellite IP addresses not shown to non-administrators
* Disabled embedded browser's clicking sound when pages refresh
* Added 'Computers: Upgrade Monitoring Satellite' Bulk Config option
* Escaping XML server list in the External API
* If server changes name, or report host settings change, SSL certificate will be regenerated automatically with new names * SSL certificate will regenerate if server name or report URL changes
* New Configuration Audit report
* Fix to Network Message action
* Logging for mismatched SSL certs
* Can set local hostname for Console to use
* Reduced CPU usage when running reports, and they're faster :)
* Database connection problems will be alerted in the service earlier
* File system rights issues will be alerted on
* Console's embedded IE will treat monitor site as Trusted Site
* Fix to Syslog Sender action
4.1.3.19 * Much better performance (doesn't fall behind under heavy load)
* Fix to process name retrieval (was showing DLL names)
4.1.3.6 * Satellite database settings can be set via Bulk Config
* Any records that can't be recorded (database down, etc) are written to a disk queue rather than held in memory
* All Satellites Summary report shows database settings and Run As account
* Server status acknowledgement setting can be changed without restart
* Can set MaxRecords on Satellites via Bulk Config
* Upgraded IPWorks for SMTP extra line fix
* Decreased PDF generation delay
* Set Server Maintenance Bulk Config operation can append or overwrite
* Satellites refresh their config after the central service restarts
* SNMP Trap action now supports version and community string values
* 'sticky' group report type menu
* Moved to EXTJS v4.0.7 from v2
* Simplified report CSS
* Embedded IE control will use best of IE 8 or IE 9 rendering
* File Sight is better at capturing process name for very short-lived processes
* File Sight script will report 'File' or 'Directory' in the script variable
* When HTTP starts for first time, default port will change to a free port if needed
* UTF-8 used instead of ASCII for some internal requests
* Better logging for Easy Deploy
4.1.1.62 * Syslog sender action added
* Imports additional credentials from a saved server config
* Can lock central service and Satellite services from being stopped
* Satellite configuration app can have a password assigned like Console
* Change to help with monitoring mounted drives
* Improved LDAP group navigation
* Satellite registration database regularly backed up with configuration database
* Fix for extremely rare name leak in File Sight filter
* SMS (SMPP) action can set the Sender Address field
* Copy and Paste monitors
* Fix for Custom Data Set report with multiple selections
* New groups default to parent group's report settings
4.1.0.10 * New easier to scan alert format
* Case insensitive process ignores
* Performance boost in the embedded HTTP server
* CallURL action added
* File Sight can fallback to local storage if MS SQL Server is down
* Fix for Reboot action that wasn't getting run

Updates in 2011

4.0.8.168 * Support for centralized management of Satellite monitored servers
* Remote Console support
* Password protected reports
3.9.1.89 * High CPU usage caused by DRIVER_CONDITION_VOLUMES_MOUNTED floods mitigated
* Database retries will not be attempted if failure is not connection related
3.9.1.72 * Improved robustness when using MS SQL Server, and the database is unavailable
3.9.1.62 * Failures as well as successes can now be reported on
* Fix for extremely rare startup crash
* Fix for regression issue that caused File Sight to not load on Windows 2000
* Fix to HTTP server that could crash on specific malformed input
* File Sight will consider truncating a file to 0 bytes as a write
* Better email MIME headers
* Increased NamedGlobalMap slots
* More reliable PDF creation
* Number formatting uses system settings
* Added Tab Separated Values (.txt) report display type
* Decreased volume queries for servers that repeatedly report volume mounts
* Added /COMPLETEIMPORT command line
* Fixed regression bug that kept directory reads from being reported on

Updates in 2010

3.9.0.50 * Fix for extremely rare crash where the monitoring service runs out of memory
* Scheduled reports and server maintenance can be 'daily' scheduled starting on the current day
* Removed unused print CSS
* Fix to memory leak if using SSL and many invalid SSL connections are made
* Change to Interpret Application Behavior -- will ignore CREATE/DELETE if no data is written in between (often happens BEFORE a save)
* Selectable text in the report grids
* Fix for resource leak introduced in 3.9.0.13
* Moved to OpenSSL 1.0.0a
* Silenced browser error dialogs
* Diagnostics for ActiveSync interop issue
* SSL change to better support Firefox
* Added OpenSSL configuration options, and changed a default
* Improvements to embedded HTTPS server
* Fix for rare loss of logging when ignoring processes from several monitors
3.8.0.66 * Busiest process reporter counts reads and writes, not just opens
* DTMF dialer handles longer lists of requests
* Extensive logging for emailing of reports
* Failed Fast I/O followed by successful IRP requests are not marked as failed
* Multiple copies of a report sent at the same instant will retain the PDF
* Handle renamed computer by automatically renaming configuration
* Report date/time range selection keeps 24-hour time format
* File Sight will report bad/missing SIDs from the driver
* Fix to PDF generation for PDFs that should be archived as well as emailed
* File Sight supports monitoring removable (USB) drives
* Fix for rare Console crash
* HTTP_Max_Serve setting is honored to enable serving large files (often CSV reports)
3.7.8.56 * Driver will coalesce more read/write requests to cut down on buffer usage
* Ignoring some activity at the driver level to further reduce buffer usage
* Added a warning about IE 6
* Fix to rare web server startup race condition
* File exclusions apply to the destination of a rename
* DisableOldFNLookup set for PA File Sight by default
* Report index page wasn't showing reports
* All seen processes are added to the selectable Ignore Process list
* Internal HTTP server handles incoming UTF-8 requests (for Chinese .CSV support)
* Cap on max HTML report size to keep from running out of memory (File Sight status reports can potentially get very large)
* Fix to File Sight's "Consider 'moves' to the Recycle Bin as deletes"
* Fix for reports that can't be re-created after having been cleaned up
* Log levels can be changed dynamically, without restarting the service
3.7.7.20 * Fewer driver buffers needed for specific scenarios
* Fix for case where rename/moves that are reported as deletes
* Upgraded PDF creation component
* Added StatusText variable
* Additional logging
3.7.6.33 * Registry setting to hide Hourly Alert Rate chart
* Extra PDF generation logging
* .CSV attached to report emails
* Some internal settings incorrectly being cached
* Less CPU usage
* HTML email sender will send if EITHER a PDF or report image file exists
* Fix to drive mapping for systems with large numbers of drives
* Fix to Direct Send (e-mail action) on MX lookup error

Updates in 2009

3.7.5.40 * HTTP header changes for .pdf (for help with loading PDF when using SSL)
* Email message prioritization (important for shutdown alerts)
* If File Sight's buffers are overwhelmed, it will report on the probable process
* Images show up better in generated PDF reports
* Date/time selection fix when choosing a time within past 24 hours
* Change to fix rare Console shutdown error
* Changed to SWFObject 2.2 for better Flash compatibility
3.7.4.31 * "Fix" hint added to driver error message
* Extra logging for the SMS action
* Less registry usage
* Default MaxRecords for File Sight driver set to 20000
* Internal driver changes to make fewer system calls
* Moved to SQLite 3.6.19
* Direct email sending added to E-mail action GUI
* Installer correctly updating product's .NET-based components
* Database memory limits added
* Properly suppressing actions when a monitor can't run or in error state
* PDF report generation working with SSL self-signed certificates
* Security Alert for affected monitoring working again
3.7.3.30 * Report generation uses a bit less CPU
* MaxRecords value isn't overwritten on reinstall/upgrade
* Added memory to System Details portion of server status report
* Decreasing lock contention
* Minor update to the report's data set selection UI
* Added /COMPRESS_DATABASES option to Console (does SQLite VACUUM)
* Optimized email sending, so shutdown alert works again
3.7.2.10 * Added GUI setting for no-overwrite-reports for Scheduled Reports
* Fix to crash involving Security Alert changes
* Fix to race condition-based crash in Server Status report creation
* Increase Server Status Report fluidity
* Directory creation detected in File Sight
* Added Acknowledge 'All for Computer/Device' and 'All Shown Above' buttons on the Server Status Report for Error Auditing
3.7.1.15 * Large table report redirector page working
* A few more usability hints
3.7.1.6 * Added Microsoft Office temp files to default ignore list
* Computer Notes now shown on Server Status report
* Reports available in PDF
* Run Now on scheduled reports sends emails if so configured
* All mailed reports now have a PDF attachment
* Scheduled reports can have a PDF version stored in an archive directory automatically
* Setting report time frame parameters is easy with new @ notation
* File Sight driver uses significantly less memory, which further reduces the monitoring load
* Basic File Sight status charts added
* Added NTLM authentication support (for Exchange) to Email Action
* Updated reports to look better in all browsers
* Upgraded to latest SQLite version
* File Sight can flag Recycle Bin moves as deletes
* Device name logging
* Added support for mounted SAN drives, mount points, etc
* SSL supported for web-based reports (see Settings -> HTTP Settings)
* Server Status report supports error acknowledgement to help with IT workflows
* Fix to server going into maintenance mode if a maintenance plan exists when the service starts
* Server status report generates and displays much faster
* Account SID shown if it can't be mapped to a username
* Optional additional I/O stat logging
* Fixed a rare crash in Interpret Application Behavior
* Warning if System or Network is ignored (miss all activity on shares)
3.6.6.5 * Important security update for the embedded HTTP server (found out about problem on May 5th, fixed on 6th, confirmation of fix on 7th, deployed on 8th)
* File Sight can track files that were opened before it started (that are still open)
* Setup can install silently (using the /SILENT switch)
* Removed duplicate Create notifications
* Checksum algorithm to prevent duplicate entries in the database within a very short time was sometimes failing
3.6.1.24 * File Sight dataset Changes By User will handle no users being selected
* Scheduled reports auto-refresh (in browser) on their refresh cycle
* Fix to File Sight read structs to coalesce on the fly if possible (better performance)
* Fix to Browser pane to stop showing 'Action Cancelled', and also much better Back functionality
* Added Sleep method to Execute Script action
* Mailed reports will have a clickable link above the report graphic
* New consistent finder UI
* New Calculated Status monitor
* Fix for occasional red X in emailed reports
* File Sight will count unique filenames when calculating number of files read/written by a user
* Additional logging, and more error messages have user hints
3.6.0.76 * CSS fix for IE 6 and ExtJS 2.2 grid headers
* Fixed a memory leak in the Console GUI
* File Sight User Activity Tracker says how long it took the user to surpass the limit
* Settings can now turn default training on and off
* Database transfer to MS SQL fix
* Date columns in reports now sortable in all locales
* Multiple datasets on the same sortable table report supported
* Upgrade the old default buffer size of 50K to new default of 100K

Updates in 2008

3.6.0.48 * Server status report will now show mount points
* Status report refreshes as soon as clicked
* Fix to handle old 3.4 licenses
* Fix when Lite license is used
* Event Log notification can specify the source, event ID and category
* Monitor nodes show last run time
* Improved Startup Wizard
3.6.0.26 * 64 bit operating system support added
* User summarized activity alerts (ex: read more than X files in Y minutes)
* Microsoft SQL Server supported as a backend in addition to the current embedded SQLite database
* More attractive reports, with customizable report templates and CSS
* Better performance, less memory and CPU usage, increased stability with various .NET versions
* Using Microsoft's latest driver technology
* Report creation is more efficient
* Sortable report tables
* Moved to SQLite 3.6.4
3.4.10.35 * Improved support for UTF-8 report emails

Updates in 2007

3.4.10.14 * Message Box action now works on Vista, and in Terminal Services windows as well
* Message Box action uses configurable message text
* localhost used for Run Now command rather than computer name
* Write to Log File action has configurable max size
3.4.10.4 * Minor resource leak in the Console has been fixed
* Report templates can be customized
* Emailed status reports with embedded report graphs show correct graphs
* PA File Sight database recording defaults to true
* WinHTTP client auto-detects more proxy information from IE settings and handles proxy authentication
* Increased SQLite page size for better I/O efficiency
* Deleting orphaned SQLite master journal files
* Email throughput optimization
* Ability to remove HREFs in emailed HTML status reports
3.4.9.15 * Importing configuration for a server whose name contains the name of the source server works better
* Phone Dialer (DTMF/SMS) action will force $Details$ to be a single line of text
* Emailing reports works with UTF-8 report files
3.4.9.5 * Added additional logging for report generation
* Change to try and make WMI let go of our DLL on shutdown
* Fixed a repaint problem in read-only text boxes
* UTF-8 used for HTML reports to better support customers of non-Latin based languages (particularly Asia languages)
* WMI polling no longer causes the floppy disk to seek
3.4.8.17 * Fix in the periodic daily scheduler for monitors with a fixed start time and a small period
* Added logging for hosted .NET CLR startup
* Alternate technique for finding drives in WMI
* Phone Dialer (DTMF/SMS) action will appropriately serialize multiple calls to the phone/modem
* PA File Sight fix for particularly slow I/O (coming in from the network) that could get missed
* Server maintenance scheduled now copied when importing from a configuration file
* Added support for the MachineIP script and message variable
* Changed the way .CSV files are attached to mailed reports
3.4.7.6 * Added SMTPS (SSL-encrypted SMTP) support
* Optimized status report creation
* Updated to SQLite 3.4.1
* Improved database layer efficiency
* Ability to delete multiple reporting data sets at once
* Greatly reduced flicker while scrolling and resizing
3.4.4.4 * PA File Sight has configurable handling for alternate data streams (see http://www.poweradmin.com/help/FS_3_4/Monitor_FileSight_DataStreams.aspx )
* More aggressively throttling CPU usage to the target value
* Fixed error in scheduled reports UI where no report type is chosen when OK is pressed
* PA File Sight can filter on and display amount of data read/written
* Application behavior interpretation to override false-positive delete notifications (see http://www.poweradmin.com/help/FS_3_4/Monitor_FileSight_AppBehavior.aspx )
* Updated PA File Sight UI
* PA File Sight rename alerts show the final filename
* Added (experimental) 64-bit File Sight driver to build and install
* Added additional SMTP logging
* Backup From address added to the Email action
* Fixed a bug in File Sight settings persistence
* Added Phone Dialer support sending control characters (useful for sending SMS messages via an attached phone)
* Added Phone Dialer support for variables (for sending SMS messages via an attached cell phone)
* Added the scheduling and delivery of computer and summary status reports
3.4.1.25 * Added additional controls to monitor and improve internal efficiency
* Diagnostics added for graphical report creation
* Creating graphical reports is slighly faster and uses less memory
* Ensuring the monitor's last run time is accurately saved
* Added additional startup logging
* Uninstaller behaves better
* Optimized the scheduler thread
* Activity tracker has been highly optimized
* Security message about app starting to match message for app stopping
* Monitor result status in log file output changed to be more user friendly
* Guarantee no hanging linefeeds in outgoing SMTP messages
* Scheduler fix that sometimes prevents auto-maintenance from starting
3.4.0.39 * File Sight now operates on file name specifications (using * and ?) instead of just file extensions
* Automated server maintenance scheduling
* Phone Dialer action for sending DTMF/CallerID alerts over the phone system via a regular modem
* Dial-Up Connection action for connecting to the Internet so notifications can be sent
* Much more flexible scheduling for monitors, maintenance and scheduled reports
* Mailing of HTML reports is now supported
* Upgraded to SQLite 3.3.13
* Fixed an error with report time frames
* The File Change report now handles partial file names and paths
* Improved server credential handling and related user hints
* MessageBox actions correctly truncate messages too long for the screen
* Option to have status reports almost instantly up-to-date (see Settings -> Status Report Settings)
* Hardened internal HTTP report server
* Ability to set action names for E-mail, Pager and SMS actions
* Files and directories read by FileSightSvc.exe and Console.exe are ignored
3.3.2.8 * Logging SMTP activity for troubleshooting purposes
* Fixed the scheduled report dialog that was always selecting the first data set
* Fixed a crash in report auto-print if running as Local Service

Updates in 2006

3.3.0.4 * New branding graphics to match new website
* MessageBox action constrained so it doesn't go off screen
* Fix for a problem when valid licenses are not recognized
3.2.24.7 * Scheduled reports moved to a more prominent position. They also now have their own schedules
* Numerous minor user interface improvements
* Database robustness increased to fix reporting issue
* Increased default max threads to 80
* Change to ensure monitors are not starved for a worker thread
3.2.22.19 * File Sight ignored file list is stored in a database now instead of the registry
* Various minor user interface tweaks to make it easier to use for first-time users
* Upgraded to SQLite 3.3.7
3.2.22.11 * First Release - (It's version 3.2.22.11 since that is the product platform it is built on)

PA File Sight


Customer Quotes:
We have [very well known competitor] and we don't have the patience nor the whiskey to get it working... Your product is simple to use.
Shawn B.
I.T. Administrator
USA