As we enter the new year with new hopes, the OES team at Micro Focus is almost ready to ship the Beta code of the upcoming Open Enterprise Server 2018 SP3 release. I wish you a happy and healthy new year, 2021.

We shipped Open Enterprise Server 2018 SP2 around spring last year with updated base OS and several enhancements. A big thank you to all who adopted this release despite the challenging times thrown at us.

I am also excited to report that our teams have been working towards building new capabilities and improvements with the upcoming SP3 release. Registrations for the Beta program is now open, and you can sign up by completing the short survey here.

The key highlights of the Open Enterprise Server 2018 SP3 release include:

• Cloud Integrated Storage Enhancements
  • New Dashboard with health information of OES services
  • Provide secure access to CIS volumes to your remote users using Micro Focus Filr
  • Performance improvements when migrating from traditional DST pair
• Performance Improvements
  • Directory lease support in OES CIFS(SMB2/3) provides faster enumeration experience to your remote workers over WAN or VPN
  • AAPL extension in OES CIFS(SMB2/3) provides enhanced experience to your macOS users
  • Durable File Handles support in OES CIFS for improved performance to your Windows and macOS users
  • Performance improvements in various NSS caching modules
• Usability Improvements
  • Back up your Mac to an OES CIFS(SMB2/3) share using Time Machine
  • Use DFS to split or move to an existing target volume
  • Setup OES Cluster backed by a VMware vSAN storage
• Security Enhancements
  • Enforce NCP encryption and multi-factor authentication per volume or path
  • Support for TLS 1.2 communication
  • UEFI/Secure boot support
• NSS for AD Improvements
  • Provide access to NSS AD volumes to your Azure AD users in a Hybrid deployment
  • Filter-based(date, owner, size, etc.) and recursive salvage/purge using NFARM for Windows and macOS
  • Support for trustee management of both eDirectory and Active Directory identities
• Deprecation of OES AFP and SMB1 in OES CIFS
• iPrint Enhancements
  • Provide Azure AD users ACL-driven access to iPrint printers on any device
• Domain Services for Windows(DSfW) Improvements
  • Support for multi-factor authentication using Micro Focus Advanced Authentication
  • Support for macOS devices joining DSfW domain
  • Support for provisioning DSfW users and groups in Micro Focus Filr
  • SAMBA stack update for improved stability
• Built on SLES 12 SP5 and ships with eDirectory 9.2.4
• Integration with other Micro Focus products
  • SIEM integration with Micro Focus ArcSight
  • Find and protect sensitive data on NSS volumes using Micro Focus FAS Data Discovery

It would be great to have your feedback to refine before releasing the Open Enterprise Server 2018 SP3 update. Please write to me on OES at microfocus dot com if you have any queries.