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· 5 min read
Jake Cave

What's New

First-Time Setup Wizard

New appliances now boot into a guided Setup Wizard that walks you through every first-run step in the browser: hostname, network (DHCP or static IP with DNS), timezone, TLS certificate, licence activation, admin password, authentication method, and the initial storage pool. There is no more manual bootstrapping over SSH.

Setup Wizard - Welcome

See the Setup Wizard guide for the full step-by-step walkthrough, including DHCP vs static IP networking and installing your own TLS certificate.

End-to-End iSCSI Agent Orchestration

vME can now drive the SQL Server iSCSI workflow remotely and automatically. A lightweight Windows agent (installed from an MSI, run as a background service) enrols each SQL Server host with vME and then picks up and runs onboarding, migration, and clone mount/unmount jobs on demand - with no one logging in to run PowerShell.

Agents are managed centrally from the new Agent Manager in the web console: create one-time enrollment tokens, watch each agent's live status, and rotate keys - all over an outbound-only connection (port 443), so no inbound ports need to be opened on the SQL host.

Agent Manager - enrolling a new agent

See the iSCSI Connector - Automated (Windows Agent) guide for setup and usage.

Application Onboarding Wizard (Beta)

A new Onboard Application wizard (Beta) guides you through cloning a production database onto another vME appliance end to end - pairing the two appliances, discovering the source host, and driving the iSCSI agent through prep, snapshot, clone, and mount. This is an early Beta; we'd love your feedback.

Onboard Application wizard - start

See Onboard Application (Beta) for the full workflow.

Container Connection Details

vME now surfaces each database container's connection details - host, port mappings, mount paths, database type, and environment variables (such as POSTGRES_USER / POSTGRES_PASSWORD) - in the web UI, so you can connect to a running database without hunting for its settings. The container list API (GET /docker/container/list) returns the port mappings, mounts, database type, and environment variables as well.

Container list - Connection Info action

See Getting container connection info for details.

Consistent Snapshots

When you snapshot a source or clone that has running database containers, vME now stops those containers first, takes the snapshot, and restarts them - so the captured data is consistent rather than mid-write. The UI shows a container-aware confirmation listing exactly what will be stopped.

See Snapshots for more info.

Rename Sources and Clones in the UI

You can now rename sources and clones directly from the web console, instead of destroying and recreating them. (Renaming is not supported for iSCSI sources and clones.)

Rename button on a source or clone

Unix CLI Install

The vME CLI can now be installed on Unix, in addition to Windows, so you can run it from the command line on either platform. The CLI is also up to date with the 1.9.0 API. See the CLI guide to download and install.

Improvements

  • Clearer LDAP errors - a failed LDAP login now shows the actual error returned by the directory, instead of a generic message.
  • Licence errors surfaced - operations blocked by an unlicensed or expired appliance now show a clear licence error.
  • Longer sessions - the web session timeout has been extended to 24 hours.

Fixed Issues

iSCSI connector

  • Snapshots now flush the LUN write cache before the snapshot is taken, so clones are no longer occasionally created RAW/empty.
  • Skip-backup no longer crashes when pointed at a single backup file.

Platform

  • Login now signs in correctly on the button press after a session timeout.
  • Fixed a UI refresh glitch when switching between menu items.
  • Fixed cross-appliance API calls failing due to certificate handling.
  • Resolved intermittent stale database-connection errors.

API Changes & Upgrading

The 1.9.0 REST API is documented in the vME API reference. A few endpoints changed shape in this release - if you maintain a custom REST integration, review these before upgrading. (The vME web UI and CLI ship updated with the release and need no changes.)

Grab the updated vME Postman collection to get all the new and changed endpoints ready to run - it also includes an Onboarding (API) folder that replicates the full Onboard Application flow as ordered, chained requests.

Breaking changes

  • POST /user/modify now requires your current_password, and a password change is sent as a structured object:
    - { "username": "jane", "password": "NewPass456!" }
    + {
    + "username": "jane",
    + "current_password": "OldPass123!",
    + "password": { "current": "OldPass123!", "new": "NewPass456!", "confirm": "NewPass456!" }
    + }
  • DELETE /user/delete now requires your password and a typed confirmation:
    - { "username": "ubuntu123" }
    + { "username": "ubuntu123", "password": "MyPassword123!", "confirm_text": "DELETE ubuntu123" }
  • POST /db/receive is now asynchronous - it returns 202 Accepted with a task_id. Poll GET /tasks/<task_id> for completion instead of expecting a synchronous result.

New and improved

  • New endpoints: POST /db/send/cancel, POST /user/changepass, POST /db/network/create, DELETE /db/network/delete, and GET /tasks/<task_id>.
  • iSCSI sources & clones over the API: POST /source/create and POST /clone/create accept a network_info block (type: iscsi, with auto_grow / vsize), and the iSCSI target is provisioned automatically as part of creation.
  • System-to-system db send no longer needs an SSH/PEM key - vME establishes trust with the receiver automatically using its admin api-key.

· 2 min read
Ash Hosking
Jake Cave

Release Date: 6th March 2026

Key Features

  • User & Role Management: Added full administrative user management capabilities within vME. Administrators can now add, modify and delete users directly from the platform.
  • LDAP Integration: vME now supports integration with Active Directory via LDAP, allowing centralised authentication and improved enterprise security alignment.
  • ZFS Pool Disk Discovery: When creating a ZFS storage pool, vME now automatically retrieves and displays available disks and partition information, simplifying storage configuration and reducing manual effort.
  • iSCSI Volume Autogrow: iSCSI storage volumes now automatically grow as needed. Manual size configuration has been removed, providing a simpler and more reliable provisioning experience.
  • CHAP Authentication for MSSQL iSCSI: Added CHAP authentication support when mounting MSSQL databases over iSCSI for enhanced security.

Enhancements

  • Operating System Disk Protection: System disks are now clearly identified and protected from accidental pool creation, reducing risk during storage configuration.
  • Improved Logging: Logging has been enhanced to provide clearer, more structured messages to assist with troubleshooting and operational visibility.
  • CLI Alignment: The CLI has been updated to align with the latest API capabilities, ensuring consistent behaviour across interfaces.
  • Container Image Pull Refresh: Added automatic refresh during container image pulls to provide better visibility into progress.
  • Dark Mode Improvements: Improved text consistency and readability in Dark Mode.
  • Frontend Stability Improvements: Addressed UI refresh behaviour and improved overall frontend responsiveness.
  • Documentation Updates: Updated API, CLI and frontend documentation to reflect new capabilities and screenshots.

Bug Fixes

  • Disk Validation: Resolved an issue where invalid physical device paths could be passed during disk operations.
  • Pool Disk Display: Fixed an issue where newly created iSCSI disks were incorrectly appearing as available disks for pool creation.
  • Security Library Update: Addressed frontend security warnings related to third party libraries.

· One min read
Ash Hosking

Release Date: 16th January 2025

Key Features

  • Network File Share: NFS support added for sources and clones. This enables vME to be used with a wide range of database technologies and hosting methods. This is an alternative to container based database images on the vME appliance itself.
  • Virtual Mainframe: IBM ZD&T support added for Virtual z/OS mainframes to leverage vME's agility and space saving benefits to provision tiny mainframes for Development, Test and Training.
  • File Explorer: Added a new frontend file explorer to view and manage files within a source or clone.

Enhancements

  • Form Redesign: Redesigned the forms to be more user friendly and consistent with the rest of the platform.
  • Operating System: Upgraded the base Operating System to Debian 12 / Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.
  • Log Messages: Improved Logging and Messaging.

Bug Fixes

  • Image Pull: Fixed a rare scenario where pulling a docker image could get stuck “In Progress” status.
  • Clone Destroy: Clone Destroy now checks if a child bookmark exists and will not destroy the clone unless recursive flag is set.