What's New?

Note: Some Aspera product names are in a transition phase. During the transition, Enterprise Server and Connect Server might also be referred to as "IBM Aspera High-Speed Transfer Server", Point-to-Point Client might also be referred to as "IBM Aspera High-Speed Transfer Endpoint", and IBM Aspera Shares and IBM Aspera Faspex might also be referred to as the bundled product "IBM Aspera High-Speed Sharing Server."

General

  • Desktop Client no longer requires a license. For upgrades to 3.8.0, existing licenses are overwritten with the unlimited license after a successful upgrade.
  • Updated Java for improved GUI performance and security.
  • Connections that are configured in the GUI and Hotfolders can now be set to encrypt data in transit with a specific encryption cipher: AES-128, AES-192, AES-256, or none. The default is AES-128.
  • ascp and ascp4 transfers to object storage can now include custom metadata if the object storage supports it (currently S3, Google, Azure, and Swift). Metadata is set using the --tags or --tags64 option with a JSON payload argument. For instructions, see Writing Custom Metadata for Objects in Object Storage. (CIM-723)
  • Updated OpenSSH to version 7.5p1.
  • Connection passwords can now be saved and restored when exporting and importing connections in the GUI.

Ascp

  • Transfer sessions that fallback to HTTP now report file IDs in the management stream (as FaspFileID).
  • When using stdio-tar:// as the source for an ascp transfer, the value for "File:" can be a directory and the directory structure is preserved at the destination. Additionally, stdio-tar:// can now be used as the destination. For information, see Using Standard I/O as the Source or Destination.
  • Uploads with a stdio-tar:// destination can now use transfer tokens for authorization.
  • The stdio-tar:// source file can now specify an offset parameter that indicates where in the destination file the inline raw data should be inserted to overwrite the existing data.

Ascp 4

  • The data-streaming capabilities of ascp4 (powered by FASPStream technology) are now available for High-Speed Transfer Server and High-Speed Transfer Endpoint users. Features include:
    • Multiple multicast streams can now concurrently transfer to the same multicast IP address (as long as the multicast port varies) or concurrently transfer to the same multicast port (as long as the multicast IP address varies). (CIM-770)
    • TCP providers can be used as a source or destination I/O in command line.
    • UDP providers can be used as a source or destination I/O in command line.
    • A new parameter, pktbatch, can be used to control how UDP datagrams are read and written. By default,FASPStream now does a batch read and write of UDP datagrams. Disable the option to read and write one packet at a time.
  • The encryption cipher can now be specified on the client command line using -c cipher. The server setting overrides the client if the server setting is stronger.
  • A4 transfers can now use transfer token authorization. The transfer token must be created by using astokengen with the --full-paths option and passed to A4 with the ASPERA_SCP_TOKEN environment variable.
  • Faster directory scanning on object storage.
  • A4 now supports persistent sessions, using the new option --keepalive.
  • Faster transfers to object storage, particularly for transfers that skip existing files (-k 1) or that use file lists.

Other Changes

  • Windows 32-bit is no longer supported. During an upgrade to version 3.8.0, the configuration files are preserved but the old 32-bit version is removed from the system before the new version is installed.