• Release 9.1 Service Pack 3 Release Notes 9.1.30151.0 ©2010 Blackboard Inc.
Publication Date: November 2010 Revision 1.0 Worldwide Headquarters International Headquarters Blackboard Inc. Blackboard International B.V. 650 Massachusetts Avenue NW Sixth Floor Washington, DC 20001-3796 Dam 27 2nd Floor 1012 JS Amsterdam The Netherlands +1 800 424 9299 toll free US & Canada +1 202 463 4860 telephone +31 20 5206884 (NL) telephone +1 202 463 4863 facsimile +31 20 5206885 (NL) facsimile www.blackboard.com www.blackboard.com Copyright © 1997-2010.
Contents System Administration Contents Contents ......................................................................................................................................... 3 About the Release Notes .............................................................................................................. 5 New Features and Enhancements ............................................................................................... 6 System Administration ..................................
Contents System Administration New Space Region ........................................................................................................... 13 Supported Technologies ............................................................................................................ 14 Platform Technologies ............................................................................................................ 14 Client Technologies ..............................................................
About the Release Notes System Administration About the Release Notes The Release Notes provide System Administrators with information about the changes from the previous release to this Service Pack of Release 9.1. These changes have been categorized into three different types that are meant to assist you with planning your upgrade to this maintenance release. The highlights below are meant to be a quick reference of changes that we believe will impact most usage scenarios.
New Features and Enhancements System Administration New Features and Enhancements The Release Notes provide a high-level overview of the New Features and Enhancements from the previous service pack on Release 9.1. Release 9.1 Service Pack 3 contains some enhancements and changes in functionality for most users coming from Service Pack 2. If you are new to Release 9.
New Features and Enhancements Course Delivery Assessments Instructors now have the ability to view question numbers while building and editing assessments. Questions can be referenced by number throughout the assessment and can be used to sequence questions in an assessment. Grade Center Several features in the Grade Center have been enhanced to improve communication between the instructor and students and make navigation easier.
New Features and Enhancements Community Engagement Community Engagement Modules Users can browse and search for modules to add to their My Institution Page and Notifications Dashboard. Partner Integration NOOKstudy e-Textbook Reader Building Block Powered by Barnes & Noble Barnes & Noble’s new NOOKstudy e-textbook reader can be integrated into Blackboard Learn using a Building Block. Instructors can list assigned textbooks from the Barnes & Noble Catalog.
Known and Resolved Issues Partner Integration Known and Resolved Issues The list of issues resolved in Blackboard Learn Release 9.1 SP3 is available on the Resolved Issues Page of the Maintenance Center. The list of known issues in Blackboard Learn Release 9.1 is available on the Known Issues page of the Maintenance Center. The Known Issues page provides a list of the issue ID, description, and resolution path. This page is updated regularly with new client-reported issues. Release Notes for Release 9.
Performance and Scalability Performance Issues and Improvements Performance and Scalability Blackboard continuously invests in making Blackboard Learn more responsive and able to handle greater volumes of user traffic. This section describes the performance and scalability issues in this release of Blackboard Learn. Performance issues occur when application responsiveness for a system not under load fails to meet user expectations.
Performance and Scalability Recommended Deployment Approach Assessment When adding a question to a question pool using the Find from Pool or Test button, a full table scan was run against QTI_ASI_DATA. This increased the time taken to get data for that page. This was corrected so that the full table scan no longer occurs. Grade Center The Needs Grading page takes less time to load when there are thousands of attempts on the page. Recommended Deployment Approach 64-Bit Deployments Release 9.
Performance and Scalability Recommended JVM Tuning Set For more information about deploying Blackboard Learn, see the Blackboard Learn Hardware Sizing Guides for Dell and Sun Deployments in the Upgrade Kit available on Behind the Blackboard.
Performance and Scalability Recommended JVM Tuning Set Concurrent Mark Sweep Collector With the certification of Java 6, Blackboard recommends using the Concurrent Mark Sweep Collector (-XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC) instead of the Parallel Collector (-XX:+UseParallelGC). Local Allocation Buffer (TLAB) The –XX:+UseTLAB parameter forces the JVM to use thread-local object allocation.
Supported Technologies Platform Technologies Supported Technologies In every release, Blackboard devotes time and resources to make Blackboard Learn run on the latest operating systems, databases, and browsers available, with the goal of creating a system that is more manageable, more stable, and more user friendly. This section highlights the major changes to the Supported Technologies and Browsers for this release. For the most up-to-date information, see Blackboard Learn Release 9.
Supported Technologies Platform Technologies 64-bit Server Configurations Application Server/ JDK 1.
Supported Technologies Client Technologies Oracle 11gR2 Errors Oracle 11gR2 contains two bugs that cause errors. The first bug displays errors when importing content or restoring course packages.
Supported Technologies Virtualization Mac OSX Client Configurations Safari 5.0 Safari 4.0 Safari 3.2 Firefox 3.6 Firefox 3.5.x Mac OSX 10.5 “Leopard” Compatible Compatible Unsupported Compatible Compatible Mac OSX 10.6 “Snow Leopard” Certified Compatible Unsupported Certified Compatible Accessibility and JAWS Blackboard strives to make all its products as accessible as possible. JAWS for Windows 9 and 10 were used during accessibility testing.
Installation and Upgrade Information Direct Upgrade Paths Installation and Upgrade Information For information about fresh installations of Blackboard Learn 9.1 SP3, see the Blackboard Learn Installation Guide for Release 9.1. For information about upgrading to Blackboard Learn Release 9.1 SP3, see the Upgrade Center or find the Upgrade Kit for your current version in the Document Library. Direct Upgrade Paths The following releases can be upgraded directly to Blackboard Learn 9.1 SP3.
Installation and Upgrade Information Previous Version Paths for Importing and Restoring Courses Suggested Path 7.2 GA 1. 2. 3. 4. Upgrade to 7.2 SP1. Upgrade to 7.3 SP2. Upgrade to 8.0 SP7. Upgrade to 9.1 SP3. 7.1 SP2 or later 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Upgrade to 7.3 GA. Upgrade to 7.3 SP1. Upgrade to 7.3 SP2. Upgrade to 8.0 SP7. Upgrade to 9.1 SP3. 7.1 GA and SP1 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Upgrade to 7.1 SP2. Upgrade to 7.3 GA. Upgrade to 7.3 SP1. Upgrade to 7.3 SP2. Upgrade to 8.0 SP7. Upgrade to 9.1 SP3. 7.0.
Installation and Upgrade Information Upgrading Server Software Source Support Blackboard Learn Release 9.1 Certified Blackboard Learn Release 9.0 Certified Blackboard Academic Suite Release 8 Certified Blackboard Academic Suite Release 7 Certified Blackboard Academic Suite Release 6 Certified Blackboard ML Certified Blackboard 5.5* Certified Blackboard 5.0* Compatible CourseInfo 4 Not Supported Blackboard Vista and CE 8.0 Certified Blackboard Campus Edition 4.
Installation and Upgrade Information Before Running the Updater Before Running the Updater Windows Server 2008 IIS 7 Roles and Features Configuration Windows Server 2008 uses IIS 7. Before installation of Blackboard Learn 9.1, IIS 7 needs to be configured with specific Role Services and other settings. 1. Install the IIS 7 Role in Windows Server 2008 Server Manager and configure Role Services: A. Click Start and select Administrative Tools then select Server Manager. B.
Installation and Upgrade Information Before Running the Updater 2. Disable the Default Web Site: A. Click Start select Administrative Tools then select Server Manager. B. From the left menu, click the plus sign next to Roles to expand the tree. C. Click the plus sign next to Web Server IIS, and then click Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager. D. Under the Connections heading, click plus sign next to the %HOSTNAME%, and then click the plus sign next to Sites. E.
Installation and Upgrade Information Before Running the Updater Once the configuration has been restored and verified through web browser access, then use the appcmd utility to configure the necessary features of IIS 7 as described in the section above. If this approach does not solve the problem with IIS 7 generating errors, remove and then reinstall the IIS 7 Role. If you need to reinstall the IIS 7 Role, you can use the %BLACKBOARD%\tools\admin\WebsiteReinstall.
Installation and Upgrade Information Upgrading to Blackboard Learn 9.1 SP3 Upgrading to Blackboard Learn 9.1 SP3 Upgrade Guides Blackboard provides separate Upgrade Guides for each of the following products: • Blackboard Learn Release 9.0 • Blackboard Academic Suite 8.0 • CE 4 • CE 8 • Vista 8 Each Upgrade Guide is available in the appropriate product’s Upgrade Kit available on the Blackboard Upgrade Center or Behind the Blackboard.
Installation and Upgrade Information Upgrading to Blackboard Learn 9.1 SP3 Examples of affected user interface settings and other affected areas include: • Course Settings (which control the Course menu) • Building Block availability • Module and Tab availability, role settings, and custom layouts Customizations will need to be reapplied after the upgrade. To make this process easier, create a detailed document outlining all existing customizations.
Installation and Upgrade Information Upgrading to Blackboard Learn 9.1 SP3 Load-Balanced Systems Warning The Updater must be run on each Application server and the Collaboration server on a loadbalanced system. After running the Updater the first time, choose the Update an App Server for all other Application servers and the Collaboration server. This option will upgrade the application files without making any of the database changes.
Installation and Upgrade Information Running the Updater on Windows Running the Updater on Windows Follow these steps to run the Updater on Windows: 1. Make sure that the Java environment variable is properly set. 2. Click on the Updater file to launch it. 3. A welcome message will appear with a reminder to read the release notes and the installations instructions completely before updating. Click Next to continue. 4.
Installation and Upgrade Information Running the Updater on UNIX (Red Hat and Solaris) Running the Updater on UNIX (Red Hat and Solaris) Follow these steps to run the Updater on UNIX. 1. Open a command-line prompt as the root user and navigate to the directory that holds the Updater. 2. Run the following command to launch the Updater: $JAVA_HOME/bin/java -jar If Xwindows or a similar GUI is running and the DISPLAY variable is properly configured, the Updater will launch in GUI mode.
