Version History

We are always interested in suggestions and ideas for further development of Simple Failover.
Please contact us at if you have an idea for the next release.

Version 1.21
	New Server Set "Make Copy" function This new function makes it quick and easy to setup many similar Server Sets.
	New Server Set "Notes" field Convenient for recording comments, history, account information, etc.
	Miscellaneous This update also includes a few bug fixes and several minor adjustments to the GUI interface.
Version 1.20
	HTTP API interface (Professional license only) It is now possible to create/update server sets, retrieve status information, and control most other functions in Simple Failover via HTTP. This opens the possibility of creating your own web-interface to Simple Failover, and/or integrating it with your existing hosting solutions. All data is exchanged in XML format, and the commands and data formats are described in detail in the updated documentation.
	New server monitoring method - Generic TCP connect (Professional license only) This type of monitoring can be used to check any type of service that uses the TCP protocol (which includes most software communicating via the Internet protocol) by checking if the services accepts TCP connections. As opposed to the existing monitoring methods (HTTP, FTP, etc.), this method does not check for any specific response or greeting from the service.
	New server monitoring method - PING (Professional license only) PING is different than the other monitoring methods in that it does not check the status of a specific service, but rather checks the general availability of the server computer. The advantage of this monitoring method is that it is very light weight (no TCP connection overhead), it uses very little bandwidth (PING packets are very small), and it can be used for any type of Internet service. However, it can only detect if a server computer is running or not. Unlike the other monitoring methods, PING cannot determine if a specific service on that computer is running and functioning correctly. Please note that some firewalls are configured to filter out PING packets (ICMP protocol), in which case this monitoring method cannot be used (check this by pinging your server IP from a command prompt first).
	Default DNS servers Instead of having to enter all the DNS server settings for each individual server set, you can now simply select "Use default DNS servers". This is a real time saver if you have many server sets using the same DNS servers. You can of course still specify unique DNS servers for some or all server sets.
	Update DNS for alias domain names Sometimes a single Internet service can be accessed via several different domain names. The service provides the exact same contents/functionality no matter which domain name is used. A typical example of this is a web-site which can be accessed both with and without the 'www' domain name prefix (which are technically two different domain names). There is usually no reason for testing such a service with more than one of the domain names, yet in case of a failure, you still want to update DNS for all the domain names so that they all point to the functional server IP address. This new option lets you specify additional domain names to be updated for a server set. Please note: we do not recommend using DNS CNAME-records for alias domain names because DNS responses containing such records are cached differently by Internet Explorer (typically for a fixed period of 30 minutes).
	Right-click on server to ping When a server appears to be down, for many, the first trouble shooting step is to open a command prompt and ping the server IP address. You can now ping an individual server in Simple Failover simply by right-clicking on it in the Server Set explorer or in the Problem list, and selecting "Ping" from a popup menu. The resulting ping dialog gives you instant ping statistics, and continues pinging the server IP address until you close the dialog.
	Monitor service protocols on non-standard port numbers Simple Failover can now poll servers using HTTP, FTP, SMTP, POP3, NNTP, and IMAP service protocols on non-standard port numbers. For example a web server on port 8080 (or any other port number) instead of the standard port 80.
	Configurable server response status codes When Simple Failover polls an HTTP, FTP, SMTP, or NNTP server, it looks for a 3 digit status code in the response (for example "200" for HTTP servers). These status codes are now configurable, so that you can specify other or additional status codes to accept.
	Option to skip polling backup servers when primary server is up This behavior, which was standard in version 1.00, is now an option. In version 1.20 the default is to always poll all servers in a server set.
	Miscellaneous - New replacement tag $DOM$ for domain name in DNS update URL when updating DNS via HTTP. - The "sfo.config.xml" file is now automatically saved every 5 minutes (if any changes have been made). - The Problem Knowledge Base function now sends additional data to better narrow down a solution (code exit point, and program version). - Office 2003 styled menus and toolbar. Several of the new features in 1.20 have been included in unofficial interim releases made available to individual users, which explains the version number jump from 1.00 to 1.20.
Version 1.00
	The first official release of Simple Failover Thanks to everybody who encouraged us to develop this new product and helped us with the beta testing.