2010-02-23

MultiCloud Images

A MultiCloud Image is a RightScale object that functions as a map or pointer to images in specific clouds and/or EC2 regions.

Previously, there was a Clouds tab under each ServerTemplate that listed all of the clouds that were supported along with the associated images for each cloud. (Remember, each AWS region such as 'us-east' and 'us-west' are essentially separate clouds and will be described as such in the remainder of this document.) ServerTemplates are designed to be cloud agnostic. However, as the number of clouds continues to grow we realized that a ServerTemplate's Clouds tab could become difficult to manage over time. As a result, we've created the concept of a MultiCloud Image object. Instead of defining all of the supported clouds under a ServerTemplate's Clouds tab, you can now define them under the Clouds tab of a MultiCloud Image. This way, you can have one MultiCloud Image that you use across all of your ServerTemplates. Another benefit is that you can manage your images independently from a ServerTemplate because version control is supported for MultiCloud Images just like other RightScale objects. 

To learn more about how your existing ServerTemplates will be updated to support this new architecture, see MultiCloud Images.  (bl-7642a)

Expansion of MultiCloud Marketplace

Previously, only ServerTemplates and Macros were available in the MultiCloud Marketplace.   In this release, RightScripts and MultiCloud Images were added to the MultiCloud Marketplace.   Previously, in order to publish a RightScript, you had to add it to a ServerTemplate and publish/share the template.  Similarly, you had to import a ServerTemplate in order to gain access to its RightScripts, which made it difficult to find and use existing RightScripts.   You can now publish or import a RightScript by itself.   The same functionality is supported for MultiCloud Images.  When you import a ServerTemplate, its RightScripts and MultiCloud Image will automatically be imported to your local view.

You can now find the following RightScale objects in the MultiCloud Marketplace:

• ServerTemplates
• Macros
• RightScripts
• MultiCloud Images

See About the RightScale Component Library  and Sharing RightScale Objects

Cluster Monitoring

Many of our customers have Deployments with hundreds or even thousands of Servers in them.  Looking at standard monitoring graphs is not very practical for Deployments with many running Servers.  Cluster Monitoring makes this process simpler and more effective.  With Cluster Monitoring you have the ability to filter all Servers in a Deployment by the ServerTemplate name they used, the actual Server name itself, or a Tag.  You can specify a specific value to filter against, or a "*" to match against all strings.  (That is, all ServerTemplate names, all Server names, or Tags.)  As an example, in your Deployment that includes availability across the US and EU, you could "Cluster Monitor" all of your EU Servers, US Servers or all FE Servers across both regions, given that "EU" , "US" and/or "FE" were part of your Server naming convention scheme.  At a glance you could see if any of these Servers struggled with low CPU idle time, too much Apache/web traffic, etc. 

Please see Cluster Monitoring to learn more.   (gr-8145)

Attaching EBS Snapshots

You now have the ability to attach EBS Snapshots to a server instance at boot time or runtime.  By default, the EBS Volumes that are created and attached to a server instance will be deleted when the instance is terminated.    You can also configure a server array to use EBS Snapshots so that when new instances are launched, the same snapshot will be used to create and attach the same volumes at boot time. 
(or-5322; 5323)

Monitoring Support from the RightScale API

There are new API calls to support monitoring.  The new calls allow customers to create custom dashboards that include monitoring graphs. The monitoring API facilitates this by discovering the set of graphs that are available and revealing the URLs to the graphs themselves.  To learn how to use the API to display a server graph, see Servers.    (gr-8534; 5664)

Virtual Private Cloud support

AWS Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) is now supported from both the RightScale API and RightScale Macros.  (gr-8631)

Support for 'm2.xlarge' EC2 instance types

The newest EC2 instance type ('m2.xlarge') is now a selectable option in the Dashboard.  It has only been tested with the "MySQL 5.1 EBS v2 (Beta)" ServerTemplate, which will be released a week after the Dashboard release.   (6010w)

RightScale API Improvements

The following improvements have been made to the RightScale API:

• The 'settings' call in the servers api now exports external (ip_address), internal private (private_ip_address) IPs , vpc subnets.   See Servers. (gr-5564)
• The 'show' call in the deployments api now exports default ec2 availability zone and default vpc subnet.  See Deployments.
• The filtering option for the Servers index api call now applies to the public ip, private IP and AWS ID (aws_id) attributes as well.(gr-5566)
• The API can be used for discovery of all available RightScripts for a ServerTemplate.  See ServerTemplates.  (tc-4628)
• You now have the ability to set the Availabilty Zone to "any" for a Server via the API.  (gr-8384)
• You can run any RightScript on a Server or Server Array, regardless if the script is part of the ServerTemplate or not.  (gr-8456)
• You can lock (or unlock) Servers via the API.  (gr-5641)
• The run_script api call now takes an additional parameter 'ignore_lock' which allows you to run a script on a locked server. (gr-8678)
• The server template create api call now takes a multi_cloud_image_href parameter that supercedes the ec2_image_href, aki_image_href, ari_ image_href, instance_type, ec2_user_data.
• There has been a change to the definition of image hrefs:  Previously the href for an image looked like the following:
  https://my.rightscale.com/api/acct/1/ec2_images/1
  Now the href uses the AWS UID and the Cloud ID:
  https://my.rightscale.com/api/acct/1/ec2_images/ami-12345?cloud_id=1
  
  All api calls that return an image href will immediately return them in the new form. But all calls that take image hrefs as parameters will continue to support both types of hrefs although the old style hrefs are deprecated.
  

Improvements to Chef Metadata Scraper

Optimizations have been made to the Chef Metadata Scraper such that the daemon that periodically scrapes the metadata will only take incremental scrapes of the Chef repository instead of refetching the entire repository each time.  However, the "Refetch" action button will continue to have the same behavior and re-download the entire repository.   (tc-5602, 5597)

Tagging Images

Previously, anyone with 'ec2_actor' user role privileges could add tags to private EC2 images (AMIs, AKIs, ARIs) that the account owned as well as to public and shared images.  Tags were also RightScale account-specific.  Now, tags can only be added to an image by the owner of the image.  The owner of an EC2 Image is based upon the AWS Account Number, not a RightScale account.   Remember, AMIs are cloud resources that exist outside of RightScale, whereas tagging is a RightScale-specific feature.  A user will still need 'actor' user role privileges in a RightScale account in order to add/edit/delete a tag in the RightScale Dashboard.  Tags are also global now, so if you add/edit/delete an image's tag, it will be reflected in all accounts that have access to it.  Tags will be preserved when an image is replicated to another EC2 region.   Any tags that have been added to an image that you do not own have been removed.   Any tags that have been added to an image that you do own have been preserved. See Tagging.
(tc-5685)

Tagging EBS Volumes

Previously, you could tag EBS Snapshots, but not EBS Volumes.  You can now tag EBS volumes as well.  Although you can only apply tags in the Dashboard, the tags of an EBS Volume will show up in a tag search issued from the API.  A user will still need 'actor' user role privileges in a RightScale account in order to add/edit/delete a tag in the RightScale Dashboard.  See Tagging.   (gr-8172)

Add Color Coding Inputs for Server Arrays

Server arrays now have color coded inputs in order to clearly highlight missing inputs or show where it was inheriting its value from.  This feature was introduced in the previous release at the Server and Deployment levels, but was not supported for server arrays.     (or-5534)

Migration of Public and Private Images

Previously, you were able to tag images in the Dashboard regardless of whether it was a public or private image.  Now, you can only tag an image if you are the owner (based on the AWS Account Number).   The tags of published/shared images will be visible to all users. Tags that were previously added to images that the account does not own will be removed.   (or-5685; 5541)

Renaming of an object's "Sharing" status

There was a lot of confusion surrounding a RightScale object's sharing status.  It was unclear whether an object was private, actively being shared, or in the MultiCloud Marketplace, but not actively being shared.  Under a RightScale object's Info tab, the "Sharing" column has been renamed "Publishing" to better clarify that an object is either private or published (to the MultiCloud Marketplace) for sharing purposes with either the entire RightScale community (RightScale Partners only) or with invited RightScale Accounts via Sharing Groups.  A published object is either actively/inactively being shared.   See Sharing RightScale Objects for added clarification about this topic.   (5642w)

Renaming of User Roles

The following user roles have been renamed so that they more accurately reflect their true functionality.  User roles are not cloud-specific.  Actual user role functionality has not changed.  For a complete breakdown of RightScale user roles and their privileges, see User Role Privileges.  To view your user role permissions, go to Settings -> User -> Info tab.

• ec2_observer  --> observer
• ec2_actor --> actor

ServerTemplates Usage Report

The ServerTemplate Usage Report has been expanded to include additional fields.  For example, the Deployment name is now in the report.  Please look here for more exhaustive report information.  Only accounts with the "admin" User Role privilege can run this report.  (gr-8229)

Add Color Coding Inputs for Server Arrays

Server arrays now have color coded inputs in order to clearly highlight missing inputs or show where it was inheriting its value from.  This feature was introduced in the previous release at the Server and Deployment levels, but was not supported for server arrays.     (wh-5534)

UI related inconsistencies

Several UI related inconsistencies have been addressed and resolved.  Examples include:

All of the following columns should now be available:

• Private and Public IP
• Private and Public DNS
• Instance type
• Zone
• Cloud

From all of the following views:

• View Dashboard -> Deployments Tab
• Manage -> Deployments -> Servers Tab
• Clouds -> CloudName -> EC2 Instances -> Active and Terminated Tabs
• Manage -> Arrays -> ArrayName -> Instances tab

(gr-5656w)

Inconsistent results when filtering by name for RightScripts

The results and formatting on the screen when filtering RightScripts by name were inconsistent.  For example, filtering by the name "collectd" resulted in a delete action icon in the "Updated at" field in the results. Clearly not the desired effect. These inconsistencies have been resolved.  (bl-5676)

S3 Confirmation Page

A confirmation page has been added to avoid the possibility of overwriting a file in S3 when performing either a copy or move action.   For example, the following confirmation information will be displayed so you know exactly what is going on prior to performing any actions prior to a potential conflict:

Do you really want to perform this operation?
These files will be overwritten: gregd-eu-pics/Picture 5.png

You are also presented with the following action buttons:

• Yes, move and overwrite
• No, cancel and go back

(gr-4896w)

Public DNS link not displayed at Deployment level for EC2 instances in 'us-west'

Previously, the Public DNS link was not being displayed properly for instances in the 'us-west' region at the deployment level even though it was being displayed correctly at the server level.  (5974w)

Cannot create/use S3 buckets with periods in the namespace

You can now create an S3 bucket in any AWS region with a period in the name (ex: my.rs.bucket).  (5906w)

Locked operational servers can be deleted through the API

You can no longer delete a locked operational server through the API.  There is now a check to ensure that you cannot delete a server unless it is terminated (inactive) and unlocked.  (5681w)

EC2 security groups get recreated unexpectedly

Previously, if you created a security group and deleted it, then recreated another security group with the same name except with different casing, the old group will be recreated and rules will only be applied to the old security group.   This problem was fixed.  (5510w)

Broken link to an EC2 security group at the deployment level

Previously, the hyperlink to the security group under the "security groups" column when viewing a deployment was incorrect and returned no record when clicked.   This problem was fixed.  (5467w)

Execution of the "ELB add instance to balancer (Alpha)" RightScript failed to connect a server to the ELB

Previously, if you executed the "ELB add instance to balancer (Alpha)" RightScript on a running instance with the latest right_aws (1.10.0) is installed, the script would fail to add the instance to the Elastic Load Balancer.  This problem was fixed.  (4427w)

500 Internal Error when filtering for a script with OSX/Safari

When using OSX with Safari, if you hit the Return key when using using the filter option to to select a script for a ServerTemplate, "An Internal Error Occurred" message will be displayed.  This problem was fixed.  (5165w)

Array controller terminates 'operational' instance instead of 'booting' instance when scaling down

Now when a server array scales down, the array controller will shut down 'booting' instances instead of terminating the operational instance and keeping the 'booting' instance.  (4950w)

Bundling fails for Windows instances launched from EBS-based images

You can now bundle Windows instances that were launched using EBS machine images.  (5499w)

Arrays remain enabled if a deployment is cloned

Server arrays are now automatically disabled by default when a deployment is cloned.  (5364w)

Windows instances are falsely reported as 'operational'

Previously, Windows instances were reported as 'operational' in the Dashboard even though they were actually still pending or booting.  This problem was fixed.  (5649w)