2012-03-01
Table of Contents
Reminder: ServerTemplates and RightScripts are released separately from the new Release of the RightScale Cloud Management Platform. See the ServerTemplate and MultiCloud Images Release Notes.
General Release Information
Release Date: March 1st, 2012
Release Time: 5:00pm Pacific
The focus of this release is:
- Enhanced UI for inputs.
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Added bulk action functionality through the Dashboard UI.
Contact Information:
- support@rightscale.com - For questions or concerns with respect to this new Release.
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doc@rightscale.com - Report any perceived errors, omissions, or suggestions to improve this document.
Terminology:
- alpha - Feature that has undergone simple testing and is expected to change, possibly significantly, before going into "beta" or "general availability." Recommended for early access to new features and prototyping of new deployments/architectures. Only eligible for limited technical support. Service Level Response times are not applicable to alpha software.
- beta - Feature that has undergone significant testing and is not expected to significantly change before "general availability." Recommended for non-production deployments.
- general availability - Feature that has undergone testing and field experience or is a minor upgrade from prior releases. Recommended for production upgrade after testing.
New Features
- Disclaimer -
The following new features have been added to the RightScale Cloud Management Platform. Be sure to read the documentation, follow best practice principles, and thoroughly test any new functionality before making any changes to your production deployment.
Enhanced Inputs
The new inputs functionality allows you to group like inputs into categories such as Application, Monitoring, Database or DNS. Categories will be collapsible to show and hide information you would like to see. Use these features to only make the information visible that is important to you. Previously, inputs pages would differ slightly depending on where in the Dashboard you were viewing the inputs page. There is now a consistent look and feel for every inputs editing form. Also, missing inputs are now clearly identified, so inputs that are required for launch will be noticeably flagged.
New benefits include:
- Filtering - easily filter through your inputs by name or inheritance.
- Inheritance - view where your input is inheriting from in the exanded view.
- Categories - inputs are placed into categories, helping to organize them accordingly.
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Collapsible view - collapse and expand categories and inputs to view or hide information.
For more information, see New UI for Inputs as well as Understanding Inputs.
Problem scenarios that may occur with the migration
If one or more of your server's inputs is set to "optional," and the input is in fact "required" for the RightScript to execute correctly, you may encounter one of the following scenarios:
- Scenario 1: The server or array has inputs set to "ignore" when they are required. In rare cases, this may cause the server or array to become unlaunchable after the release. Check your inputs to make sure any required inputs that were previously set to ignore contain a value, even if set to "text" and containing a blank string.
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Scenario 2: The server or array has missing inputs that are optional. This may cause the server or array to become launchable after the release, but may strand depending on usage of missing inputs.
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Solution: Check all of the optional RightScript inputs used by the script(s) that are failing and verify that their values are suitable, especially those whose values are "No value/Ignore" or "Missing." If you conclude that some inputs are actually "required" and are working with HEAD RightScripts, you should edit the offending RightScripts and mark those inputs as "required." If working with committed RightScript revisions, you can simply ensure a value is provided for all deployments/servers.
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Bulk Updates for ServerTemplates
Last release, we introduced a Dashboard UI bulk action feature with the ability to Update RightScripts across Multiple ServerTemplates. With this release, we are adding to our UI bulk functionality by introducing the ability to update the revision of a ServerTemplate on multiple servers at once. This can be done on running or non-running servers by selecting which revision of ServerTemplate (as well as its associated MCIs) you would like to update. Instead of performing this action on one server at a time, you may now update as many servers as you wish at once. For more information, see Update a ServerTemplate Revision on Multiple Servers.
Search by Cloud Provider in the MultiCloud Marketplace
There is a new filtering option in the MultiCloud Marketplace. Under "Advanced Options," you have the ability to search by cloud vendor, including public and private clouds. This allows you to search for assets associated with a specific cloud. For more information, see MultiCloud Marketplace.
API ServerTemplate Sharing
You can now share ServerTemplates with your account groups in API 1.5. If you operate multiple accounts, this will allow you to maintain golden ServerTemplates in one account, then programatically push a particular revision of each ServerTemplate to your other accounts. Note that if your ServerTemplate uses a private image, you will have to make sure the private image is also shared with the other account through the cloud API. For more information, see API 1.5 Reference.
Updates to Macros
When importing a macro, the required RightScale assets will be automatically imported into the user's account, including the ServerTemplates. The previous behavior consisted of automatically importing the assets when the macro was executed. For users that have imported a macro before the migration but have yet to run it, no action needs to be taken; when running the macro for the first time after the migration, the required assets will be imported automatically. For more information, see Macros.
Unresolved Issues and Bugs
Bugs
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