Enhancements

This section outlines new features and enhancements introduced in the Container Cloud release 2.27.0. For the list of enhancements delivered with the Cluster releases introduced by Container Cloud 2.27.0, see 17.2.0 and 16.2.0.

General availability for Ubuntu 22.04 on bare metal clusters

Implemented full support for Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (Jellyfish) as the default host operating system that now installs on non-MOSK bare metal management and managed clusters.

For MOSK:

  • Existing management clusters are automatically updated to Ubuntu 22.04 during cluster upgrade to Container Cloud 2.27.0 (Cluster release 16.2.0).

  • Greenfield deployments of management clusters are based on Ubuntu 22.04.

  • Existing and greenfield deployments of managed clusters are still based on Ubuntu 20.04. The support for Ubuntu 22.04 on this cluster type will be announced in one of the following releases.

Caution

Upgrading from Ubuntu 20.04 to 22.04 on existing deployments of Container Cloud managed clusters is not supported.

Improvements in the day-2 management API for bare metal clusters

TechPreview

Enhanced the day-2 management API the bare metal provider with several key improvements:

  • Implemented the sysctl, package, and irqbalance configuration modules, which become available for usage after your management cluster upgrade to the Cluster release 16.2.0. These Container Cloud modules use the designated HostOSConfiguration object named mcc-modules to distingish them from custom modules.

    Configuration modules allow managing the operating system of a bare metal host granularly without rebuilding the node from scratch. Such approach prevents workload evacuation and significantly reduces configuration time.

  • Optimized performance for faster, more efficient operations.

  • Enhanced user experience for easier and more intuitive interactions.

  • Resolved various internal issues to ensure smoother functionality.

  • Added comprehensive documentation, including concepts, guidelines, and recommendations for effective use of day-2 operations.

Optimization of strict filtering for devices on bare metal clusters

Optimized the BareMetalHostProfile custom resource, which uses the strict byID filtering to target system disks using the byPath, serialNumber, and wwn reliable device options instead of the unpredictable byName naming format.

The optimization includes changes in admission-controller that now blocks the use of bmhp:spec:devices:by_name in new BareMetalHostProfile objects.

Deprecation of SubnetPool and MetalLBConfigTemplate objects

As part of refactoring of the bare metal provider, deprecated the SubnetPool and MetalLBConfigTemplate objects. The objects will be completely removed from the product in one of the following releases.

Both objects are automatically migrated to the MetallbConfig object during cluster update to the Cluster release 17.2.0 or 16.2.0.

Learn more

Deprecation notes

The ClusterUpdatePlan object for a granular cluster update

TechPreview

Implemented the ClusterUpdatePlan custom resource to enable a granular step-by-step update of a managed cluster. The operator can control the update process by manually launching update stages using the commence flag. Between the update stages, a cluster remains functional from the perspective of cloud users and workloads.

A ClusterUpdatePlan object is automatically created by the respective Container Cloud provider when a new Cluster release becomes available for your cluster. This object contains a list of predefined self-descriptive update steps that are cluster-specific. These steps are defined in the spec section of the object with information about their impact on the cluster.

Update groups for worker machines

Implemented the UpdateGroup custom resource for creation of update groups for worker machines on managed clusters. The use of update groups provides enhanced control over update of worker machines. This feature decouples the concurrency settings from the global cluster level, providing update flexibility based on the workload characteristics of different worker machine sets.

LCM Agent heartbeats

Implemented the same heartbeat model for the LCM Agent as Kubernetes uses for Nodes. This model allows reflecting the actual status of the LCM Agent when it fails. For visual representation, added the corresponding LCM Agent status to the Container Cloud web UI for clusters and machines, which reflects health status of the LCM agent along with its status of update to the version from the current Cluster release.

Handling secret leftovers using secret-controller

Implemented secret-controller that runs on a management cluster and cleans up secret leftovers of credentials that are not cleaned up automatically after creation of new secrets. This controller replaces rhellicense-controller, proxy-controller, and byo-credentials-controller as well as partially replaces the functionality of license-controller and other credential controllers.

Note

You can change memory limits for secret-controller on a management cluster using the resources:limits parameter in the spec:providerSpec:value:kaas:management:helmReleases: section of the Cluster object.

MariaDB backup for bare metal and vSphere providers

Implemented the capability to back up and restore MariaDB databases on management clusters for bare metal and vSphere providers. Also, added documentation on how to change the storage node for backups on clusters of these provider types.