From 1ae75986e4baa80ab4a01acd9b108ff32f65016d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Gabriel Hurley Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2013 11:59:00 -0700 Subject: [PATCH] Adds Grizzly release notes. Fixes bug 1157348. Change-Id: Ic3a7725d4ef489033d98d48d21671b2d982def8e --- doc/source/releases/2013_1.rst | 276 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 276 insertions(+) create mode 100644 doc/source/releases/2013_1.rst diff --git a/doc/source/releases/2013_1.rst b/doc/source/releases/2013_1.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..ad62f3ee72 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/source/releases/2013_1.rst @@ -0,0 +1,276 @@ +======================== +Horizon 2013.1 "Grizzly" +======================== + +Release Overview +================ + +The Grizzly release cycle saw sweeping improvements to overall user experience, +huge stability improvements, lots of new networking, instance management and +image management features, a long-needed architectural clarification, and big +increases in community engagement! Read on to get the specifics. + +Highlights +========== + +New Features +------------ + +Networking +~~~~~~~~~~ + +Quantum added a huge number of new features in Grizzly, including L3 support +(routers), load balancers, network topology infographics, better compatibility +with Nova networking APIs (VNIC ordering when launching an instance; security +groups and floating IP integration) and vastly improved informational displays. + +Direct Image Upload To Glance +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +It is now possible (though there are numerous deployment/security implications) +to upload an image file directly from a user's hard disk to Glance through +Horizon. For multi-GB images it is still strongly recommended that the upload +be done using the Glance CLI. Further improvements to this feature will come in +future releases. + +Flavor Extra Specs Support +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +In Folsom, Nova added support for "extra specs" on flavors--additional metadata +which custom schedulers could use for appropriately scheduling instances. As of +the Grizzly release, Horizon now supports reading and writing that data on any +flavor. + +Migrate Instance +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Administrators now have the ability to migrate an instance off of its current +host via the Admin dashboard's Instances panel. + + +User Experience Improvements +---------------------------- + +"Not Authorized" & Being Logged Out +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +A shocking number of the problems first-time deployers of OpenStack have can be +summarized as "I thought I set everything up, then I tried to log into the +dashboard and I was immediately logged back out." The root cause of this was +that in an effort to be as secure as possible any 401 or 403 response from +any service API was being treated the same as if it was an attempt to access +an unauthorized portion of Horizon, and the user was summarily logged out with +little to no information as to why. + +In Grizzly we have instead chosen to improve this by treating service API +401 and 403 errors as slightly less severe than unauthorized access attempts +to resitricted areas of Horizon. The reason for this is threefold: + +#. For a non-malicious user these errors are almost 100% the result of + misconfiguration and this makes debugging possible. +#. A malicious user can make the exact same "unauthorized" requests via the + CLI as they can via the dashboard; no special privileges are granted. +#. API errors are generated by external systems not under the purview of our + project and while we should attempt to respect and take appropriate action + on those errors, we should not do anything drastic or even potentially + destructive because of them. + +Going forward the user will not be logged out, but no information will be +populated on the page and they will be presented with error messages informing +them that they are unauthorized for the data they attempted to access. + +Reorganizations +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +A couple of long-standing user confusions were fixed in Grizzly. + +First off, the API Access panel (containing a user's API endpoints, rc files, +and EC2 credentials) was moved from Settings to the Access & Security section +of the Project dashboard. + +Second, the Default Quotas and Services panels (which were both strictly +informational) were combined into tabs in a single System Info panel to make +it clear that these panels are thematically related, and to create a home for +informational-only displays like these. + +One-click Floating IP Management +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +A common complaint from users was that associating a floating IP to an +instance involved numerous clicks and form selections for something that +the majority of users had no knowledge of and didn't care about. As such, a +one-click "simple" floating IP association option has been created. For +deployments which only have a single floating IP pool, this allows users to +ignore explicit floating IP management and just click a button to associate +or disassociate a floating IP with an instance. + +Organized Images +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +The Images table now has a new feature: predefined filters for seeing your own +images, images that have been shared with you, or public images. This makes +finding the image you're looking for a great deal easier and more pleasant. + +Security Group Rule Editing Improvements +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +The security group rule editing experience has always been inherently very +complicated simply given the number of options and the very technical terms +involved. Moreover, the combined table-plus-form approach the OpenStack +Dashboard had taken only made the UX more frustrating for an already difficult +area. + +In Grizzly this has all been reworked to be signficantly simpler, and to +provide as much contextual help and streamlining as possible. + +Icons! +~~~~~~ + +In an effort to make the dashboard more at-a-glance usable, we've added icons +to most of the common action buttons throughout the dashboard. + +"More Actions", More Better +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Lots of feedback came in that the "more actions" dropdown menu (for tables with +numerous actions available on each row) was confusing to new users and/or +difficult to click. + +We've now improved it so that the button to open the menu is clearly labeled +and the hitbox for clicking it is significantly larger. + + +Community +--------- + +Docs, docs, and more docs! +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Large amounts of new documentation was added during the Grizzly cycle, most +notably are sections documenting: all of the available settings for Horizon and +the OpenStack Dashboard; security and deployment considerations; and deeper +guides on customizing the OpenStack Dashboard. + +IRC Meeting +~~~~~~~~~~~ + +During the Grizzly cycle we started holding a weekly project meeting on IRC. +This has been extremely beneficial for the growth and progress of the project. +Check out the `OpenStack Meetings wiki page`_ for specifics. + +.. _Openstack Meetings wiki page: https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Meetings#Horizon_team_meeting + + +Under The Hood +-------------- + +Legacy Dashboard Names & Code Separation +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Very early in the Grizzly cycle we took the opportunity to do some longstanding +cleanup and refactoring work. The "nova" dashboard was renamed to "project" and +the "syspanel" dashboard was renamed to "admin" to better reflect their +respective purposes. + +Moreover, a better separation was created between code related to the core +Horizon framework code (which is not related to OpenStack specifically) and +the OpenStack Dashboard code. At this point *all* code related to OpenStack +lives in the OpenStack Dashboard directory, while the Horizon framework is +completely agnostic and is a reusable Django app. + +Object Storage Delimiters and Pseudo-folder Objects +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +When Horizon's object storage interface was first added, Swift's documentation +recommended adding 0-byte objects with a special content type to denote +pseudo-folders within a container. They have since decided that this is not the +recommended practice, and that pseudo-folders should only be demarcated by +a delimiting character (usually "/") in the object name. + +Horizon has been updated under the hood to use this method, which should bring +it better into line with how most deployments are using their object storage. + +Easier Theming For Distros +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Many distros have policies of not modifying the source code for a package, and +that made providing a custom theme or stylesheet for Horizon quite difficult. +As such, new mechanisms for defining a custom theme path have been added so that +it can be added to your local_settings file instead of having to alter any of +the core OpenStack Dashboard files. + + +Other Improvements and Fixes +---------------------------- + +* Support for Keystone's PKI tokens. + +* Flavor editing was made significantly more stable. + +* Security groups can be added to a running instance. + +* Volume quotas are handled by the appopriate service depending on whether + or not Cinder is enabled. + +* Password confirmation boxes are now validated for matching passwords on + the client side for more immediate feedback. + +* Numerous fixes to display more and better information for instances and + volumes in their overview pages. + +* Improved unicode support for the Object Storage panels. + +* Logout now attempts to delete the token(s) associated with the current + session to avoid replay attacks, etc. + +* Various fixes for browser compatibility and rendering. + +* Many, many other bugfixes and improvements. Check out Launchpad for the full + list of what went on in Grizzly. + + +Known Issues and Limitations +============================ + +Editing a Flavor Which Results In An API Error Will Delete The Flavor +--------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Due to the way that Nova handles flavor editing/replacement it is necessary +to delete the old flavor before creating the replacement flavor. As such, +if an API error occurs while creating the replacement it is possible to +lose the old flavor without the new one being created. + +Creating Rich Network Topologies +-------------------------------- + +Due to several Quantum features landing very late in the Grizzly cycle, it +is not possible to create particularly complex networking configurations +through the OpenStack Dashboard. These features will continue to grow +throughout future releases. + +Loadbalancer Feature +-------------------- + +The Loadbalancer feature landed in the 11th hour for both Quantum and Horizon +and, though we did our best to test it, may still contain undiscovered bugs. It +is best considered a "beta" or "experimental" feature for the Grizzly release. + +Deleting large numbers of resources simultaneously +-------------------------------------------------- + +Using the "select all" checkbox to delete large numbers of resources via the +API can cause network timeouts (depending on configuration). This is +due to the APIs not supporting bulk-deletion natively, and consequently Horizon +has to send requests to delete each resource individually behind the scenes. + +Backwards Compatibility +======================= + +The Grizzly Horizon release should be fully compatible with both Grizzly and +Folsom versions of the rest of the OpenStack core projects (Nova, Swift, etc.). +While some features work significantly better with an all-Grizzly stack due +to bugfixes, etc. in underlying services, there should not be limitations +on what will or will not function. + +Overall, great effort has been made to maintain compatibility for +third-party developers who may have built on Horizon so far.