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diff --git a/doc/source/releases/2013_2.rst b/doc/source/releases/2013_2.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7a39cb9b0 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/source/releases/2013_2.rst @@ -0,0 +1,254 @@ +======================= +Horizon 2013.2 "Havana" +======================= + +Release Overview +================ + +The Havana release cycle brings support for *three* new projects, plus +significant new features for several existing projects. On top of that, many +aspects of user experience have been improved for both end users and +administrators. The community continues to grow and expand. The Havana release +is solidly the best release of the OpenStack Dashboard project yet! + +Highlights +========== + +New Features +------------ + +Heat +~~~~ + +The OpenStack Orchestration project (Heat) debuted in Havana, and Horizon +delivers full support for managing your Heat stacks. Highlights include +support for dynamic form generation from supported Heat template formats, +stack topology visualizations, and full stack resource inspection. + +Ceilometer +~~~~~~~~~~ + +Also debuting in Havana is the OpenStack Metering project (Ceilometer). Initial +support for Ceilometer is included in Horizon so that it is possible for an +administrator to query the usage of the cloud through the OpenStack Dashboard +and better understand how the system is functioning and being utilized. + +Domains, Groups, and More: Keystone v3 API Support +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +With the OpenStack Identity Service (Keystone) v3 API fully fledged in the +Havana release, Horizon has added full support for all the new features such +as Domains and Groups, Role management and assignment to Domains and Groups, +Domain-based authentication, and Domain context switching. + +Trove Databases +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +The OpenStack Database as a Service project (Trove) graduated from incubation +in the Havana cycle, and thanks to their industriousness they delivered a +set of panels for the OpenStack dashboard to allow for provisioning and managing +your Trove databases and backups. Disclaimer: Given that Trove's first official +release as an integrated project will not be until Icehouse this feature should +still be considered experimental and may be subject to change. + +Nova Features +~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +The number of OpenStack Compute (Nova) features that are supported in Horizon +continues to grow. New features in the Havana release include: + +* Editable default quotas. +* The ability for an administrator to reset the password of a server/instance. +* Availablity zone support. +* Improved region support. +* Instance resizing. +* Improved boot-from-volume support. +* Per-project flavor support. + +All of these provide a richer set of options for controlling where, when and how +instances are launched, and improving how they're managed once they're up and +running. + +Neutron Features +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +A number of important new OpenStack Networking (Neutron) features are showcased +in the Havana release, most notably: + +* VPN as a Service. +* Firewall as a Service. +* Editable and interactive network topology visualizations. +* Full security group and quota parity between Neutron and Nova network. + +These features allow for tremendous flexibility when constructing +software-defined networks for your cloud using Neutron. + + +User Experience Improvements +---------------------------- + +Self-Service Password Change +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Empowered by changes to the Keystone API, users can now change their own +passwords without the need to involve an administrator. This is more secure and +takes the hassle out of things for everyone. + +Better Admin Information Architecture +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Several sections of the Admin dashboard have been rearranged to more logically +group information together. Additionally, new sources of information have been +added to allow Admins to better understand the state of the hosts in the cloud +and their relationship to host aggregates, availability zones, etc. + +Improved Messaging To Users On Logout +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Several new indicators have been added to inform users why they've been logged +out when they land on the login screen unexpectedly. These indicators make it +clear whether the user's session has expired, they timed out due to inactivity, +or they are not authorized for the section of the dashboard they attempted to +access. + +Security Group Rule Templates +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Since there are many very common security group rules which users tediously +re-add each time (rules for SSH and ping, for example) the Horizon team has +added pre-configured templates for common rules which a user can select and +add to their security group with two clicks. These rules are configurable +via the ``SECURITY_GROUP_RULES`` setting. + + +Community +--------- + +Translation Team +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +The OpenStack Translations team came fully into its own during the Havana cycle +and the quality of the translations in Horizon are the best yet by far. +Congratulations to that team for their success in building the community that +started primarily within the OpenStack Dashboard project. + +User Experience Group +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +A fledgling OpenStack User Experience Group formed during the Havana cycle with +the mission of improving UX throughout OpenStack. They have quickly made +themselves indispensable to the process of designing and improving features in +the OpenStack Dashboard. Expect significant future improvement in User +Experience now that there are dedicated people actively collaborating in the +open to raise the bar. + + +Under The Hood +-------------- + +Less Complicated LESS Compilation: No More NodeJS +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Due to outcry from various parties, and made possible by improvements in the +Python community's support for LESS, Horizon has removed all traces of NodeJS +from the project. We now use the ``lesscpy`` module to compile our LESS into +the final stylesheets. This should not affect most users in any way, but it +should make life easier for downstream distributions and the like. + +Role-Based Access Controls +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Horizon has begun the transition to using the other OpenStack projects' +``policy.json`` files to enforce access controls in the dashboard if the files +are provided. This means access controls are more configurable and can be kept +in sync between the originating project and Horizon. Currently this is only +supported for Keystone and parts of Nova's policy files. Full support will +come in the next release. You will need to set the ``POLICY_FILES_PATH`` and +``POLICY_FILES`` settings in order to enable this feature. + + +Other Improvements and Fixes +---------------------------- + +* Swift container and object metadata are now supported. +* New visualizations for utilization and quotas. +* The Cisco N1K Router plugin's additional features are available through a + special additional dashboard when enabled and supported in Neutron. +* Support for self-signed or other specified SSL certificate checking. +* Glance image types are now configurable. +* Sorting has been improved in many places through the dashboard. +* API call efficiency optimizations. +* Required fields in forms are now better indicated. +* Session timeout can now be enabled to log out the user after a period of + inactivity as a security feature. +* Significant PEP8 and code quality compliance improvements. +* Hundreds of bugfixes and minor user experience improvements. + + +Upgrade Information +=================== + +Allowed Hosts +------------- + +For production deployments of Horizon you must add the ``ALLOWED_HOSTS`` +setting to your ``settings.py`` or ``local_settings.py`` file. This setting +was added in Django 1.5 and is an important security feature. For more +information on it please consult the ``local_settings.py.example`` file +or Django's documentation. + +Enabling Keystone and Neutron Features +-------------------------------------- + +If you have existing configurations for the ``OPENSTACK_KEYSTONE_BACKEND`` +or ``OPENSTACK_NEUTRON_NETWORK`` settings, you will want to consult the +``local_settings.example.py`` file for information on the new options that +have been added. Existing configurations will continue to work, but may not +have the correct keys to enable some of the new features in Havana. + + +Known Issues and Limitations +============================ + +Session Creation and Health Checks +---------------------------------- + +If you use a health monitoring service that pings the home page combined with +a database-backed session backend you may experience excessive session creation. +This issue is slated to be fixed soon, but in the interim the recommended +solution is to write a periodic job that deletes expired sessions from your +session store on a regular basis. + +Deleting large numbers of resources simultaneously +-------------------------------------------------- + +Using the "select all" checkbox to delete large numbers of resources at once +can cause network timeouts (depending on configuration). This is due to the +underlying APIs not supporting bulk-deletion natively, and consequently Horizon +has to send requests to delete each resource individually behind the scenes. + +Conflicting Security Group Names With Neutron +--------------------------------------------- + +Whereas Nova Network uses only the name of a security group when specifying +security groups at instance launch time, Neutron can accept either a name or +a UUID. In order to support both, Horizon passes in the name of the selected +security groups. However, due to some data-isolation issues in Neutron there is +an issue that can arise if an admin user tries to specify a security group with +the same name as another security group in a different project which they also +have access to. Neutron will find multiple matches for the security group +name and will fail to launch the instance. The current workaround is to treat +security group names as unique for admin users. + + +Backwards Compatibility +======================= + +The Havana Horizon release should be fully compatible with both Havana and +Grizzly versions of the rest of the OpenStack integrated projects (Nova, Swift, +etc.). New features in other OpenStack projects which did not exist in Grizzly +will obviously only work in Horizon if the rest of the stack supports them as +well. + +Overall, great effort has been made to maintain compatibility for +third-party developers who have built on Horizon so far. |