Skip to main content

Release notes

The release notes were launched on 11.10.2022. At this point, the minimum functionality of The Cloudsphere was achieved. The MVP was usable both via API itself and via the CLI (tcsctl). A UI was not yet available at that time.

1.0.0 (Nighthawk)​

Version 1.0.0 is currently in progress and not yet published.

Version 1.0.0 contains the status of the MVP as well as all enhancements already identified and implemented during the evaluation phase of the MVP.

Other​

  • Python 3.11 is now used as standard in the service container image
  • This project was initially developed under the internal development name Timon. In preparation for the first release, it was renamed The Cloudsphere (TCS for short).
  • The documentation has been switched from Sphinx to Docusaurus and is now published on thecloudsphere.io.
  • The Getting Started Guide from the README of thecloudsphere/tcsctl has been integrated into the documentation.

Blueprint: environment overrides​

With environment overrides it is possible to customise certain predefined properties in a blueprint when executing an environment on a blueprint.

The following properties can be adjusted (if supported by the environment used).

  • blueprint_source
  • blueprint_source_key
  • blueprint_version
  • working_directory
  • outputs_directory
  • makefile
  • makefile_pre_processing
  • makefile_processing
  • makefile_post_processing

The following sample snippet is from the osism/testbed blueprint.

There, the blueprint is not imported from the registry but from the external repository osism/testbed. The directory for the execution of Terraform in this case is /processing/terraform (instead of /processing). The outputs are not in /outputs but in /processing/terraform. For the execution of Terraform, /processing/terraform/Makefile is used instead of /processing/Makefile.

environment:
  repository: thecloudsphere/registry
  name: terraform/openstack
  version: 1.3.2
  overrides:
    blueprint_source: https://github.com/osism/testbed.git
    # blueprint_source_key:
    # blueprint_version:
    working_directory: /processing/terraform
    outputs_directory: /processing/terraform
    # makefile:
    # makefile_pre_processing:
    makefile_processing: /processing/terraform/Makefile
    # makefile_post_processing:

The overrides supported by an environment can be defined via the parameter supported_overrides at the environment. If supported_overrides is not set, no overrides are supported. All supported overrides must be explicitly listed. If overrides are set that are not supported by an environment, a WARNING is issued and the override is ignored.

Blueprint/Environment/Template: use of template strings​

When executing a deployment, certain variables are set that always can be used.

  • tcs.id: the UUID of a deployment
  • tcs.name: the name of a deployment
  • tcs.created_at: the timestamp when a deployment was initially requested

These variables can now be accessed within the inputs and outputs by using Jinja2.

inputs:
  prefix: "{{ tcs.id }}"

Additional variables are available in the output. In addition to the standard tcs.* templates, inputs can also be accessed there. However, it is only possible to access inputs of the type environment.

For example, if the following input is defined for a blueprint, it can be accessed in the outputs via inputs.environment.

inputs:
  - name: environment
    destination:
      path: ENVIRONMENT
      type: environment
    default: betacloud
    required: false
    description: |
      Environment to use.

outputs:
  - name: private_key
    source:
      path: ".id_rsa.{{ inputs.environment }}"
      type: ssh
    description: |
      Private SSH key to access the manager instance
    visibility: private

API: deployment states endpoint​

The deployment states endpoint can be used to list all existing states in a deployment or to download a specific state.

  • /deployments/{project_id}/{deployment_id}/states
  • /deployments/{project_id}/{deployment_id}/states/{version_id}

The command in the CLI is tcsctl deployment states. For the listing of all states, only the name or the ID of the deployment is given.

tcsctl deployment states hello-world
+--------------------------------------+----------------------------------+
| version_id                           | last_modified                    |
|--------------------------------------+----------------------------------|
| adad1499-8aca-4b54-ba30-86fb7dfc9412 | 2022-10-16T16:08:26.746000+00:00 |
| 24962ce5-92dc-4a87-a27e-487859f840e4 | 2022-10-16T15:45:04.028000+00:00 |
| 4c9ef664-f89b-460d-97eb-be0c951e838d | 2022-10-16T15:31:24.197000+00:00 |
| aafcf490-d782-4c7d-80b1-38a9ce063147 | 2022-10-16T15:28:30.014000+00:00 |
+--------------------------------------+----------------------------------+

To download a specific state, the ID of the state is also specified.

tcsctl deployment states hello-world adad1499-8aca-4b54-ba30-86fb7dfc9412

The status is then stored on the local file system in the working directory in a file with the name adad1499-8aca-4b54-ba30-86fb7dfc9412.tar.

Template: overwrite the environment​

With the parameters environment and environment_version, it is possible to overwrite the environment set via the selected blueprint and its version during a template.

In blueprint terraform/openstack/hello-world, the terraform/opentack environment is actually used. In this case, the python/base environment version 3.10 is used instead.

python-sample:
  blueprint: terraform/openstack/hello-world
  blueprint_version: main
  environment: python/base
  environment_version: "3.10"

New CLI feature: Specify the column(s) to include​

With the list command, the columns can now be filtered using the --column parameter. The parameter can be repeated to show multiple columns

tcsctl deployment list --column name --column status
+----+-------------+----------+
|    | name        | status   |
|----+-------------+----------|
|  0 | hello-world | CREATED  |
+----+-------------+----------+

New CLI feature: Write outpus to file instead of stdout​

With the parameter --file, the output of a deployment can be written directly to a file.

tcsctl deployment outputs hello-world private_key --file id_rsa.hello-world
Output private_key from deployment hello-world was written to file id_rsa.hello-world.

New CLI feature: Control of deployments​

There are blueprints that support a console, for example SSH, for control. This console can be called up with the command tcsctl deployment control. A deployment must be in status CREATED or RECONCILED for the control feature to be usable.

Currently, only SSH is supported. In the future, other tools such as kubectl will be added.

tcsctl deployment control hello-world
Welcome to Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS (GNU/Linux 5.15.0-52-generic x86_64)
[...]
ubuntu@hello-world-instance:~$

Blueprint: Control of deployments​

The control object can be used to define the necessary values for the tcsctl deployment control command in a blueprint. The use of outputs of the created deployments is possible via templates.

control:
  type: ssh
  arguments:
    - name: destination
      value: "{{ outputs.address }}"
      type: string
    - name: identity_file
      value: "{{ outputs.private_key }}"
      type: file
    - name: user
      value: ubuntu
      type: string