Chapter 2. Top new features
This section provides an overview of the top new features in this release of Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP).
2.1. Red Hat OpenStack Platform director
This section outlines the top new features for Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP) director.
- Validation framework output formats
RHOSP contains a validation framework to help verify the requirements and functionality of the undercloud and overcloud. The framework includes new output formats for validation logs:
validation_json-
The framework saves JSON-formatted validation results as a log file in
/var/log/validations. This is the default callback for the validation framework. validation_stdout- The framework displays JSON-formatted validation results on screen.
http_json- The framework sends JSON-formatted validation results to an external logging server.
Use the
ANSIBLE_STDOUT_CALLBACKenvironment variable to set the format that you want with youropenstack tripleo validator runcommand:$ openstack tripleo validator run --extra-env-vars ANSIBLE_STDOUT_CALLBACK=<callback> --validation check-ram
2.2. Backup and restore
This section outlines the top new features and changes for Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP) backup and restore components.
- Sequential backup for control plane nodes
- The backup process for control plane nodes now runs sequentially on each node instead of simultaneously on all nodes. Therefore, you can create a backup of the control plane nodes without service disruption to your environment.
2.3. Compute
This section outlines the top new features for the Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP) Compute service (nova).
- Memory encryption for instances
- You can configure AMD SEV Compute nodes to provide cloud users the ability to create instances that use memory encryption. For more information, see Configuring AMD SEV Compute nodes to provide memory encryption for instances.
- vGPU resize and cold migration
- Instances with a vGPU flavor are automatically re-allocated the vGPU resources after resize and cold migration operations.
- Image downloads direct from RBD
You can configure the Compute service to download images directly from the RBD image repository without using the Image service API, when:
- the Image service (glance) uses Red Hat Ceph RADOS Block Device (RBD) as the back end and
the Compute service uses local file-based ephemeral storage, you can configure the Compute service to download images directly from the RBD image repository without using the Image service API.
This reduces the time it takes to download an image to the Compute node image cache at instance boot time, which improves instance launch time. For more information, see Configuring image downloads directly from Red Hat Ceph RADOS Block Device (RBD).
2.4. Distributed Compute Nodes (DCN)
This section outlines the top new features for Distributed Compute Nodes (DCN) in Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP).
- ML2/OVN support
- In RHOSP 16.2, the Modular Layer 2 plug-in with the Open Virtual Network mechanism driver (ML2/OVN) is now fully supported for DCN architectures.
- Exclude RAW images from DCN edge sites
-
In RHOSP 16.2, you can use the
NovaImageTypeExcludeListwith a value ofrawto exclude raw images from advertisement on edge sites that do not have Ceph storage. Excluding raw images from sites without storage limits the use of unnecessary network and local storage resources. - Externally managed Red Hat Ceph Storage at the edge
- With the release of RHOSP 16.2, you can now use Red Hat Ceph Storage that is not deployed by RHOSP director at your edge site.
2.5. Networking
This section outlines the top new features for the Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP) Networking service.
- ML2/OVN support for routed provider networks
- Starting in RHOSP 16.2 GA, you can use the Modular Layer 2 plug-in with the Open Virtual Network mechanism driver (ML2/OVN) to deploy routed provider networks. Routed provider networks (RPNs) are common in edge distributed compute node (DCN) and spine-leaf routed data center deployments. RPNs enable a single provider network to represent multiple layer 2 networks (broadcast domains) or network segments, permitting the operator to present only one network to users. For more information, see Deploying routed provider networks in the Networking Guide.
- Availability zones for ML2/OVS and ML2/OVN
- Starting in RHOSP 16.2 GA, with the RHOSP Networking service you can group nodes in availability zones (AZs). For nodes that run crucial services, you can schedule these nodes for resources with high availability. AZs are supported only for the Modular Layer 2 plug-in with the Open Virtual Network (ML2/OVN) and Open vSwitch (ML2/OVS) mechanism drivers. For more information, see Using availability zones to make network resources highly available in the Networking Guide.
2.6. Storage
This section outlines the top new features for the Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP) storage services.
- Automation for DM-Multipathing redundancy configuration
- In RHOSP 16.2.3, the DM-Multipathing redundancy configuration for the Block Storage service (cinder) is now automated.
- Sparse image upload
- With the Image service (glance) API, you can enable sparse image upload to reduce demand on the image storage back end. In sparse images, the Image service does not interpret null byte (empty) sequences as data, therefore only the data itself consumes storage. This feature is particularly useful in distributed compute node (DCN) environments. Sparse image upload also reduces network traffic and improves the image upload speed.
- Multiple back ends
- By default, a standard Shared File Systems service (manila) deployment environment file has a single back end. With this release, you can configure the Shared File Systems service to use one or more supported back ends.
- Image pre-caching
- RHOSP director can pre-cache images as part of the glance-api service. With this release, the image pre-cache feature is fully supported.
- Configuring an external NFS share for conversion
The Block Storage service (cinder) can now use an external NFS share to perform image format conversion of Image service (glance) images on the overcloud Controller nodes. Using this functionality prevents the space on the node from being completely filled during a conversion operation.
- Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform support
- The Shared File Systems service (manila) with CephFS through NFS fully supports serving shares to Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform through Manila CSI. This solution is not intended for large scale deployments. For important recommendations, see CephFS NFS Manila-CSI Workload Recommendations for Red Hat OpenStack Platform 16.x.
- Support for automating multipath deployments
- In release 16.2.4, you can specify the location of your multipath configuration file for your overcloud deployment.
2.7. Bare Metal Provisioning
This section outlines the top new features for the Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP) Bare Metal Provisioning service (ironic).
- Policy-based routing
-
With this enhancement, you can use policy-based routing for RHOSP nodes to configure multiple route tables and routing rules with
os-net-config. Policy-based routing uses route tables where, on a host with multiple links, you can send traffic through a particular interface depending on the source address. You can also define route rules for each interface.
2.8. Network Functions Virtualization
This section outlines the top new features for Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP) Network Functions Virtualization (NFV).
- Modify kernel args
- RHOSP 16.2 includes an update to allow you to modify the kernel args on a deployed node.
- AMD support for SRIOV and DPDK
- RHOSP 16.2 includes support for Single Root Input/Output Virtualization(SR-IOV) and Data Plane Development Kit(DPDK) workloads on AMD hosts.
2.9. Other features
- Red Hat OpenStack Platform director operator
The Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP) director operator creates a set of custom resource definitions (CRDs) on top of Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform to manage resources normally created by the RHOSP undercloud. CRDs are split into two types for hardware provisioning and software configuration. The operator includes CRDs to create and manage overcloud nets (IPAM), VMSets (for RHOSP Controllers), and BaremetalSets (for RHOSP Computes). The RHOSP director operator became a fully supported feature shortly after the release of the RHOSP 16.2.4 Maintenance Release, on December 13, 2022.
For more information, see RHBA-2022:8952, Release of containers for Red Hat OpenStack Platform 16.2.4 director operator.
2.10. Technology previews
This section provides an overview of the top new technology previews in this release of Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP).
For more information on the support scope for features marked as technology previews, see Technology Preview Features Support Scope.
- Transport Layer Security everywhere (TLS-e) now includes memcached
- As a technology preview, you can now configure memcached traffic to be encrypted when you configure TLS-e.
- Timemaster (Precision Time Protocol and Chrony)
-
A technology preview is available that supports the use of
timemasterto configure Precision Time Protocol (PTP) and Chrony in NFV deployments. - Open vSwitch (OVS) Poll Mode Driver (PMD) Auto Load Balance
You can use Open vSwitch (OVS) Poll Mode Driver (PMD) threads to perform the following tasks for user space context switching:
- Continuous polling of input ports for packets.
- Classifying received packets.
Executing actions on the packets after classification.
With this technology preview update, you can modify the following parameters to configure OVS PMD automatic load balance:
- OvsPmdAutoLb
- OvsPmdLoadThreshold
- OvsPmdImprovementThreshold
OvsPmdRebalInterval
- Security group logging
With this technology preview, you can create packet logs for security groups to monitor traffic flows and attempts into and out of an instance. Each log generates a stream of data about events and appends it to a common log file on the Compute host from which the instance was launched.
You can associate any port of an instance with one or more security groups and define one or more rules for each security group. For example, you can create a rule to allow inbound SSH traffic to any instance in a security group named finance. You can create another rule in the same security group to allow instances in that group to send and respond to ICMP (ping) messages.
Then you can create packet logs to record combinations of packet flow events with the related security groups.
2.11. Upgrades
This section outlines the top new features for Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP) upgrades.
- Customize base packages after Leapp upgrade
- In release 16.2.4, after you upgrade your host from Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7.9 to RHEL 8.4, you can specify additional packages to install in your environment by using the BaseTripeloPackages variable. With this feature, you can customize the base packages that your deployment requires on specific roles. For more information, see Customizing the base packages after a Leapp upgrade.
- Upgrade the entire overcloud at once
- In release 16.2.4, if you are prepared to take your data plane offline, you can now upgrade the whole overcloud at once. With this enhancement, you complete the upgrade much faster, at the cost of some data plane downtime. For more information, see Speeding up an overcloud upgrade.
- Update from any source 16.1.z version to the latest minor Red Hat OpenStack Platform version
- Starting in RHOSP 16.2.4, you can update your RHOSP environment from any source 16.1.z version. This enhancement reduces cost and saves time during the update process.
