Olivia Shoup

Enhancements and Features​

Integrate sessions with Kubernetes provider​

Users can now create sessions with the Kubernetes provider, supporting pods, services, and deployments

View provision status from cluster list page​

Cluster provision status can now be opened from cluster list page

Add autoselect option to workflow input forms​

You can now add the autoselect property to a dropdown field when building a workflow. This will make it so the first option is automatically selected.

Bug Fixes​

• On-prem clusters intermittently fail to disconnect
• Workflow with subdomain does not work for marketplace workflow
• Storage deletion logs are missing for some types
• Connecting to an existing cluster which shares home directory with another cluster causes disconnect
• Workflows do not populate default values when running as app
• Workspace mounts shown incorrectly on cluster details page
• Existing cluster reconnect notification did not show correct error

Documentation Changes​

• Update Starting & Stopping Clusters

Enhancements and Features​

Subdomains for sessions​

Users can now use a custom subdomain when creating a session

Command to list kubernetes clusters available​

The command pw kube ls is now available to list available kubernetes clusters. In addition to basic listing, it also supports output format flags -o json and -o table.

Manually create link type sessions​

You can now manually create sessions of the "link" type. Link sessions are simply links to other applications or services from within the platform. In the past, a workflow would've created these in case a session is managed outside of the ACTIVATE platform.

Provision status enhancement for clusters​

Added more details to cluster provision status records. You can now click on individual provision status lines to see more details.

Can now stop cluster controllers​

When attempting to shut down a cluster you will now be given the option to stop the controller. While stopped, costs will be reduced to only the cluster's storage. When you try to start a stopped cluster, you will be prompted to restart the cluster.

Allow existing clusters to reconnect​

Auto Reconnect option has been added to existing cluster options. If enabled we will try to automatically connect to the remote vm. You must first connect manually by pressing the power button.

Bug Fixes​

• Snapshot name not showing if name is too long
• Unknown error when sharing manual sessions
• Cost estimate table showing empty values
• Cluster image dropdown doesn't filter out failed snapshots
• Unable to update cluster definition when editing via json view
• Can't update azure cluster with controller in NAT mode
• Extra recipients in allocation thresholds are optional
• Delete configuration tooltip says turn off instead of destroy

Documentation Changes​

• Additional updates for new cluster UI
• Remove Dashboard page from the user guide
• Aws ec2 permission is missing register image policy

Enhancements and Features​

Image dropdown now shows required disk size​

We now show the required disk size you will need to use an image in the image selection dropdown.

Snapshot disks that were configured inline​

You can now create snapshots from disks that were configured inline in the cluster configuration page. You may do so from the clusters "Sessions" page in the attached storages table.

Show workload metrics on kubernetes workload pages​

You can now see CPU usage, Memory Usage, and Storage usage for kubernetes workloads (statefulsets, deployments, etc). These are viewable from the workload pages. These metrics show combined usage for all pods managed by that resource. We will have individual pod metrics in an upcoming release.

Platform administrators receive deletion failure alerts​

Platform administrators will now receive an alert whenever the platform detects that a resource deletion might not have been processed correctly.

Ability to edit YAML directly from kubernetes definition​

You can now edit Kubernetes resources by modifying them directly on the YAML editor.

Azure AI chat in public preview​

You can now provision and chat with OpenAI models on Azure. To enable this feature preview, use the feature preview menu.

Cloud cluster observability​

Cloud clusters will now have CPU, Memory, and Root Disk charts at the top of the cluster details page.

Bug Fixes​

• Load from market place clears out some fields
• Disable snapshot button while request is pending
• Snapshot names not showing on cluster details page
• Publish from action bar does not work
• Cannot snapshot disks provisioned on clusters using auto zone selection
• Connect via ssh button not disabled while cluster starting
• Not found if clicking edit from jobs page
• Cost dashboard print not working
• Cannot start shared cluster with admin/write access
• Azure managed lustre is not marked as ready
• Some secrets don't show eye icon
• Search bar crashes with some special characters
• Disabled menu items have incorrect styling
• Broken link to docs on new workflow
• Can't start google nodes of a3 family
• Traffic light does not turn off when there is no requested nodes
• Unable to make snapshot of snapshot
• Intermittent google key creation failures
• Use attempts for gaia delete jobs instead of expireTime to avoid context deadline exceed
• Creation page now just says name instead of resource name
• Provision status stucks at collecting variables and delete requested when rabbitmq connection fails
• Various session bug fixes

Documentation Changes​

• Update user guide with new cluster configuration layout
• Add information about user defaults
• Add new Managing Orgs pages

Bug Fixes​

• Openstack doesn't have "Latest" image option
• Cannot create azure ip address
• Traffic light can crash compute module when debugging nodes provisioning
• Recreating a cluster with the same name as a previously deleted one retained the configuration of the deleted cluster.
• PW CLI not authenticated inside of workflows

Documentation Changes​

• Add video walkthrough to Navigating the Platform

Enhancements and Features​

Capacity Reservation description field​

You can now set descriptions on Capacity Reservations

Ability to manually create sessions​

You can now manually create sessions without having to start a workflow. Try this out by clicking the Add session button on the Sessions page.

Bug Fixes​

• Netapp ontap cannot be deleted
• Move optional session options to advanced
• Start ssh connection button is not full width
• Workflow executing message shows even if theres a validation error
• Azure ML studio is only soft deleted
• No confirmation on marketplace item deletion
• Space in reservation id causes node provision failure
• Remote workflows cannot be forked from marketplace

Enhancements and Features​

OpenStack generally available​

OpenStack clusters are now generally available to create via the Parallel Works ACTIVATE platform.

Bug Fixes​

• Storage list not updating after deleting a storage

Enhancements and Features​

Organizations can reset custom sidebar settings to platform defaults​

Organizations can now reset the organization-wide default sidebar settings to the platform defaults by using the radio button available on the user defaults page.

Bug Fixes​

• Search bar links to cli docs are incorrect

Enhancements and Features​

Organization specified default sidebars​

Organizations can now define a default sidebar for new users. Users that have not customized their sidebar will automatically use the organization's default settings. If the organization does not specify a customized sidebar then all sidebar items will be visible by default.

Optional dns server​

Adds an optional DNS service to platform deployments which can resolve slurm cluster hostnames if needed

Add cli list for cluster, app, workflow, and session​

Add Email and Notify Allocation Alerts options to organization settings​

Added Cost Alert notification type and user preferences.

OpenStack clusters can assign floating ip to compute nodes​

Bug Fixes​

• Snapshots show provisioned earlier than expected

Documentation Changes​

• Merge apps and workflows pages

Enhancements and Features​

Update openstack cluster definition page​

Added cluster cost estimation for openstack

Admin-only debug mode for cloud clusters​

Platform administrators can now toggle Debug Mode in cluster Advanced Settings section.

When turned on, users can ssh into the node without waiting for it to be ready using ssh root@<nodeip>. Can be done from the user workspace or user's personal computer (if public key is added in the platform). Node clean up will not happen if there is any error in provisioning.

Bug Fixes​

• Sidebar not always highlighting active item
• Apps shared to marketplace were not labeled as apps

Documentation Changes​

• Customizing the platform
• Improved API docs

Enhancements and Features​

Add flavor pricing table to openstack infra page​

• Add flavor pricing table to openstack infra page. This page will display the synced flavors from openstack project.

Add openstack to realtime​

Realtime now processes openstack data.

Bug Fixes​

• Able to to start a workflow without selecting required field while using app.target as the default value
• Environment variables not available on workflow cleanup steps
• New ssh key not showing after creation
• Starting a session on existing clusters would fail under certain cases

Documentation Changes​

• Add page for managing static IP addresses
• IP page corrections/improvements
• SSH key update

Enhancements and Features​

Promote apps/sessions to GA​

Apps and sessions are now generally available.

Apps provide a layer on top of workflows which make additional interfaces available for workflow developers to make interactive experiences easier. Sessions expose ports on compute resources to the browser so users can run interactive apps on their computing resources and access them directly via ACTIVATE.

Read our documentation for apps and sessions to learn more.

Bug Fixes​

• Long logs line numbers overlap logs

Documentation Changes​

• Add apps and sessions

Enhancements and Features​

Show running workflow steps while session is pending​

On a session's page, current running workflow steps will be shown while the session is pending.

Change default layout for home page​

We've updated the default layout of the home page. If you have not customized your home page, you will automatically be moved to the new default layout which shows:

• favorite workflows
• recent workflow runs
• favorite compute resources

To customize your layout, use the customize button at the top right of the home page. Note that users with a custom layout are not affected by this change.

Bug Fixes​

• Marketplace workflows with dots in name can now create sessions
• External auth UI doesn't fit compactly
• Saving cluster configuration gives an error if storage is attached
• Controller ip substituted incorrectly in workflow inputs
• Clusters can share one static ip address
• Whitespace not showing correctly in changelogs
• Ephemeral storage provision status does not update when persistent storage also attached
• Api key and token generation has slightly different UI

Documentation Changes​

• Document unique naming system

Enhancements and Features​

Add health check and storage logs into provision status UI​

• Health check is now moved into provision status list.
• Health check and ephemeral storage failure now also displays a View logs button to see the details of what happened.

Support manually providing oidc endpoints or using issuer to discover​

OIDC endpoints can now be manually provided instead of using the issuer to discover them. This makes the OIDC authentication method more flexible for cases where applications do not have a proper well-known endpoint or the well-known endpoint is behind a firewall but the other endpoints are not.

This update also has slight visual enhancements to the auth method page, with the "configure" button being changed to a link.

Support new provision status UX for Azure NetApp Files​

The new provisioning experience is live for Azure NetApp files.

Bug Fixes​

• Oidc edit page always clears userinfo endpoint
• Incorrect authentication endpoint used in oidc authentication
• Skip building libnss_cache and config nsswitch.conf when present in image

Other Changes​

• Add Sharing a Snapshot to Working With Disk Snapshots

Enhancements and Features​

Allow choosing export when hammerspace has multiple shares​

Adds an input box when attaching filesystems only for Hammerspace. This input allows users to define the export path the cluster will use to mount the hammerspace file share from.

Additional workflow features​

You can now specify remoteHost and slug when updating a session.

      - uses: parallelworks/update-session
        with:
          slug: 'string' // (optional) appends this slug to the session url
          remoteHost: 'string' // (optional) host to forward session to from the target, defaults to "localhost"
          ... other inputs

You can now also specify if the session will use TLS.

sessions:
  mySession: 
    useTLS: true // (optional) Will use https when connecting to session, should only be turned on if the app requires https.

Enhancements and Features​

Improve provision status UI for hammerspace​

Changes the Hammerspace provision status UI to only show the main components getting created, Anvil, DSX, DataNodes. Also adds deletion statuses.

Bug Fixes​

• Cost page crashes
• Remove extra padding on kubernetes pages
• Resource names should not be automatically capitalized
• Parallel workflow jobs not running
• Cannot create oidc auth method in another organization

Other Changes​

• Add quick connect instructions to logging in to controller page

Enhancements and Features​

Provision status ui enhancements​

• Provision status UI now displays details of ansible bootstrap task that failed
• Ephemeral lustre filesystem and persistent disk attachment now also displayed, including error if any.

Add failed node to cluster data return endpoint​

Failed nodes are now also returned in cluster data. This is useful for workflow that need to know nodes provision status to make decision instead of waiting for slurm to time out

New provisioning UX promoted to GA​

The new provisioning experience is now generally available for our next-generation cloud clusters and most cloud storage options.

Promote next-gen cloud clusters to general availability​

Next-generation cloud clusters are now generally available. With this update, previous generation clusters will be marked with the text "Legacy".

Workspace mount tooltips​

Workspace mount points now have tooltips for substitutions

Bug Fixes​

• Org vars not populating on workflows

Enhancements and Features​

Dependency graph summary info​

Adds a summary box above the workflow dependency graph

Cli can use tokens to authenticate with PW_API_KEY env variable​

Can use PW_API_KEY environment variable with tokens to authenticate

Identify-platform command​

Adds a command pw auth identify-platform to the CLI to help identify which platform host the CLI is configured to run commands against.

Make azure cluster nodes provisioning more stable​

Make nodes provisioning more stable for azure

Improved changelogs​

Introduced a new structure for the changelogs, where changes are categorized into three sections: Enhancements and Features, Bug Fixes, and Other Changes.

Bug Fixes​

• Cost page crashing
• Compute nodes retry-provision always fails
• Ansible packages installation sometimes fails
• Azure regular image id doesnt work
• Attached disk is not working properly in v2 clusters definition
• Cannot type number that is less than minimum into input
• Filesystem attachment form doesnt work properly when cluster is on