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ObjectScale 1.4 provides a series of feature improvements and enhancements that contribute significantly to advancing the field of enterprise storage solutions.
Enhancements to the management API provide comprehensive monitoring capabilities, including cluster status, node-based inventory details, and granular component monitoring. Authorized users can access various functions through the ObjectScale portal or a REST client, such as listing current cluster users' status, creating a 'set user password' job requests, listing all cluster jobs, and obtaining detailed information on specific jobs. Additionally, new audit messages for cluster user set password events and new alerts for successful and failed jobs have been introduced.
The ObjectScale portal has been upgraded to offer a complete inventory of all nodes, disks, pods, and PVCs within the cluster. This comprehensive overview aids in efficient resource management and planning. The Grafana UI has been enhanced to display data visualization dashboards of various cluster performance data, hardware monitoring, and network data. This includes resource utilization views at the cluster level, by nodes, and pods by node, providing a detailed insight into the cluster's performance.
A new API simplifies the process of deleting a bucket, even those containing data. Previously, a standard S3 bucket could only be deleted if it was empty. The new feature allows for the deletion of non-empty buckets through a background task, with configurable speed and resource consumption. This improvement streamlines the deletion process and provides better monitoring capabilities.
The ObjectScale replication framework has undergone changes to deliver improved replication throughput for both small and large objects. These enhancements prevent increasing replication backlogs and improve resource utilization, ensuring data protection without disrupting customer applications.
Enhancements in the deployment and installation process have been made to improve the customer experience. For all deployment modes, the installation package size has been reduced, decreasing disk usage during deployment and upgrades. Additionally, during the installation of the appliance, the deployment node is now automatically added as part of the target cluster configuration.
For appliance and software bundle deployments, the upgrade process has been streamlined with the introduction of a 1-click upgrade feature for the ObjectScale application layer. This feature allows for the simultaneous upgrade of applications along with the infrastructure, including RKE and the OS (for appliances). ObjectScale utilizes a single REST API call to upgrade the entire ObjectScale stack.
ObjectScale v1.4 provides management IAM support for deployments on OpenShift, offering a simplified management user experience consistent with the Software bundle deployment model. This results in a common IAM model across all deployment models. The ObjectScale security administrator can create, update, list and manage management users, and AD/LDAP authentication providers can be created from the ObjectScale Portal or using the ObjectScale Management REST API. Enhanced node and disk operation UI, including listing nodes, node disk details, Kubernetes pods, entering/exiting maintenance mode, and disk operations such as listing, details, removal, and ejection.
The garbage collection (GC) process is designed to reclaim space by removing discarded chunks, whether entirely unused or partially occupied by deleted object fragments no longer referenced. This involves a GC verification scanner that examines the directory tables to confirm the continued use of chunks.
Key enhancements in ObjectScale 1.4 to the space reclamation process include:
These improvements collectively advance the efficiency of the storage reclamation process.
ObjectScale has upgraded its cryptographic module to BSAFE Crypto-J 6.3, ensuring compliance with FIPS 140-2 standards for Data-at-Rest Encryption. This update enhances the overall security of the OBS crypto libraries and maintains adherence to industry-standard encryption requirements.
ObjectScale 1.4 now supports the latest versions of Red Hat OpenShift (v4.14) and Kubernetes (v1.27), allowing customers to upgrade their platforms to the most current releases.
The BSAFE cryptography used by Data-at-Rest-Encryption has been upgraded to version 6.3 or greater.