Summary
Electric Cloud is pleased to announce the general availability of the ElectricFlow 8.3 FR. This release is of the “Feature Release” type. For more information about types of releases, please go to ElectricFlow Release Strategy.
ElectricFlow 8.3 delivers innovation across various key vectors such as managing complex enterprise releases with dependencies, accelerating container adoption, providing unprecedented visibility into Kubernetes clusters and simplifying user experience for many key activities.
Some of the highlights are:
Improved management of Release and Pipeline dependencies with the Portfolio View
Enterprise releases can be complex with many moving parts and dependencies. In many cases enterprise releases are comprised of other sub-Releases, and groups of applications, each with their own pipelines and timelines. Managing this complex hierarchy using excel sheets, or even using older release management tools which lack automation, can be a nightmare. With support for hierarchical releases and pipelines in ElectricFlow, you can model, automate and visualize dependencies across releases.
In addition to dependency modeling, the Portfolio View for releases and pipelines provides top down visibility into the entire dependency hierarchy. At runtime, this view gives detailed insight into the status of each pipeline in the hierarchy, down to the stage level -- showing successes, failures, and waits for manual tasks or dependencies. This view provides the status of all related releases at a glance, with drill downs into dependencies, to easily understand progress and identify delays -- significantly simplifying the task of enterprise release management.
SmartMap Topology View for an unprecedented 3D view into container platform clusters
Container runtime environments can include numerous services deployed across clusters, with detailed interdependencies between them. It can be challenging to understand the complex mesh of clusters, namespaces, services, nodes etc and how they are related, especially as the numbers grow. It is also not easy for DevOPs and Development teams to know where their service is deployed, how well is it doing, or to access logs for troubleshooting, without talking with Kubernetes administrators.
The new SmartMap Topology view transforms the way you visualize and manage your container cluster environments. The interactive 3D visualization displays the interdependent services, clusters and pods deployed in Kubernetes, and the connections to the microservices and environment models in ElectricFlow. With capabilities to interactively rotate and zoom in on focus areas, view live status of deployments, and drill down into details – SmartMap makes it easy to quickly visualize, understand, and ‘touch’ your complex microservices topology. It also aids with troubleshooting and impact analysis.
Lift and Shift traditional Java/.Net artifacts to containers
For organizations wanting to take advantage of the benefits of containers, without the effort required to decompose and re-write their traditional monolithic applications, ElectricFlow 8.3 provides new Lift and Shift capability. The Lift and Shift function in ElectricFlow picks up where your existing CI processes leave off. Lift and Shift will take your traditional build output using out-of-the-box templates to automatically build and publish Docker images that are ready to deploy to your container runtime, significantly accelerating your container adoption journey.
Start modeling Microservices quickly with automated discovery and onboarding
Leverage your existing investments in microservices to automate modeling in ElectricFlow with new Self-Service catalog items for discovery and onboarding.
- Kubernetes Discovery: Simply provide the connection details of your existing clusters in Kubernetes, and ElectricFlow will automatically discover the services and create the associated Microservices models and even Environments in ElectricFlow that are ready to deploy.
- Automated Onboarding with Import: Enter your Kubernetes YAML file or Docker Compose file detailing your microservices definitions and dependencies to automatically create deployable Microservices models in ElectricFlow.
With automated onboarding, you can quickly translate your existing assets to start leveraging ElectricFlow’s native Microservices support to manage and deploy your microservices.
Unlock the power of Properties faster with a new way to view, author & use them
Properties in ElectricFlow are a powerful component of our platform and architecture, providing a flexible and robust mechanism for storing, sharing and reporting data in your processes. This makes creating, and using properties, even easier with two new features:
- Property Browser: View and manage all of the properties defined on an object and its related objects in one simple browser view. New functions to copy and move properties or folders (property sheets) make it easy to create complex structures across an object.
- Property Picker: When writing your pipeline automation, simply use the new property picker to select any properties (built-in or custom) or parameters you need to reference, without requiring you to remember and write out the property name and path.
Restart Pipelines from any Stage or Task for better control over recovering from failures
In ElecrticFlow 8.3, we now introduce more flexibility and granularity over pipeline restarts. You can now restart pipelines from any stage, or even from the task level. This provides finer control to determine exactly which set of tasks need to be restarted and from where, while maintaining the context of the entire pipeline. The pipeline view allows you to easily see all runs of stages and tasks, for auditability into the entire process.
‘Utility Resources’ for better control to execute activities other than deployments
In ElectricFlow 8.3, we introduce the concept of the Utility Resources to application and environment models to provide more flexibility to control over which resources are used to execute activities other than deployments. Instead of broadcasting commands to all resources in an environment tier, which works for deployments, Utility Resources can be specified to run ‘non-deployment’ activities on a ‘specific resource’, such as updating load balancer settings, sending notifications etc.
Additionally please refer to the release notes for many more enhancements
Plugins
- EC-Artifactory: A new plugin to easily model and deploy your artifacts from Artifactory as part of your ElectricFlow applications.
- We are continuing to strengthen our suite of microservices deployment integrations with key new capabilities and updates to Container platform plugins:
- EC-AzureContainerService-Docker: A new plugin for provisioning and deploying on Docker Swarm clusters using Azure Container Service.
- Updates to integrations with Kubernetes to support automated discovery and onboarding, support for Kubernetes version 1.10, and more.
- Updates to the EC-Docker plugin, introducing functions for Lift and Shift and automated onboarding.
- Updates to the Amazon ECS, OpenShift and Azure Container Service Plugins.
- Updates and improvements to numerous plugins including JBoss, EC2, JIRA, Jenkins, WebSphere, WebLogic, Tomcat, Maven, IIS and more.
Download Instructions
Download ElectricFlow 8.3 FR from the Electric Cloud Sharefile site.
- Login using your personalized account to the Electric Cloud Sharefile at https://electric-cloud.sharefile.com
- Navigate to: /products/flow/release_8.3/8.3.0.128177 or click here: 8.3.0.128177
- Server and agent installers are located in the directory corresponding to the operating system (for example, windows)
- IDE plug-in installers are located in the /products/commander/integrations directory
- Release notes and product documentation are available online: ElectricFlow Documentation
Supported Configurations
See the “System Requirements and Supported Platforms” section in the ElectricFlow Installation Guide for a complete list of supported platforms and configurations.
Upgrade
Upgrades to ElectricFlow 8.3 FR are supported from ElectricCommander 4.2.x, ElectricFlow 5.x, 6.x, 7.x and 8.0.1, 8.0.2, 8.0.3, 8.1 and 8.2 versions. Systems that are pre-4.2 must be upgraded to ElectricCommander 4.2.x before upgrading to ElectricFlow 8.3. For complete upgrade requirements and instructions, please see the ElectricFlow Installation Guide.
Support
Contact Customer Support with questions related to this release at support@electric-cloud.com.
Feedback
Contact the product management team at Electric Cloud for this or any ElectricFlow releases at productmanagement@electric-cloud.com
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