In v3.2, Digital Rebar continues to refine the groundbreaking provisioning workflow introduced in v3.1. Updates to the workflow make it easier to consume by external systems like Terraform. We’ve also improved the consistency and performance of both the content and service.

Note: we are accelerating the release schedule for Digital Rebar with a target of 4 to 6 weeks per release. The goal is to incrementally capture new features in stable releases so there is not a lengthy delay before fixes and features are available.

Here’s a list of features for the v3.2 release.

• Promoted stage automation to release status in open source – these were RackN content during beta
• Plugins now include content layers – they don’t require separate content and versioning is easier
• Feature flags on endpoint and content – allows automation to detect if needed requirements are in place before attempting to use them
• Improve exit codes from jobs – improves coordination and consistency in jobs
• Allow runner to continue processing into new installed OS – helps with Terraform handoff and direct disk imaging
• Add tooling for direct image deploy to sledgehammer – self explanatory
• Change CLI to use Server models instead of swagger generated code – improves consistency and maintainability of the CLI
• Machine Inventory (gohai utility) – collects machine information (in Golang!) so that automation can make decisions based on configuration
• General bug fixes and performance enhancements – this was a release theme
• Make it easier to export content from an endpoint – user requested feature
• Improve how tokens and secrets are handed by the server – based on audit

The release of workflow and the addition of inventory means that Digital Rebar v3 effectively replaces all key functions of v2 with a significantly smaller footprint, minimal learning curve and improved performance. One v2 major feature, multi-node coordination, is not on any roadmap for v3 because we believe those use case are well serviced by upstack integrations like Terraform and Ansible.

Follow the Digital Rebar Community:

• Digital Rebar: http://rebar.digital/
• Documentation for Digital Rebar: http://provision.readthedocs.io/en/latest/#
• Slack Sign Up (preferred method):  https://www.rackn.com/support/slack
• IRC Freenode: https://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=%23digitalrebar
• Gitter: https://gitter.im/digitalrebar/core
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/rackngo/