RancherOS v0.8.0 released! | SUSE Communities

RancherOS v0.8.0 released!

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Rancher OS Logo with Black BackgroundRancherOS v0.8.0 is
now available! This release
has taken a bit more time than prior versions, as we’ve been laying
more groundwork to allow us to do much faster updates, and to release
more often.

Release Highlights

Using the Linux 4.9.9 mainline kernel Using the mainline stable
Linux kernel should allow us to give container users access to new
features faster – and will mean that RancherOS will have a simpler debug
and update path for other software too.

Placing the installer container image in the ISO This change allows
users to install RancherOS without internet access, and simplifies
automated testability of changes. This adds about 13MB to the ISO, but
means that you can do a basic install of RancherOS without pulling an
image from the Docker Hub.

Running cloud-init earlier in the boot process Previously, the
cloud-init service ran late in the RancherOS boot process, which made it
impossible to customize system services that ran before cloud-init. As
of v0.8.0, the cloud-init service runs while RancherOS is still running
from memory and before System Docker starts.

By running earlier in the boot process, we’ve enabled a wider range of
different customizations to RancherOS. For example, now you can set HTTP
proxy settings on System Docker or replace configuration files for
services such as NTP. Having cloud-init run earlier also opens the
ability to use other cloud-config keys that are only applicable early in
the boot sequence, such as operations around disk formatting and running
arbitrary commands and systems services while RancherOS is still running
from memory.

Cloud-config validation Producing a valid cloud-config file is often
frustrating due to the oddities and edge cases around YAML. A new
command (ros config validate) has been created to help solve these
issues. This command allows users to verify whether their cloud-config
is valid for RancherOS. For each invalid component, a detailed error is
provided to help users correct their cloud-config. Once the cloud-config
passes our validation, users can confidently use it in RancherOS without
the fear of a missing space or missing dash causing their cloud-config
to be ignored.

Syslinux bootloader everywhere To simplify the installation code, we
went from a mixture of GRUB and Syslinux, to using Syslinux only. For
now, the Syslinux boot prompt is only visible for one second – to
interrupt, you’ll need to type a character quickly – and then to add
boot parameters, replace that with
rancheros-v0.8.0 rancher.autologin=tty1, or whatever you want to add.
We are discussing changing the default boot process to autologin on the
physical console (see the discussion on
GitHub).

New ZFS service We moved away from using an Ubuntu kernel, so using
ZFS via an Ubuntu persistent console no longer works. In v0.8.0, the new
ZFS service installs the kernel-header service, downloads
the OpenZFS source code,
compiles it, and then creates and starts a new zfs-tools service which
proves the zfs tools to the console. It takes a bit longer to install
because it compiles from source, but we’ll work on adding pre-built
modules as we work on our build systems which should consequently speed
things up.

Boot time and error logging to dmesg To help debug issues in the
installer and early cloud-init, we added more boot time diagnostics. At
least for a few releases, we’ll be throwing a lot more logging both at
the boot console, and at /dev/kmsg. Please tell us if these changes are
causing you issues! The best ways to let us know are via
GitHub or our
forums.

Other minor fixes We’ve made a few additional small, but notable
changes:

  • Fixed issues with VMware open-vm-tools and Virtualbox
  • Rewritten the installer and other scripts in Go
  • System console image and service definitions move some RancherOS
    customization out of the Dockerfile

RancherOS now available in AWS GovCloud region

RancherOS Linux is now available on the GovCloud isolated AWS Region for US government agencies and organizations. Combining RancherOS with GovCloud provides users with a safe way to build systems for sensitive and regulated data or workflows, and we’re pleased to make this combined solution available for our customers.

Next release

Across Rancher Labs, we’ve committed to smaller and more regular
releases – which means RancherOS v0.9.0 should be out in about a month
with a much more digestible change list. Until then, expect to see
regular point releases with fixes and updated kernels (v0.8.1 is shaping
up to have Linux 4.9.11). As a new member of the Rancher team, this
version of RancherOS is the first one for which I’ve been the release
manager, and we welcome your feedback online – you can follow me
@SvenDowideit or let us know how
you like these changes
@Rancher_Labs.