Sprint Releases Feature

Warning

The feature of enabling Sprint Releases is a Preview Feature. Note instead that the functionalities contained in Sprint Releases respect the usual NetEye quality standards.

Overview

Sprint Releases (abbreviated SR) are specific versions of NetEye that are released at the end of a development Sprint. These releases are cumulative progressions of the minor NetEye version that is currently in development and typically include new features, improvements, and bug fixes that have been developed during the two-week sprint cycle.

Why Sprint Releases

Enabling Sprint Releases feature provides early access to new features and improvements that are not yet available in the stable version of NetEye. This allows users to access new features and improvements before they are released in the stable version of NetEye that is typically released every 2 months. Sprint Releases will decrease the time to market for new features and improvements to just two weeks, which is the duration of a development sprint cycle.

Furthermore, users are not required to keep the system on Sprint Releases permanently; they can update when interested and disable the SR functionality once the interested feature is included in the minor release.

How it works

When Sprint Releases feature is enabled, only the NetEye version of the Master will be affected. While all the connected Satellite machines will remain on the minor version of NetEye, launching the neteye upgrade command on the NetEye Master will update NetEye to the latest Sprint Release available with respect to the installed NetEye version.

Note

Since the intended use of Sprint Releases is to provide early access to new features and improvements, it is recommended to constantly update the NetEye version to the latest Sprint Release available to benefit from the latest features and improvements.

For this reason, non-final Sprint Releases will not receive bug fixes, which instead will be available for the Final Sprint Release of the latest available NetEye Minor. Given the short Sprint cycle, the next release with the bug fix will be available in a maximum of two weeks.

On the other hand, OS-related bugs will be still fixed in the current Sprint Release and their fix can be applied by updating NetEye.

Upgrade Scenarios Examples

The following is the classical upgrade path between NetEye Minor Releases.

When Sprint Releases are enabled, the upgrade process for NetEye differs from that of NetEye Minor Releases. This section outlines various scenarios to clarify which version of NetEye your installation will be upgraded to.

Scenario 1: Upgrade from an SR different from the final of a given Release

Suppose your NetEye is currently on SR number 2 of the NetEye 4.40 minor, referred to as 4.40-sr2. After upgrading to version 4.40-sr2, several Sprint Releases were published, up to 4.41-sr2 (as illustrated in the diagram below).

When you perform a NetEye upgrade, your installation will be updated to the latest SR of your current minor version, which is 4.40-sr4. This is necessary because you must always transition through the last SR of your current minor version before moving to an SR of the next minor version (in this case, 4.41).

Scenario 2: Upgrade from the final SR of a given Minor Release

Building on the previous scenario, let’s say your NetEye is now at the SR 4.40-sr4.

Since you are at the final SR of the 4.40 minor version, your upgrade will take you to the latest available SR of the next minor version, which in this case is 4.41-sr2.

Scenario 3: Upgrade after disabling SRs

Let’s say you would like to disable Sprint Releases and return to the classical stream of NetEye Minor Releases.

In this case, based on the sprint release that is installed on the system, the two following scenarios are possible:

• If you are on the Final Sprint Release of a given minor version, an upgrade will allow you to upgrade NetEye to the following minor version, when released. Up to that moment, you will continue to receive the latest bug fixes. For example, if you are on 4.40-sr4 and you disable SRs, you will be able to upgrade to 4.41 when it is released.

• If you are not on the Final Sprint Release of a given minor version, an upgrade will bring you to the stable version within the same minor, to allow the installation of the latest bugfixes, as soon as it is released. Up to that moment, you will not receive any additional updates. For example, if you are on 4.40-sr2 and you disable SRs, you will be able to upgrade to 4.40 NetEye Minor Release when it is released.

Enabling/Disabling Sprint Releases

To enable/disable sprint releases, navigate to Configuration > Modules > update > Configuration and enable/disable the switch Enable Sprint Releases. By enabling the Sprint Releases feature, the next neteye upgrade command will update NetEye to the latest Sprint Release available available on the installed NetEye version.

Note

It is recommended to enable the Sprint Releases feature when the NetEye version is up-to-date with the latest available minor version.

RPM Mirror Repository

If a local RPM mirror repository is in use, it is mandatory to update the mirror repository configuration to include the Sprint Release repositories before proceeding with the upgrade of NetEye.

To correctly configure the mirror to include Sprint Releases, follow How to set-up the repository mirror setting the mirror_last_n_sprint_releases parameter to a value higher than 0, depending on the specific needs.

Upgrade Procedure

After enabling the Sprint Releases feature, the upgrade procedure is the same as the standard upgrade procedure. The only difference is that the neteye upgrade command will consider the available Sprint Releases when choosing the version to upgrade to.

If you already enabled the Sprint Releases feature and configured the RPM mirror repository accordingly, you can follow the traditional procedure for Single Node or Cluster upgrades.

Note

When managing Satellite nodes, remember to consider the following before proceeding with the upgrade:

• To generate the Satellite configuration for Satellite version 4.39, the NetEye Master must be first updated to the latest SR of 4.39 (usually 4.39-sr4): This allows the Satellite configuration to be generated correctly for the minor version of the Satellite nodes.

• When upgrading the NetEye Master to the next minor version, remember to upgrade the connected Satellites to the same minor version as the NetEye Master before upgrading the Master to the next minor version. Especially when using Sprint Releases, that are not available for Satellite nodes, to avoid compatibility issues it is important to keep the Satellite nodes on the same minor version as the NetEye Master before upgrading it to a Sprint Release of the next minor version.

Update Procedure

If Sprint Releases are enabled, the upgrade procedure is the same as the standard upgrade procedure. Given the intended use of Sprint Releases, NetEye updates should be less frequent in favor of Sprint Releases upgrades. For this reason, only OS-related packages will be updated in the current Sprint Release, while NetEye-related bugs will be fixed in the next Sprint Release.

To update a NetEye instance with Sprint Releases enabled, you can follow the traditional Update Procedure.