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Release notes

This page contains a list of features, changes, known issues and known limitations of the Nerve releases.

Version 2.2.0

This version was released on December 23, 2020. Unless otherwise stated, all known issues and limitations of the previous version are still valid.

Feature list

Component Features
Device Software Resource assignments of Docker containers increased per default (80% for Siemens 427E, 16GB, 60% for the Supermicro 5029, 40% for others).
Log rotation is implemented for Docker logs to prevent filling up the hard drive with log files.
Proxy support, configurable in the Local UI.
New hardware support:
  • Supermicro SuperServer E100-9AP-IA (Atom class)
  • Supermicro SuperServer 1019D-16C-FHN13TP
  • Supermicro SuperServer 5029C-T
  • Maxtang AXWL10-8665U
  • WinMate EACIL20
Improved license activation workflow and error handling.
Enable reuse of licenses when installing on the same hardware.
Data Services Data Services have been upgraded from beta status to supported.
Support for direct connection to Azure IoT HUB.
Management System LDAP/Active directory support for user management.

Improvements

  • Replaced the Docker generated hostname in the containers by the container name specified in the workload.
  • Increased character limit for Docker environment variables.
  • Redesign of the node internal network to allow easier configuration, including communication between Docker containers and VMs, as well as Docker containers and the RTVM. Networks can now be addressed by DNS name instead of IP addresses.
  • Added the possibility to connect to the real-time VM using SSH.
  • Added the possibility to renew the DHCP lease from the Local UI.
  • Node can now be pinged. Added ICMP service on the node.
  • Stability improvements.
  • Improved robustness of the Management System.
  • Display a message in the Nerve Connection Manager in case of version incompatibility.

Bug fixes

  • Fixed an issue during simultaneous deployment and undeployment on the same node.
  • Improved the reliability of the boot process of the Data Services when an analytics app is used.
  • Fixed an issue where unauthorized users could access the Data Services.
  • Fixed an issue where Data Services would not be able to receive data after a reboot.

Known issues and limitations

  • The default network is missing, meaning that Virtual Machine workloads could not establish a NAT protected internet connection outside of the system.
  • There is currently no mechanism preventing the Data Services database to fill the SSD, which may lead to a situation in which the Data Services crash and cannot restart. Workaround: Verify the available disk space and adjust the data retention policy to keep at least 50 MB of free space.
  • Due to a known issue in Grafana, trying to display too many data points may cause a high memory consumption on the node and slow down the system. Recovery is possible by closing the browser tab used for Grafana.
  • When a Docker workload is deployed using a non-existing network, the deployment fails. After the creation of the missing network and restart of the deployment, the Docker container is successfully deployed but the deployment is still marked as failed. This can happen when updating a node to 2.2.0 that has a workload with an isolated network assigned. The internal networks have been reworked and workloads with network settings from previous versions do not carry over. Workaround: Ensure that the network exists before deployment and redeploy the workload.
  • When admin users change their own permissions, the effect is not visible immediately. Workaround: logout and login again.
  • The resource usage of available disk space for a node with a version prior to 2.2.0 is incorrectly displayed on a Management System with version 2.2.0. The resource bar in 2.2.0 reads “available space”, but actually the used space is being displayed. Therefore, also the color scheme is inverted. Red actually shows that only little space has been used so far.
  • The behavior for Docker containers with the default value for Container restart policy in the workload definition has changed. The Container restart policy defaults to no, which results in Docker workloads without an explicitly set Container restart policy to not automatically start after a node reboot.
  • In some cases, offline license activation cannot be completed on Windows.
  • The Docker default network bridge is automatically assigned to a Docker workload when any Docker network (mgmt, wan or extern1 to extern3) is assigned.
  • The Nerve Data Services Gateway crashes when multiple nodes with identical names but different data types are imported.
  • When multiple nodes with identical names and the same data type are imported, data is only read from one node by the Gateway.
  • The Gateway crashes when trying to resolve an incorrectly configured namespace of an OPC UA Server source.
  • Database tables are not displayed correctly if the name or the path attributes in the Gateway configuration contain a dot (.).
  • Provisioning a Docker workload: Uploading a Docker image in TAR.GZ format causes the export in the Management System and the local deployment in the Local UI of that workload to fail.

Scaling and performance limitations

This release has been tested to perform within the following scaling boundaries:

Maximum number of concurrent devices 200 
Maximum number of concurrently logged in users
Maximum workload size 50 GB 
Maximum number of concurrent remote access sessions
Maximum number of workloads in workload repository 200
Maximum data upload per node 5 datagrams per second with at least 10 sensor values for 200 nodes in parallel.