It’s autumn again here in New Jersey, home of Catalogic Software and global hub of CloudCasa engineering. Temperatures are getting cooler, leaves are starting to turn, and the scent of hot cider and pumpkin spice latte is in the air. But here and in our offices around the world, CloudCasa development is continuing to heat up. This is the fourth October since CloudCasa’s 2020 debut, and we’re pleased to announce our 18th significant feature update. While we’re happy to be able to put another notch in our collective belt, as the somewhat inexplicable saying goes, rest assured that there are plenty of great new CloudCasa features still to come in the near future!
Options added to create “private” EKS and AKS clusters
When CloudCasa is creating EKS or AKS clusters, it now has the option of configuring them as private.
For EKS clusters, the options Public, Public and private, or Private have been added under Network access in the Networking section.
See the EKS documentation for more information.
For AKS clusters, the option Private cluster has been added in the Networking section. If you select it, you will be given the ability to select a Private DNS zone and to Disable public FQDN.
See the AKS documentation for more information.
Option added to exclude resource types in backup and restore jobs
When choosing the Select resource types option while defining a backup or restore job, radio buttons now appear which let you choose “Include” or “Exclude”. Choosing “Exclude” will include all resources EXCEPT for those selected. The default is “Include”, which makes the behavior of resource selection the same as before.
EKS Add-on
The CloudCasa agent is now available for installation as an EKS add-on through the AWS Marketplace. The Install Agent dialog has been updated so that the EKS add-on is listed as an installation option on the Manual (other) tab. All EKS clusters that are automatically created by CloudCasa will now have the agent installed using the EKS add-on by default.
Action button changes in Edit Cloud Account pane
The action buttons available in the Edit Cloud Account pane (reachable from Configuration/Cloud Accounts) have been changed. As before, an Update available button will be displayed if a configuration update for the linked cloud account is available (CloudFormation stack for AWS, ARM template for Azure, etc.). Clicking it will begin the update process. If no update is available, a Re-link button will be displayed instead. Clicking this will re-start the account linking process.
Actions for discovered clusters in the clusters overview page
The action buttons available for discovered clusters listed in the Clusters overview page and the Clusters tab of the Cloud Account instance page have been brought into agreement. Now Edit, Link, and Hide options are available for discovered clusters in both locations.
KMS key selection for RDS snapshot destination now provided as a drop-down
When defining an RDS database backup, options for KMS key selection for RDS snapshot destination are now provided using a drop-down. Previously, the KMS Key ARN for the snapshot destination region needed to be manually entered into a string field. This change makes KMS key selection much easier.
Data mover pod timeout option added to restore wizard advanced options
A Data mover pod timeout option has been added to the cluster restore wizard advanced settings section. It controls the time that the agent will wait for the data mover pod to start during restore. This should only need to be changed from the default in special cases. The default is 15 minutes.
Option to allow selection of backup method for Azure Files PVCs
An advanced setting has been added to the cluster backup definition wizard to allow control over how Azure Files PV snapshots are mounted during backup of AKS clusters. The options are Auto, CSI Driver, and CloudCasa Azure Files Mover, with the default being “Auto”. This setting will appear only for AKS clusters. It can be used to work around potential problems with the Azure Files CSI driver, and should not normally need to be set unless directed by CloudCasa support. It may be removed in the future.
Other Changes
Other updates in this release include the following:
- Informational pop-up for new users – An informational pop-up has been added for new users that directs them toward relevant documentation and offers them ability to view demo videos or schedule a demo with the CloudCasa team.
- Memory limit default change – The default memory limit for the agent’s data mover pod during has been raised to 2GB. If you do not wish to allow the mover pod to grow this large, you can set a lower limit under advanced settings when defining a job.
- Clickable message generated when jobs start – When manually starting a backup, restore, migration, or replication job, the success message displayed in the upper right of the page is now a clickable link. Clicking on it will take you to the status page for the job, so that you can monitor its progress.
- Organization name added to alert notification emails – The organization name has been added to all alert notification emails for users who are members of more than one organization.
- Mover pod started on the same node as original PVC for LIVE backups – The data mover pod is now always started on the same node as the original PVC for LIVE backups.
Kubernetes agent updates
In this update we’ve again made several changes to our Kubernetes agent to add features, improve performance, and fix bugs. However, manual updates shouldn’t normally be necessary anymore because of the automatic agent update feature. If you have automatic updates disabled for any of your agents, you should update them manually as soon as possible.
Notes
With some browsers you may need to restart, hit Control-F5, and/or clear the cache to make sure you have the latest version of the CloudCasa web app when first logging in after the update. You can also try selectively removing cookies and site data for cloudcasa.io if you encounter any odd behavior.
As always, we want to hear your feedback on new features! You can contact us using the support chat feature, or by sending email to support@cloudcasa.io.
Ryan Kaw
Da Li