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Ganeti-htools release notes
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===========================
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**Note**: After version 0.3.1, the htools sources have been integrated
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into the ganeti core repository, and released together with the ganeti
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releases. Thus this NEWS file is obsolete.
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Version 0.3.1 (Fri, 11 Mar 2011)
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--------------------------------
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Minor bugfix release:
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- Fixed source archive generation: the hscolour.css file was an invalid
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  symlink, and the man pages were not correctly timestamped (leading to
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  unneeded build-time rebuilds)
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- Improved the Luxi backend to show which attribute fails parsing
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- Small improvements to the man pages, and also ship the HTML version of
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  man pages in the source archive
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Version 0.3.0 (Fri, 04 Feb 2011)
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--------------------------------
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A significant release that breaks compatibility with Ganeti versions
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below 2.4 due to the node group changes. Only the RAPI backend can talk
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to older clusters, but it is recommended to use this version only with
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Ganeti 2.4.
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All commands are now multi-group aware (but to various degrees), so
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allocation, balancing and capacity calculation respects the group layout
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and will not create “broken” instances by using nodes from different
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groups.
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For a regular, single-group cluster, no changes should be directly
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visible to the users. A multi-group cluster however will change some
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things slightly:
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- hbal will require a target group to operate on (no cluster-wide
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  balancing yet)
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- evacuation of (DRBD) instances from a node will be restricted to nodes
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  in the same group, as inter-group moves are not implemented yet
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- capacity, while showing correct data, will not give per-group details
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  yet
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There are other changes in this release:
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- fixed a long-standing bug in hscan related to node memory data
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- changed the text backend format, which unfortunately invalidates old
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  files
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- error handling improvements, so that invalid input data reports better
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  where the error is
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- the simulation backend changes its syntax, now it takes the allocation
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  policy too, and can generate multiple groups
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- (internal) man page generation moved to pandoc from hand-written,
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  which is helpful as it can also generate HTML versions
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- the balancing algorithm has been changed to work in parallel, if the
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  code is linked against the multi-threaded runtime; this gives a very
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  good speedup (~80% on 4 cores, ~60-70% of 12 cores)
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Version 0.2.8 (Thu, 23 Dec 2010)
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--------------------------------
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A bug fix release:
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- fixed balancing function for big clusters, which will improve corner
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  cases where hbal didn't see any solution even though the cluster was
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  obviously not well balanced
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- fixed exit code of hbal in case of (Luxi) job errors
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- changed the signal handling in hbal in order to make hbal control
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  easier: instead of synchronising on the count of signals, make SIGINT
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  cause graceful termination, and SIGTERM an immediate one
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- increased the tag exclusion weight so that it has greater importance
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  during the balancing
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- slight improvement to the speed of balancing via algorithm tweaks
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Version 0.2.7 (Thu, 07 Oct 2010)
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--------------------------------
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Bug fixes:
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- fixed the error message for hail multi-evacuation mode
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- improve evacuation mode for offline secondary nodes (ignore available
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  memory)
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New features:
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- add a new option ``-S`` to hbal and hspace that saves the cluster
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  state at the end of the processing in the text format used by the
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  ``-t`` option, for later re-processing
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- a two new options to hbal, -g and --min-gain-limit, that should help
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  in limiting the number of balances steps with a low gain in the final
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  stages
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- hbal, when executing jobs, will now wait for the current jobs to
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  finish at the first stop (e.g. ^C); if the user wants immediate exit,
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  another signal should be sent
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- added “normalized” physical CPU units in hspace output (NPU), which
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  represents units of physical CPUs free/used, based on the max-cpu
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  ratio
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Version 0.2.6 (Mon, 26 Jul 2010)
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--------------------------------
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Exactly three months since the last release. Many internal changes, plus
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a couple of important changes in the balancing algorithm.
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First, the balancing may now introduce N+1 errors, if this solves other,
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more critical problems. For the moment, this means that moving instances
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away from offline nodes is allowed even if it creates N+1 errors, and
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that means evacuation can be done in more cases.
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Second, the scoring for N+1 has changed. In previous versions, it simply
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counted the number of failing N+1 nodes, which means moving an instance
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away from a N+1 failed node (but without the node 'clearing' the N+1
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status) was not reflected in the cluster score. As such, the balancing
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algorithm managed to clear N+1 errors only sometimes, since usually it
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takes more than one move for this, and the first prerequisite move was
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not 'rewarded' appropriately and thus it was not selected. Now, it is
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possible to fix many more error cases than before: on a simulated 40
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node cluster full with instances (symmetrically allocated on all nodes),
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around five nodes can be evacuated before N+1 errors can be solved,
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whereas 0.2.5 could evacuate at best one node.
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There were some other internal changes to the scoring algorithm, such
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that now the metrics have associated weights, and they are not all of
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the same importance anymore. As of now, the only change is that offline
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instances have a higher weight, which should favour proper node
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evacuations.
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Among the other changes:
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- fixed the hspace KM_POOL_* metrics, which were returned as the final
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  state and not as the delta between the initial and final states
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- fixed hspace handling of N+1 failing clusters: before, it used to
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  generate a 'fake' response, and the structure of this response was not
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  always in sync with the real responses, leading to missing items;
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  currently it proceeds correctly through the code (skipping the
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  computation), and uses the same display mechanisms as the normal case
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- fixed hscan exit code for RAPI failures: previously it finished with
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  success even if all the clusters failed, which was creating issues
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  with the live-test script; now it exits with exit code 2 for RAPI
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  failures (unfortunately this is still not optimal as LUXI failures
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  will use exit code 1, the same as the command line)
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- changed the limit values for CPU/disk, which previously were used
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  optionally, whereas now they are always used; the default cpu ratio
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  limit is now 64 VCPUs per PCPU
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- changed the internal handling of the short name vs. original
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  (Ganeti-provided) name; now internally we always use the full name,
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  and only in display routines we show the shortened (called 'alias')
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  name; as a result, the -O and --excluded-instances options now accept
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  both the full name and the shortened name
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- changed internal handling of JSON conversions and errors, such that
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  now we show a better context for failure messages, which should help
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  with diagnosing the malformed message
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- changed the names for a few node fields, and added some more nodes;
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  this is most likely to help with debugging, and not with regular
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  operation though
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- changed the node fields option to allow the '+' prefix to mean 'extend
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  the default fields list' rather than start from fresh (similar to
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  Ganeti's implementation)
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- a few internal changes related to the LUXI protocol implementation,
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  which should make it more safe against potential bugs, one
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  optiomization that should help with large messages, and some patches
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  in preparation for potential expansion of the LUXI backend functionality
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And finally, many improvements on unittests and the live-test
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script. Test coverage is much enhanced, and the test infrastructure has
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better error reporting; this should lead down-the-road to better code
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and fewer bugs…
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Version 0.2.5 (Mon, 26 Apr 2010)
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--------------------------------
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Some internal cleanup plus a few user-visible changes:
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- new option for marking instances as 'do-not-move' during rebalancing
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- allow ``hscan`` to scan the local cluster via Luxi
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- add more metrics to ``hspace`` which show the delta between original
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  state and final state better (only valid for tiered allocation)
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Version 0.2.4 (Mon, 22 Feb 2010)
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--------------------------------
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Two improvements for node evacuation:
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- hbal takes a new parameter ``--evac-mode`` that restricts the
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  instances to be moved to the ones on offline/drained nodes, which
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  should reduce the work done
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- hail supports the new ``multi-evacuate`` mode of the IAllocator
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  protocol, that will be released in a minor release on the Ganeti 2.1
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  branch
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Version 0.2.3 (Thu,  4 Feb 2010)
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--------------------------------
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A small release:
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- Fixes selection of secondary node: previously, if the cluster had
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  many N+1 failures, a N+1 failed node could be selected as secondary
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  even if it did not have enough memory to allow the instance to be
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  migrated/failed over to it; this is bad for automated tools, since
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  we can get the cluster in an unhealthy state
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- Switch the text backend to a single input file, that is generated
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  now by hscan and shouldn't be generated manually via
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  gnt-node/instance list anymore; this allows richer information to be
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  kept in the file, and simplifies a little the internals of the text
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  backend
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Version 0.2.2 (Tue, 29 Dec 2009)
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--------------------------------
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Small release, 0.2.1 was broken and thus this was released earlier:
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- Release 0.2.1 broke the LUXI backend due to a typo, fixed
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- Added a live-test script that should catch errors like the above one
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  in the future (needs a working, non-empty cluster)
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- Changed RAPI and LUXI backends to treat drained nodes as offline,
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  similar to the IAllocator backend change in 0.2.0 (which was wrongly
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  marked as affecting all backends)
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- Changed the metrics for offline instances and N1 score from percent to
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  count, in order to increase the priority of evacuations
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- Added a new metric (offline primary instances) which should fix the
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  evacuation of a offline node in a 2-node cluster
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Version 0.2.1 (Wed,  2 Dec 2009)
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--------------------------------
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- Added instance exclusion defined via instance tags
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- Fixed the output of hspace to be again parseable from the shell
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Version 0.2.0 (Tue, 10 Nov 2009)
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--------------------------------
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A significant release, with a few new major features:
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- Added direct execution of the hbal solution when using the Luxi
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  backend; the steps for each instance moves are submitted as a single
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  jobs, and the different jobs are submitted as groups in order to
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  parallelise the execution of moves
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- Added support for balancing based on dynamic utilisation data for
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  instances, fed in via a text file; by default, all instances are
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  considered equal and this change also improves the equalisation of
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  secondary instances per node
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- Added support for tiered capacity calculation in hspace, where we
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  start from a maximum instance spec and decrease the spec when we run
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  out of resources; this should give a better measure of available
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  capacity on 'fragmented' clusters; this is done separately from the
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  current fixed-mode computation
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Also there have been many minor improvements:
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- Added option for showing instances (“--print-instances”), similar to
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  the print nodes option
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- Added support for customising the node list via an argument to the
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  print nodes option in the form of a comma-separated list of field
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  names; currently the field names are not documented, expecting further
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  changes in a next release
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- Enhanced the error reporting in the Luxi and Rapi backends
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- Changed the handling of drained nodes, now being treated the same as
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  offline nodes, for Ganeti 2.0.4+ compatibility
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- A number of internal changes, simplifying code and merging some
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  disparate functions
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- Simplify the build system in relation to creation of archives
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Version 0.1.8 (Tue, 29 Sep 2009)
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--------------------------------
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- Brown-paper-bag release fixing haddock issues
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Version 0.1.7 (Mon, 28 Sep 2009)
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--------------------------------
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- Fixed a bug in the Luxi backend for big responses
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- Fixed test suite exit code in presence of test failures
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- Changed the migrate operation to run instead failover for instances
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  which were marked as not running in the input data (this could have
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  been changed since then, but it's better than today's always migrate)
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- Added support for 'cheap' moves only (only migrate/failover) in
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  balancing
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- Added support for building without curl (thus no RAPI backend)
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Version 0.1.6 (Wed, 19 Aug 2009)
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--------------------------------
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- Added support for Luxi (the native Ganeti protocol)
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- Added support for simulated clusters (for hspace only)
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- Added timeouts for the RAPI backend
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- Fixed a few inconsistencies in the command line handling
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- Fixed handling of errors while loading data
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- The 'network' is a new dependency due to the Luxi addition
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Version 0.1.5 (Thu, 09 Jul 2009)
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--------------------------------
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- Removed obsolete hn1 program; this allowed removal of a lot of
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  supporting code
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- Lots of changes in hspace: the output now is a shell fragment in order
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  for script to source it or parse it easier; added failure reasons;
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  optimised to use less memory for large clusters
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- Optimized the scoring algorithm (used by all tools) so that now
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  computations should be faster
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Version 0.1.4 (Tue, 16 Jun 2009)
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--------------------------------
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- Added CPU count/ratio of virtual-to-physical CPUs to the cluster
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  scoring methods; this means that now the balancer, the iallocator
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  plugin and so on will try to keep the VCPU-to-PCPU ratio equal across
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  the cluster
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- Fixed some hscan bugs
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- Fixed the way iallocator reads the total disk size (was broken and it
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  was always falling back to summing the disk sizes)
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- Internals: fixed most compile-time warnings
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Version 0.1.3 (Fri, 05 Jun 2009)
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--------------------------------
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- Fix a bug in the ReplacePrimary instance moves, affecting most of the
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  tools
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Version 0.1.2 (Tue, 02 Jun 2009)
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--------------------------------
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- Add a new program, “hspace”, which computes the free space on a
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  cluster (based on a given instance spec)
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- Improvements in API docs and partially in the user docs
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- Started adding unittests
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Version 0.1.1 (Tue, 26 May 2009)
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--------------------------------
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- Add a new program, “hail”, which is an iallocator plugin and can
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  allocate/relocate instances
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- Experimental support for non-mirrored instances (hail supports them,
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  hbal should no longer abort when it finds such instances and simply
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  ignore them)
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- The RAPI port and/or scheme can be overriden now, and even “file://”
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  schemes can be used if the message body has been saved under the
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  appropriate name
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- Lots of code reorganization, esp. rewritten loading pipeline
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- Better data checking and better error messages in case validation
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  fails; tools now consider nodes with error in input data (‘?’ returned
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  by ganeti) as offline
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- Small enhancement to the makefile for simpler packaging
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Version 0.1.0 (Tue, 19 May 2009)
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--------------------------------
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- Drop compatibility with Ganeti 1.2
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- Add a new minimum score option (with a very low default), should help
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  with very good clusters (but is still not optimal)
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- Add a --quiet option to hbal
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- Add support for reading offline nodes directly from the cluster
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Version 0.0.8 (Tue, 21 Apr 2009)
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--------------------------------
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- hbal: prevent mismatches in wrong node names being passed to -O, by
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  aborting in this case
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- add the ability to write the commands (-C) to a script via (-C<file>),
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  so that it can be later executed directly; this has also changed the
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  commands to include the ncessary -f flags to skip confirmations
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- add checks for extra argument in hbal and hn1, so that unintended
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  errors are catched
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- raise the accepted “missing” memory limit to 512MB, to cover usual Xen
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  reservations
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Version 0.0.7 (Mon, 23 Mar 2009)
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--------------------------------
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- added support for offline nodes, which are not used as targets for
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  instance relocation and if they hold instances the hbal algorithm will
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  attempt to relocate these away
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- added support for offline instances, which now will no longer skew the
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  free memory estimation of nodes; the algorithm will no longer create
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  conditions for N+1 failures when such instances are later started
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- implemented a complete model of node resources, in order to prevent an
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  unintended re-occurrence of cases like the offline instance were we
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  miscalculate some node resource; this gives warning now in case the
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  node reported free disk or free memory deviates by more than a set
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  amount from the expected value
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- a new tool *hscan* that can generate the input text-file for the other
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  tools by collection via RAPI
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- some small changes to the build system to make it more friendly; also
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  included the generated documentation in the source archive
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Version 0.0.6 (Mon, 16 Mar 2009)
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--------------------------------
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- re-factored the hbal algorithm to make it stable in the sense that it
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  gives the same solution when restarted from the middle; barring
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  rounding of disk/memory and incomplete reporting from Ganeti (for
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  1.2), it should be now feasible to rely on its output without
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  generating moves ad infinitum
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- the hbal algorithm now uses two more variables: the node N+1 failures
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  and the amount of reserved memory; the first of which tries to ‘fix’
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  the N+1 status, the latter tries to distribute secondaries more
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  equally
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- the hbal algorithm now uses two more moves at each step:
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  replace+failover and failover+replace (besides the original failover,
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  replace, and failover+replace+failover)
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- slightly changed the build system to embed GIT version/tags into the
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  binaries so that we know for a binary from which tree it was done,
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  either via ‘--version’ or via “strings hbal|grep version”
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- changed the solution list and in general the hbal output to be more
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  clear by default, and changed “gnt-instance failover” to “gnt-instance
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  migrate”
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- added man pages for the two binaries
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Version 0.0.5 (Mon, 09 Mar 2009)
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--------------------------------
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- a few small improvements for hbal (possibly undone by later changes),
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  hbal is now quite faster
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- fix documentation building
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- allow hbal to work on non N+1 compliant clusters, but without
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  guarantees that the end cluster will be compliant; in any case, this
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  should give a smaller number of nodes that are not compliant if the
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  cluster state permits it
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- strip common domain suffix from nodes and instances, so that output is
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  shorter and hopefully clearer
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Version 0.0.4 (Sun, 15 Feb 2009)
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--------------------------------
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- better balancing algorithm in hbal
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- implemented an RAPI collector, now the cluster data can be gathered
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  automatically via RAPI and doesn't need manual export of node and
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  instance list
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Version 0.0.3 (Wed, 28 Jan 2009)
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--------------------------------
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- initial release of the hbal, a cluster rebalancing tool
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- input data format changed due to hbal requirements
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Version 0.0.2 (Tue, 06 Jan 2009)
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--------------------------------
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- fix handling of some common cases (cluster N+1 compliant from the
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  start, too big depth given, failure to compute solution)
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- add option to print the needed command list for reaching the proposed
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  solution
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Version 0.0.1 (Tue, 06 Jan 2009)
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--------------------------------
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- initial release of hn1 tool
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.. vim: set textwidth=72 :
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.. Local Variables:
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.. mode: rst
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.. fill-column: 72
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.. End: