Recently, CloudChef officiallyreleased CloudChef Platform Version 8.3.0!
After nearly four months of development, Version 8.3.0 brings a wealth of newfeatures and optimizations. The main functionalities of this version include:
Enhance support for more cloud platforms and cloud products
Improve CMDB and asset models
Enhance service catalog and FinOps capabilities
Platform optimizations
New backup and recovery service integrations
Support for MySQL HA high-availability mode based on InnoDB Cluster for installation and deployment
01
Cloud Platform Integration and Resource Management
•Support for Cisco ACI Contract management
•Optimize Cisco ACI EPG, supporting standalone deployment and orchestrated deployment with Network
•Support for orchestrating Cisco ACI EPG and Huawei DCS (FC)
•Support for configuring whitelist groups for Alibaba Public Cloud/Apsara Stack database resources, with whitelist group and whitelist information displayed in resource details
•Support for displaying console AKSK access addresses and OSS Bucket addresses for Apsara OSS resources, with click-to-redirect functionality
•Support for creating and deleting Apsara RAM users, including adding & deleting AK/SK
•Support for users connecting to Buckets in Alibaba Public Cloud/Apsara OSS using AK/SK
•Support for manually entering IPv4 address segments when applying for Apsara VPC
•Support for manually assigning IP addresses when creating Huawei DCS EIP
•Support for cloning Huawei DCS cloud servers
•Support for querying and using private images in Huawei DCS, including specifying images by the Name attribute
•Support for binding/unbinding EIP to Huawei DCS ELB, with bound EIP displayed in ELB details
•Support for creating, importing, synchronizing, and deleting Huawei DCS Virtual Private Network (VPN)
•Support for displaying security group rules and network interface information in Huawei DCS security group details, with options to add/delete security group rules
•Support for displaying detailed policy information in the policy details tab of Huawei HCS VPN Connections
•Support for displaying console access addresses for Huawei HCS OBS resources, with click-to-redirect functionality
•Support for creating and deleting Huawei HCS RAM users, including password reset & adding/deleting AK/SK
•Support for users connecting to Buckets in Huawei HCS OBS using AK/SK
•Support for cloning Huawei FusionCompute cloud servers
•Support for synchronizing and monitoring Huawei FusionCompute physical machines
•Support for standalone deployment of Huawei FusionCompute Network
•Support for selecting security groups when creating Huawei FusionCompute cloud servers, with day2 security group update operations
•Support for creating, synchronizing, importing, and deleting Huawei FusionCompute security groups, with options to add/delete security group rules
•Support for utilizing all physical resources (including storage) in Huawei FusionCompute, with usage/total capacity displayed in applications and approvals
•Adaptation to H3C CAS Platform E7090 version API
•Support for creating virtual machines with GPUs in Sangfor SCP, including full clone cloud servers and configuring system disk size
02
Resource Models and Operational Capabilities Enhancement
CMDB supports relationship mapping based on arbitrary attribute fields, enabling automatic discovery and topology display, with the same attribute mappable to different components

Alerts in resource topology are displayed by alert level, and clicking the alert icon redirects to triggered alerts for detailed information

Support for configuring JS for component attributes, with default values displayed in resource details
Changing the secondary owner supports two modes: appending owners or replacing owners

Support for executing commands via API when running scripts on cloud servers (Huawei FC/vSphere/Ali/Azure)
Support for resetting passwords for UCloud cloud servers
Support for querying and using private images in Huawei DCS, including specifying images by the Name attribute
Support for querying and using shared images in Azure
Support for using forms from change operations as dynamic user data sources in approval workflows
Changes to cloud server & cloud resource attribute configurations on the cloud generate change operations in the platform, with changes recorded

Backend Capabilities Enhancement
1.Add cross-validation when deleting VMs on VC to prevent accidental deletion of VMs with the same Moref
2.Support for IP conflict detection via cloud gateway when any resource pool is configured with a cloud gateway
03
Process and IT Service Capabilities Enhancement
Virtual machine applications and day2 operations for adding/expanding system and data disks display dropdown lists in descending order based on priority and remaining available size
Pipeline - Cloud service deployment tasks support context parameter passing, allowing manual adjustments before automatic deployment

Description fields for cloud applications, cloud resources, various tickets, and application forms now support up to 1024 characters
Add service column display and filtering support for My Applications/Approvals/Pending Tasks/All Tickets lists
Approval email notifications for tickets now distinguish specific service types
Ticket reassignment now supports service teams and roles, with reassignment records added

04
Operations and FinOps Capabilities Enhancement
UI enhancement - Cost adjustment rules now support percentage display for adjustment coefficients
Price model classic mode now supports configuring free allowances for system disks (e.g., Ucloud system disks support free allowances)


Business group quotas now support various resource types and calculations based on resource attributes; previously, only CPU/memory/disk could be calculated, while others were limited to resource counts
Resource pool & business group resource quotas now support calculation types based on specifications, with CPU/memory in specifications automatically added to CPU/memory quotas

Platform lic includes basic billing capabilities; additional cost analysis lic is required for features like cost optimization, payment scenarios, and cost centers (detailed allocation)
05
Service Foundation Enhancement
Added comments in the Python script template of service integration components to avoid restarting the integration service
Support for integrating Infoblox IP address management system, including querying, occupying, and releasing third-party integrated IP addresses
Support for integrating Fuyi centralized procurement settlement platform, including processes for freezing costs, periodic settlements, submitting settlements, and invoicing
Support for integrating backup and recovery services, enabling unified backup of cloud servers, databases, and other resources in CMP


Integration with Alibaba Public Cloud cloud server backup service (HBR)
Integration with Alibaba Public Cloud database resources (MySQL, SQLServer, PostgreSQL)
DBS logical backup service
Integration with Huawei HCS cloud server backup service
Refactored Veeam backup integration
Refactored backup services for Alibaba Public Cloud & Apsara database resources (MySQL, SQLServer, PostgreSQL)
06
Platform Enhancement and Optimization
Ability to push platform IaC code and scripts to specified Git repositories, supporting synchronization of various scripts, blueprints, and components

Default visibility and editability of rental time & retention time in cloud application & cloud resource deployment service card configurations, along with icon adjustments
Configuring the number of display items in lists now applies to all user pages
Add a dedicated tab for security group information in cloud server details
Rename "Host Map" to "Health Map" under observable resource status menus
Optimize display of all script boxes, supporting full-screen tiled expansion
Change the style of security configuration/two-factor authentication exempted user dropdown multi-select to checkbox
Support for configuring global JavaScript customizations applicable to all pages
Internationalization support for data views and data source lists and data
Add support for Spanish, Traditional Chinese, and Portuguese in product internationalization, along with updates to existing multilingual support
When installation initial configuration is set to English, platform configurations are initialized to English content
Support for periodically exporting dashboards, dashboards, reports, etc., to Excel files and sending them via email

Added new OIDC authentication mode for SSO
Mail service now supports Azure communication services
Support for configuring multiple MFAs simultaneously, allowing users to choose any configured MFA


Add API users; API user passwords do not expire and are not forced to change upon first login
Optimize audit content and role information
Upgrade software versions used by the platform system to officially maintained versions
Platform support for MySQL HA high-availability mode based on InnoDB Cluster
Ansible now supports MySQL InnoDB Cluster cluster installation and upgrades from Version 8.3.0, including upgrades from master-slave to InnoDB Cluster
Support for dynamic loading of log4j2 configurations for Tomcat WAR applications in VM/containerized deployment architectures, with default log level adjusted to WARN
Merge and reduce the number of background scheduled tasks to improve efficiency
Optimize MQ consumer reconnection capability for workers during network anomalies