Release Date 05/28/2022
Major Changes
This is a major update to 1.1 capabilities. The enhancements include:
- The portal includes a graphical slice builder that allows experimenters to graphically define their experiment slice topology. This is in addition to the already available graphical slice viewer.
- Two brand new network capabilities:
- Facility Ports – allow to attach FABRIC experiment slices to external facilities. The first facility to become available is Chameleon UC site, other sites (Chameleon TACC, CloudLab Utah) soon to follow.
- Mirror Ports – allow experimenters to mirror traffic from the dataplane into their slice on demand.
- Per-project authorization – starting with this release FABRIC software will enforce per-project permissions on what types of FABRIC features members of the project are allowed to use. A basic project allows to create small VMs with shared NICs and only within a single site. All other features – NVMe, SmartNICs, GPUs, larger VMs, advanced network services, specific Facility Ports must be explicitly allowed by requesting that FABRIC operators add authorization tags to the project.
- Multiple enhancements for supporting experiment configuration – post-boot scripts, interface configuration.
- Enhancements to FABlib to support new features in the Control Framework
- Updated Jupyter Hub notebooks that integrate new enhancements and help you learn how to use them
Packages and Components
Control Framework
| Control Framework Core | Multiple bug fixes and usability improvements. |
| Orchestrator | – Support for Facility Ports – Support for Mirror Ports – Support for post-boot scripts and interface configuration |
| Broker | – Support for Facility Ports – Support for Mirror Ports |
| Site Aggregate Manager | – Support for post-boot scripts and interface configuration |
| Network Aggregate Manager | – Support for Facility Ports – Support for Mirror Ports |
FIM (FABRIC Information Model) and User APIs
| Basic resource descriptions | Multiple fixes and enhancements to support Facility Ports, Mirror Ports, shared storage | |
| FABlib | Ongoing development of FABlib covering the current capabilities of the Control Framework. | |
JupyterHub
| Federated Identity | Stability improvements |
| Storage | N/A |
Portal and System Services
| Portal | Graphical Slice Builder, multiple usability enhancements |
| Project Registry | Bug fixes and usability improvements |
| User Information Service | None |
| Credential Manager | None |
Future enhancements
We expect the following features or limitations to be addressed in upcoming releases (expected release and date indicated):
| New features or known limitations | Expected in release |
| Transformation of Project Registry and User Information Service into Core API Service, including associated Portal adaptations | 1.3, Summer 2022 |
| Independent portal-styled token management app for Credential Manager | 1.3, Summer 2022 |
| Ability to attach rotating storage volumes to VMs | 1.3, Summer 2022 |
| Ability to collect in-slice measurements | 1.3, Summer 2022 |
| FABlib ehnancements to support latest features | Ongoing |
| Initial support for personal profiles, public project pages in the portal | 1.3, Summer 2022 |
| Experiment notebook sharing in the portal | 1.3, Summer 2022 |
| Advance reservation support | 1.4, Fall 2022 |
| Ability to modify slices after creation | 1.4, Fall 2022 |
| Ability to manage available compute images | 1.4, Fall 2022 |
| Support for FPGAs and P4-to-FPGA tool workflows | TBD, Fall 2022 |
| Support for Tofino P4 switches | TBD, Fall 2022 |
Bugs
Please see Forums for discussions of known bugs in this and other releases.