Blog-Infrastructure_100x385

Chef Analytics 1.3.0 Release

analytics-release-wide

We’re pleased to announce that Chef Analytics 1.3.0 is now available from downloads.chef.io. This release contains a minor bug fix and new database functionality to improve data management. Once partitions are installed, which are on by default in 1.3.0, it cannot be reversed without data loss. Please read the update instructions as there are new commands and configurations in order to get the full value out of the new functionality.

Bug fix

Ability to scroll through the dropdown of organizations when they are longer than the page.

Data Management

We’ve made it easier to manage your data by utilizing pg_partman supported partitioning in the database. In this release, the largest table, activities, will allow partitions. The benefit of using partitions is that when old data is dropped the disc space is easily reclaimed. By default, partitions will be enabled and the data retention timeline for activities is set to a year. You can modify these values by changing the configuration in the opscode-analytics.rb file. It is recommended that you use partitions. If you wish to not use partitions, add this to the configuration:

features['partitioning']  = false.

You must do this before you reconfigure with the default 1.3.0 installation because once you install partitioning you cannot uninstall it without losing data.  Please see the documentation for more details about Configuring Analytics.

Migrate Your data into the new partitions

Please note before upgrading to Analytics 1.3.0:

Once you reconfigure with Analytics 1.3.0, partitioning will be installed. You will lose the ability to purge node data with opscode-analytics-ctl purge-nodes as this does not work with partitioned tables. Node data is no longer being saved as of 1.2.0, but there might be older data in need of downsizing. If you have disc space concerns please run this command before reconfiguring to 1.3.0.

After you have reconfigured with 1.3.0, you will want to migrate your existing data into the newly created partition tables. To migrate data into partitions run the command opscode-analytics-ctl migrate-partitions. This can take a while depending on how much data you have and it is recommended that you stop Analytics during this time. If this step is not performed you will not get the performance benefits of using partitions and the data retention process will be unable to delete old data.

Kyleen MacGugan