Frequently Asked Questions: Brainspace 7.0 GA

What’s new in Brainspace 7.0?

Containerized Environment

Brainspace is transitioning from a specific Linux distribution (CentOS) to a modern deployment framework using containers that is agnostic to any specific Linux distribution.

Why is Brainspace 7.0 moving to containerization?

CentOS, the version of Linux that supported prior releases of Brainspace, reaches its end of life (EOL) on June 30, 2024. If using RHEL 7, we recommend that you contact your Red Hat representative for extended support for RHEL 7 past June 30, 2024.

Can I upgrade from older versions of Brainspace?

Yes. Brainspace will continue to leverage installation scripts, which should provide a smooth upgrade process.

Can I continue to use older versions of Brainspace after June 30, 2024?

Yes. Brainspace 6.8.x on CentOS 7 will continue to be supported following the standard Lifecycle Version Support for Brainspace. CentOS will continue to run, but CentOS will no longer receive updates and security patches.

What are the benefits of containerization?

OS Flexibility

Brainspace 7.0 allows customers a choice of Linux distributions, including Ubuntu LTS (v22+), AlmaLinux (v9), Red Hat Enterprise Linux (v9+), and other modern Linux distributions.

Speed and Efficiency

• Faster, simpler deployments and upgrades.

• More efficient memory use.

• Industry-standard approach to deployment.

• Access to additional tools to manage and monitor deployment status.

Improved Security

• Secure by default using Bitnami base images for the containers.

• Each container node enforces TLS mutual authentication and encryption for secure communications between itself and all other nodes.

Improved User Experience

New features made possible by containerization:

• Easier configuration, administration, and monitoring.

• System configuration available via the UI.

• Analysis server automatic registration.

• More reliable and resilient analytics pipeline, including builds that can survive some service restarts and upgrades.

• Automatic disabling of datasets that are not in-use.

• Web-based environment monitoring, including the ability to monitor multiple environments in one place (optional).

Brainspace 7 uses Docker containerization. Does Brainspace support Kubernetes, also known as K8s, containerization also?

Reveal provides OCI-compliant images for Brainspace 7 that will run in a variety of container orchestration frameworks, including Kubernetes. However, Reveal only provides an automated installer and deployment config files for Docker Swarm. Customers who wish to run Brainspace 7 in Kubernetes would be responsible for generating Helm Charts specific to their Kubernetes implementation.

Reveal is planning to provide official Helm Charts for Brainspace 7 in a future release. In the meantime, we can provide Helm Chart examples from our EKS environment to help with the process.

Installation and Upgrades

What are the prerequisites for installing the Brainspace 7.0 containerized environment?

• Three or more Linux machines/VMs running a modern Linux distribution.

• Docker installed on each machine.

• Amazon Web Services Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) installed on each machine.

• Amazon credentials for accessing Elastic Container Registry (ECR).

• File shares setup for /data and /localdata.

• File shares can be set up on the application host or in a separate NAS.

• To learn details about the installation process, consult the Installation Guide.

Is an Implementation Guide available?

Yes. It is available on the Brainspace Documentation website.

Is there a new pre-install script that checks if the environment is ready for containerized BRS 7.0 to install or upgrade?

Yes. The pre-install script is integrated with the install scripts provided for the containerized deployment, simplifying the process.

What is the process for installing future patches and new releases in Brainspace 7.0?

Because Brainspace 7.0 decouples the backup/restore process from the software upgrade process, upgrades should take minutes, or even only seconds in some cases. Details describing packaging and delivery, new installations, and upgrades are available in the Installation Guide.

Can air-gapped and DMZ’d installations of Brainspace be upgraded to the containerized version?

Yes. Images for Brainspace software will be provided in the form of a TAR file or set of TAR files. Details are provided in Appendix A of the Brainspace Installation Guide.

Will I be required to install every Brainspace 7.0 patch?

No.

How will upgrades be provided and installed for on-prem environments?

Each release will result in properly versioned (major.minor.patch) images being pushed to ECR. Consistent with the way that Reveal distributes images to on-prem customers, customers will be provided with AWS IAM (Identity and Access Management) credentials so that they can access a specific ECR repository that houses officially released Docker images. For customers that have their own image registry, instructions will be provided for how to use Docker CLI to download images from our ECR repository and push them to their registry.

Details are available in the Installation Guide.

If I were to upgrade my existing Brainspace instance, why wouldn't a supported OS version, such as Red Hat 8/9, work?

The Brainspace application and the JDK used in Brainspace are packaged as RPMs and have numerous dependencies, meaning they will not install unless those specific dependencies are satisfied, including the version. More specifically, we build a custom Yum repository for RHEL/CentOS 7 that is not recognized on a RHEL 8/9 system. If you were to upgrade to either a newer Red Hat version or a different OS, your instance of Brainspace would no longer function properly.

Once I’ve completed my installation of Brainspace 7.0, how do I update my license?

To obtain a license for your instance, obtain the “Instance ID” from the: Services > Application > License module in the UI. Contact Reveal Support, [email protected], provide the “Instance ID” from the UI, and we will send a permanent license for upload. From the Services page, use the Upload License button at the top right and select the license that is provided. See https://brainspace-help.revealdata.com/en/First-Login---Updating-the-License.html for more information.

Storage

Can existing storage be used in the containerized environment?

Yes. Because of the hybrid solution chosen, storage from existing environments can be reused in the container environment.

There are two configuration options:

1. Shared storage: Set up entirely on the host machines — supported via bind mounts set up in the Docker Swarm config.

2. Hybrid approach: NFS (or other supported protocol) server set up outside of the Docker Swarm configuration. Each container will be configured to connect to the NFS server using Docker Swarm volumes.

Note

Shared storage set up entirely inside of Docker alongside the application container is possible but is not recommended and not as performant as the recommended configuration options. content goes here.

What option is there for environments without network storage?

If a customer does not use network attached storage for /data and /localdata, that means the NFS shares are likely hosted on the Application and/or Analytics hosts. As is the case whenever provisioning new hardware/VMs for a Brainspace instance, the data that is in /data and /localdata on the old machines needs to be copied to the new machines. This can be done offline ahead of time, in preparation for the migration.

Once the new application host is ready, rsync can be used to start copying data from the old machines to the new application host. When the Brainspace 7.0 installation is performed, BRS dataset data will already be prepared in the new location.

Administration

How do I move existing projects to the containerized environment?

There is a one-time migration process to go from 6.x to 7.0 environment. Details are available in the Brainspace 7.0 Migration Guide.

What is the Lifecycle Version Support for previous versions of Brainspace?

Brainspace will continue the existing support cadence.

Are there any changes to the licensing model?

Not from a business perspective, but a small change in implementation of the license.

Will PostgreSQL continue to be used for the database?

PostgreSQL will still be used in Brainspace 7.0 but with administration being a bit easier because it is managed via Docker. Postgres may be run on the application host, on a separate host, or using a hosted PostgreSQL instance like Amazon RDS.

How does archiving a dataset work in the containerized environment?

An archive option available via the UI is planned but is not included in the initial GA release.

Is the ability to archive a dataset available in Brainspace 7.0 the same as previous versions?

Archive is not included in the initial Brainspace 7.0 release and will be included in a future release.

Connectors

Will currently supported connectors be supported in the new environment?

Connectors that currently ship with Brainspace will be supported.