HQ Roadmap
This page has information about upcoming and recent HQ releases.
Hyperic HQ 4.0
The next major release of Hyperic HQ will be 4.0; release is scheduled for the second half of 2008. The Hyperic community is invited to preview the results of our efforts to date on Hyperic 4.0.
As an open source software provider, Hyperic values a transparent product release process. We already share our source code with the community. Now, we're seeking community participation earlier in our development process. Before we ship, before we beta, we want input on what we're doing and how we're doing it.
HQ 4.0: Easier to Implement, Manage, and Grow
The goal for HQ 4.0 is make it easier to implement, use, support, and extend.
- Scalability — Provide features that enable HQ to scale in large and growing deployments. Major efforts were put into backend data management scalability for 3.2. HQ 4.0 carries on this theme by adding scalability to users' management of large resource data sets with or without the user interface.
- Ease of implementation — Reduce or eliminate the manual steps a customer must perform to configure or tune HQ components. Plan for an HQ that "learns" more and requires less user interaction to implement and support. Boost HQ's "environment intelligence"; discover more resources, and more about them, automatically.
- Supportability — Provide features that enable customers to automate and manage high volume or repetitive maintenance, configuration, and operations tasks related to or enabled by HQ. Support smoother deployment and operations workflows, and integration of HQ with other systems in the customer environment.
Our Process Supports Community Feedback
We do iterative development. The HQ 4.0 release is structured as a number of iterations. In each iteration, we tackle a subset of our feature backlog, and design, code, unit test, QA, and document our work. At the end of selected iterations, we release the product-in-progress to the community. Our goal is to obtain feedback early enough in the process that we can act on it. You can participate in these ways:
- Read about it — The sections below describe the features we've worked on. Tell us if a feature we're building is useful or not. Summarize a particular use case that you'd want the feature to satisfy. If the value of a feature is unclear, tell us.
- Install it — Install and check out the build. Our end-of-iteration builds are functional, but you should consider them unstable and unsupported; don't install an iteration build in a production environment. Evaluate new or changed features in terms of value and usability. If you find what appears to be bug, feel free to note it in your feedback, however, our greatest interest is input on the intent and form of the feature. Are we on track to providing useful functionality that you'll be able to use effectively in your environment?
Progress to Date
The HQ 4.0 Iteration 6 build includes new user-facing features as well as architectural changes that enable scalability and ease of use improvements. To get more context about the status and purpose of the work in progress, see the following paragraphs.
(For an index page of HQ 4.0 features in progress, see Hyperic HQ 4.0 Feature Snapshots.)
Changes You Can See Right Now
Here is a summary of the new and changed features that are user-visible in this build:
- User Interface Improvements — Two new Dashboard portlets are introduced in this iteration. The Groups Alerts Summary shows the alert state for Groups and member resources. Saved Charts Slideshow Viewer replaces the Saved Charts portlet available in previous releases. The Metric Data Extrapolation feature enables forward plotting of metrics for compatible Groups.
- New Agent Launcher — We provide a new Java wrapper that provides for improved and automated Agent lifecycle management. The wrapper enables a new feature in this iteration --- if you manage your HQ Agents with HQ, you can ping and restart an agent from its Views tab in the Portal. For more information, see Agent Launcher Changes.
- Search Button — You can open a search panel on any page in the HQ user interface now. This the first step towards broader search capability. In future iterations, search will support addition target types, not just resources. For more information, see Search Drop-Down.
- Java 5 Upgrade — We've upgraded to Java 5 in order to support the Tapestry integration described below. For more information, see Java 5 Upgrades On Server and Agent.
- New extensibility and integration framework — Our new HQU framework supports user interface extensions, web services-based application integration, and scriptable automation of previously manual HQ tasks. For more information, see HQU Plugin Framework.
Under-The-Hood Changes
These are infrastructure or design changes that may not be visible as new or changed functionality, but are fundamental to performance improvements, or to upcoming feature work.
- Persistence Model — We've changed the data model and storage strategy for measurement data. Improved performance is the visible result of this change right now. In addition, this change lays the foundation more powerful and flexible query and reporting in future iterations. For more information, see Resource Hierarchy Support, Measurement Schema Improvements, and Compressed Availability Data.
- Agent-Server communications — We have implemented a modified agent-server communications strategy that allows HQ to support specific security policies and controls that are commonly preferred in large deployments. For more information, see Agent Communications. Implementation of the feature required a Changed Agent Directory Structure.
- Integration with Tapestry web application framework — We've implemented the Tapestry framework. This environment offers advantages over struts: it enables component reuse, simplifies localization, and allows us to build new features more rapidly. We expect this investment will deliver benefits to HQ community members and customers in the form of an HQ user interface that we can rapidly grow in response to customer requirements. For more information, see Tapestry Integration.
- Unit Testing Framework — We've implemented a test framework for HQ developers. This infrastructure change is part of ongoing productivity and quality improvements. It is described at Unit Testing Framework.
- Dynamic Groups — In HQ 4.0, membership in Groups of inventory items will by dynamic: you define the criteria for Group membership; from then on, items you add to inventory (Platforms, Servers, or Services) that match the criteria will automatically join the group. In this iteration, the engine that enables dynamic Groups is implemented and supports HQ's resource browsing function. The Dynamic Group Membership feature will be available in an upcoming iteration. See Dynamic Group Membership.
Known Problems
JIRA 2053 - IE6 Issues with New UI
With Internet Explorer 6, there are these known problems:
- The drop down menus for the Resources and Analyze tabs on the Masthead are not positioned correctly.
- The frames on the Alert Center page are not arranged correctly. The frame that should appear on the right appears below the left frame.
JIRA 2210 - Large metric display ranges can be missing up to an hour of data
Depending on the metric display range and when you look a chart, the chart may be missing up to the last hour of data. For example, given a display range of the last four days, the "current" end of charts may be missing data. This problem is a function of the way that metric data cascades into different tables in the HQ database. The problem is exhibited when all data for the selected time range has not yet cascaded to the database tables from which the chart is generated.
JIRA 2244 - Unable to login if using non-default ports for server
If the HQ Server's web-based GUI listens for http communication on a port other than the default port, 7080, logins to the server fail.
JIRA 2252 - Event log/tracking needs UI improvement
On the Indicators page, the Event pop-up displays the wrong date, and dots that indicate events in the horizontal bar at the bottom of the place are placed incorrectly.
Obtaining the Iteration 6 Build
The Iteration 6 build bundles can be downloaded from the Iteration 6 Release of the Unstable 4.0 Iterations Package on the Hyperic HQ Project download section at Sourceforge.
How to Provide Feedback
The Forums
- Hyperic Product Roadmap is where ideas about features are shared. Anyone can start a thread to discuss the features in progress or ideas for the future. We will also be posting questions to solicit feedback as we are designing and implementing features for the iteration.
- Hyperic HQ Development is where HQ developers discuss design and architectural issues. Feel free to participate in the conversations.
User Focus Groups
Throughout 4.0 development, we intend to hold user focus groups periodically to explore product areas in a greater depth. If you are interested, check the HQ forums to for more information.
Beta Program
When HQ 4.0 feature development and convergence is complete, we will conduct a Beta program --- users can participate and provide feedback.
Previous Releases
If you have any comments or suggestions for this help page, please submit them at the bottom of the page by clicking Add Comment.
Could we get an update, 3.2 shipped a while ago