[ANNOUNCE] node-feature-discovery v0.14.0 is released

[Eduardo Arango Gutierez]

Hello,

 

Node Feature Discovery (NFD) v0.14.0 is released. Please see the release page for more information. Issues can be reported here.

Release v0.14.0 · kubernetes-sigs/node-feature-discovery What's new NodeFeature API The NodeFeature API is now enabled by default. The new CRD-based API replaces the previous gRPC-based communication between nfd-master and nfd-worker and, reducing networ... github.com

## What's new

### NodeFeature API

The [NodeFeature](https://kubernetes-sigs.github.io/node-feature-discovery/v0.14/usage/custom-resources.html#nodefeature) API is now enabled by default. The new CRD-based API replaces the previous gRPC-based communication between nfd-master and nfd-worker and, reducing network traffic and allows changes in NodeFeatureRules to take effect immediately (independent of the sleep-interval of nfd-worker). NodeFeature API can also be used to implement 3rd party extensions, see [customization guide](https://kubernetes-sigs.github.io/node-feature-discovery/v0.14/usage/customization-guide#nodefeature-custom-resource) for more details.

Garbage collection of stale NodeFeature objects was added in the form of nfd-gc daemon.

The gRPC API is now deprecated and will be removed in a future release. The related command-line flags are also deprecated (and don't have any effect when NodeFeature API is in use):

 - nfd-master: `-ca-file`, `-cert-file`, `-key-file`, `-port`, `-verify-node-name`

 - nfd-worker: `-ca-file`, `-cert-file`, `-key-file`, `-server`, `-server-name-override`

### Metrics

NFD now provides Prometheus metrics for better observability. Also, the Helm and kustomize deployments support enabling metrics collection with the [Prometheus operator](https://github.com/prometheus-operator/prometheus-operator). See the [documentation](https://kubernetes-sigs.github.io/node-feature-discovery/v0.14/deployment/metrics.html) for more information about the available metrics and deployment instructions.

### Hooks disabled by default

The deprecation of nfd-worker [hooks](https://kubernetes-sigs.github.io/node-feature-discovery/v0.14/usage/customization-guide.html#hooks) continues, disabling them by default in v0.14. Potential users of hooks are encouraged to switch to use the NFD CRDs ([NodeFeature](https://kubernetes-sigs.github.io/node-feature-discovery/v0.14/usage/customization-guide.html#nodefeature-custom-resource) and

[NodeFeatureRule](https://kubernetes-sigs.github.io/node-feature-discovery/v0.14/usage/customization-guide.html#nodefeaturerule-custom-resource)) or [feature files](https://kubernetes-sigs.github.io/node-feature-discovery/master/usage/customization-guide.html#feature-files). Hooks can still be enabled with the [`sources.local.hooksEnabled`](https://kubernetes-sigs.github.io/node-feature-discovery/master/reference/worker-configuration-reference.html#sourceslocalhooksenabled)

configuration option.

### Feature files

**Expiry time:** NFD now supports specifying an expiry time for the features specified in a feature file, providing better lifecycle management for the feature labels. See the [documentation](https://kubernetes-sigs.github.io/node-feature-discovery/master/usage/customization-guide.html#input-format) for more details.

**Size limit:** There is now a 64kB size limit for feature files.

###  Miscellaneous

#### NodeFeatureRule API

Dynamic values for labels is now supported by using the `@` notation, see [documentation](https://kubernetes-sigs.github.io/node-feature-discovery/v0.14/usage/customization-guide.html#labels) for more details.

#### NFD-Master

- support for leader election was added, enabling high-availability deployments with multiple-replicas of nfd-master (with the NodeFeature API enabled)

- dynamically configurable logging parameters via the config file

- configurable resync period for the CRD controller

- parallelized node updates, speeding up simultaneous updates of large number of nodes (e.g. update in NodeFeatureRules in a big cluster), can be controlled with the [`-nfd-api-parallelism`](https://kubernetes-sigs.github.io/node-feature-discovery/v0.14/reference/master-commandline-reference.html#-nfd-api-parallelism) flag

#### CPU features

Detection of Intel TDX guests is now supported.

#### Logging

The project was migrated structured logging, making log messages more consistent, better machine parseable and enables future improvements in logging.

#### Support policy

The project now officially documented it's supported versions and deprecation policy, see the [documentation](https://kubernetes-sigs.github.io/node-feature-discovery/v0.14/reference/versions.html) for details.

Thanks,

    Eduardo Arango, on behalf of the NFD team

Carlos Eduardo Arango Gutierrez Ph.D 

Senior Systems Software Engineer, Kubernetes

SW-CLOUD 

NVIDIA

He/Him/His - @CarlosEArango