Rule the clouds with Mist v4.2

We are pleased to announce today the release of Mist v4.2. This release includes new governance features like cost quotas, machine leases and rules on logs. It also includes enhancements on Mist's support for several public clouds and a set of bug fixes.

Constraints: cost quotas and machine leases

Mist v4.2 improves multicloud governance by introducing constraints. Constraints extend role-based access controls (RBAC) and are configured from the Teams section. In this first iteration, Mist supports constraints for implementing cost quotas and machine leases.

Cost quotas help you stay within budget and avoid unpleasant surprises when you receive invoices from your cloud providers. Mist v4.2 supports quotas per team and organization. Quotas apply whenever a team member attempts to create, start or resize a machine. Mist will compare the current run rate to the relevant quota. The requested action will be allowed only if the run rate is below the quota. For more information on how to set up quotas, check out our help documentation here.

Machine leases help you reduce machine sprawl. You no longer have to spend valuable time trying to figure out who owns a machine and what to do with it. When a lease expires, machines will get automatically destroyed or stopped. For more details, check out our help documentation here.

Please keep in mind that the above features are only available in Mist Enterprise Edition (EE) and Mist Hosted Service (HS).

Observation logs

Mist emits logs for every action performed through its API. This is useful for auditing and troubleshooting purposes. In addition to that, Mist v4.2 emits logs whenever it detects changes in your infrastructure. This way, you can keep track of actions that did not happen through Mist.

Mist observation logs
Mist observation logs

Specifically, Mist v4.2 emits logs when it detects:

  • creation or destruction of machines, volumes, networks and DNS zones,
  • changes in the size of machines (e.g. machine was resized from 2 vCPUs to 4),
  • changes in the status of machines (e.g. machine went from running state to stopped),
  • block storage volumes getting attached or detached

For more details, check out our help documentation here.

Rules on logs

Since the very first versions of Mist you can set rules on metrics from monitored machines. These rules can trigger actions like email alerts, resource lifecycle actions, script execution etc. Mist v4.2 extends the rules engine to support queries on logs from all supported resource types.

Mist log rules
Mist log rules

This opens up several new options, especially when combined with observation logs. Some interesting examples include:

  • Notify me when machines are created or destroyed in my production cloud.
  • Destroy a machine when post-deployment steps fail.
  • Open a ticket in my issue tracker when provisioning fails.

For more information regarding rules on logs check out our help documentation < href="https://docs.mist.io/article/170-rules-on-logs">here.

Maxihost bare metals in Mist

Maxihost and Mist logos in the clouds

Mist v4.2 brings support for Maxihost, a provider of on-demand bare metal servers. Maxihost is based in Brazil and serves a wide range of global companies like Riot Games, Algolia, Zoho and more. We love their service for the flexibility and cost efficiency it offers.

If you'd like to learn more about Maxihost, visit their website at https://www.maxihost.com/.

If you are a Maxihost user already, you can add it to Mist by following the instructions here.

Other updates in Mist v4.2

Besides the above, Mist v4.2 includes several fixes and improvements. The most notable are:

  • Support FoundationDB Document Layer as a replacement for MongoDB.
  • Improved volume support and machine provisioning on Microsoft Azure Resource Manager and Alibaba Cloud
  • Attach existing and new volumes when creating machines to AWS, DigitalOcean and Alibaba Cloud.
  • Cloud-init support for OpenStack, Alibaba Cloud, IBM Cloud and Vultr.
  • Hide unavailable actions in the web UI according to RBAC permissions.
  • Rules can trigger webhook actions.
  • Include alert level description in rule notification actions.

Conclusion

Mist v4.2 focuses on how you can improve governance through features like constraints, observation logs and rules on logs. It brings support for a new bare metal cloud provider and several enhancements to existing ones. Finally, it introduces fixes for bugs and further improves the web UI. The next major release will go out late in Q1. Until then, stay tuned for minor releases on a monthly schedule.

To check out the entire platform please reach out to demo@mist.io and one of our engineers will give you a quick overview.

If you'd like to try out for yourselves, sign up for a Mist HS account and begin your 14-day free trial.

Community Edition users can get the latest version and relevant instructions on GitHub.