Release Notes

🚀 Resource group search 🔍

March 17, 2025

We’re pleased to introduce a new FleetControl update designed to improve efficiency and ease of use! You can now quickly search for resource groups using: keyword, name or partial name, ID and metadata. This enhancement ensures faster access to resource group details, improving your workflow and productivity 🚀

🚀 Improved events JSON Reports

February 12, 2025

We're pleased to announce a new enhancement to our event JSON reports in report view! Now, when you download a report, it will include the following additional details:

✅ Cloud Instance ID – Easily track specific instances across cloud environments

✅ Region – Identify where your instance is running

✅ Account ID – Quickly reference the associated cloud account

🚀 Action Batches

December 13, 2024

🔥 Challenge: Efficient pre- and post-hook execution in FleetControl

We understand the challenge users face when running custom scripts in FleetControl, especially when they want to execute pre- and post-hook actions around the PATCH action. Currently, the design in FleetControl requires the user to wait for the script to execute on all resources before proceeding with patching, differing from the behavior in Autopatcher. In AP, failure on one machine does not impact the entire plan's progress. In FleetControl if a script crashes in on one resource, it can halt the entire plan.

We have good news: this is no longer a problem! ✨

❓ What are Action Batches?

Action Batches enable you to group multiple actions and execute them independently on specified resources. Unlike traditional sequential execution, Action Batches allow resources to process tasks concurrently, significantly reducing the overall execution time for plans.

❓ When to use Action Batches?

Action Batches excel in scenarios where actions can be applied independently to multiple resources, enabling faster completion. However, if actions have strict dependencies or require sequential execution, traditional methods may be more appropriate.

ℹ️ Action Batches redefine efficiency in FleetControl by enabling concurrent execution and resource-specific workflows. They ensure faster plan completion, better resource utilization, and a streamlined approach to managing automation tasks. Ready to try Action Batches? Navigate to the plan creation wizard to get started. For more details, refer to User Guide

🚀 Improved manually successful status

December 13, 2024

We are happy to announce the release of a new improvements that enhances the clarity and accuracy of action status representation in FleetControl!

• Previously, when an action's status was changed to manually successful, it was displayed as "success," which could lead to confusion. With this update, actions marked as manually successful will now be labeled as "Manually successful", providing clear differentiation and accurate reporting.

• To further enhance visibility, a unique icon will now represent the "Manually Successful" status. This ensures users can quickly and visually distinguish between actions that were automatically successful and those manually marked as such.

🚀 NoProxy parameter

December 3, 2024

We’re excited to introduce a new enhancement to FleetControl’s plan settings, designed to provide greater flexibility for proxy configurations and address specific customer requirements.

You can now define NoProxy parameter within the advanced settings. This feature empowers you to bypass proxies for specific local URLs or domains, ensuring seamless access to internal resources, such as local repository URLs user guide: Proxy Settings

🚀 Plan Search

November 20, 2024

We are excited to announce the release of a new feature designed to improve plan management. This feature introduces an advanced search capability, allowing engineers to quickly locate specific plan within their list by using a variety of search criteria like name, part of the name, ID.

🚀 Registering machine using customer AWS account

November 19, 2024

With this release, customers can now register and manage their virtual machines within their own AWS accounts instead of the default Nordcloud-owned. This enhancement is particularly beneficial for customers who prefer to retain full control over their VM instances. Below are the updated instructions for setting up and registering managed instances to your own AWS account: Registering machine using customer AWS account

🚀 Enhanced Plan Filtering

November 19, 2024

We are excited to announce a new feature release designed to simplify and enhance how you find and filter plans. With this update, PES engineers now have powerful filtering tools to streamline the process of finding relevant plans based on custom criteria.

• Plan Creation Date: You can now define a specific time range to view plans created within that period. This makes it easy to target plans based on when they were added, giving you precise control over your search.
• Plan Status: Find plans based on their current status with three available options.
• Plan Included Actions: Plans can be filtered based on their actions, shown in an ordered list.
• Plan Schedule Option: Narrow down your list by selecting specific schedule options to match the timing requirements of your tasks.

🚀 Azure China VMs support

November 5, 2024

FleetControl successfully supports now registering and managing Azure Virtual Machines (VMs) in the Azure China regions, such as China North 2.

🚀 Event actions & related plan filter

November 5, 2024

We are happy to announce the implementation of new filters for events! You can now easily filter the events by event actions and event-related plan. The feature allows for easy identification and focus on relevant events, saving time and improving efficiency.

🚀 Event status filter

October 3, 2024

We are happy to announce the implementation of a new filter for events! You can now easily filter past events by status (e.g., failed, successful) and future events by status (e.g., upcoming, revoked). The feature allows for easy identification and focus on relevant events, saving time and improving efficiency.

🚀 CSV RESOURCES LIST Report

September 16, 2024

We are happy to announce the release of the CSV RESOURCES LIST report. This report provides a detailed overview of your resources, including their metadata and patching status within a specified date range. It helps you track which resources have been patched, are scheduled for patching, or were excluded from patching actions.

How it Works

• Submit a request with a specific date range and report type (CSV_RESOURCES_LIST).
• The initial query returns a status of pending.
• Repeat the query until the status is ready.
• Once ready, download the report via the S3 pre-signed URL provided.

This report is an excellent tool for managing and monitoring your cloud resources and patching processes.

A detailed description of the report fields is included in the report documentation: CSV RESOURCES LIST REPORT Documentation.

🚀 Resource Search

August 26, 2024

We are excited to announce the release of a new feature designed to improve resource management. This feature introduces an advanced search capability, allowing engineers to quickly locate specific resources within their list by using a variety of search criteria:

• Name
• Part of the Name
• ID
• Metadata
• Resource Tags

This enhancement simplifies resource management and improves efficiency by enabling more precise searches.

🚀 Display of Delay Information in Plans View

August 9, 2024

We are introducing a new feature that enhances the Plans view by displaying delay information. This update is specifically designed to help PES engineers better understand and manage the execution schedules across different environments.

With this update, the delay information is clearly displayed alongside the cron schedule, providing a complete picture of when plans are set to execute.

🚀 Enhanced Event Visibility (10 Events Per Plan)

August 9, 2024

We are happy to introduce a new feature in FleetControl that enhances event visibility. Previously, engineers could only see the events for one month in advance, limiting their ability to effectively manage client freeze periods. With this update, FleetControl now generates 10 events ahead for each plan, providing greater foresight and flexibility in managing planned activities.

Key Benefits

• Revocation of Events: Easily revoke events that coincide with a client’s freeze period without needing to split the task into multiple steps.
• Adaptation to Client Schedules: Adjust all relevant events to the client's schedule in a single action, saving time and reducing the risk of missing critical adjustments.

🚀 Enhanced Version Tracking

August 9, 2024

We are pleased to announce an enhancement to the report view of patch actions within the events section. This new feature provides detailed visibility into package version changes, offering greater clarity on which versions were installed, updated, or removed during patching activities.

What's New?

• Removed: The UI will now display the specific version of the package that has been deleted.
• Updated: When a package is updated, the UI will clearly show the transition from the old version to the new version in the format: Old Version → New Version.
• Installed: The UI will indicate the specific new version of the package that has been installed.

🚀 Change in VM Stop Action to Deallocate

August 7, 2024

We are happy to announce that the requested change to the Azure VM stop action has been released.

What's Changed?

Previously, the STOP_VIRTUAL_MACHINE action in FleetControl used the Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/powerOff/action permission, which only stopped the VM. With this update, it now uses the Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/deallocate/action permission, which not only stops the VM but also deallocates its resources.

This change can help optimize your cloud costs by releasing the resources when the VM is stopped.

Please make sure the necessary permissions are added to ensure the stop action functions correctly. If you have any questions or need assistance, please let us know.

🚀 On-demand Plan

July 24, 2024

You can now create plans without the need to define recurring dates or specific execution dates. This allows you to run plans on-demand, as and when required.

Engineers can now prepare plans in advance and execute them only when needed, offering greater control over the timing of actions.

User Guide: On-demand Schedule

🚀 Add FleetControl Tenants via IBM Multicloud Panel UI

July 17, 2024

As an organization admin, you can now easily add FleetControl tenants using the IBM Multicloud Panel UI. This feature streamlines the process of managing organizations and their tenants without needing to use the API. It also enables you to view which products a given organization has within the UI.

🚀 Proxy Settings

June 21, 2024

We have introduced a new feature to enhance the flexibility and security of the patching and scanning process. As setting up permanent proxy settings on the machines to access the internet for patching is considered insecure, we have developed a solution that allows clients to configure proxy settings (HTTP and HTTPS) only for the patching/scanning action. This improvement enhances both security and ease of use.

User Guide: Configure Proxy Settings

🚀 Default Action Window Duration Update

June 6, 2024

To enhance the reliability and effectiveness of resource updates, we have increased the default window duration for actions in FleetControl from 1 minute to 1 hour. This change addresses issues caused by the previous short action duration, ensuring that all resources have sufficient time to be updated.

🚀 Distinguish Between Automatically and Manually Completed Actions

June 3, 2024

You can now differentiate between automatically completed actions (with a "Successful" status) and manually set successful actions (with a "Manually Successful" status) when using the product API.

This enhancement allows you to accurately track and analyze the effectiveness of both automated and manual processes.

🚀 Update to Event Notification Naming

June 3, 2024

The notification condition previously labeled "finished" has been renamed to "is successful". This change clarifies that users will receive notifications only when an event or event action is entirely successful.

With this update, selecting this option means you will not receive notifications for partially successful or failed statuses.

🚀 Enhanced Notification System for Status Changes

June 3, 2024

As a user who has set notifications for plans or actions with statuses such as finished, partially successful, or failed, you will now receive notifications only when there is a change in the overall status of a plan or action due to a manual resource status update. This enhancement ensures that the user is only notified when there is a meaningful change in the status, reducing unnecessary notifications and providing more relevant updates.

How It Works?

Initial Action Completion:

• Resource A: Failed
• Resource B: Failed
• Resource C: Success
• Event Action Status: Partially Successful
• Notification Sent: Yes (Action is Partially Successful)

Manual Status Change by User:

• Resource A: Status changed to Success
• Overall Event Action Status: Remains Partially Successful (since Resource B is still failed)
• Notification Sent: No (Status remains Partially Successful)

Subsequent Manual Status Change by User:

• Resource B: Status changed to Success
• Overall Event Action Status: Changes to Success
• Notification Sent: Yes (Action is now Successful)

🚀 Enhanced Scheduling Options [on Specified Dates]

May 17, 2024

We are excited to introduce a new feature that allows users to create plans that run on specified dates, removing the need for regular manual scheduling.

Users can now specify exact dates and times for a plan to be launched. This means a plan can be set to run once or multiple times on the chosen dates.

We have renamed and updated the descriptions of the schedule options to "Recurring" and "Specified Dates" to better reflect their functionalities.

These enhancements aim to make scheduling more flexible and user-friendly, allowing for better management of the plans.

User Guide: Create a Plan

🚀 Deleting Resources

May 17, 2024

We are happy to announce the following improvements that simplify the process of deleting resources in FleetControl:

• Automatic Removal from Resource Groups: When a user deletes a resource that belongs to a resource group, the resource is now automatically removed from the resource group. If a resource group contains only one resource and that resource is deleted by the user, the resource group will remain but will be empty.

• Improved Deletion Messaging: We have fixed an issue where the system displayed a message indicating that the resource could not be deleted, followed by a confirmation question asking, "Are you sure you want to delete the resource?" This message is now clear and accurate.

• Comprehensive Documentation: The entire process of deleting resources, whether they are automatically detected or manually added, has been thoroughly documented. We hope this makes managing your resources more straightforward.

See the documentation for more details: Deleting Resources

🚀 Updated CSV Report Naming

April 26, 2024

We've renamed the bundledReport type from CSV_FOR_POWER_BI to CSV_EVENTS_LIST to better reflect the report's contents.

See the Confluence page for more details: Reporting Documentation

🚀 Multi-option Selection for Scan and Patch Advanced Settings

April 26, 2024

In the latest release, we've introduced a significant enhancement to the Scan and Patch actions' advanced settings. Previously, users could only select a single option from a dropdown list in the Classification and Severity fields.

With this release, we're happy to announce that users can now select multiple options in these advanced settings, providing greater flexibility in configuring actions according to specific requirements.

🚀 Status Refresh

April 24, 2024

We're happy to announce the introduction of a status refresh mechanism. This enhancement brings real-time updates to plans, plan actions, and plan resources status tracking—a small yet significant improvement.

Previously, users had to manually refresh the page to update statuses, causing delays in accessing the latest information. With the introduction of real-time updates, users can now stay informed of status changes instantly, leading to improved efficiency, productivity, and a better overall user experience.

🚀 'Success, No Updates Available' Status in the Action

April 23, 2024

We're excited to announce the launch of a new reporting adjustment. Users can now access a report via API that lists resources with a "SUCCESS_NO_UPDATES_AVAILABLE" status in the action (in event). Users can efficiently manage resources based on their patching statuses. Resources with the "SUCCESS_NO_UPDATES_AVAILABLE" status may not need immediate attention, allowing users to prioritize resources that have encountered issues.

Please note that this status represents the state of a resource in a given plan and a given action.

Here are the specified statuses:

• SUCCESS: Indicates successful patching on the resource. [PLEASE NOTE that the successful execution of the patching job indicates that no pending patches were reported by the operating system on the machine at the conclusion of the patching process.]
• SUCCESS_NO_UPDATES_AVAILABLE: Indicates successful patching on the resource, but no updates were available.
• FAILED: Indicates that patching failed on the resource.
• ERROR: Indicates failure in running the patching process on the resource due to internal processing errors.

See the Confluence page for more details: Reporting Documentation

🚀 CSV Report Additional Fields

April 12, 2024

In Fleet Control, you can export detailed VM patching reports using the bundledReport query. Simply specify the date range, and you'll receive a comprehensive CSV report tailored for Power BI.

Here's a sample query:

query getReport {
  bundledReport(
    input: {
      type: CSV_FOR_POWER_BI
      dateRange: {
        startDate: "2023-10-24T00:00:00Z"
        endDate: "2023-11-24T00:00:00Z"
      }
    }
  ) {
    status
    errorMessage
    url
  }
}

We've enhanced the CSV report with additional fields for more insightful reporting:

• Resource name
• Full Cloud Resource ID
• Description (resource)
• Provider
• Plan ID
• Action ID
• Plan Action ID

Now, you can gain deeper insights and streamline your reporting processes effortlessly. 📊

See the Confluence page for more details: Reporting Documentation

🚀 Plan Activation and Deactivation

April 12, 2024

We're happy to announce the release of the Plan Activation and Deactivation feature. You can now easily suspend and unsuspend plans without the need to delete them. When creating a plan, you have the option to set it as active or inactive.

Deactivate existing plans seamlessly from the plan list or details view. Plus, easily identify active and inactive plans with status indicators. 🎉

Please note that as a next step, we plan to add the ability to define periods during which the plan will be active/inactive.

🚀 Cloud ID

April 2nd, 2024

We have introduced a new feature that displays the ID from the cloud alongside the resource ID. This enhancement allows engineers to conveniently cross-reference a given resource and link it directly to its corresponding cloud identifier.

🚀 Events for Plans with No Actions or Resource Groups

March 21, 2024

Previously, users encountered difficulty distinguishing events for plans that lacked actions or resource groups, often resulting in misleading successful statuses. In response, we've introduced a visual enhancement by marking such events with icons.

Now, users can easily differentiate between events, ensuring a clearer understanding of plan event statuses at a glance. 🙂

🚀 Cron Expression Interpretation Enhancement

March 18, 2024

We are pleased to announce a recent enhancement to our product that streamlines user experience. With this update, users will notice a minor improvement: upon entering a cron expression, they will now immediately receive its interpretation.

This feature simplifies the process of verifying the accuracy of cron expressions, saving users valuable time and effort.

🚀 Enhanced User Flexibility

March 18, 2024

We are excited to announce the release of a new feature that significantly enhances user flexibility within our product. With this latest update, users now have the capability to create resources without the requirement of onboarding the entire cloud account. Read more here.

This means users can swiftly leverage our tool's functionalities across various cloud providers, including Google Cloud, IBM Cloud, as well as on-premises VMs.

We believe that this feature update will significantly empower our users, enabling them to leverage our platform's capabilities more effectively across diverse cloud infrastructures. Learn more about this update.