KICS 3.0.0 is the first Platform release with all components associated with one KICS software version. This release simplifies user experience on KICS (e.g., building app configuration file with Kelvin Studio, deploying non-Kelvin docker container) and ensures Kelvin provides the best support for our customers. Any user who has Kelvin Application developed on KICS before this release will be required to migrate their application to be compatible with KICS 3.0.0. Also, there is a list of new features available in this release detailed below.
In this release, we have added support for two new types of applications on KICS Platform.
- Docker - Dockerized application is a new type of application that is supported on KICS Platform. Users can bring their own docker container to the platform. KICS Platform will deploy and run the docker container the same as other Kelvin applications.
- Bundle - Bundle is another new type of application supported on KICS Platform. Users can package more than one Kelvin application into a Kelvin bundle application to reduce the container overhead required for each application and optimize the communication between applications within the same bundle. Bundle application will be seen as one application workload running on Nodes. See details at Kelvin Application Bundle.
In this release, Platform had added a layer of security to provide secret management for applications. Users can manage secrets for their applications using Kelvin SDK command line interface.
Kelvin app configuration file (app.yaml) is one file that contains all the information KICS needs to build and run an application. Kelvin Studio is the graphical user interface on KICS to build and update Kelvin app configuration file.
Kelvin core is the App engine for all Kelvin Applications. In this release, built-in refinery (Data Refinement Modules) and gatekeeper (Operational Constraint Modules) functions are available to users through application configuration. Here are the list of new modules.
- Refinery Modules
- Compose -- See details at [Compose Tutorial (removed)]
- Scale -- See details at [Scale Tutorial (removed)]
- Timestamp Alignment -- See details at [Timestamp Alignment Tutorial (removed)]
- Gatekeeper Modules
- Min Max -- See details at [Min Max Tutorial (removed)]
- Rate Limiter
Data Viewer is the data visualization tool on KICS Platform. Users can visualize their data collected using Data Viewer based on a Node (i.e., data collected from same Node will automatically be displayed on the same data viewer page). In addition, a view template can be configured and customized to display a set of data within the Data Viewer.
All Kelvin APIs are documented here. Here is the list of new groups of APIs in KICS 3.0.0.
- Data Labels APIs -- Provide users API access to label data on KICS platform in Time-series database.
- View APIs -- Provide users API access to create view template that can drive custom views in Data Viewer.
- Node Metrics APIs -- There are a new set of APIs to enable users to configure metrics for Node (e.g. memory, CPU usage, etc)
- Secrets APIs -- Provide users API access to create, list and delete Secrets.
In this release, KICS platform supports installation options on AWS, Azure and On-Prem. Reach out to Kelvin Support for additional Installation Options.
For users who have developed Kelvin Applications with older version than KICS 3.0.0, here are the steps to upgrade to KICS 3.0.0.
- Upgrade current running Platform Server Instance to KICS 3.0.0.
- Upgrade your local Kelvin SDK to KICS 3.0.0.
- Migrate your existing application to be compatible with KICS 3.0.0. See details at Application Migration.