Due to time constraints and the major reworking of the RPM packages to use Software Collections (SCL), some features are unavailable in RC1. They will be made available later in the RC cycle:
Passenger in RPMs: under review due to co-locating SCL Foreman and non-SCL Puppet within the same Apache instance
MySQL support in RPMs: the required MySQL gems haven't been built for the SCL yet
Only EL6 packages available, EL5 and Fedora to follow
Installation
If using the installer on RPM distros, the following answers file is recommended due to the above constraints:
FIXME
Known issues
Important issues are listed below, but all issues targeted to be fixed in the Foreman 1.2 release are available here:
foreman_discovery is supported with Foreman 1.2 and provides Metal-as-a-Service hardware discovery. New hosts boot into a discovery image which registers with Foreman, then can be converted and built from the web interface. See the README file for a step by step guide to configuring Foreman and the plugin.
BMC and IPMI support
Power control and boot device controls are now available from the web interface for bare metal hosts with a BMC network interface configured. The BMC interface can be added under the host network tab, and a smart proxy with the BMC feature configured is also required to perform actions over IPMI.
Internationalization
The web interface has been internationalized and now supports a number (FIXME) of languages. The interface will switch to the language specified by the browser by default and can be overridden from the user settings within Foreman. Further translations are welcomed through the Foreman project on Transifex.
SPICE HTML5 support
Virtual machine consoles on oVirt hosts can now be viewed from any HTML5-capable browser, instead of requiring the Linux-only XPI plugin. The XPI view is still available via the "New Window" link.
SELinux targeted support
An SELinux module for the standard targeted policy is now shipped in the foreman-selinux subpackage, supporting all standard configurations and options of Foreman. Please file any AVCs caused by Foreman or common plugins as bugs.
PostgreSQL by default
The Foreman installer default database has changed from SQLite to PostgreSQL, providing increased performance and reducing concurrency errors seen even in very small environments. MySQL is also fully supported and can be selected as an alternative. Database management in the installer modules can also be disabled, see this announcement for details.
Puppet runs via MCollective
The smart proxy can now initiate Puppet runs via the MCollective "puppet" agent, when configured with :puppet_provider: mcollective.
API version 2
A new API version has been added, providing new features while retaining APIv1 compatibility. Puppet classes can now be added and removed on hosts and host groups, locations and organizations have a CRUD interface and parameters on hosts, host groups etc can be managed.
Upgrade notes
Changes to production deployment for non-package users
For users running Foreman from git instead of RPMs or Debian packages, two additional deployment steps are now required for production usage:
rake locale:pack to compile locale .mo files
rake assets:precompile to compile images, JavaScript etc.
Software collections in RPMs
The RPMs now provide a full Ruby 1.9 stack via software collections (SCL), complete with the version of Ruby on Rails and other dependencies used by Foreman. This allows for a single stack of packages across each supported RPM-based distro, plus easier support of future dependencies as Ruby 1.8 goes EOL upstream. The software collection is installed under /opt/rh/ruby193.
This changes any rake or ruby commands used for managing Foreman, which now become ruby193-rake and ruby193-ruby respectively. Commands can also be run with scl enable ruby193 'original command' to run in the context of the collection (note the quotes).
More about software collections in general is available here and more about its use in Foreman here (FIXME, wiki/posts).
Host group matcher inheritance
Matchers used in smart variables or class parameters to match host groups are now inherited by children of those matching host groups too (e.g. a matcher for hostgroup=Base will also apply to Base/Web). This behaviour can be reverted by the host_group_matchers_inheritance setting (More > Settings > Puppet).
ActiveRecord-based storeconfigs / database sharing now unsupported
Previously it was suggested that a single database could be shared between Puppet ActiveRecord-based storeconfigs and Foreman, which would be used to import data from Puppet - this configuration was deprecated in Foreman 1.1 and is now unsupported in 1.2. Foreman must be configured with a standalone database, then configure either an ENC or fact and report uploads, which provides most of the same functionality as database sharing without the associated issues.
Puppet 3 also deprecated the use of ActiveRecord-based storeconfigs and it is now recommended to use PuppetDB instead for storeconfigs and exported resources. This can be used alongside Foreman as the two do not need to interact.
Release notes
API
APIv2 added, providing:
Puppet class management nested on hosts and host groups (#2250)
