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Release notes for version 21.04#

Highlights#

Tower 21.04.x brings the following changes:

  • New Organizations feature
  • New Teams feature
  • New Workspace feature
  • New Launchpad feature
  • Add support for private Git repositories
  • Add support for downloading Nextflow timelines
  • Fix issues with Compute environment status reporting
  • Update Nextflow runtime to version 21.04.0

Updating Tower deployment from version 21.02.x to 21.04.x#

License key#

As of version 21.02.x, a license key must be provided to enable the Tower deployment feature. The license key should be specified using the configuration variable TOWER_LICENSE. If you don't have a license key, contact sales@seqera.io.

Compute environments#

The Tower compute environments to be made available to users must be specified in the Tower configuration.

The following ids options are available:

  • awsbatch-platform: AWS Batch cloud compute service
  • gls-platform: Google LifeSciences cloud compute service
  • azbatch-platform: Azure Batch cloud compute service
  • lsf-platform: IBM LSF batch scheduler
  • slurm-platform: Slurm batch scheduler
  • altair-platform: Altair PBS Pro batch scheduler
  • univa-platform: (Univa/Sun) GridEngine
  • k8s-platform: Kubernetes compute platform
  • eks-platform: AWS EKS compute platform
  • gke-platform: Google GKE compute platform

Choose one or more of these platform ids and append to your current MICRONAUT_ENVIRONMENTS variable, separating them via a comma.

Database schema#

This Tower version requires a database schema update which requires the scheduling of several minutes of service downtime.

PLEASE FOLLOW THESE STEPS TO UPGRADE YOUR TOWER VERSION:

  • Stop the current Tower service
  • Make a full database backup
  • Update your environment with the new Tower enterprise containers
  • Restore the service

Find below more detailed instructions for your reference deployment.

Kubernetes based deployment#

1. Stop the Tower service using the following command:

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kubectl delete deployment frontend
kubectl delete deployment backend
kubectl delete deployment cron

2. Update the Tower container images in the Kubernetes manifest yaml files to: 

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195996028523.dkr.ecr.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/nf-tower-enterprise/backend:v21.04.9
195996028523.dkr.ecr.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/nf-tower-enterprise/frontend:v21.04.9

If you are using AWS Batch with a custom launcher job definition, you will need to update it to use the following container image (please refer the configuration section for details): 

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public.ecr.aws/seqera-labs/tower/nf-launcher:21.04.0

Refer to the manifests included in the Kubernetes section for details.

3. Apply the changes for the Tower cron service using the following command: 

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kubectl apply -f tower-cron.yml

Note

This task will automatically run the Tower database schema update tool. It may take some minutes to complete.

4. Once the cron container is in running status, deploy the Tower backend and frontend services using the following command: 

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kubectl apply -f tower-svc.yml

Docker compose deployment#

1. Stop the current deployment using the command docker-compose stop. 2. Make backup of the Tower database. 3. Update the docker-compose.yml file with the following container images:

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195996028523.dkr.ecr.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/nf-tower-enterprise/backend:v21.04.9
195996028523.dkr.ecr.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/nf-tower-enterprise/frontend:v21.04.9

4. Restart the service using the command docker-compose start.

Custom deployment script#

1. Stop the current Tower deployment. 2. Make a Tower database backup. 3. Pull or update the Tower container images references in your deployment script(s) to:

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195996028523.dkr.ecr.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/nf-tower-enterprise/backend:v21.04.9
195996028523.dkr.ecr.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/nf-tower-enterprise/frontend:v21.04.9

If you are using AWS Batch with a custom launcher job definition you need to update it to use the following container image (please refer the configuration section for details): 

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public.ecr.aws/seqera-labs/tower/nf-launcher:21.04.0

4. Update the Tower database schema by running the /migrate-db.sh provided in the backend container.

Note

Make sure to include the identical environment as used in the normal backend execution.

5. Once the schema update completes, deploy Tower following your usual procedure.

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