Release Notes 2.4

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Krateo 2.4 marks a significant milestone in the evolution of our platform. This release introduces major improvements, including a new authentication system, refined role-based access control (RBAC), an enhanced composable portal, and the first layer of FinOps for cost estimation. Additionally, we’ve made performance enhancements, UI improvements, and addressed various bug fixes.

🔹 What’s New in Krateo 2.4?

• Introducing SnowPlow & RestAction – A new middleware service that consolidates backend functions and enables REST API interactions.
• Unified Authentication methods – We unified the way we support OIDC, OAuth2, and LDAP authentication.
• Granular RBAC Management – Core providers have been redesigned for better security and flexibility.
• Composable Portal Improvements – More dynamic widgets, better navigation, and enhanced user experience.
• FinOps Cost Estimation – The first layer of FinOps provides estimated costs for compositions.
• Bug Fixes & Performance Enhancements – Various improvements to stability and user experience.

🚀 SnowPlow & RestAction: A New Foundation

SnowPlow is a new middleware service that unifies backend and BFF (Backend for Frontend) functionalities, improving performance, scalability, and security. It also lays the groundwork for the future evolution of the Composable Portal.

Key Features of SnowPlow:

• Centralized logging for better monitoring and debugging.
• Improved performance and scalability with a more efficient architecture.
• Loosely coupled with Kubernetes to support various versions.
• Faster permission checks for an enhanced user experience.

RestAction: A Flexible API for Krateo

RestAction allows users to define REST API mappings to interact with Krateo resources. This API can be consumed by:

• Command-line tools
• Third-party applications
• Frontend interfaces

RestAction Highlights:

• User identity & permission management
• Chained API calls, where results from previous calls can be used in subsequent requests.

📖 For more details, check the documentation:

• [RestAction Docs](https://github.com/krateoplatformops/snowplow/blob/main/RESTAction.md)
• [SnowPlow Overview](https://github.com/krateoplatformops/snowplow/blob/main/README.md)

💡 Looking ahead: Starting with Krateo 2.5, SnowPlow and RestAction will become the backbone of the new Composable Portal, with a more modular and flexible architecture. To ensure backward compatibility, the existing backend service will continue to receive maintenance and bug fixes until the end of 2025.

🔑 Authentication System Unified

We’ve revamped our authentication service to leverage SnowPlow and RestAction, providing seamless integration with multiple identity providers.

Now supporting:

• OIDC (OpenID Connect)
• OAuth2 authentication
• LDAP-based authentication

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🔒 Core Provider Enhancements & RBAC Updates

A major refactor of the core provider introduces increased testability and new capabilities, including:

• Security context & environment variable configuration
• RBAC generation improvements:
• Now handled by the composition-dynamic-controller instead of the core provider.
• The CDC now manages Smart RBAC generation.
• Expanded authentication methods for downloading Charts.

💰 Introducing FinOps: Cost Estimation for Compositions

The Krateo Composable FinOps module enables cost tracking and resource utilization insights for both cloud and on-premises environments.

Key Features:

• Automatically collects pricing information.

• Displays real resources' pricing in Krateo Composable Portal.

• Integrates with APIs to expand metric collection: check out the sample:
[Krateo FinOps Module Pricing Example](https://github.com/krateoplatformops/krateo-v2-template-finops-example-pricing-vm-azure)

⚠️ Compatibility Note:

• ✅ Works with Kubernetes 1.31.0+

• ❌ Currently not compatible with OpenShift due to permission restrictions with the CrateDB chart.

• Workaround: Install Krateo in a vCluster environment. A fix is planned for the next release.

🎨 Frontend & Composable Portal Improvements

We’ve made several UI/UX enhancements to the Composable Portal to improve usability and navigation.

New Features & Enhancements:

• Out-of-the-box dashboard now includes insights on Krateo components.
• Dynamic menu allows customization of the left sidebar.
• Auto-refresh when deleting cards.
• Spinners for long-running requests.
• YAML viewer widget for better visualization.
• Filtering for composition lists.
• Better navigation:
• Redirects after template-based composition creation now wait for the event before redirecting.
• Auto-scrolls to required but unfilled fields.
• Breadcrumbs now show composition name and namespace.

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🔧 Bug Fixes & Stability Improvements

We’ve addressed various bugs and performance issues to enhance the overall user experience. If you encounter any issues, please report them in our repository.

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📢 Final Thoughts

This release sets the stage for Krateo’s next evolution, with SnowPlow and RestAction playing a key role in future updates. We’re excited for what’s ahead and look forward to your feedback!

🚀 Stay tuned for Krateo 2.5!