FlowFuse
Feature: automatic stack updates
Description
On FFC we publish new stacks at least once a month with each release. Stacks enable new features and bring fixes/security updates.
Currently, we leave it to end users to decide when to update their instances. Evidence shows it isn't something most users pay attention to - with a lot of instances running older stacks.
The proposal here is to introduce a new (optional) feature where we will automatically apply stack updates at a schedule of the user's choosing. The user can pick a regular maintenance window for their instance - for eg '3am-4am PT' - when a restart of their instance will be most convenient. During that window, if there is a stack update available, the platform will apply it.
We need to consider:
- schedule should allow both day-of-week and time-of-day configuration (inc timezone)
- we should provide a sensible default; eg 1am-2am GMT - configured by Admin so self-hosted customers can set their own default that is sensitive to their situation.
- Opt-in vs opt-out considerations; how to apply retroactively to existing instances.
- we know small instances that haven't been restarted for a long time but have had lots of modules incrementally applied sometimes have issues reinstalling all the modules on restart. That is a risk here - especially if the window is weekend/overnight.
A side-effect benefit for us will be getting to a place where a decent proportion of the NR instances on the platform are being restarted with some level of predictability. This will make the maintenance task of migrating k8s nodes easier.
I believe this feature should be available to all users.
Which customers would this be available to
Everyone - CE/Starter/Team/Enterprise
Have you provided an initial effort estimate for this issue?
I have provided an initial effort estimate
