We’re excited to announce the release of EF Portal 2024.1, designed to make managing complex workflows simpler and more efficient than ever. Packed with powerful new features, this version is a game-changer for users seeking flexibility, security, and seamless integration in their everyday operations.
Here’s a quick look at what’s new:
Want to see everything new in this release? Check out the What’s New in EF Portal 2024.1.
What’s next for EF Portal?
Coming in Q1 2025: A powerful REST API for developers to build custom EF Portal clients in their preferred programming languages. Stay tuned for an exclusive preview this February!
With these updates, EF Portal 2024.1 continues to push boundaries, helping engineers work more efficiently, administrate EF Portal more easily, and work smarter.
Transition to EF Portal
If you’re using EnginFrame, it can be very beneficial transition to EF Portal, the next evolution of the powerful HPC and VDI portal platform. Built on the same code base as EnginFrame, EF Portal offers a familiar installation process, consistent user experience, and exciting new features designed to enhance productivity and performance. As part of NI SP’s commitment to supporting EnginFrame customers, we offer free migration options and ongoing support to ensure a seamless upgrade experience.
Ready to try EF Portal or upgrade EnginFrame to EF Portal? Contact us for support.
⬇ Read full “What’s New in EF Portal 2024.1” below ⬇
What’s New in EF Portal 2024.1
(PDF Version: What’s New in EF Portal 2024.1)
Editing Published Services
Many EF admins might have been wondering why they could not edit a published service right away. This is now possible.
The new feature offers to update services which are published so the iteration on services can be much more efficient. Of course EF admins need to be careful not to break the published service used by their users.
Still the option to test a service is available with “Save Draft” option and to test the draft service with “Test Run”.
The new entry in the pull-down menu of a published service:
The top menu in the service while editing the service:
Login / Logout Auditing feature
To enhance security and monitoring we have added auditing EF Portal logins and logouts into a dedicated audit log file. This feature is enabled by default and can be turned off via the ef.audit.logfile.enabled parameter in server.conf.
Examples of audit lines from the auditing backend:
2024/Dec/11 17:36.08 [LOGIN] Login performed, user: efadmin, authority: pam, serviceUri: //com.enginframe.interactive/list.sessions2024/Dec/11 17:36.12 [LOGOUT] Logout performed, user: efadmin, authority: pam2024/Dec/11 17:36.14 [LOGIN_FAILED] Login failed, error: Authentication Error Missing credentials, user: efadmin, authority: pam, serviceUri: //com.enginframe.interactive/list.session2024/Dec/11 17:36.21 [LOGIN] Login performed, user: efadmin, authority: pam, serviceUri: //com.enginframe.interactive/list.sessions2024/Dec/11 17:46.23 [LOGOUT_EXPIRED] Logout performed due to session expiration, user: efadmin, authority: pam
CSS Editor in EF Portal Appearance Configuration
The new CSS editor in the EF Portal Appearance Editor Admin section offers to style EF Portal according to the needs of e.g. the company with styling of colors, fonts, padding, ….
EF Portal User Guide
With EF Portal 2024.1 we introduce the first EF Portal User Guide to help users understand how EF Portal works and how to use it.
Search in all columns in Job view, Host view, Spoolers, …
Now you can search in all columns for strings as well as dates. In the past only search for the name was available e.g. in the Spooler view.
SLURM Integration Enhancements
We have added a number of new features in the SLURM integration – here is the overview:
- Support for SLURM Version 24
- Improved formatting for Cloud and Powering starting up and shutting down states
- Move Top feature for pending jobs
- Display and Set Nice values of Jobs
Display of Nice value in the Job list and pulldown-down menu in job list to increase or decrease Nice value – also move top feature is available:
Display of Nice value in the Detailed Job View and Dedicated Nice value user interface to set Nice value:
Automatic recovery of sessions available in DCV Session Manager not visible in EF Portal
In certain situations (disk space full, user id changes, …) it can happen that EF Portal is missing information about sessions available in the DCV Session Manager. We have added automatic recovery of running sessions available in the DCV Session Manager Broker to EF Portal to mitigate such typically rare situations.
EF Portal Plugin Example
To offer customers the option to develop their own plugin we have created an EF Portal Plugin example as base for own plugin development.
The EF Portal Plugin example is available on request.
Other Updates
EF Installer treats DCV Session Manager as a Grid Manager
Removed the dependency to configure a scheduler in case you want to use DCV Session Manager only
LSF
Improved Job History with MySQL backend integration and paging from DB to work with large number of jobs and GBs of data (Available on request)
Preview of Videos and 3D Models in File Manager
For swift access of results for engineers and researches we added preview of video files and glb and glTF 3D models
Other Improvements
- VDI: improved Views quick connection user interface (DCV URI, DCV connection file, web browser) including improved user experience when waiting to connect to a session
- VDI: offer to save using DCV URI for the DCV connection as default
- VDI: updated action script in-file guide and comments
- DCV SM Integration: Add more data to Delegate Session session information section in detailed session info and set enqueue create session parameter default value to false
- File Manager: administrators can define custom places for all users using a global ef.places file
- File Manager: custom places defined by users outside their home directory must be allowlisted by administrators to be used
- File Manager: added the ability to define custom extensions for text and image mime types which will be recognized as such by the File Manager
- File Manager: automatically scroll logfiles to the bottom in File Manager Preview
- File Manager: added file size limit for preview and edit of 5 MB
- Logs: ef.log, agent.remote.log and dcvsm.log do not show error stack traces for better readability. Logs with full stack traces are now collected into corresponding .withtrace.log files
- Logs: Tomcat logging strategy has been revised to control growth of the Tomcat logs directory
- Logs: cleaned up misleading Hazelcast warnings
- Installer: calculate EF Server and Agent heap memory based on available memory to optimize heap
- Installer: altered installer logic to not use javascript which removes the message during installation that javascript support will be deprecated in future Java versions
- Installer: improved behavior during EF Portal updates
- SGE, Gridware: enhanced look ‘n feel of the history display
- UI: added configurable logout behavior
- UI: hide GPU related columns in list hosts if GPU data is not available
- UI: fixed bar charts display
- Appearance Editor: improved layout and behavior
- Login: fixed ‘Access not authorized’ bug happening sometimes after session expiration or EF Portal restart
- Server: Check for tomcat user home directory existence before starting EF Portal
Outlook
Launching in Q1: The new EF Portal REST API
Transform your EF Portal experience with our upcoming comprehensive REST API release. This modern API architecture expands beyond traditional Web Services, opening new possibilities for seamless integration and development.
Powered by OpenAPI/Swagger technology, our REST interface empowers developers to create custom EF Portal clients across an extensive range of programming languages. Whether your team works with C#, PHP, Node.js, Ruby, Go, or our new customizable Python-based EF Client, you’ll have the flexibility to build solutions that match your exact needs.
Get an exclusive preview of the EF Portal REST API in February 2025. The next major release will also introduce powerful new features, including an intuitive Configuration Editor and numerous enhancements designed to streamline and optimize usage and administration of EF Portal.
Ready to try EF Portal or upgrade EnginFrame to EF Portal? Contact us for support.
