Feature Releases and Improvements

January 2025

Making the User Interface even more intuitive

• Enterprise License Display & Status
  • A new “License Status” section shows if you’re using an enterprise license.
  • If you already have an enterprise license, no upgrade prompts. If not, you’ll see an option to upgrade.
• Enhanced style fixes and clearer license validity dates.
• Tag Browser Smart Auto-Expand
  • Switched from width-based to height-based expansion.
  • Provides a better initial overview when browsing large sets of tags.
• Global App Filtering
  • A new “Filter” dropdown at the top helps you narrow data by location, instance, or other criteria.
  • If nothing matches, a “No results—clear filters?” prompt appears for quick resets.
• Fullscreen Code Editor
  • Edit large configs or code snippets without feeling cramped.
• Optional Bridge Headers (Kafka/MQTT)
  • Properly displayed when using Kafka.
  • Hidden when viewing MQTT to keep the interface protocol-specific.

Making Benthos better for first-time & power users

• Test Benthos Config (Beta/Feature Flag)
  • Directly test your Benthos input config in the Management Console.
  • A dedicated button (behind a feature flag) lets you quickly iterate by running test inputs.
• Benthos Input Testing UI: Split-Pane Results
  • Collapsible entries show payload, metadata, and errors clearly.
  • No more cramped inline logs.
• Benthos Image Tag Customization
  • Select a specific Benthos-UMH image tag in “expert mode” to test advanced or custom builds.

Making OPC UA easier to use through browser enhancements

• Extended Timeouts (10s → 300s) for slow responses.
• Hierarchical Browsing toggle for servers with unusual responses.
• Improved Visibility with extra styling/borders.
• Retries if the root node is empty on the first try.

Other Improvements & Notable Changes

• Performance & Stability
  • Raised default QPS & Burst for high-throughput (50k tags/sec!)
  • Better concurrency handling and faster simultaneous downloads.
• SQL Query Resolution Selector
  • In the Tag Browser’s SQL tab, choose different time resolutions or raw data.
• ActionErrorCollapsible for DFCs
  • A top banner shows consolidated error messages for easier troubleshooting.
• Duplicate Deployment Checks for DFCs
  • Prevents multiple DFC deployments by the same connection ID.
• License Box Style
  • Cleaned up styling on the homepage for consistency.
• Svelte Dependencies
  • Removed svelte-chartjs in favor of direct Chart.js for a smaller bundle.
• Refined Applications & Instances
  • Improved IP display (real names + statuses).
  • Instances show Management Companion version (not just Helm chart version).
  • Added fallback sorting by UUID for stable listings.
• Auto-Scrolling Log Boxes
  • Always see the latest log messages without manual scrolling.
• Rocky Linux Auto-Update
  • Enforces certain minor versions and auto-updates for better security.

Bug Fixes & Maintenance

• Fixed Demo Mode to show correct simulated data versions.
• Prevented SQLite DB files from rotating out and causing corruption.
• Checks for free disk space and stability before Helm upgrades.
• Improved error codes in DFC failures.
• Ignored “Succeeded” pods in version checks to avoid confusion.
• Removed 80% disk warnings if disk metrics are unavailable.
• Better OPC UA handling when servers or configs are missing.
• Stopped Kafka from crashing if a broker is dead.
• Hidden “Upgrade to Enterprise” button if already on Enterprise.
• Helm install commands now match chosen release channels (Nightly, Stable, etc.).
• Security context and /host volume patches for improved container security.
• And many smaller tweaks, style refinements, and logging improvements.

December 2024

• User Experience Enhancements
  • Making SQL Queries Even Easier to Build with the Resolution Selector: The Tag Browser now includes a resolution selector that shows available options like $__interval, 1 hour, 1 minute, and 1 second, improving query flexibility.
  • Sample library to push data from the UNS to other applications : A protocol dropdown list with a wide array of data sinks and sources has been added when creating custom data flow components to simplify the configuration.

• System and Performance Improvements
  • Enabling the companion to check the disk health: The Management Companion now verifies instance stability and disk availability before upgrading to prevent potential failures.
  • Experience the UMH is now even easier with more sample data: We expanded the Demo Simulator to cover more verticals, addressing a wider range of use cases and sample industries.
    

Bug Fixes and more

• Installation and Upgrade
  • The install command now correctly reflects the companion version as per the selected release channel.
  • Resolved issues with floating-point handling during installation scripts.
  • Improved OS detection during Docker setups for smoother installations.
• System Stability and Monitoring
  • Fixed an issue where the Management Companion would crash if the Kafka broker was not ready.
  • The MQTT IoT Simulator no longer sends retained messages, optimizing message handling and performance.
  • Metrics collection now focuses exclusively on UMH-related K3s namespaces.
  • Fixed intermittent backend message drop issues to ensure reliable communication.
  • K3s events for Kafka, TimescaleDB, HiveMQ, and Dataflow components are now visible directly in their respective module pages, offering better monitoring.
  • Resolved an issue where Dataflow components falsely appeared healthy despite OOM failures.
  • Addressed timeout errors during connection and protocol converter creation.
  • Fixed "Unreachable Instance" errors when signing into the Management Console.
  • Flickering health status for Dataflow components and modules has been resolved.
  • Improved error messages when MQTT IP is missing during dataflow component creation.

November 2024

• Multitask with multiple tabs with the Management Console
  • We understand that there are multiple workflows where you want to "model your UNS data"; therefore, we added the ability to open multiple tabs simultaneously.
  • This gives the user the ability to more easily copy and paste between processing steps and also monitor the data going through the pipeline, among other things.
  • As a nice side effect, the management console also got way faster due to the underlying technical changes

• Better reliability and parsing in benthos-umh
  • Fixed a bug in sensorconnect that resulted in "hanging up" after some time (thank you, @EmlingerM!)
  • Fixed a bug with sensorconnect where octetStrings were not properly parsed
  • Cleaned up the module imports (chore)
• Management Companion updates
  • Fixed a bug where on some systems k3s would fail to start due to misconfigured fs.inotify.max_user_watches and fs.inotify.max_user_instances
  • Added stricter instance name validation, preventing invalid k3s node names
  • Added automatic recovery for stuck Helm upgrades by attempting to rollback to the new version after 5 minutes
  • Offloaded some of the processing in the frontend to a dedicated worker, resulting in better reactivity
  • Fixed a bug where upgrading from old Helm charts would sometimes fail
  • Added more machines to our demo simulator
  • Added release channels and dedicated enterprise channels

October 2024

• Streamline Data Discovery on OPC UA Servers with Our OPC UA Browser
  • We have added to our Protocol Converter feature in the management console the ability to browse and explore the configured OPC UA Server
  • This makes it much easier to actually see which data points are available and which are not, thereby reducing the time to value per new OPC UA Server
  • You can select a set of folders or individual nodes and apply those directly to your input YAML to streamline the workflow even further.

• Connect IO-Link with the UNS and UMH
  • You can now use IO-Link sensors to enrich the UNS with tactical process and production data like temperature sensors, light barriers, or vibration data through the plugin in the protocol converter
  • This reduces time spent on additional middleware by connecting directly to the sensor and gateway
  • It automatically parses the hex-encoded sensor data from the IO-Link Master with the corresponding IODD files to create a human-readable JSON with all values in key-value format
  • All data points are then available in the tag browser and are automatically persisted in the database

• New Benthos-based bridges and fully Automated Helm Upgrade from the Management Console
  • We have now ported all our internal bridges (e.g., MQTT -> Kafka, Kafka -> MQTT) to Benthos-based DFCs to increase performance, maintainability, and directly make features like logs and metrics available in the management console
  • The Upgrade button has now become even more powerful! Now, not only does the management companion get updated from the management console, but also the attached Helm chart of the UMH, making upgrading and staying up to date even easier

September 2024

• New Homepage and small UI rework
  • We have added a new homepage that now displays relevant usage KPIs such as tags captured, current throughput, and connected interfaces. It also includes a list of alerts for your entire deployment that require your attention.
  • Additionally, a list of the latest UMH blog posts is now available to help you learn about or improve your deployment.
  • Help pages are now accessible via a side panel that you can slide in on relevant pages to assist you in navigating quickly.

• Templates for DFCs to help you bridge data more easily
  • Introduced new custom Data Flow Control (DFC) templates for kafka-to-postgres and other bridges. This preview feature allows you to store your own data in the database or bridge your custom data contracts between MQTT and Kafka.
• Easily Upgrade Your OS via the Management Console
  • A clear upgrade path for Flatcar and Rocky Linux has been implemented. Users will now receive detailed messages explaining why a version is outdated, along with guidance and an easy command to update.

August 2024

• New Instance View and Tab feature: The new Instance view replaces the old Component View and increases amount of visible information and improves the ability for non technical users to use & troubleshoot the infrastructure.

• Data Flow Components: We’ve enabled the deployment of fully custom Benthos setups to make all Benthos use cases available through the Management Console. We also included a template, e.g., mirroring the UNS to AWS SQS, - more to follow soon.
• Released Modbus over TCP/IP Connector for Benthos-UMH: Added the ability to connect to devices via Modbus over TCP/IP e.g. energy meters, which is fully end-to-end tested against a Modbus simulator. Additional documentation is available here.
• Integrated Protocol Converter into Data Flow Components: Protocol converters are now deployed using the same mechanism as custom data flow components, improving reliability and enabling version control and rollbacks.
• ARM64 Support for UMH Lite: Initial support for ARM64 is available for UMH Lite deployments, increasing accessibility for ARM-powered devices for data capture. UMH Classic will follow at a later time.
• Included CyberChef / Quick data conversion: We’ve integrated the popular tool "CyberChef" for simple and complex data manipulation, such as decoding Base64 or Hex payloads. It's available for every data point in the tag browser.