# MariaDB MaxScale 2.1.0 Release Notes Release 2.1.0 is a Beta release. This document describes the changes in release 2.1.0, when compared to release 2.0.X. For any problems you encounter, please consider submitting a bug report at [Jira](https://jira.mariadb.org). ## Changed Features ### Configuration Files From 2.1.0 onwards MariaDB MaxScale supports hierarchical configuration files. When invoked with a configuration file, e.g. `maxscale.cnf`, MariaDB MaxScale looks for a directory `maxscale.cnf.d` in the same directory as the configuration file, and reads all `.cnf` files it finds in that directory hierarchy. All other files will be ignored. Please see the [Configuration Guide](../Getting-Started/Configuration-Guide.md#configuration) for details. ### Logging Before version 2.1.0, MaxScale created in the log directory a log file maxscaleN.log, where N initially was 1 and then was increased every time MaxScale was instructed (by sending the signal SIGUSR1 or via maxadmin) to rotate the log file. That has now been changed so that the name of the log file is *always* maxscale.log and when MaxScale is instructed to rotate the log file, MaxScale simply closes it and then reopens and truncates it. To retain the existing log entries, you should first move the file to another name (MaxScale continues writing to it) and then instruct MaxScale to rotate the the log file. ``` $ mv maxscale.log maxscale1.log $ # MaxScale continues to write to maxscale1.log $ kill -SIGUSR1 $ # MaxScale closes the file (i.e. maxscale1.log) and reopens maxscale.log ``` This behaviour is now compatible with logrotate(8). Further, if MaxScale is configured to use shared memory for the log file, the file is created into the directory "/dev/shm/maxscale". Earlier the log file was created into the directory "/dev/shm/maxscale.PID", where PID was the pid of the MaxScale process. In addition, there is now a mechanism that prevents the flooding of the log, in case the same error occurs over and over again. That mechanism, which is enabled by default, is configured using the new global configuration entry `log_throttling`. For more information about this configuration entry, please see [Global Settings](../Getting-Started/Configuration-Guide.md#global-settings). ### Readwritesplit Read Retry In 2.1, Readwritesplit will retry failed SELECT statements that are executed outside of transaction and with autocommit enabled. This allows seamless slave failover and makes it transparent to the client. Read the [Readwritesplit documentation](../Routers/ReadWriteSplit.md) on `retry_failed_reads` for more details. ### Persistent Connections Starting with the 2.1 version of MariaDB MaxScale, when a MySQL protocol persistent connection is taken from the persistent connection pool, the state of the MySQL session will be reset when the the connection is used for the first time. This allows persistent connections to be used with no functional limitations and makes them behave like normal MySQL connections. For more information about persistent connections, please read the [Administration Tutorial](../Tutorials/Administration-Tutorial.md). ### User data cache The user data cache stores the cached credentials that are used by some router modules. In 2.1.0, the authenticator modules are responsible for the persisting of the user data cache. Currently, only the MySQLAuth module implements user data caching. The user data loaded from the backend databases is now stored on a per listener basis instead of a per service basis. In earlier versions, each service had its own cache directory in `/var/cache/maxscale`. This directory contains cached user data which is used there is no connectivity to the backend cluster. In 2.1.0, each listener has its own sub-directory in the service cache directory. The old caches in `/var/cache/maxscale` will need to be manually removed if they are no longer used by older versions of MaxScale. ### Galeramon Monitoring Algorithm The galeramon monitor will only choose nodes with a _wsrep_local_index_ value of 0 as the master. This allows multiple MaxScales to always choose the same node as the write master node for the cluster. The old behavior can be taken into use by disabling the new `root_node_as_master` option. For more details, read the [Galeramon documentation](../Monitors/Galera-Monitor.md). ## New Features ### Dynamic server configuration MaxScale can now change the servers of a service or a monitor at run-time. New servers can also be created and they will persisted even after a restart. The following new commands were added to maxadmin, see output of `maxadmin help ` for more details. - `create server`: Creates a new server - `destroy server`: Destroys a created server - `add server`: Adds a server to a service or a monitor - `remove server`: Removes a server from a service or a monitor - `alter server`: Alter server configuration - `alter monitor`: Alter monitor configuration With these new features, you can start MaxScale without the servers and define them later. ### Module commands Introduced in MaxScale 2.1, the module commands are special, module-specific commands. They allow the modules to expand beyound the capabilities of the module API. Currently, only MaxAdmin implements an interface to the module commands. All registered module commands can be shown with `maxadmin list functions` and they can be executed with `maxadmin call function ARGS...` where __ is the domain where the module registered the function and __ is the name of the function. _ARGS_ is a function specific list of arguments. Read [Module Commands](../Reference/Module-Commands.md) documentation for more details. In the 2.1 release of MaxScale, the [_dbfwfilter_}(../Filters/Database-Firewall-Filter.md) and [_avrorouter_](../Routers/Avrorouter.md) implement module commands. ### Amazon RDS Aurora monitor The new [Aurora Monitor](../Monitors/Aurora-Monitor.md) module allows monitoring of Aurora clusters. The monitor detects which of the nodes are read replicas and which of them is the real write node and assigns the appropriate status for each node. This module also supports launchable scripts on monitored events. Read the [Monitor Common Documentation](../Monitors/Monitor-Common.md) for more details. ### Multi-master mode for MySQL Monitor The MySQL monitor now detects complex multi-master replication topologies. This allows the mysqlmon module to be used as a replacement for the mmmon module. For more details, please read the [MySQL Monitor Documentation](../Monitors/MySQL-Monitor.md). ### Failover mode for MySQL Monitor A simple failover mode has been added to the MySQL Monitor. This mode is aimed for two node master-slave clusters where the slave can act as a master in case the original master fails. For more details, please read the [MySQL Monitor Documentation](../Monitors/MySQL-Monitor.md). ### Permissive authentication mode for MySQLAuth The MySQL authentication module supports the `skip_authentication` option which allows authentication to always succedd in MaxScale. This option offloads the actual authentication to the backend server and it can be used to implement a secure version of a wildcard user. ## Bug fixes [Here is a list of bugs fixed since the release of MaxScale 2.0.X.](https://jira.mariadb.org/browse/MXS-739?jql=project%20%3D%20MXS%20AND%20issuetype%20%3D%20Bug%20AND%20resolution%20in%20(Fixed%2C%20Done)%20AND%20fixVersion%20%3D%202.0.0) ## Known Issues and Limitations There are some limitations and known issues within this version of MaxScale. For more information, please refer to the [Limitations](../About/Limitations.md) document. ## Packaging RPM and Debian packages are provided for the Linux distributions supported by MariaDB Enterprise. Packages can be downloaded [here](https://mariadb.com/resources/downloads). ## Source Code The source code of MaxScale is tagged at GitHub with a tag, which is identical with the version of MaxScale. For instance, the tag of version X.Y.Z of MaxScale is X.Y.Z. Further, *master* always refers to the latest released non-beta version. The source code is available [here](https://github.com/mariadb-corporation/MaxScale).