Major Releases

Release 2024.2

Bug fixes and improvements:

  • Improved the stability of changes to cluster topology. When changing cluster topology, for example, adding or removing nodes from replication groups, previously occurring instabilities have been fixed by revising the implementation of configuration changes.

  • Improved performance of message routing with many clients. If the environment contains many client applications (more than 500), there previously were noticeable performance impacts. These have been fixed, and explicit configuration options have been provided.

  • All-new AxonServer grafana dashboard. The dashboard we provide for Grafana was completely reworked from scratch to simplify interpretation while at the same time improve accuracy. The new dashboard reflects the new metrics introduced in previous versions.

  • Fixed a bug in the search screen, resulting in results from the previous search being mixed with the current one.

  • Better integration in Axoniq Console

  • Upgraded dependencies. AxonServer was upgraded to the latest dependencies available wherever possible.

  • Adding a node with an already existing node name now fails gracefully

  • Improved contents of the diagnostics package

  • Ephemeral contexts now remove entries from the global index

Release 2024.1

Persistent streams

Persistent streams provide the option to open an event stream from a client and let Axon Server track the progress. This was already available as a preview version in 2024.0, but is now available by default. Persistent streams are supported in Axon Framework 4.10 as an alternative to tracking or pooled streaming event processors.

For more information see Subscribing event processor in the Axon Framework section.

Bug fixes and improvements

  • Prevent stale threads when an Axon Server node closes the connection to another node

  • Clean up metrics from disconnected clients

  • prevent WARN log messages when a query completed message was received from an unexpected client

  • Allow context with ephemeral events without a license

  • Fix for listing event processors when there are more than 512 event processors

Docker image changes

The default Java version for the Docker images has changed from Java 11 to Java 17. This means that the docker images with tag "latest", "latest-nonroot", "2024.1.0", and "2024.1.0-nonroot" use Java 17. Java 11 based images are still available with the "-jdk-11" extensions in the tag name.

Dependency updates

  • gRPC version updated to 1.65.1

Release 2024.0

Database update

Updated H2 database to store the Control DB, addressing some issues from previous H2 version (see the upgrade instructions in https://library.axoniq.io/axon-server-upgrade/upgrading_as_2024.html).

New features and improvements

Redesigned User Interface: The UI has been completely revamped with a modern look and feel for a better user experience. The changes include:

  • Simplified Overview Page: Access node information easily with filtering and scaling options.

  • Dedicated License Page: Track license expiry dates and view available features for non-enterprise users.

  • Monitoring Page: View important health information, display logs, and download diagnostic packages.

  • System Tasks: List and cancel running system tasks.

  • Search Event Store Page: Improved usability with removable columns, formatted code styles, and auto-composable queries.

  • Command and Queries Pages: Revamped for a better overview of messages in the system.

  • Long-Running Commands Component: View and cancel commands running longer than 1 second.

  • Scheduled Events Page: View and cancel scheduled events.

  • Streams Page (Experimental): Accessible for persistent streams if dev mode is enabled.

  • API Tokens (formerly Applications): Renamed for clarity, with improved token management.

  • Support for Wide Screens and Dark/Light Themes: Enhanced viewing experience.

  • Connection, Health, and Early Event Processor Issue Detection: Improved issue detection and resolution.

  • Embedded Documentation Snippets: Access documentation directly within the UI.

Preview of new persistent streams feature, event streams where Axon Server manages the publication of events to clients and keeps track of the progress. This feature is enabled when development mode is enabled or when axoniq.axonserver.preview.persistent-streams property is set to true.

Release 2023.2

TLS certificate and key replacement at runtime

Axon Server now supports the hot (runtime) replacement of certificates and keys used for TLS, eliminating the need for server restarts.

Enhanced metrics exposure

We have revamped the metrics exposed by Axon Server for better clarity and comprehensibility. Adhering to the 4 golden signals terminology, metrics are now systematically organized. Users can access both old and new style metrics in this version. However, there’s an option to disable the old style metrics.

Upgraded diagnostics package

To aid in issue resolution, Axon Server now provides a more comprehensive diagnostics package. The package now contains more detailed information about raft status. It offers a snapshot of metrics and health information. There’s a listing of files in the replication group. Information about multi-tier storage is included. Logs are included as well.

Other improvements

  • We’ve addressed various security concerns through dependency updates. Additionally, several bugs have been identified and rectified. The role ‘MONITOR’ is now granted permission to access the ‘internal/raft/status’ endpoint.

  • We’ve transitioned to new versions for some of the external libraries used in Axon Server.

Release 2023.1

New features and enhancements

Event transformation

The new Event Transformation feature allows users to perform specific event transformations like updates and deletes in the event store, utilizing the Event Transformation API.This functional change is intended to facilitate more flexible event management in rare instances where modifications are unavoidable.

Forced client reconnection

In the application view, users are now provided with an option to force the client to reconnect. This addition aims to offer a practical tool for addressing client connectivity issues.

Node removal from cluster

It is now possible to remove a node from the cluster through the user interface (UI). This functionality, previously accessible only via the command-line interface (CLI) and REST API, has been expanded to the UI for broader accessibility.

Temporary adjustment to development Mode

In this release, we have temporarily disabled the 'Development Mode/Event Purge' feature. Users should now utilize the 'Delete/Create Context' operation as an alternative. This change will remain in place until a more efficient solution is implemented.

Enhanced memory management

In an effort to optimize performance, we have updated Axon Server’s approach to memory management for file resources. Prior to this release, Axon Server primarily depended on the Java garbage collector to reclaim memory used by memory-mapped files. With this update, memory management is now undertaken directly by Axon Server, enhancing efficiency in file resource usage.

Bug fixes

This release also contains fixes for the following issues:

  • Replication group creation did not work in conjunction with the HTTPS (-s) option

  • Race condition in unregister node leaves node partially in the cluster

Product updates

Unified Axon Server artifact

The Axon Server artifact has been updated to simplify the deployment process. Instead of separate artifacts for the Axon Server Standard Edition and Enterprise Edition, we are releasing a single artifact from now on. The Axon Server features will adjust automatically based on the presence of a provided license. Note that the Axon Server Standard Edition remains open-source, but separate releases will no longer be made.

The axoniq/axonserver-enterprise docker image is no longer updated. To use the latest version, use the axoniq/axonserver image with tags ending with -dev. For instance, if you use axoniq/axonserver-enterprise:2023.0.1-dev, you can switch to axoniq/axonserver:2023.1.0-dev.

If you are used to Axon Server Standard Edition, note that there is a difference in the server’s initialization. As the server can now run standalone or as a node in a cluster, you have to tell it how it should initialize itself. The dashboard provides an initial page to do this initialization. To automatically initialize the server as a standalone server, add the following properties:

axoniq.axonserver.autocluster.first=<the hostname of the server>
axoniq.axonserver.autocluster.contexts=default

Release 2023.0

New release schedule

Our new release strategy involves releasing three versions each year, with new releases being named based on the year, such as 2023.0, 2023.1, and 2023.2. The third release is dedicated to providing long-term support. Customers that wish to upgrade less frequently can choose to stay on these long-term support releases.

We chose this approach to separate versioning from the Axon Framework and maintained flexibility and independence in versioning. This strategy provides predictable release dates, better alignment with customer needs, faster feature updates, and increased responsiveness to user feedback and market demands. Overall, this approach will enable us to deliver better products and services to our customers while ensuring maximum flexibility and independence in versioning.

New features

The 2023.0 release brings us these new features: - Tiered Storage - Ephemeral Contexts

Tiered storage

Tiered Storage is a highly anticipated feature of the Axon Server Enterprise’s 2023.0.0 release, allowing each node to store its data across different storage locations. With its ability to optimize performance and reduce storage costs, Tiered Storage is a powerful tool for businesses seeking to improve their storage management strategies. By distributing data across different levels of storage media based on access speed and cost, Tiered Storage enables organizations to minimize the cost of storing infrequently accessed data while ensuring fast access to frequently accessed data.

The Tiered Storage feature is especially powerful in combination with the use of secondary nodes, a feature that has been around since Axon Server Enterprise version 4.4:

Tiered Storage enables the configuration and maintenance of a variable number of storage tiers for each node, depending on its role, such as primary, secondary, or backup nodes.

Secondary nodes enable you to reduce the number of copies of data that are stored by keeping only the most recent events stored on your primary nodes and keeping the full event store on the secondary nodes. The configuration of Tiered Storage on these secondary nodes can focus on lower storage costs and large volumes of data, while Primary nodes focus on speed of access.

With its advanced capabilities, Tiered Storage is poised to become a critical asset for enterprises seeking to streamline their data storage and management processes.

Ephemeral contexts

Ephemeral contexts are a new type of context that store events for a limited time before automatically removing them permanently. These contexts are particularly useful in scenarios such as time-limited audit systems or integration contexts, where events are broadcasted to multiple observers in real-time, after which they are no more of use.

As events might become outdated and irrelevant over time, ephemeral contexts can help to manage storage space and maintain system efficiency by automatically deleting these events after a specified time period. By using ephemeral contexts, organizations can efficiently store only necessary data and reduce clutter in their systems.