Cells 2.2.0 will be a major step forward, and this release candidate is a good time to start intensive testing of the new features it will bring. As its name implies, this release is not yet considered production-ready.
Multiple URLs support
Cells now natively supports binding on multiple "sites" : each site defines one or more bind URLs, a custom TLS configuration, and an optional Reverse Proxy URL. The "Maintenance Mode" that temporarily prevents access to this endpoint (optionally including custom conditions to enable maintenance e.g. for all except one specific client IP) is now available for use.
Although it should be transparent when upgrading, it has a direct effect for new installations: the "url" and "urlInternal" parameters are not required any longer, and Cells installs by default on port 8080 in self-signed TLS mode. This is a huge gain for easier deployments. Install procedures, either in CLI or Browser mode have been simplified to the max, and non-interactive install modes are also made simpler to ease automated provisioning.
Many other features
This release candidate contains many other features and improvements, that will be described more precisely in the next release candidates.
Amongst others :
- Generation of Personal Access Token to ease third-party integrations
- Many UX improvements
- Low-level code modifications for better performance, scalability and error reporting
How to test ?
Multiple URLs support should be the first thing to test. Do not hesitate to try funky configurations (NAT, multiple network interfaces, etc...), combining these binds with reverse proxies. When testing that, please verify all authentication methods (web, cells-client, cells-sync).
Configurations have been extensively rewritten as well, so were config migrations : please test correct migrations between 2.1.X (or older) and this RC. Of course you should backup your instance before upgrading.
Change log
You can find a summary of the change log here.