Chapter 2. Notable enhancements

With this update, the following stacks and plug-ins are consolidated into a single Universal Developer Image (UDI) sidecar:

The UDI is now the only sidecar used in OpenShift Dev Spaces.

The UDI is available in OpenShift Dev Spaces, like the plug-ins and stack sidecars that the UDI has replaced: OpenShift Dev Spaces admins can use the image puller to pull the UDI. Users can specify the UDI in the devfile.

With this update, Node.js 16 is included in the Universal Developer Image sidecar that replaces the older stacks and plug-in sidecars.

Support for Node.js is aligned to the Node.js lifecycle.

Before this update, code samples implemented the devfile v1 specification. With this update, code samples are implementing the devfile v2 specification.

With this update, the Fuse Booster sample project uses the Red Hat build of OpenJDK 11 rather than 8.

With this update, Red Hat Fuse can be used in Red Hat OpenShift Dev Spaces on IBM Z and IBM Power.

The sample project and its associated devfile for Red Hat Fuse have been updated to work with Java 11 and can now be used on all supported architectures.

In OpenShift Dev Spaces 3.0, backing up and restoring a OpenShift Dev Spaces instance by using a backup server, such as SFTP or Amazon S3 or REST or the internal backup server, has been removed. The CheBackupServerConfiguration, CheClusterBackup, and CheClusterRestore custom resources are no longer used. Bug fixes and support are provided only through the end of the CodeReady Workspaces 2.15 lifecycle.

With this update, the Red Hat OpenShift Dev Spaces Operator enables the DevWorkspace engine by default from the new stable channel.

With this update, when you start a workspace using a devfile that specifies the JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA editor, the editor automatically opens the project(s) specified in the devfile.

With this update, OpenShift Dev Spaces admins can specify podTolerations and podNodeSelector for workspaces by setting a CustomCheProperty in the CheCluster custom resource. This is a global configuration and cannot be specified for a workspace or user.

With this update, the Che-Theia IDE loads in the workspace 20 seconds faster than previously.

With this update, OpenShift Dev Spaces supports private repositories on an organization’s own GitLab instance. OpenShift Dev Spaces admins can set up a GitLab-authorized application and configure OAuth 2.0 for a GitLab instance. No support is provided for private repositories on GitLab SaaS. This expands the OAuth 2.0 support that OpenShift Dev Spaces already provides for Bitbucket servers and GitHub.

Before this update, Eclipse OpenJ9 was the Java SE implementation for containers targeting IBM Power (ppc64le) and IBM Z (s390x) OpenShift clusters. With this update, the OpenJ9 JVM in the OpenShift containers for IBM Power (ppc64le) and IBM Z (s390x) is replaced by the Red Hat build of OpenJDK.

Installed CodeReady Workspaces instances, on update to Red Hat OpenShift Dev Spaces 3.0, switch over to use the new Universal Developer Image sidecar container that provides OpenJDK rather than OpenJ9 for Java 8 and 11.

Customers whose devfiles still reference the OpenJ9-based containers must edit their devfiles and replace plugin-java8-openj9-rhel8 and plugin-java11-openj9-rhel8 with udi-rhel8.

New samples in Red Hat OpenShift Dev Spaces 3.0 already use the new udi-rhel8 sidecar.

With this update, OpenShift Dev Spaces supports a devfile v2 that refers to a parent devfile.

Language Support for Apache Camel by Red Hat, the Visual Studio Code extension that adds Apache Camel language support for XML DSL and Java DSL code, is updated to version 0.1.5.

In Red Hat OpenShift Dev Spaces 3.0 (formerly CodeReady Workspaces), support for the following deployment environments is removed due to the switch to the DevWorkspace Operator:

Bug fixes and support are planned through the end of the 2.15 life cycle. During which, no new feature enhancements are made.

With Red Hat OpenShift Dev Spaces 3.0 (formerly CodeReady Workspaces), the supported deployment environments are the following:

With this update, the dsc server:logs command (formerly crwctl server:logs) can now retrieve logs from the Che Gateway deployment. This command can also retrieve logs from the Che Server, Operator, Dashboard, plug-in and devfile registries, and PostgreSQL deployments.

In OpenShift Dev Spaces 3.0, using the workspace devfile to specify Visual Studio Code extensions has been removed to meet the devfile v2 specification. Bug fixes and support are provided only through the end of the CodeReady Workspaces 2.15 lifecycle. To specify Visual Studio Code extensions, users must now use .vscode/extensions.json or .che/che-theia-plugins.yaml in their Git repositories. See https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_openshift_dev_spaces/3.0/html/user_guide/adding-visual-studio-code-extension for more information.

With this update, as Technology Preview, OpenShift Dev Spaces 3.0.1 can be installed and tested on OpenShift Container Platform 4.11, OpenShift Dedicated 4.11, and Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS (ROSA) 4.11, in addition to the supported OpenShift Container Platform 4.10, OpenShift Dedicated 4.10, and Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS (ROSA) 4.10.