Hi I’m trying to find the version history of Tentacle that was released with Octopus Server. The website used to (correctly) show the version of Tentacle that was released with Server but now those versions are all showing 5.0.2. We need to know the actual released version of Tentacle for each version of Server for our internal software approval process. Furthermore we may need a download link for an older version since our internal software approval process does not allow us to jump between different major versions of Tentacle. But first, where do we find the Tentacle version history?
Hi Bob,
Thanks for getting in touch! I’m sorry about the confusion this change in behavior has caused! This was actually a conscious change we made recently, to always show the latest tools available regardless of which version of Octopus Server you’re viewing. The latest tools have the greatest range of compatibility, so they’ll be the best default choice regardless of server version they’re targetting. We ensure backwards compatibility, so version 5.0.2 of Tentacle should just work on older server versions. If you require an older Tentacle version, you can tweak the URL to point to an older version.
Unfortunately we don’t currently have any release comparison tool for Tentacle like we do for Octopus Server, though we’re currently working on providing release notes and history for all the tools. Can you expand on the information you’re after, and I can look into getting that for you?
I hope this helps clarify this change, and I look forward to hearing back. 
Best regards,
Kenny
Our team works in a secure environment. Before we can install software we need to know what has changed. We see that Tentacle is versioned using SemVer and take that into consideration. When tentacle changes from major verion 4 to major version 5, we want to know why. We also want to know if there are any CVE’s, what they are, what version they cropped up on, and on what version they were fixed in. From there we can decide what version we want to upgrade to. Then comes paperwork, software evaluations, and meetings. It can take months to finally get the go-ahead to install a particular piece of software. So the more information we have about what exactly has changed in each version the better. If we’re left in the dark then we either struggle to evaluate a software or we aren’t happy with the one we have once it finally gets installed. In either case it causes suffering on our end and the software vendor’s image gets tarnished.
So, I implore you, please provide information about the changes to your software. What version of Tentacle was released with what version of Server, on what date, and what changed, what CVE’s (if any) are applicable. Even if you don’t provide links. Although we typically get locked into a version line, such as Tentacle major version 4. Which means we can only install patches to 4, but not 5. If the links to version 4 are either unavailable or hidden then we struggle to patch our software and the vendor’s image gets tarnished once again.
You might not like it that our business works this way, and I don’t love it either, but this is the way we do business. So in the long scheme of things, we will tend towards a deployment automation software vendor that integrates well with our processes. Sometimes even when other vendors have better software but don’t integrate well.
The same goes for the Command Line tool too, not just Tentacle.
Hi @rjhansen,
Thanks for those insights. We are in the process of properly splitting Octopus Server and Tentacle release cadences apart so they can both have clear change history. This will address the concerns you mentioned about knowing why major versions have bumped, or if there are any CVE’s in the mix.
I’m interested to understand the reason behind wanting to know the version of Tentacle which was bundled with a particular version of Octopus Server. Is this because of the automatic Tentacle upgrade feature built-in to Octopus?
I’m also interested to understand the reason behind wanting to know the same fo rthe Command-Line tool octo.exe and/or the .NET SDK Octopus.Client.dll. We bundle these both as a convenience.
Your answers will help me guide the rest of this process.
In the meantime, can I help by providing you with a version matrix for a specific version of Octopus Server? Just ask and I can get all those details for you.
Thanks!
Mike
Yes since Tentacle is bundled with Server it’s useful to know what version of Tentacle it is bundled with. Whatever version of Tentacle that it’s bundled with would need to be specifically called out and tested against in our dev environment before installing anything in production.
For the Command Line tool it’s helpful to know which version of octo.exe is definitely fully compatible with a specific version of Server. You can look back in the history and see which version of Server supported the octo client of version 4.x or which versions of the octo client were available while Server 2018 was being released. Release dates are really helpful too.
Information that would be useful right now would be:
What are the major versions of Command Line client that were released in the past 12 months?
What was the exact version of the first release of the Command Line client under the new version?
What was the exact version of the last release of the prior major versions of the Command Line client?
What were the dates of these releases?
For example, (these numbers are made up)
Latest releases: 5.0.2 1/1/2019, 6.0.1 2/1/2019
Previous releases: 4.17.9 12/31/2019, 5.13.7 1/31/2019
Oh sorry, also I want to know what version of Tentacle was released with Octopus.2019.6.7-x64.
Hi @rjhansen,
The version of these tools are the ones which were the “latest” when that version of Octopus Server was shipped. These may not necessarily be the exact same versions which were bundled inside Octopus Server.
Which set of information is more important to you?
Some context: We run all our automated integration tests using the versions embedded in that version of Octopus Server. This means those versions were comaptible with that version of Octopus Server, but only for the surface area covered by our tests, which is never going to be 100% coverage. We endeavour to make the “latest” tools backwards compatible with as many versions of Octopus Server as possible. If we find an unintended compatibility problem, we will fix it.
Looking forward to hearing back from you.
Mike
Are you saying that the version of Tentacle that’s bundled with Server may not be the same version of Tentacle that’s listed alongside Server (on a particular release date)? I don’t think I’ve run into that case yet but that’s concerning. How do I tell what version of Tentacle is bundled with Server? The version of Tentacle that’s bundled with Server is more important to me than what version of Tentacle was released at the same time as a release of Server. I find it odd that those two Tentacles versions would be different. I always assumed that the version of Tentacle listed alongside Server was the same version bundled in Server.
I should point out that since I need to acquire approval in order to install software, I need to know what version of Tentacle I’m installing BEFORE I install it. So I can’t just install Server just to find out what version of Tentacle it’s bundled with, not even on a Dev box.
Hi @rjhansen,
Are you saying that the version of Tentacle that’s bundled with Server may not be the same version of Tentacle that’s listed alongside Server (on a particular release date)?
It is possible, yes. The way we build the list of tools has been in place since Octopus Server 3.0, at which point Tentacle and Octopus Server were tied at the hip, built from the same code, and versioned exactly in lock-step. We wanted to change this behaviour so people didn’t have to update Tentacle whenever they upgraded Octopus Server. Instead, we pulled Tentacle out to its own repository and release cadence, so you only upgrade Tentacle when something has actually changed with the Tentacle agent.
I’m going to explore the possibility of listing the exact bundled versions on the Octopus Server download page somewhere, but I can’t promise if and when this would be done.
In the meantime, if you would like to do this yourself, and be exactly sure of which binaries are bundled, you can download the Octopus Server MSI file, extract it to a temporary folder, and inspect the versions of the bundled tools, all without installing or executing anything on any computers.
I am happy for you to reach out to us when you are planning an upgrade, and we can tell you exactly which versions of the tools were bundled in a specific release of Octopus Server.
Hope that helps!
Mike
Thanks for the clarification. Alright so would you verify that this is the correct process to obtain the Tentacle version from the Octopus Server installer?
- Download Octopus Server
- Extract the Server installer MSI using a Zip utility
- Rename Tentacle.nupkg to Tentacle.zip
- Extract Tentacle.zip using a Zip utility
- Open Tentacle.nuspec in a text editor
- Tentacle version is listed between the
<version> tags
Also I still would still like more information about the Command Line tool:
What are the major versions of Command Line client that were released in the past 12 months?
What was the exact version of the first release of the Command Line client under the new version?
What was the exact version of the last release of the prior major versions of the Command Line client?
What were the dates of these releases?
Hi @rjhansen,
That process looks perfect. In addition to this you can look at the properties of the Octopus.Client.dll bundled with Octopus Server if you want to know which version was bundled for convenience.
Octopus C# SDK and octo.exe
We have recently separated Octopus.Client.dll and octo.exe into their own repositories and release cadence, and therefore versioning scheme. We need to update Octopus.Client.dll every time we change the Octopus Server API, but we only need to update octo.exe in rare cases.
Prior to 19 June 2019
Octopus.Client.dll and octo.exe: https://github.com/OctopusDeploy/OctopusClients/releases/tags
After 19 June 2019
Octopus.Client.dll: https://github.com/OctopusDeploy/OctopusClients/releases/tags
octo.exe: https://github.com/OctopusDeploy/OctopusCLI/tags
My analysis
Octopus.Client.dll versions in the last 12 months… 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, and 7.0 were all released over the last 12 months. The first version of 7.0 was 7.0.0. The last release of the prior major was 6.9.2.
octo.exe versions in the last 12 months… 4.0, 5.0, and 6.0 were all released over the last 12 months. The first version of 6.0 was 6.0.0. The last release of the prior major was 5.2.7.
Hope that helps!
Mike
The link is giving me a 404. I think you meant this
https://github.com/OctopusDeploy/OctopusClients/tags
Do you have a GitHub repo that shows version releases for Tentacle?
Also, if I download an older Tentacle by modifying the URL, is there a way to verify the hash for a download? We seem to have lost that functionality when the website was modified to only display the latest version of Tentacle.
Hi @rjhansen,
We do have a GitHub repo for Tentacle, but it’s private. If you contact me via support@octopus.com with your GitHub username, I can grant you source code access as part of your Data Center license.
Hope that helps!
Mike
Thanks for all your help so far. I’m having trouble finding an old release version 4.47.0 of the Command Line Tools. I downloaded the package from here
https://github.com/OctopusDeploy/OctopusClients/archive/4.47.0.zip
The problem is I can’t find Octopus.Client.dll or octo.exe anywhere in the package. Am I in the right place?
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