CloudStack 4.21 introduces an Announcement Banner that lets Administrators display concise, time-bound messages at the top of the UI. It’s configured through config.json, supports severity levels, optional dismissal, and requires updates on all Management Servers followed by a restart. It provides a straightforward way to ensure users see important notices when they log in.

Announcement Banner in CloudStack UI

In CloudStack deployments, Administrators often need to communicate system-wide updates, planned maintenance, or important notices to all users. Traditionally, such communication has been handled through email or external chat systems, methods that can be unreliable or easy to miss.

To address this, Apache CloudStack 4.21 introduces a built-in Announcement Banner feature, allowing Administrators to display prominent messages directly within the CloudStack UI.

Feature Overview

The Announcement Banner is an admin-configurable message bar shown at the top of the CloudStack UI. It allows administrators to display information, warning, error, or success messages to all Users after they log in. This helps ensure important notices are seen and improves communication between cloud operators and Users.

Key Capabilities

• Global Visibility: The banner is displayed to all Users, including Administrators, and appears across all pages of the CloudStack UI.
• Time-Bound: Banners can be scheduled to appear only within a defined start and end date, which is useful for planned events such as maintenance windows.
• Dismissal Control: Administrators can choose whether a banner can be closed by the User and, if it can, whether the dismissal should persist across sessions.
• Severity Typing: The feature supports different built-in visual styles to indicate the urgency or nature of the announcement.

Configuration Guide

Administrators can configure the Announcement Banner via the “config.json” file located at /etc/cloudstack/management/config.json  on the CloudStack Management Server.

The configuration object lets you define a single active banner or schedule a future date.

This configuration must be applied to all Management Servers, and each server needs to be restarted after the update for the changes to take effect.

Add or update the announcementBanner section as shown below:

"announcementBanner": {
    "enabled": true,
    "showIcon": false,
    "closable": true,
    "persistDismissal": true,
    "type": "info",
    "message": "🤔 <strong>Sample Announcement</strong>: New Feature Available: Check out our latest dashboard improvements! <a href='/features'>Learn more</a>",
    "startDate": "2025-06-01T00:00:00Z",
    "endDate": "2025-11-16T00:00:00Z"
}

Followed by how the banner appears in the UI:

Banner Configuration Parameters

Field	Type	Required	Description
enabled	Boolean	Yes	Activates or deactivates the banner feature globally.
showIcon	Boolean	No	If true, displays a visual icon corresponding to the type field (e.g., an alert triangle for danger).
closable	Boolean	No	If true, it allows the user to click an ‘X’ button to hide the banner.
persistDismissal	Boolean	No	If true (and closable is true), the banner remains dismissed across user sessions, and page reloads via browser storage. If false, dismissal is only temporary for the current session.
type	String	Yes	Defines the visual styling and severity. Supported values are info, warning, error, and success.
message	String	Yes	The actual text content displayed to the user. Supports basic HTML formatting (see Best Practices).
startDate/endDate	String	No	ISO 8601 format (YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ), defining the time window when the banner is shown. If omitted, the banner shows as long as it is enabled.

Examples

To illustrate common use cases, here are realistic config.json snippets for different types of alerts.

1. Critical Alert
This example uses the error type, is not closable and will be displayed until disabled.

"announcementBanner": {
    "enabled": true,
    "showIcon": true,
    "closable": false,
    "persistDismissal": false,
    "type": "error",
    "message": "<strong>🚨 Critical Alert:</strong> Database replication lag detected. API responses may be delayed.",
  }

2. Scheduled Maintenance Notice

The example below uses a warning type and will be displayed for a specific duration.

"announcementBanner":{
        "enabled": true,
        "showIcon": true,
        "closable": false,
        "persistDismissal": false,
        "type": "warning",
        "message": "⚙️ Scheduled Maintenance on Nov 10 2025 from 22:00–23:00 IST. Some services may be unavailable.",
        "startDate": "2025-11-10T16:30:00Z",
        "endDate": "2025-11-11T00:00:00Z"
    }

3. General Information

"announcementBanner": {
    "enabled": true,
    "showIcon": true,
    "closable": true,
    "persistDismissal": false,
    "type": "info",
    "message": "We have successfully upgraded the console proxy templates. No action is required from tenants.",
    "startDate": "2024-10-25T00:00:00Z",
    "endDate": "2024-11-30T00:00:00Z"
  }

Best Practices and Limitations

1. Keep the message concise: Users should be able to read the message quickly. Aim for a maximum of one or two lines. Lengthy banners degrade the UI experience.
2. Avoid Scripting: Do not insert JavaScript or complex styling. The banner is designed for simple text messaging, and complex/unsafe HTML may be automatically sanitized or ignored by the browser.
3. If persistDismissal is set to true, keep in mind that users who dismissed won’t see subsequent banners.
4. For time-bound messages, set startDate and endDate appropriately so that the banner disappears automatically.
5. Don’t forget to refresh the UI, post-configuration change (may require clearing browser cache).
6. The config.json file only supports one announcementBanner object. This means you cannot display multiple, stacked, or concurrent banners.

 

Conclusion

The Announcement Banner adds a simple way to deliver essential notices directly inside the CloudStack UI. It removes the need for external channels and ensures users see relevant information as soon as they log in. With a small set of parameters and a predictable behaviour, it becomes a practical tool for day-to-day communication in CloudStack environments.