Adaptive Affinity Groups l CloudStack Feature First Look

  In Apache CloudStack, Host Affinity and Host Anti-Affinity refer to the ability to deterministically ensure that a set of Instances run on the same or diverse hypervisor hosts in order to meet specific workload needs. How Affinity Groups Worked Previously Before Apache CloudStack 4.18 there were two types of Affinity Groups: Host Affinity and Host Anti-affinity.   • Host Affinity Host Affinity Groups allow users to specify that a set of Instances should always run on the same hypervisor host. This ensures minimum latency and maximum bandwidth between Instances as there’s no need for the network traffic to leave […]

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Secure KVM VNC Connections l CloudStack Feature First Look

Introduction In a previous blog post (https://www.shapeblue.com/api-driven-console-access/) we described the latest improvements around VNC console access in CloudStack 4.18. These improvements included switching it to an API-driven approach, and introduced a way to secure WebSocket traffic between the CPVM and end-users, whilst the traffic between the CPVM and hosts remained decrypted. This blog post explains how we can also secure the traffic between the CPVM and KVM hosts, allowing complete security around the Instance console access. This feature is only supported by the KVM hypervisor at this time. Secure VNC access This feature allows securing Instance console access through CloudStack […]

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API-driven Console Access l CloudStack Feature First Look

Introduction: The Apache CloudStack Console Proxy (CPVM) is a type of system virtual machine that presents an Instance’s console view via the web UI (connecting to the VNC port made available through the hypervisor). Both the admin and end-user web UIs offer a console connection. To provide access to the Instances console service, the CPVM has the following characteristics: • An HTTP server listens to incoming requests from browsers. • A TCP client to connect to the Instance’s VNC port when requested. The CPVM provides a proxy between the user’s browser and the Instance’s console, allowing interaction with the user’s […]

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CloudStack Managed User Data l CloudStack Feature First Look

Introduction When launching a new Instance on Apache CloudStack, users can set a UserData script to be executed by cloud-init during the boot process. The ‘CloudStack Managed UserData’ feature extends this functionality allowing one to automate the installation of packages, update the instance’s OS, and configure applications during instance deployment. Introduced in Apache CloudStack 4.18, Managed UserData enables users to register and manage their own UserData script(s) as a CloudStack resource. It can be associated with a CloudStack Template/ISO, or when a new Instance is being deployed. Managed UserData This new feature makes the following operations available via API or […]

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What’s New in Apache CloudStack 4.18

Apache CloudStack 4.18 is the latest release of the cloud management platform from the Apache Software Foundation and is a result of months of work from the development community. Apache CloudStack 4.18 is an LTS (Long Term Support) release so will be maintained for a period of 18 months after release. As always, the release contains a myriad of small improvements and bug fixes but here we focus on the major new functionality in the release. Several new features have been introduced to significantly enhance the platform’s capabilities. These include Edge Zones (which provide lightweight zones); Tungsten Fabric integration (offering […]

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System VM and Virtual Router Zero Downtime Upgrade l CloudStack Feature First Look

Introduction Apache CloudStack has always been easier to upgrade than many of its competitors, but a common pain point is that when a new release of Apache CloudStack is deployed, the operations team must organize maintenance windows to allow the redeployment of every customer’s VR. Depending on the number of existing networks, planning and execution can be time-consuming, especially in cases of mission-critical customer services, often requiring scheduling of the VR upgrade on a case-by-case basis. Also, to a much lesser extent, when upgrading system VMs, secondary storage-related and proxy console services have some downtime. With this new feature, the […]

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IPv6 Support for Isolated and VPC Networks l CloudStack Feature First Look

The IPv6 protocol is a much-needed next step in the world of the Internet and networking in general. With the depletion of publicly routable IPv4 addresses, most providers will need to switch to IPv6, which not only provides a much bigger address space but also offers many other advantages over IPv4, such as improved security, efficient routing, better QoS, etc. For a long time, Apache CloudStack has offered IPv6 support solely for Shared Networks. This will change with Apache CloudStack 4.17.0 LTS, which will add IPv6 support for isolated networks and VPCs making it possible for users to deploy dual […]

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Flexible Service Offerings l CloudStack Feature First Look

Introduction Apache CloudStack Service Offerings are sets of capabilities that a CloudStack admin makes available to users, defining Instance, Volume and Network specifications to be consumed by users when creating their resources. Previously, when users deployed a new Instance, the Root Volume definition was included in the Compute Offering, including disk size, IOPS and storage tags. This behaviour is a limitation when users try to change the Instance Root Volume characteristics, as it is a part of the Compute Offering, used alongside the Instance. To address this behaviour, Root Volume specifications have been decoupled from the Compute Offerings. This new […]

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Structured System Events l CloudStack Feature First Look

The events notification framework is a key component of Apache CloudStack, facilitating traceability of operations, and enabling cloud operators to automate tasks which may otherwise require admin intervention at regular intervals. Though quite useful, events in CloudStack had a major inconsistency regarding information of the resource (ie. Instances, Templates, Volumes, Networks, Accounts, etc.). To identify the resource in question, one had to refer to the Event description which may contain resource UUID or internal database ID. This made tracking resource operations difficult and also made automation difficult as the administrator would have to parse event description strings (which are not […]

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New Server Status and Metric Views l CloudStack Feature First Look

Overview In CloudStack 4.17 a brief overview of the status of various services can be retrieved. This includes information on the Management Server(s), the Database and the Usage server. This is a quick overview for operators. It does not replace a full-fletched monitoring system. Use Case It is now possible, within the Apache CloudStack, to know the status of its management infrastructure. The status should indicate which management servers are up, their memory, CPU use, internal telemetry such as workers in use, JVM memory use, the ‘health of MySQL host(s)’ etc. Of course, further enhancements and configurability is possible, but […]

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