03 October 2011, 18:10

OpenNebula 3.0 features ACLs and updated interface

Version 3.0 of the open source cloud toolkit OpenNebula has been launched; according to its developers this is used by thousands of organisations to build IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) clouds. The release includes "new innovative features" which have been "developed to fulfill the needs of leading IT organizations running production environments".

The Core system in 3.0 now supports groups and ACLs (Access Control Lists). Groups allow administrators to isolate users and their resources from one another, while OpenNebula's implementation of ACLs allow cloud administrators to permit or deny operations for users and groups. Also new for 3.0 is a new VLAN (Virtual LAN) model that can be managed through OpenvSwitch and 802.1Q tagging, disk quotas, and a firewall to open and close TCP/UDP ports on individual VMs (Virtual Machines).

SunStone, OpenNebula's browser-based GUI (graphical user interface), has also undergone several major improvements in its stability and usability. New graphics and statistics have been added to allow tracking of virtual and physical resources, along with independent view configurations for different user accounts. Sunstone now also supports plugins, authentication, and VNC (virtual network computing) for remote virtual machine configuration. 3.0 is also the first stable release to feature OpenNebula Zones (oZones) and Virtual Data Centres (VDCs); these allow for centralised management of multiple instances of OpenNebula, controlled by either a CLI (command line interface) or web interface.

The OpenNebula project has released onedb, a command line utility to help migrate 2.x users to version 3.0. Additional information can be found in the official release notes. OpenNebula 3.0 is sponsored by C12G and can be downloaded from the official web site; the software is released under the Apache 2.0 open source licence.

Parallel to the 3.0 announcement was the news that OpenNebula would be adding Hyper-V support to enable integration with Microsoft's Hypervisor Server OS (operating system). Writing about the partnership on the OpenNebula blog, project director Dr. Ignacio M. Llorente said "Microsoft is providing support and technical guidance to the OpenNebula open-source project to add and maintain Hyper-V on the list of officially supported hypervisors". He continued, "We started the work in July and are planning to have a first prototype of the integration in mid October. The new components will be released under the Apache license as a new OpenNebula ecosystem project". Sandy Gupta, General Manager of Microsoft's Open Solutions Group confirmed that Windows Server Hyper-V is "now an officially supported hypervisor for OpenNebula".

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