VMware made a number of announcements during its VMworld 2016 user conference in Las Vegas this week. Included is the availability of VMware Integrated OpenStack 3, the latest release of VMware's OpenStack distribution now based on the OpenStack Mitaka release.
VMware has introduced new features to make deploying
OpenStack clouds simpler and more cost-effective as well as allow customers to use existing VMware vSphere workloads in an API-driven OpenStack cloud.
Existing VMware Integrated OpenStack customers will be able to take advantage of the software's built-in upgrade capability to migrate to VMware Integrated OpenStack 3. VMware Cloud Foundation will support VMware Integrated OpenStack enabling users to deploy and operate their OpenStack clouds on VMware's virtual infrastructure on-premises or in the public cloud.
VMware Integrated OpenStack users can now leverage the features and enhancements in the latest Mitaka release that address manageability, scalability and an improved user experience. Mitaka improvements include:
- Simplified configuration for Nova compute service.
- Streamlined Keystone identity service is now a one-step process for setting up the identity management features of a cloud network.
- Keystone now supports multi-backend allowing local authentication and AD accounts simultaneously.
- Heat’s convergence engine optimized to handle larger loads and more complex actions for horizontal scaling for improved performance for stateless mode.
- Enhanced OpenStack Client provides a consistent set of calls for creating resources, no longer requiring the need to learn the intricacies of each service API.
- Support for software development kits (SDKs) in various languages.
- New “give me a network,” feature capable of creating a network, attaching a server to it, assigning an IP to that server, and making the network accessible in a single action.
VMware has optimized and architected its management control plane to run full OpenStack in as few as two virtual machines. VMware Integrated OpenStack 3 reduces the infrastructure and related costs required to power a production-ready OpenStack cloud that can scale to thousands of virtual machines, volumes and networks while streamlining operations.
The latest release will also enable customers to import existing VMware vSphere virtual machines into OpenStack. This capability enables developers to easily move their key project workloads and manage them through OpenStack APIs on day one.
VMware Integrated OpenStack provides the ability to deliver OpenStack APIs to development teams on top of VMware infrastructure including VMware vSphere, VMware NSX and VMware Virtual SAN without the need for new tools or additional training. IT operations teams can use existing investments in VMware vRealize Operations and VMware vRealize Log Insight, which are tightly integrated with both VMware Integrated OpenStack and VMware vSphere, to deliver faster and easier holistic monitoring and troubleshooting of their OpenStack and virtual infrastructure, respectively.
Additionally, VMware vRealize Business for Cloud customers can perform cost and capacity analysis of their VMware Integrated OpenStack cloud and compare those costs to operating infrastructure in the public cloud. Using VMware Integrated OpenStack, customers have deployed production OpenStack clouds in mere weeks, and rely on VMware vSphere Clustering, High Availability and vMotion to protect workloads and maintain zero downtime in production.
As an active partner in the OpenStack community, VMware packages, tests and supports all components of the distribution, including the full open source OpenStack code.