Preconfigured bare metal Cloud Node Images built with SuSestudio

From Abicloud 0.7.0 it’s mandatory to install an application in the servers where the hypervisors VirtualBox, XEN or KVM is executed (Yes, VMware ESXi does not need these small applications). The reason why we now need it is because these hypervisor lacks of some functionality provided by VMware ESXi. So we cover these lacks with our own software. Our goal is to make the dream of Virtual to Virtual (V2V) coming true thanks to our platform. Want to deploy your ESXi virtual images in XEN, KVM or VirtualBox? Abicloud can help with its V2V capabilities.

Some users reported that this change could make harder to deploy a new cloud system. So, we decided in the maintenance release 0.7.1 to offer pre-configured images with the hypervisors and our applications configured ready to run. But we wanted to go one step further: the user should not need to configure the operating system, the drivers, users, permissions… it should be as easy as possible. Almost a bare-metal version.

We have been using a service from openSUSE called SUSE Studio. SUSE Studio is a web front-end to customize and build your own personal distribution in as many ways you could possibly think off. There are other similar services and applications that helps you make custom distribution but none of them are as extensive in customization options as SUSE studio or as easy.

With this service, we created what we called Cloud Node Images. A Cloud Node Image is raw disk image with all the libraries and software bundled in such a way that the set up of a Cloud Node is a very simple process almost without any intervention. Besides, the linux distribution detects the exisiting hardware the first time it boots and expands itself to fill the drive.

At this moment we have these hypervisors and architectures available:

• VirtualBox – openSUSE 11.1 JeOS x86 32 bits [download] [instructions]
• KVM – openSUSE 11.1 JeOS x86 32 bits [download] [instructions]

64bit versions and XEN support will come in future releases. But if you want to test drive our platform, probably this is the fastest way.

You can download it from our community site, in the section Cloud Node Images. We hope this will help to make things easier to anyone who wants to test our platform. If you have some ideas, please let us know!

Tags: bare-metal, cloudnode, images, susestudio

abiCloud 0.7.1 has been released!

We are glad to announce the release of a new version (0.7.1) of the abiCloud project, an open-source cloud platform manager which allows to easily deploy a cloud computing infrastructure . Users can create, manage and scale complext IT architectures in an easy and agile way. You can download it for Linux or Windows from sourceforge.

This version fixes some bugs and adds some features to the last version. These issues are listed below.

• ABICLOUD-100. Cannot deploy twice. Undeployment process does not clean the VirtualBox information properly.
• ABICLOUD-91. Virtual Appliances and Virtual Images status information do not match.
• ABICLOUD-86.  The AbiCloud internal address cannot be 127.0.0.1.
• ABICLOUD-107. VBoxMonitor crashes with -p parameter.
• ABICLOUD-93. When trying to download an VA from the AM and the image type contained in the OVF is not loaded in the DB, an error was occurred.
• ABICLOUD-90. AM does not start properly.
• ABICLOUD-87. Appliance Manager config file isn’t parsed.
• ABICLOUD-84. NullPointerException when reaching 98% of download.
• ABICLOUD-82. Wrong IP or hostname in repositoryLocation in abi.config.xml.
• ABICLOUD-74. Installation issue: no startup script for libvirtd.
• ABICLOUD-71. Cannot stop a Virtual Appliance with the ‘Power’ button from the Virtual Datacenter > Virtual Appliances view.
• ABICLOUD-55. Remote Space Pop-up layout.
• ABICLOUD-53. Appliance detail refresh errors.
• ABICLOUD-48. What happen if I have an error in the download process.
• ABICLOUD-45. Virtual Image deletion-saving.
• ABICLOUD-26. error.
• ABICLOUD-95. Default MyRack > MyMachine has wrong information about its status on start.
• ABICLOUD-49. Repository refresh.
• ABICLOUD-42. Arbitrary IP order.
• ABICLOUD-9.  The count error is not restablished when the abicloud_server is reloaded.
• ABICLOUD-58. Appliance creation.
• ABICLOUD-88. Add more descriptive texts in the installer when dealing with IPs and domains.

If you need support, you can get it from several sources:

• Documentation
• Forums
• IRC: (irc.freenode.net, #abiquo)

The appliance manager

In order to understand one of our new cool features, we include a short presentation to understand the concept.

In next weeks we will publish our own public appliance repository.
If you are an appliance provider or a software company that want to distribute your development as a virtual appliance, feel free to contact us and ask for posible colaborations.

Tags: 0.7.0, abiCloud, appliance manager, cloud computing, release

OVF manager with abiCloud

This post is not to explain the benefits of OVF standard in the cloud world. A little summary, for us the most important features:

• Allows the easy portability of virtual Appliance between datacenters.
• Supports both single and multi virtual machine configurations.
• It’s independent of the virtualization technology.
• OVF is extensible.

OVF is being and/or will be adopted by the most important players in the cloud market.

AbiCloud is designed to work with the OVF standard (nowadays with OVF 1.0 specifications).

abiCloud 0.7.0 release have the first version of OVF manager, a java library that would be able to be used in other projects.  The main benefits are:

• 1.0 specifications compliance
• complexity abstraction for developers.
• Easy OVF updating process in your code.

This first revision will contain the basic OVF specifications and will be  an important section in our community for developers or other projects interested in collaborating with the library improvements.

Moreover, we are working in other cloud components that work with OVF in order to improve the interoperability between clouds …  information is coming soon :)

And remember,  for questions or doubts,  you know how to contact us ;)

abiCloud 0.7.0 has been released!

We are glad to announce the release of a new version (0.7) of the abiCloud project, an open source cloud platform manager which allows to easily deploy a cloud computing infrastructure over organizations’ datacenters. Organizations can create, manage and scale complext IT architectures in an easy and agile way.

AbiCloud is Cloud computing platform that allows you to offer your infrastructure as a service to your users, allowing them to create and manage public and private clouds, can switch, scale according to the needs of each moment and, therefore, cost savings and business agility.

Today, abiquo has released a new version of its open source product abiCloud. This version offers a base for the management of private clouds on different platforms for virtualization, monitoring all events, allowing users to convert their structures into existing IT structures based on Cloud. We are also offering as a new feature the possibility of having a repository of virtual images that can be integrated with external repositories for downloading virtual appliances.

One of the key differences of AbiCloud is the the web rich interface for managing the infrastructure. You can deploy a new service just dragging and dropping a virtual machine. This version allows to deploy instances over VirtualBox, KVM, Xen and VMware (subscribers-only).

New features of this version:

• Network management
• Appliance manager & repository
• Events management

Features:

• Rich interface
• User management through ACL
• Infrastructure management (from datacenters to virtual machines)
• Visual design of virtual datacenters

Requirements:

• Linux or Windows
• Xen, KVM, Virtualbox or VMware hypervisors installed
• JavaVM

Licenses

• CPAL 1.0 for the UI
• MPL 1.1 for the services

For more details, please visit our community

Download it!

Abiquo forum is enabled

Today we wish to announce the opening of  the abiquo forum.

Since we released the first version of the abiCloud platform, many people have sent many questions.  Basic or advanced questions. We think that it’s important to share this information with everybody, to facilitate the introduction of new users to abiquo products.

• A general section will help people to place abiquo announcements, to facilitate users to explain their abiCloud experiences and comment on any abiquo post from this blog.
• Moreover,  abiCloud Corner simplifies understanding the details of our cloud platform.

You can send your questions in anonymous mode. Although, if you are an abiquo user (from bug tracker or confluence), you can login on to it.

Feel free to ask! Feel free to comment!

Together we will make this project grow!!!!

CloudCamp Barcelona – June 15th, 2009

CloudCamp is an unconference where early adapters of Cloud Computing technologies exchange ideas. With the rapid change occurring in the industry, we need a place we can meet to share our experiences, challenges and solutions. At CloudCamp, you are encouraged you to share your thoughts in several open discussions, as we strive for the advancement of Cloud Computing. End users, IT professionals and vendors are all encouraged to participate.

Our 2nd CloudCamp in Barcelona is scheduled for Monday, June 15th

Venue:
BarcelonaActiva
Llacuna 162-164
Barcelona, Catalonia
Spain

Tentative Schedule:

• 16.30-17.00: Registration
• 17.00-17.15: CloudCamp Presentation (English)
• 17.15-18.00: Lightning talks (English)
• 18.00-18.45: Unpanel (English)
• 18.45-19.00: Decide unconferences (Spanish)
• 19.00-20.00: Unconferences (Castellano)
• 20.00-21.00: Networking

You can register here.

See you there!!!

Tags: cloudCamp Barcelona Cloud Computing

Contact us at the Cloud Computing Expo in Prague!

Next May 18th and 19th “The Diegos” (Diego Mariño and me, Diego Parrilla) will attend to the Cloud Computing Expo in Prague. Diego Mariño will speak about Cloud Computing Marketplaces, our visionary view of the Cloud Computing. If you want to contact us to know more about AbiCloud or Abiquo, please let us know:

Diego Parrilla: dparrilla [AT] abiquo.com

Diego Mariño: dmarino [AT] abiquo.com

Tags: cloudcomputingexpo, marketplace

Vote for abiquo on SourceForge

Thank you!

And sorry for the spam ;)

Helena Torras interviewed by Tiburon-Tv.com – Red Herring 100 Europe

Tags: abiCloud, interview, redherring