SUSE OpenStack Cloud 8 New Capabilities Update

SUSE OpenStack Cloud 8 was released into general availability yesterday.  This release is based on the OpenStack Pike release. SUSE OpenStack Cloud 8 integrates HPE’s Helion OpenStack 5.0 and SUSE OpenStack Cloud 7 products, resulting in broader and deeper OpenStack capabilities for existing SUSE and HPE customers as well as new OpenStack users.

SUSE OpenStack Cloud 8 and HPE Helion OpenStack 8 both share a combined base which runs on SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 SP3.  When I’m talking about Cloud 8 in this discussion it also generally applies to HPE Helion OpenStack 8.  This release unifies the procedures and approaches for maintaining the life cycle for each branded product.  Cloud 8 introduces a three-year life cycle, providing users with functionality enhancements, security fixes and an extended time frame for planning upgrades to future releases.

Expanded OpenStack support includes Bare Metal as a Service (Ironic), backup and restore DR as a Service (Freezer) and Load Balancing as a Service(Octavia). NSX-V makes its appearance as SUSE OpenStack Cloud’s first out-of-the-box SDN integration, allowing SUSE OpenStack Cloud to manage VMware-based compute loads running in a VMware NSX-V fabric. Other software-defined network options will be available soon with Cloud 8 updates arriving throughout the rest of the year.

There are two options for lifecycle management in Cloud 8.

• Crowbar with Chef, which was used in Cloud 7.

Note that this option is not available with Helion OpenStack 8.

• The new Cloud Lifecycle Manager (CLM).

The CLM option provides a template-based approach to defining and operating a cloud which will be familiar to HPE Helion              customers.

The Cloud Lifecycle Manager,  a component of Cloud 8, provides a template-based approach to deploy a cloud and provides a powerful versioning capability by leveraging a built-in git repository, allowing easy configuration changes and rollbacks. Day two operations are made easier as CLM allows configurations to be modified without requiring a full cloud redeployment; a feature like this can make networking reconfigurations simple as opposed to painful. We have added a new installer UI with CLM that leverages SUSE Manager or HPE OneView for node discovery during deployment.

You are probably wanting to know how to upgrade to Cloud 8.  Well, if you have an active SUSE or HPE OpenStack subscription, you are entitled to upgrade to Cloud 8.  HPE Helion customers will have an automated upgrade available at the release of Cloud 8 and existing SUSE Cloud customers will have an automated upgrade provided in a Cloud 8 update shortly.

If you want to give Cloud 8 a try, go and get a copy using the following link or download it using your existing subscription.

https://www.suse.com/products/suse-openstack-cloud/  Click on 60 Day Free Trial.

If you would like to see a demo of the new Day 0 install UI for CLM, watch the following video.

Link to New CLM Install UI Demo

If you would like to see a short introduction to the Cloud Lifecycle Manager architecture, watch the following video.

Link to Overview Video of Cloud Lifecycle Manager

For more information stay tuned for future blogs on the new life cycle manager, networking, upgrade considerations and more information on Cloud 8.