Fuel 3.1 Release Update: Added support for Red Hat OpenStack, easier deployment, and more
We’re thrilled with the latest version of Fuel that was just released on August 7th and wanted to share a quick run down of what’s new in the release. We hope that these improvements help you in using Fuel to get OpenStack up and running more quickly and with less hassle than ever before.
The three biggest advancements in Fuel for version 3.1 are:
- Fuel now provides both integrated graphical and command line controls
- You can now use Fuel to deploy the Red Hat Enterprise Linux® OpenStack® Platform
- Fuel confirms your deployment succeeded with Mirantis OpenStack Health Check
Some other enhancements were made as well which we’ll cover briefly.
Fuel now provides both integrated graphical and command line controls
In earlier releases, Fuel was distributed as two packages – “Fuel Web” for graphical workflow, and “Fuel” for command-line based manipulation. Starting with this 3.1 release, we’ve integrated these two capabilities into a single offering, referred to simply as Fuel.
- Point. Click. Cloud.
If you used Fuel Web, you’ll see that capability along with its latest improvements to that capability in the Fuel User Interface (UI), providing a streamlined, graphical console that enables a point-and-click experience for the most commonly deployed configurations. Advanced users with more complex environmental needs can still get command-line access to the underlying deployment engine (a.k.a. “Fuel Library”).
You can now use Fuel to deploy the Red Hat Enterprise Linux® OpenStack® Platform
- Point. Click. Cloud.
Mirantis Fuel now includes the ability to deploy the Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform (a solution that includes both Red Hat Enterprise Linux and the Red Hat OpenStack distribution). During the definition of a new environment, you will be presented with the ability to choose the operating environment most appropriate for your business needs. By default, there’s the option of installing the Mirantis provided OpenStack distribution onto CentOS powered nodes. But customers that have a Red Hat subscription can download and install the Red Hat provided OpenStack distribution onto Red Hat Enterprise Linux powered nodes.
Fuel confirms your deployment succeeded with Mirantis OpenStack Health Check
New in this release is the Mirantis OpenStack Health Check, a built in utility that executes a battery of tests against your OpenStack deployment. This health check ensures that Opemtack is installed properly and operating correctly.
- Not just deployment, but also confirmation of success
The suite of tests exercises not only the core components within OpenStack, but also the added packages included in the Mirantis OpenStack distribution. It tests not only up/down availability but also runs OpenStack through real world exercises – for example, creation of instances - to make sure that it’s working as expected. Tests can be run individually or in groups. A full list of available tests can be found in our online documentation.
Some other enhancements we’ve made are:
- Ability to deploy properly in networks that are not utilizing VLAN tagging
- Improved High Availability resiliency
- Horizon password entry can be hidden
- Full support of the Neutron (Quantum) networking engine
Ability to deploy properly in networks that are not utilizing VLAN tagging
In some environments, it may not be possible or desired to utilize VLANs to segregate network traffic. In these networks, Fuel can now be configured through the Fuel UI to disable the need for VLAN tagging. This configuration option is available through the Network Settings tab.
- Simple checkboxes now enable or disable VLAN tagging
Improved High Availability resiliency
Mirantis is a pioneer in creating reference architectures that ensure your OpenStack cloud infrastructure is highly available and resilient and we’re always working on ways to make HA even better. In version 3.1, Fuel now deploys services including Neutron (Quantum) Agents, HAProxy, Galera or MySQL native Master/Slave replication under Pacemaker from ClusterLabs. Neutron (Quantum) agents now support seamless failover with metadata proxy and agent support, allowing minimum downtime for cluster Neutron (Quantum)-enabled networking. The Galera / Mysql replication engine now supports automatic cluster reassembling after the entire cluster is rebooted.
Horizon password entry can be hidden
In the OpenStack settings tab, the input of the password used for Horizon access can now be hidden by clicking on the eye icon to the left of the field. This icon acts as a toggle between hidden and visible input modes.
- Thwart those pesky shoulder surfers
Full support of the Neutron (Quantum) networking engine
All the features of the Neutron (Quantum) OpenStack virtual networking implementation, including the network namespaces feature allowing virtual networks to be overlapping, are now supported by Fuel. This improvement also enables Neutron (Quantum) to work properly with Open vSwitch GRE tunnels.
