Jsmart
10-22-2010, 11:01 AM
The AppLogic-2.9 production release is here.
The main focus of the AppLogic 2.9 release is to provide complete autonomic operation with the new addition of Network High-availability. Network HA provides reliable operation in the event of network-related failures (both the external and backbone networks are taken into account). When a network failure occurs, all servers in the grid remain operational and all applications/appliances continue to operate uninterrupted (as long as neither of the networks are fully unavailable). In order to take advantage of this new feature, the physical servers within the grid must be set up with redundant networking: a pair of switches are used for each of the external and backbone networks, which enables the grid to withstand various physical NIC and switch failures.
In addition, 2.9.9 includes several other important advances for AppLogic users:
* Windows 2008 Server is now supported for AppLogic appliances. This includes support for a Windows 2008 server-based filer, Windows server generic appliance, VDS (virtual dedicated server), IIS and SQL. AppLogic supports both 32-bit and 64-bit (R2), and also provides support for all editions (Web, Standard, Enterprise and DataCenter).
* The AppLogic application programming interface provides a web service interface to one or multiple AppLogic grids through a Representational State Transfer (REST) based service (considered "beta" at this time). The AppLogic web Services API enables developers of RESTful client software to directly interface with AppLogic based Virtual Data Centers (VDC) (i.e., an AppLogic grid). The API allows for programmatic control of large pools of virtualized infrastructure to be available within each VDC. In order to use the Web Service API, the WS_API application should be running on a grid. The WS_API application provides HTTP, HTTPS and VPN based access to the API.
* External IPs can now be enforced by AppLogic for appliances that use external interfaces. A new property type called ip_owned can be used on the appliance's boundary to specify IP addresses that are enforced by AppLogic. AppLogic enforces that the value of an ip_owned property type is within the application IP range(s) configured for the grid. In addition, AppLogic enforces that the incoming/outgoing network traffic is limited to the specified IP address assigned to the appliance's external interface (as specified through the ip_owned property).
* A new AppLogic utility called image2class is now available which allows users to import virtual machine images as AppLogic appliance classes. This makes it easy for users to migrate workloads from existing virtualization deployments into AppLogic. The virtual machine image that is being imported may be located on either the grid's impex volume or on a remote site accessible over HTTP/HTTPS. image2class currently supports only Linux-based virtual machines that comply with the Open Virtualization Format (OVF).
* AppLogic now supports global read-only volumes that can be used by maintainers to organize and provide common appliance or application files. Regular users have read-only access to these global volumes where as maintainers have full control.
o AppLogic 2.9 ships with 3 global read-only volumes that contain all of the files neccessary to build new AppLogic appliances. There is one global read-only volume for each type of OS supported by AppLogic (apk_windows, apk_linux and apk_solaris). These volumes contain the files needed for building new appliances, such as the AppLogic APK, PV drivers, Linux kernels, etc. Simply attach one of the apk volumes to your appliance and the appliance has local access to all of the files.
* Various catalog software upgrades; LUX, LINUX and VDSes were re-based on CentOS 5.4
* MYSQLR has been re-added to the system catalog (originally removed in AppLogic 2.8.9)
* AppLogic now allows users to control the keyboard mapping for any HVM-based virtual appliance.
* The storage health monitoring feature introduced in AppLogic 2.7 has been re-enabled in AppLogic 2.9. AppLogic now logs detected hard disk storage issues to the grid dashboard.
* Support for the 3tera AppStore (the new appstore utility), an e-commerce site offering AppLogic appliances and application templates for use on-demand in AppLogic virtual private data centers. AppStore is currently in private beta trials.
* Server state is now persistent across grid reboots. For example, if a server is disabled using srv disable and then the grid is rebooted, the server remains disabled (in previous AppLogic releases, all servers are enabled by default upon grid boot).
* Incorporates all of the AppLogic 2.8 hotfixes and some additional bug fixes. See the key bug fixes for a list of the key issues that were resolved in this release.
* AppLogic 2.9 is compatible with existing applications built for AppLogic 2.8, 2.7, 2.4 and 2.1.
Regards,
AppLogic Support Team
The main focus of the AppLogic 2.9 release is to provide complete autonomic operation with the new addition of Network High-availability. Network HA provides reliable operation in the event of network-related failures (both the external and backbone networks are taken into account). When a network failure occurs, all servers in the grid remain operational and all applications/appliances continue to operate uninterrupted (as long as neither of the networks are fully unavailable). In order to take advantage of this new feature, the physical servers within the grid must be set up with redundant networking: a pair of switches are used for each of the external and backbone networks, which enables the grid to withstand various physical NIC and switch failures.
In addition, 2.9.9 includes several other important advances for AppLogic users:
* Windows 2008 Server is now supported for AppLogic appliances. This includes support for a Windows 2008 server-based filer, Windows server generic appliance, VDS (virtual dedicated server), IIS and SQL. AppLogic supports both 32-bit and 64-bit (R2), and also provides support for all editions (Web, Standard, Enterprise and DataCenter).
* The AppLogic application programming interface provides a web service interface to one or multiple AppLogic grids through a Representational State Transfer (REST) based service (considered "beta" at this time). The AppLogic web Services API enables developers of RESTful client software to directly interface with AppLogic based Virtual Data Centers (VDC) (i.e., an AppLogic grid). The API allows for programmatic control of large pools of virtualized infrastructure to be available within each VDC. In order to use the Web Service API, the WS_API application should be running on a grid. The WS_API application provides HTTP, HTTPS and VPN based access to the API.
* External IPs can now be enforced by AppLogic for appliances that use external interfaces. A new property type called ip_owned can be used on the appliance's boundary to specify IP addresses that are enforced by AppLogic. AppLogic enforces that the value of an ip_owned property type is within the application IP range(s) configured for the grid. In addition, AppLogic enforces that the incoming/outgoing network traffic is limited to the specified IP address assigned to the appliance's external interface (as specified through the ip_owned property).
* A new AppLogic utility called image2class is now available which allows users to import virtual machine images as AppLogic appliance classes. This makes it easy for users to migrate workloads from existing virtualization deployments into AppLogic. The virtual machine image that is being imported may be located on either the grid's impex volume or on a remote site accessible over HTTP/HTTPS. image2class currently supports only Linux-based virtual machines that comply with the Open Virtualization Format (OVF).
* AppLogic now supports global read-only volumes that can be used by maintainers to organize and provide common appliance or application files. Regular users have read-only access to these global volumes where as maintainers have full control.
o AppLogic 2.9 ships with 3 global read-only volumes that contain all of the files neccessary to build new AppLogic appliances. There is one global read-only volume for each type of OS supported by AppLogic (apk_windows, apk_linux and apk_solaris). These volumes contain the files needed for building new appliances, such as the AppLogic APK, PV drivers, Linux kernels, etc. Simply attach one of the apk volumes to your appliance and the appliance has local access to all of the files.
* Various catalog software upgrades; LUX, LINUX and VDSes were re-based on CentOS 5.4
* MYSQLR has been re-added to the system catalog (originally removed in AppLogic 2.8.9)
* AppLogic now allows users to control the keyboard mapping for any HVM-based virtual appliance.
* The storage health monitoring feature introduced in AppLogic 2.7 has been re-enabled in AppLogic 2.9. AppLogic now logs detected hard disk storage issues to the grid dashboard.
* Support for the 3tera AppStore (the new appstore utility), an e-commerce site offering AppLogic appliances and application templates for use on-demand in AppLogic virtual private data centers. AppStore is currently in private beta trials.
* Server state is now persistent across grid reboots. For example, if a server is disabled using srv disable and then the grid is rebooted, the server remains disabled (in previous AppLogic releases, all servers are enabled by default upon grid boot).
* Incorporates all of the AppLogic 2.8 hotfixes and some additional bug fixes. See the key bug fixes for a list of the key issues that were resolved in this release.
* AppLogic 2.9 is compatible with existing applications built for AppLogic 2.8, 2.7, 2.4 and 2.1.
Regards,
AppLogic Support Team