OpenStack Juno Now Available 

The tenth release of OpenStack, the most widely supported open source software for building public and private clouds, is available today. The latest release of the open source cloud software, called Juno, adds enterprise features such as storage policies, a new data processing service that provisions Hadoop and Spark, and lays the foundation for OpenStack to be the platform for Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), a major transformation driving improved agility and efficiency in telco and service provider data centers.

The Juno release continues a trend for OpenStack in which the project’s twice-annual releases have focused on stability, operational improvements and performance, reflecting the growing number of users who are running OpenStack in production.

Data Processing Service to Deploy Hadoop, Spark

This latest release adds a new data processing service to the existing suite of cloud capabilities, including Compute, Object and Block Storage, Networking, Orchestration, Identity and Database Services. All services are available through open APIs and a web-based Dashboard.

The new data processing capability automates provisioning and management of big data clusters using Hadoop and Spark. Big data analytics are a priority for many organizations and a popular use case for OpenStack, and this service lets OpenStack users provision needed resources more quickly.

Storage Policies Offer Greater Control

Also new in this release, storage policies for Object Storage give users more control over cost and performance within their storage environment. Storage policies allow enterprise deployers and application developers to decide how they want to store, replicate and access data across different backends and geographical regions. They also provide the ability for public cloud providers to offer storage service tiers.

NFV Subteam Focuses on Networking for Large Deployments

NFV represents a massive shift in how many networking and telco services are developed and deployed. An NFV development team was formed in May at the OpenStack Summit and has identified nine use cases to run NFV workloads on top of OpenStack environments. Initial features arrived in the Juno release, and additional NFV-related work will continue over coming releases.

Enhanced Deployment, Operation, Scaling Features

Across the platform, the Juno release contains numerous updates and enhancements that make it easier to build, operate, scale and upgrade OpenStack clouds. Compute components allow easier upgrades with less impact to the applications users are running, and include an additional driver for managing bare metal hardware directly. There were also significant updates to metering and monitoring capabilities that provide faster and more efficient performance.

Additional Juno Features

• OpenStack Compute (Nova) Operational updates to Compute include improvements for rescue mode that enable booting from alternate images with the attachment of all local disks. Also, per-network settings are now allowed by improved nova-network code; scheduling updates to support scheduling services and extensibility; and internationalization updates.
• OpenStack Networking (Neutron): Neutron features support for IPv6 and better third-party driver testing to ensure consistency and reliability across network implementations. Release enables plug-ins for the back-end implementation of the OpenStack Networking API and blazes an initial path for migration from nova-network to Neutron. Supporting Layer 3 High Availability, the networking layer now allows a distributed operational mode.
• OpenStack Identity Service (Keystone): Federated authentication improvements allow users to access private and public OpenStack clouds with the same credentials. Keystone can be configured to use multiple identity backends, and integration with LDAP is much easier.
• OpenStack Orchestration (Heat): In Juno, it is easier to roll back a failed deployment and ensure thorough cleanup. Also, administrators can delegate resource creation privileges to non-administrative users.
• OpenStack Dashboard (Horizon): Apache Hadoop clusters can now be deployed with a few mouse clicks, giving users the ability to rapidly scale data processing based on custom parameters. The RBAC system is extended to support Compute, Networking and Orchestration.
• OpenStack Database Service (Trove): A new capability included in Juno allows users to manage relational database services in an OpenStack environment.