VMworld 2016: VMware Integrated OpenStack 3.0 announced

At VMworld 2016, VMware announced the latest version of VMware Integrated OpenStack (VIO): version 3.0. VIO 3.0 is based on the Mitaka release of OpenStack.

In 2015 started to provide VMware Integrated OpenStack, a distribution of the OpenStack platform optimized for the VMware virtualization platform. Earlier versions of VIO were 1.0 (Icehouse based), 2.0 en 2.5 (both Kilo based) and now the latest release 3.0.

OpenStack is developed as a platform for cloud native applications and uses APIs to automatically provision infrastructure. OpenStack is just a management platform, and doesn’t provide the virtual infrastructure. With VIO you can use VMware virtualization technologies (vSphere, NSX, Virtual SAN) and the most optimal way. OpenStack is positioned on top of your virtual infrastructure, as detailed in the following picture:

VIO leverages standard OpenStack components, such as Keystone, Horizon, Nova, Neutron and Cinder.

VIO 3.0 most important improvements are:

• It’s based on the Mitaka release;
• It includes a compact control plane. Running OpenStack requires you to run a lot of virtual machines (>15), with VIO 3.0 you can run an OpenStack environment with around 7-9 VMs;
• You can import existiting vSphere VMs into OpenStack.

Other enhancements are:

• Support for software development kits (SDKs) in various languages.
• Improved day-to-day experience for cloud admins and administrators.
• Simplified configuration for Nova compute service.
• New “give me a network,” feature capable of creating a network, attaching a server to it, assigning an IP to that server, and making the network accessible, in a single action
• Keystone now supports multi-backend allowing local authentication and AD accounts simultaneously.
• Heat’s convergence engine optimized to handle larger loads and more complex actions for horizontal scaling for improved performance for stateless mode.
• Enhanced OpenStack Client provides a consistent set of calls for creating resources no longer requiring the need to learn the intricacies of each service API.
• Streamlined Keystone identity service is now a one-step process for setting up the identity management features of a cloud network.