This session gives a brief introduction to the new and exciting feature in the latest CloudStack LTS release, ie, 4.19.0. The discussion includes the details on the timeline of the CloudStack 4.19.0 release, overview of some of the marquee, new feature of the release – Object storage framework, KVM ingestion, Hypervisor agnostic simple DRS, CAPC aware CKS, OAuth2, DRaaS with Multi zone disaster recovery, etc and a summary of improvements added since the previous major LTS release of the CloudStack, ie, 4.18.0. ----------------------------------------- The CloudStack India User Group 2024 took place in Hyderabad on 23rd February. The conference, arranged by a group of volunteers from the Apache CloudStack Community, saw multiple sessions held about the cloud orchestration platform and its latest advancements.

1. What’s New in
CloudStack
4.19
Abhishek Kumar @ CloudStack India User Group Hyderabad 2024

2. About me - Abhishek Kumar
● PMC and Committer @ Apache CloudStack project
● Been involved with the project for over 5 years now
● 4.19 release RM. In past, I’ve been involved with
4.17.1, 4.15.1, 4.14.1 as RM or co-RM.
● Software Engineer @ ShapeBlue
● In my free time I try to be regular at gym. I like
spending time taking care of my house plants.

3. Agenda
● CloudStack LTS releases; recent releases
● 4.19.0.0 release
● Key features and improvements
○ VMware to KVM migration
○ KVM ingestion
○ Object storage support
○ Managed Kubernetes Cluster
○ OAuth2 authentication
○ …
● Q & A, feedback

4. CloudStack LTS
releases
● Community aspires to do two
major release per year
● 1-2 minor or dot releases
depending on the issues
reported and bug fixes
● Current LTS release - 4.19.0.0.
Feb 2024
● Other recent releases - 4.18.1.0,
4.18.0.0
● Upcoming releases - 4.18.2.0,
4.19.1.0, 20.0/4.20.0

5. Quick recap of 4.18.0.0 and 4.18.1.0 releases
While 4.18.0 LTS released with over 300 new features,
improvements and bug fixes, over 200 improvement and fixes
were added in 4.18.1. Some of the highlights:
● Edge Zones
● VM Autoscaling
● Managed User Data
● SDN Integration – Tungsten Fabric
● Two-Factor Authentication Framework; Support for
Time-based OTP (TOTP) Authenticator
● Volume Encryption
● Ceph Multi Monitor Support
● API-Driven Console Access
List goes on…

6. 4.19.0.0 release
315 closed
items
in milestone 254
PRs merged with new
features and
enhancements in the
milestone
Over
100
PRs merged from
4.18.x milestone
Over
40
unique
PR contributors
32 closed issues
in the milestone,
Over 130 closed
issues in 4.18.x
milestone

7. 4.19.0.0 release
● Targeted for Q3/Q4 2023
● Focuses on adding
exciting new features and
functionalities
● Will incorporate fixes
from 4.18.1.0 and may
include additional fixes
that have been added
since
Timeline
● (14 plus weeks) Ongoing – Mid October
2023: Accept all bugs, issues, improvements
allowed in LTS
● (1 week) Stabilise the main (or 4.19) branch,
accept only critical/blocker issues (if any)
● Early December 2023 and onwards: Cut
4.19.0.0 RC1 and further RCs if necessary,
start/conclude vote, and finish release work

8. Some key features #
Fixes and
improvements
Core features
& additions
Integrations
Ease of
adoption and
onboarding

9. ● Enables operators to
migrate existing VMware
Instances to KVM,
ensuring that the disk
volumes are preserved
using virt-v2v
● UI wizard for admin, adds
a new API - importVm
VMware to KVM
migration

10. KVM Ingestion
● Builds on VM Ingestion
functionality
● Will allow migrating KVM
workload from other tools such
as Proxmox, oVirt, etc
● Larger feature that also
incorporates GSoC ’23 project -
Extend export/import instances
to KVM

11. Object storage
feature ● Object storage as a first-class end
user feature in CloudStack.
● Adds capability to integrate
external object store providers that
comply with S3 protocols
● Adds MinIO plugin (and simulator)
as provider
● Already there has been some work
on Huawei OBS and Ceph
integrations

12. Pure Flash Array and
HPE-Primera Support
● Adds to the ever-growing list
of supported storage
plugins
● Currently, for KVM only
● Supports all common
use-cases

13. Existing storage plugin improvements
Storpool
● KVM Host HA enhancement for the
StorPool storage plugin.
● Volume encryption support
● Storage and volume stats
Linstor
● Snapshot backup for the Linstor
primary storage
● Fixes around rootdisk resize,
template copy

14. OAuth2
Authentication
● New OAuth2, UI-first plugin - can
perform Single-Sign-On (SSO) with
3rd-party identity providers.
● Currently supports Google and Github as
providers

15. CloudStack
DRS ● Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS)
automates the balancing and distribution of
workloads across CloudStack Hosts.
● Enhance cloud environment performance
● Introduces algorithm - condensed & balanced

16. Snapshot copy
● Copy volume snapshots to
specific zones or create
snapshots with replica in select
zones
● Data replication that can be
employed in disaster recovery
scenarios (DRaaS)
● Copy across zones will work
similar to templates

17. VNF
Appliances
Support
● Simplifies the registration, deployment, and
management of VNFs through a new
Appliance deployment wizard.
● Service providers can offer VNF appliances
to their end users

18. Concept of domain VPCs
● VPC can be managed by a
domain
● Available only through API
Global ACL for VPCs
● Multiple VPCs can have same
ACL rule
● Similar to use of default allow
and deny rule
New improvements and
concepts for VPCs

19. Managed
Kubernetes
Cluster
● Makes CKS aware of Kubernetes
cluster deployed using external
tools such as CAPC
● CAPI provider logs the lifecycle
events of a clusters in CloudStack
● Part of this feature would need a
new CloudStack Go SDK release.

20. Scheduled Instance
Lifecycle Operations
● Introduces a robust Instance
Schedule functionality
● Schedule can be created either
through a user-friendly UI or
API
● Hypervisor-agnostic
● Helps optimizing resource
utilization, and minimizing
operational costs

21. Public IP
quarantine ● Introduces public IP quarantine process
● Quarantine duration controlled by global
config - ip.address.quarantine.duration
● Adds and updates API to
update/remove/list Quarantine IPs

22. Dashboard redesign
● Redesigned dashboard for
admin, users and projects
● Card based interface
● Global create button

23. Other
improvements
and changes
● Safe shutdown
● Improvements in userdata
functionality
● Edge zone improvements and ability
to deploy CKS clusters
● Storage browser and granular
storage management
● Guest OS Management
● Ant Design upgrade
● Auto enable-disable KVM hosts
● Improvements in Backup & Recovery
frameworks
● Support for vSphere 8.0.0
● Moving subdomains across domains
● New system VM template
Over 300 closed items in the
4.19.0.0 milestone

24. What’s coming next
Q1-Q2 ‘24
4.18.2.0
Maintenance release
Already over 100 closed items
in the milestone
Q2 ‘24
4.19.1.0
Maintenance release
Nearly 30 closed items
already
Q3-Q4 ‘24
20.0/4.20
Next major release
New exciting features. Change
of versioning
TBD
Future releases
4.19.2.0? 20.1.0? 21.0?

25. Discuss
Q & A, feedback…
https://download.cloudstack.org/testing/nightly/