On August 8, 2017 we released Cloudstack-UI 1.0.7. During the work on the current release the team’s main efforts were directed to the implementation of plugin functionality that is absent in the native CloudStack API, namely we created two new plugins — WebShell and Pulse.

Release 1.0.7 Overview

On August 8, 2017 we released CloudStack-UI 1.0.7. This is experimental release. We do not recommend to use it in production environments.

During the work on the current release the team’s main efforts were directed to the implementation of plugin functionality that is absent in the native CloudStack API, namely we created two new plugins — WebShell and Pulse.

Also, the release includes the support of several standard features:

• Periodic volume snapshots;
• Capability to specify the default compute offering for the zone.

Also, the release includes the support of several standard features:

• Periodic volume snapshots;
• Capability to specify the default compute offering for the zone.

WebShell plugin (experimental function)

WebShell is a CloudStack-UI extension designed to perform a clientless SSH connection to a virtual machine. The extension is activated in the CloudStack-UI configuration file and is supported by an additional Docker container. As for the way of WebShell usage, the plugin is similar to NoVNC interface provided by CloudStack. However, WebShell uses the SSH protocol and doesn’t allow VM emergency management.

The need for this extension is determined by the shortcomings of the NoVNC interface, that obstructs its usage for everyday administrative purposes:

• Low interactivity and slow throughput of the terminal interface;
• Lack of possibility to copy/paste text from the user’s local machine;
• Missing feature to complete the session by timeout;
• Access to the virtual machine in out-of-band mode, which allows to perform a number of insecure operations.

WebShell plugin solves these problems:

• Provides high interactivity, which is especially useful when working with information that contains large amounts of text;
• Allows copying and pasting text from the workstation;
• Enables configuration of the session completion timeout, thereby improving the security of the system;
• Doesn’t provide an access to the VM in out-of-band mode;

In future releases this plug-in will be extended with additional features such as integration with the VM access key store and dashboard for efficient work with many open SSH sessions.

This feature is not available in basic CloudStack UI and API. Plugin deployment and configuration instructions can be found on the plug-in page.

Pulse plugin (experimental function)

Pulse plugin is designed for visualization of virtual machines performance statistics. Currently this CloudStack-UI extension is only compatible with ACS clusters that use the KVM hypervisor. With help of sensors that collect virtual machines performance statistics via the Libvirt API and store them in an InfluxDB datastore and RESTful statistics server, CloudStack-UI is able to display CPU, RAM,disk IO and network traffic utilization in the form of convenient visual charts.

Pulse allows users of Apache CloudStack to monitor current and previous operational states of virtual machines. The plugin supports various view scales like minutes, hours, days and enables data overlays to monitor peak and average values.

We consider this plugin very important for the CloudStack ecosystem as currently there is no built-in functionality to track VM operational states, although it is vital for system administrators to successfully operate virtual servers.

Plugin deployment and configuration Instructions can be found on the plug-in page.

Deployment Instructions

The release can be found at GitHub releases: https://github.com/bwsw/cloudstack-ui/releases/tag/1.0.7

Prepared Docker image is available at Dockerhub: https://hub.docker.com/r/bwsw/cloudstack-ui/

You can pull it with:

# docker pull bwsw/cloudstack-ui:1.0.7

The project changelog is here: https://github.com/bwsw/cloudstack-ui/wiki/Changelog

Deployment guide and project info can be found at GitHub pages: https://bwsw.github.io/cloudstack-ui/

Release 1.0.8 expectations

The main goal for the future 1.0.8 release is to review current code and fix errors found. Additional features and improvements will be added to the release backlog as low priority tasks.

Community Message

Dear community member, we will be thankful if you

• try the project and provide us with a feedback;
• share the information about the project and the release in social media;
• mark the GitHub repository with star to support the project;
• join LinkedIn group.