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VCL 2.3

VCL 2.3 was release on July 20th, 2012

Table of Contents

Please make sure to download VCL from a mirror server. The following link will automatically select one for you that should be close to you. After downloading it make sure you verify it with MD5 or SHA1 sums AND the GPG signature (sums and signature files should be downloaded directly from Apache, not from mirrors).

Download ASF VCL 2.3 GPG Signature MD5 Sum SHA1 Sum VCL KEYS file

  1. Verify the MD5 sum (output should be "apache-VCL-2.3.tar.bz2: OK"): {tip} md5sum -c apache-VCL-2.3.tar.bz2.md5
  2. Verify the SHA1 sum (output should be "apache-VCL-2.3.tar.bz2: OK"): {tip} sha1sum -c apache-VCL-2.3.tar.bz2.sha1
  3. Verify the GPG signature (you'll need to have GnuPG installed):

  4. download and import the VCL KEYS file (if you've imported the KEYS file

    for previously releases, you do not need to import it again): {tip} gpg --import KEYS

  5. download the GPG Signature to the same location as the release file

  6. from the directory containing both the release file and the GPG

    signature, run {tip} gpg --verify apache-VCL-2.3.tar.bz2.asc
  7. For new installs, visit the on-line installation guide .
  8. For upgrades, visit the on-line guide for your installed version (you can find your version number after the Apache license header in vcl/index.php in the web code - i.e. "ASF VCL 2.2.1"):

Release Notes

I. Intro and Description

VCL, Virtual Computing Lab. The VCL can be many things, first and foremost it is an open-source system used to dynamically provision and broker remote access to a dedicated compute environment for an end-user. The provisioned computers are typically housed in a data center and may be physical blade servers, traditional rack mounted servers, or virtual machines. VCL can also broker access to standalone machines such as a lab computers on a university campus.

One of the primary goals of VCL is to deliver a dedicated compute environment to a user for a limited time through a web interface. This compute environment can range from something as simple as a virtual machine running productivity software to a machine room blade running high end software (i.e. a CAD, GIS, statistical package or an Enterprise level application) to a cluster of interconnected physical (bare metal) compute nodes.

Also using the scheduling API it can be used to automate the provisioning of servers in a server farm or HPC cluster.

The release supports provisioning compute nodes using xCAT 1.3 and 2.x VMware Server 1.x and 2.x VMware ESX 3.5 VMware ESXi 4.x and 5.x VMware vCenter KVM * Virtual Box

II. VCL Roadmap

VCL 2.3 (this release) Service deployments Allow for additional connect methods for environments (port, other protocols, etc) Added framework support for libvirt Added support for KVM Added support for OS X under ESX Added support for VMware VCenter * Added multilingualization to frontend

VCL 2.4 Improve additional connect methods NAT support Remove requirement for 2 NICs Support for Spice remote display protocol Scripted installation Support for ESX OS for end users * Initial support for EC2 API and OpenStack

VCL 2.5 Power management Improve cluster reservations Service deployment configuration management Initial support for Libcloud

VCL 2.6 * develop tools for managing both system and user storage

With each release, we'll be working toward making VCL easier to install. As part of our move to development at the Apache Software Foundation, it is an obvious goal to create a community of users and more developers around VCL. Bringing in more developers should become easier as VCL becomes easier to install.

III. Getting Involved in the ASF VCL Community

There are five ways to become involved in the ASF VCL community.

IV. How to Submit Bugs and Feature Requests

If you find a bug, please submit a bug report to our JIRA bug tracking system at http://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL (you will need to set up an account there if you haven't already done so - it's free to anyone). Also, we would appreciate it if you mentioned that you filed a bug on the vcl-dev list to make sure we don't miss it.

If you would like to requrest a new feature, you can also submit that in the same way through JIRA (just select "New Feature" or "Improvement" as the Issue Type). Again, it would be helpful if you mentioned that you filed a feature request on the vcl-dev list.

After you have created a JIRA issue, you have the option to vote on it to help us know how to prioritize issues. You can also "watch" the issue to see when activity related to it is submitted.

Change Log

Release Notes - VCL - Version 2.3

Sub-task

Bug

Improvement

New Feature

Task