Introducing Mirantis Cloud Platform (MCP) Spring 2018 Release
Shaun O'Meara - May 17, 2018
Here at Mirantis we're proud to announce the latest release of Mirantis Cloud Platform (MCP). Specifically, we've added improvements to all three tiers of MCP, the DriveTrain continuous delivery layer, the cloud platform itself, which includes Kubernetes and OpenStack Pike, and the monitoring layer and its StackLight components.
One of the thorniest problems when it comes to Day 2 cloud operations is that of upgrades. This release of MCP includes enhancements to the upgrade and rollback pipeline, including:
In addition, DriveTrain now integrates more tightly with the enterprise ecosystem by enabling you to configure Keystone and system hosts to use an external LDAP system.
DriveTrain
Perhaps the greatest number of new features in this release are part of DriveTrain, the Continuous Delivery layer of MCP.One of the thorniest problems when it comes to Day 2 cloud operations is that of upgrades. This release of MCP includes enhancements to the upgrade and rollback pipeline, including:
- The ability to save time and eliminate errors by performing an automated upgrade of MCP components to a specific release version
- Support for rollback of MCP components so that you can upgrade with confidence that you can easily recover should something go wrong
- A more structured and automated experience when upgrading cloud platforms, so you can easily upgrade OpenStack and Kubernetes
In addition, DriveTrain now integrates more tightly with the enterprise ecosystem by enabling you to configure Keystone and system hosts to use an external LDAP system.
OpenStack
Mirantis Cloud Platform's OpenStack component also gets a significant number of improvements in this release. Most significantly, OpenStack Pike has been added as a fully supported release, which brings with it:- Keystone V3 support, providing MCP customers advanced identity capabilities such as namespacing for users and projects as a higher-level container for more flexible identity management
- Added enhancements to OpenStack projects, including Nova Scheduler optimisations, Cinder live volume extension, and more
- Support for OpenStack Telemetry projects: Aodh, Ceilometer, Panko and Gnocchi, providing customers with a telemetry solution that can be used for AutoScaling and billing metrics
- Support for NFS services using Manila as a fully supported MCP component
- Neutron BGP VPN Interconnection service support, for connectivity from OpenStack VMs to a BGP VPN Interconnection service
- Support for L2 Gateway plugin, enabling bridging of VLAN based physical networks with OpenStack virtual networks
- Full support for the OpenDayLight ML2 plugin
- Increased security with TLS support for all MCP endpoints, including RabbitMQ and MySQL, ensuring more secure communication between users and the API endpoints
Kubernetes
Mirantis Cloud Platform is more than just OpenStack. It also includes Kubernetes, and in addition to adding support for the v1.8.11-9 release of Kubernetes itself, this release also updates Virtlet support to version 1.0.0, enabling users to manage VMs as first class citizens of Kubernetes using familiar tools and APIs.StackLight
Finally, the StackLight monitoring component has added Fluentd service for log aggregation and analysis, providing modernized, dynamic support for logging. It also includes added support for Prometheus long term storage, removing a dependency on InfluxDB (along with corresponding license cost implications for HA).Where to get more information
Have we piqued your interest? You can find out more about this release via the release notes, or check out the MCP Reference Architecture or the MCP Deployment Guide.Want a deeper understanding?
Check out our technical training and certification programs for OpenStack, Kubernetes and Mirantis Cloud Platform.
