VMware Cloud Director is pleased to announce the General Availability of Object Storage Extension (OSE) 2.1, the most reliable software defined accoutrement to support S3 storage for Cloud Providers. It is available for download in VMware Customer Connect.
With OSE 2.1 beta, released in April 2021, we moved the development to a six-month release cycle and put our best foot forward for the General Availability of VMware Cloud Director Object Storage Extension. This release introduces a cavalcade of user-centric features to meet the growing demands of multi-tenanted VMware Cloud Director ecosystem.
From the extended interoperability features to the added support for Kubernetes Backup & Restore service, this release offers ample advanced features to manage unstructured data at scale. OSE 2.1 is taking user-centricity to another level by improving micro-engagements and functional touch points within OSE API & VCD UI interface for Cloud Providers and their tenant users.
OSE 2.1 has come to you full steam ahead! Let’s take a look.
What’s New in OSE 2.1
After release of OSE 2.0, we built a roadmap based on Cloud Providers’ critical feedback, priorities and expectations from VMware Cloud Director services. We set a goal to resolve interoperability challenges and addressed user experience pain-points. We understand what is imperative for our Cloud Providers therefore, we continued to double-down on these focus areas, to deliver a modern Object Storage solution and cater to the growing volumes of unstructured data.
Key Features
1. On- demand Backup & Restore for Kubernetes (K8s B&R)
Increasing demand for modern applications is a key reason for the growing dependency on Kubernetes (K8s), this will be the dominant paradigm for the next decade. Hence, the latest version of VMware Cloud Director Object Storage Extension has risen to the opportunity by offering a single instance of Kubernetes Backup & Restore (K8s B&R) within VMware Cloud Director. This feature is built-in with developers in mind as it endeavors to simplify DevOps, reduce operational overhead (i.e., no separate backup vendor is required to manage storage), reduce cost and complexities.
OSE now protects the persistent state of applications and makes backup data productive for accelerating Kubernetes application development. All this without any kernel dependencies, which is a huge departure from traditional systems that relied on operating systems to enforce protection. The K8s B&R feature leverages Velero to protect K8s clusters hence, there are no complex compatibility issues. Velero uses the S3 protocol to store the cluster backups, it can help protect data stored in persistent volumes and makes your entire Kubernetes cluster more resilient.
OSE is lightweight and highly suitable for multi-tenancy. Cloud Providers can offer multi-tenant K8s Backup & restore services within OSE to replicate, backup and restore native TKG, CSE Cluster & standalone K8s clusters managed by Container Service Extension 3.0. The seamless addition of K8s B&R service secures every K8s cluster and its objects by delivering end-to-end encryption – on the wire and at rest. Find out more
2. Access to Cloudian Storage Policies
Object Storage policies ensure the protection, distribution, and management of data across the organization. With a simple set of rules Cloud Providers can enable tenants to create and manage their own buckets & objects. Although VMware Cloud Director Object Storage Extension offers a default storage policy, the value add with 2.1 release is that it allows tenants who use Cloudian platform to create custom storage policy from within the OSE interface. This was a highly demanded feature by the Cloud Providers who are using Cloudian platform. Find out more.
3. Improved Bucket Synchronization and Listing of Objects
As we expand and optimize storage offerings to cater to requirements of multi-tenanted and multi-site users, the performance around multi-site bucket synchronization and object listing speed can’t be overlooked. To help improve efficiency and speed, OSE 2.1 made some noteworthy improvements. For multi-site tenants, buckets scattered in multiple locations can be synced together for a single view in VMware Cloud Director. Cloud Providers can also oversee the sync status for tenants. Similarly, the global bucket sync option can be turned on by system administrators to ensure that all multi-site tenant buckets are synced up, this feature is available on-demand and can also be scheduled. This makes the entire process efficient and streamlined. Find out more.
4. AWS S3 Archived Object Restoration
Amazon S3 requires each object to be associated with a storage class depending on the use cases. Within the four storage classes, object from Standard and Intelligent storage classes could be accessed at any time by the Cloud Providers and tenants. With this release, tenants can access objects from archived in Glacier and Glacier Deep storage classes. However, tenants must first enable the restore function for the object to become accessible. From an object availability perspective, this feature is a perfect addition to the overall OSE stack. Find out more.
5. Robust Role-based Access Control
The new features in OSE are purpose-built to provide various managemet features for multiple tenants. With custom role settings, Cloud Providers can assign access privileges to manage vApps, Catalogs, Kubernetes B&R to specific users. With the built-in pick list of ‘user rights’, Cloud Providers and Tenant Admins can quickly restrict or allow user from accessing and even seeing the available features. By finessing the experiences around multi-tenancy, Cloud Providers can reap the benefits from micromanaged features, and role-based access control which are key components for a robust enterprise management stack. Find out more.
6. Enhanced management features for VMware Cloud Director resources: vApps, VM, Catalogs
With previous releases of OSE, Cloud Providers and Tenant Admins had limited visibility over vApp import and export history. Moving forward, administrators on the provider’s and tenant’s side can get a detailed snapshot of the import & export history. There are some noticeable changes to the user interface. The addition of a navigator breadcrumb menu makes capturing and restoring vApps seamless to all the users residing in VCD, and users can run end-to-end vApp storage management in a flash. Find out more.
Reminder: Highlight from OSE 2.0 Release
Object Storage Interoperability Services (OSIS)
As we all know VMware Cloud Director Object Storage Extension is currently compatible with Dell ECS, Cloudian platforms and supports native s3. Due to the increasing demand from Cloud Providers, we introduced Object Storage Interoperability Services (OSIS) which offers a stack of interoperability services and an extensibility framework for Cloud Providers and storage vendors to integrate any third-party, S3 compliant object storage platform within VMware Cloud Director. The interoperability services offer a set of REST APIs and vendors can use OSIS stub, OSIS verifier, and Common Test Suites to understand specification, verify readiness, and test compatibility of the OSIS implementation. For Cloud Providers, OSIS offers a huge opportunity to partner up with third party vendors and expand their object storage offerings. With the OSIS framework, OSE has adopted a vendor agnostic approach with a view to integrate with a large variety of backend systems. OSIS integration criteria and verification process for third-party vendor is quick, simple and easy to implement due to its SDK-like framework.
The second key offering from OSIS is the fast-track integration with OSE for Ceph, we developed a specialised reference implementation project upon popular request. Ceph is a free open source S3 based storage platform ideal for cloud, Openstack, Kubernetes and other microservices, and container-based workloads therefore, Ceph is in high demand to address large data volume storage needs. The Ceph reference guideline highlights all the necessary steps for a quick configuration, API test, and modelling at no extra cost and resources. For more details on the OSIS framework, please visit our GitHub page.
Summary
VMware Cloud Director Object Storage should be the first storage choice for VMware Cloud Director Cloud Providers due to its interoperability, availability, scalability, compatibility and cost saving benefits. OSE 2.1 now has enriched compatibility with Kubernetes services which is a great asset to the developer ready stack in VCD. In addition, key improvements tailored around multi-tenancy and multi-site management interface and features makes OSE appealing for various tiers of user and use cases.
We’re delighted to announce the General Availability of VMware. Cloud Director Object Storage 2.1 for VMware Cloud Director. We hope that you’re happy with the new release. Please connect with us via our dedicated Slack channel and we’d be happy to respond to your queries and feedback.
If you are not a member yet then please email us for access to the VMware Cloud Provider slack channel.
Relevant Links
- Release Notes: VMware Cloud Director Object Storage (OSE) 2.1
- Upgrading to VMware Cloud Director Object Storage Extension 2.1
- Watch the quick demo of VMware Cloud Director Object Storage 2.1
- Download the OSE 2.1 Solution Overview
- Download a copy of the OSE 2.1 Reference Design Whitepaper
- Download a copy of the OSE 2.0 Reference Design Whitepaper
- Download a copy of the OSIS Development Guide
