Canonical readies Ubuntu 13.10 for faster cloud setup

LONDON, UK: Canonical announces that the next version of Ubuntu, code-named Saucy Salamander for server and cloud environments will be released on 17 October 2013.

"Ubuntu 13.10 delivers the latest and best version of OpenStack, and is the fastest, most flexible platform for scale-out computing. Ubuntu is typically used in very large scale deployments. In this release we've tuned the cloud deployment experience for very small clusters as well, to support dev-and-test environments," said Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Ubuntu and VP Products for Canonical.

This 13.10 release, which is  makes it possible to deploy a full OpenStack cloud on only five servers and offers a sophisticated landscape dashboard for the management of Ubuntu OpenStack clouds no matter their size.

In 13.10, Juju service orchestration tool from Canonical can instantly deploy an entire software environment or service as a "bundle" directly from the easy-to-use Juju GUI, improving on the previous deployment of individual components. This reduces complexity and enables administrators to share entire complex workloads consisting of many related parts.

Ubuntu leads the way with integration between OpenStack and VMware vSphere so ESXi users can interoperate with OpenStack. "The ability to deploy Ubuntu OpenStack alongside ESXi with orchestration that spans both properties is extremely valuable, bringing OpenStack right to the centre of common enterprise virtualization practice," said Shuttleworth.

13.10 introduces Juju management of LXC containers, which allow multiple services to run on the same physical or virtual machine. This gives sysadmins the option of greater density, reducing the total number of machines required to run a service, and reducing cost.

A new installer enables very rapid provisioning of thousands of nodes, typically five times faster than the best traditional Linux installation process. Ubuntu is uniquely suited to rapid provisioning and re-provisioning in large-scale data centers. The Ubuntu LXC update in 13.10 provides blindingly fast (less than one second) and efficient cloning of containers for faster scaling of containerized services, unique to Ubuntu.

Ubuntu's OpenStack distribution brings the famous "Ubuntu Just Works" usability to complex cloud deployment; clouds are simple to design, deploy and scale for private or public purposes. Ubuntu 13.10 includes Havana, the latest version of OpenStack, with new and updated tools such as Ceilometer for metering and monitoring, and Heat for auto-scaling.

Havana is also available to customers on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS thanks to the 12.04 Cloud Archive, from Canonical. LTS users can get access to the latest Ubuntu OpenStack release, tools and features while continuing to enjoy the stability and maintenance commitment that backs our current LTS.