Advanced Computing in the Age of AI | Thursday, March 28, 2024

OCP Tackles ‘Big Software’ Compatibility Issues 

The Open Compute Project spearheaded by Facebook continues to wring out "big software" platforms such as the latest release of OpenStack, container orchestrators like Kubernetes along with block and other big data storage approaches running on environments ranging from containers to hybrid clouds.

Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) used an OCP technology day this week to announce the opening of a new hardware laboratory in Menlo Park, Calif., to validate and certify enterprise-grade platforms such as the latest distributions of OpenStack Mitaka, which was released in April and designed to help scale clouds based on the open-source platform.

Facebook, Rackspace (NYSE: RAX) and Intel Corp.) NASDAQ: INTC) formed the OCP Foundation in 2011 to push open source hardware development in datacenters. One goal is ensuring compatibility with open-source cloud tools and platforms like OpenStack.

Facebook said in a blog post this week that leading open-source vendors Canonical and Red Hat were among the first to validate their infrastructure software on open hardware components, including dual-socket Leopard servers, Honey Badger storage platforms and Knox JBODs, or "just a bunch of drives" The validation tests were designed to spot "compatibility challenges," Facebook said.

Separately this week, Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) released its OpenStack Platform 9 based on the Mitaka release. The cloud platform integrates Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2 along with Ceph Storage 2 and the company's CloudForms tool for managing hybrid clouds.

"We continue to add capabilities to meet the production requirements of enterprises rolling our private clouds and service providers deploying" network functions virtualization, Radhesh Balakrishnan, Red Hat's OpenStack general manager, noted in a statement.

Along with CloudForms, Red Hat this week tested its Gluster storage and its Ansible DevOps and IT automation tool on the OCP open hardware platforms.

Meanwhile, Canonical validated its service-modeling application called Juju used to configure and manage OpenStack, Kubernetes and big data software running in containers or on bare metal or public and privates clouds. It also tested a "metal-as-a-service" offering designed to automate datacenter servers and networks.

Canonical describes Juju as capable of installing "big software" that includes OpenStack, Kubernetes and other platforms with complex service architectures. It operates at the "service level," allowing services to run independent of the underlying infrastructure.

The company also said the combination of Juju and its metal-as-a-service, or MAAS, could help speed the deployment or redeployment of workloads such as Hadoop to bare metal as readily as deploying them in the cloud.

Along with OpenStack Mikata, Canonical also said it deployed its Ubuntu storage platform on OCP hardware.

Facebook noted that the compatibility testing addresses skeptics who remain unconvinced that commercial software could run on customized open hardware. "The community needs a systematic way to know whether the hardware and software they planned to use would be compatible — since they likely weren't developed in tandem or by the same company for a similar workload," noted Facebook's Michael Liberte.

About the author: George Leopold

George Leopold has written about science and technology for more than 30 years, focusing on electronics and aerospace technology. He previously served as executive editor of Electronic Engineering Times. Leopold is the author of "Calculated Risk: The Supersonic Life and Times of Gus Grissom" (Purdue University Press, 2016).

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