The document outlines the upcoming CloudStack 4.19 release, detailing its key features such as object storage support, KVM ingestion, and OAuth2 authentication, targeted for Q3/Q4 2023. It provides a recap of the previous 4.18 release, highlights the development process, and mentions new concepts for VPCs and VM migration from VMware to KVM. The discussion also touches on community goals for releases and the importance of user feedback and contributions.

1. What’s coming in CloudStack 4.19
Abhishek Kumar @ CloudStack India User Group 2023

2. About me - Abhishek Kumar
● Committer @ Apache CloudStack project
● Been involved with the project for nearly 5 years
now
● Volunteered to RM 4.19 release. In past, I’ve
been involved with 4.17.1, 4.15.1, 4.14.1 as RM
or co-RM.
● Software Engineer @ ShapeBlue
● In my free time I try to be regular at gym. I like
spending time taking care of my house plants.

3. Agenda
● CloudStack LTS releases; recent and upcoming releases
● 4.19.0.0 release
○ Timeline
● Key features and improvements
○ Object storage support
○ KVM ingestion
○ CAPC aware CKS
○ OAuth2 authentication
○ …
● Q & A, feedback

4. CloudStack LTS
releases
● Community aspires to do two
major release per year
● 1-2 minor or dot releases
depending on the issues
reported and bug fixes
● Current LTS release - 4.18.0.0.
Released in March 2023
● Other recent releases - 4.17.2.0,
4.17.1.0
● Upcoming releases - 4.18.1.0,
4.19.0.0

5. Quick recap of 4.18.0.0 release
Initial 4.18 LTS release with 300+ new features, improvements
and bug fixes since 4.17, including 19 major new features. Some
of the highlights include:
● Edge Zones
● Autoscaling
● Managed User Data
● Two-Factor Authentication Framework; Support for
Time-based OTP (TOTP) Authenticator
● Volume Encryption
● SDN Integration – Tungsten Fabric
● Ceph Multi Monitor Support
● API-Driven Console Access
List goes on…

6. 4.19.0.0 release
● Targeted for Q3/Q4 2023
● Focuses on adding
exciting new features and
functionalities
● Will incorporate fixes
from 4.18.1.0 and may
include few additional
fixes
Timeline
● (8 plus weeks) Ongoing – Mid October 2023:
Accept all bugs, issues, improvements
allowed in LTS
● (1 week) Stabilise the main (or 4.19) branch,
accept only critical/blocker issues (if any)
● End October 2023 and onwards: Cut 4.19.0.0
RC1 and further RCs if necessary,
start/conclude vote, and finish release work

7. Some key features #

8. Object storage
feature ● Object storage as a first-class end user
feature in CloudStack.
● Adds MinIO plugin (and simulator) as
provider
● Open PR:
https://github.com/apache/cloudstack/pul
l/7752
● Provides a generic framework using which
support for other providers can be added
● Has the potential to replace or act as a
secondary storage in the future

9. KVM Ingestion
● Continues with VM Ingestion
functionality first introduced in
CloudStack 4.14
● Will allow migrating KVM
workload from other tools such
as Proxmox, oVirt, etc
● Would make CloudStack
onboarding easier.
● Related work already on-going
as a GSoC project - Extend
export/import instances to
KVM

10. CAPC aware
CKS
● Makes CKS aware of Kubernetes cluster
deployed using CAPC
● Brings in the concept of unmanaged k8s
clusters. Introduces new APIs
● CAPI provider logs the
creation/update/removal of a clusters in
CloudStack
● Part of the feature already merged in
CloudStack codebase,
https://github.com/apache/cloudstack/p
ull/7515; a new CloudStack Go SDK
release would be needed.

11. New functionalities and concepts for VPCs
● Concept of domain VPCs
● VPC can be managed by a domain
● PR has already been merged,
https://github.com/apache/cloudstack/pull/7153
● Global ACL for VPCs
● Multiple VPCs can have same ACL rule
● Open PR,
https://github.com/apache/cloudstack/pull/7515

12. VM and disk
migration from
VMware to KVM
● Add capability in CloudStack to
convert VMware Instances
disk(s) to KVM using virt-v2v.
● Can be done from a VMware
VM that is in CloudStack to a
new KVM cluster
● UI wizard for admin

13. Low Touch VNF
Appliance Integration ● Currently in order to deploy a VNF appliances
end-users need to create at least 3 networks
(north, south and management) and then
attach the relevant networks to the VM
● Introduction of a new Appliance deployment
wizard where end-users can select 3 networks
when deploying the VNF VM appliance
● Service providers can offer VNF appliances to
their end users.

14. Snapshot copy and
destination selection
Copy volume snapshots to specific zones
or create snapshots with replica in select
zones
● CloudStack can do
DR-as-a-service, by keeping
backup of volume snapshots
across multiple zones (and
secondary storages).
○ User wants more than one replica of
their data disk
○ User wants to move a disk snapshot
to another zone in order to re-deploy
the same VM in that zone
● Copy across zones will work
similar to templates
● Open PR,
https://github.com/apache/cloud
stack/pull/7873

15. OAuth2 feature
● CloudStack currently support native, LDAP
and SAML based authentication
● New OAuth2 plugin which is UI-first and
can perform Single-Sign-On (SSO) with
3-party identity providers such as Google,
Facebook, Github etc and allows admins to
manage the users/accounts.
● One of the GSoC project last year,
https://github.com/apache/cloudstack/pul
l/6713

16. Other
improvements
and changes
● VM actions scheduler
● Safe shutdown
● Improvements in userdata
functionality
● Dashboard re-design for users
and domain admins
● Granular storage management
● Hypervisor agnostic simple DRS
● Ant Design upgrade
● Logging library changes
● Auto enable-disable KVM hosts
● Improvements in Backup &
Recovery frameworks
Currently over 70 closed and
over 200 open items in the
milestone

17. Discuss
Q & A, feedback…
https://download.cloudstack.org/testing/nightly/