KubeVirt, LXD, KVM, vSphere, G8 and LDAP/AD updates in Mist v4.3

Today we are proud to announce Mist v4.3, the latest release of the Mist Cloud Management Platform.

Mist v4.3 brings brand new support for LDAP, Active Directory, KubeVirt, LXD and GiG G8. For VMware users, Mist v4.3 supports vSphere v7.0, VNC console access, Content Libraries and more storage options. KVM support has been enhanced and you can now create simple private clouds by grouping together your KVM hosts. Finally, we are rolling out custom pricing policies. For example, you are now able to define a cost for your VMware instances running on private metal.

We will go over all these updates in more detail below.

Manage KubeVirt, LXD and G8

Mist add cloud dialog

In Mist v4.3 you can now manage KubeVirt, LXD and G8 alongside public & private clouds, hypervisors, Docker and bare metal servers. All these from a single pane of glass and with all the tools to implement self-service workflows in a controlled way. With these additions, Mist currently supports 20 different infrastructure platforms.

For those of you who are not familiar with KubeVirt, LXD or G8:

  • KubeVirt blurs the boundaries between containers and VMs. It allows you to run VM-based workloads inside Kubernetes clusters and treat them like containers. This is very helpful when you need to run VMs, alongside containers, without going through a full migration. Check out our documentation here on how to get started with KubeVirt in Mist.
  • LXD is an open source technology for Linux Containers (LXC) that predates Docker. Like Docker, with LXD you are able to build and deploy lightweight images that boot up in seconds. Unlike Docker, LXD has a more robust security model. Containers can run in rootless mode which is still experimental in Docker. Network and storage stacks are not shared between LXD containers. This gets you closer to a standalone OS and makes LXD ideal as a migration target for traditional VM workloads. Check out our documentation here on how to get started with LXD in Mist.
  • GiG G8 is a private cloud platform. G8 allows you to deploy nodes on premises, edge and/or public locations while getting a uniform experience across all. Check out our documentation here on how to get started with G8 in Mist.

KVM cloud

Mist v4.3 allows you to create KVM clouds by grouping together your KVM hosts. You are able to provision, list and send actions to your guests. This is ideal for users who want to reduce licensing costs, e.g. when compared to vSphere, while keeping complexity low, e.g. when compared to OpenStack.

In terms of other new features and enhancements:

  • You can now connect to guests over a VNC console through Mist's web interface.
  • You have access to more metadata regarding VMs and hosts.
  • You can assign Virtual Network Functions when provisioning machines, leveraging SR-IOV when available.

Authentication with LDAP and Active Directory

Users of Mist Enterprise Edition, can now authenticate with LDAP and Active Directory. Both options increase the overall security of your organization as you can centrally manage user access.

In the case of Active Directory, Mist will check the user who is trying to log in and see to which AD group he belongs. If the user's group exists in Mist as a team, the user will be allowed to log in. He will then be able to perform only the actions that allowed to his Mist team.

New features for vSphere

With Mist v4.3 our goal is to offer a user-friendly alternative to native management tools. Specifically one that is ideal for hybrid and multicloud setups. In this context, our latest release:

  • Widens support for vSphere versions v4.0 up to v7.0.
  • Allows you to provision VMs using content libraries.
  • Gives you the option to choose datastores and folders when provisioning VMs.
  • You can access your VMs using a VNC console through Mist.

Pricing policies

Users of Mist's Enterprise Edition, can now define custom pricing policies for any cloud they manage. For example, you can set a price per CPU, GB of RAM and GB of disk for all your VMware machines. Pricing policies can also be applied on public clouds, e.g. if you'd like to mark up/down your cost. Finally, you can define what's your policy when a machine is turned off. Do you still charge for it or not and how much?

These options bring a lot of flexibility to MSPs who want to resell infrastructure, as well as enterprises looking to implement a fine-grained chargeback policy.

This feature is still under heavy development and we would love to hear your thoughts. Please reach out to demo@mist.io to arrange a demo.

Other updates in Mist v4.3

Besides the above, Mist v4.3 includes several fixes and improvements. Most notably:

  • Add process pool option to update machines in parallel and avoid unnecessary db updates.
  • Support listing and selecting security group on machine creation for AWS
  • Show more info about DigitalOcean sizes, like in DigitalOcean's portal.
  • Update AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and Packet cost estimations.

Conclusion

Mist v4.3 focuses on integrations with KubeVirt, LXD, G8, LDAP and Active Directory. It also brings major improvements for KVM and vSphere. Finally, it introduces pricing policies, fixes several bugs and improves the web UI.

For a guided tour of the Mist platform, please reach out to demo@mist.io and one of our engineers will give you an overview.

If you'd like to try out for yourselves, sign up for a Mist Hosted Service account and begin your 14-day free trial.

Community Edition users can get the latest version and relevant instructions on GitHub.