Kubernetes and VictoriaMetrics in Mist v4.6

We are happy to announce the release of Mist Cloud Management Platform v4.6!

Mist v4.6 introduces first class support for Kubernetes and Red Hat OpenShift clusters. There is also initial support, available only from Mist's API, for managed clusters in Google Cloud (GKE) and AWS (EKS).

On the monitoring side, Mist v4.6 brings integration with VictoriaMetrics. You can now choose to store your metrics either there or in InfluxDB.

In the web UI, the biggest addition is a tree view. This is ideal for visualizing machines with some hierarchical relationship, e.g. Kubernetes nodes > pods > containers.

Finally, there are several updates to supported clouds. The biggest addition is support for VEXXHOST, a public cloud with a 100% OpenStack compatible API.

Kubernetes support

The biggest new feature in Mist v4.6 is the introduction of first class support for Kubernetes clusters. You can now view your nodes, pods and containers across any number of Kubernetes and OpenShift clusters. In preview mode, and only from Mist's API, you can do the same with managed clusters in Google Cloud (GKE) and AWS (EKS).

Our work on this front has just started and future releases will bring additional features and supported flavors. Our end goal is to give you a unified control panel for cloud native, virtualized and bare metal infrastructure.

To get started with Kubernetes in Mist, check out our docs.

VictoriaMetrics integration

Another major new feature in Mist v4.6 is the integration with VictoriaMetrics. VictoriaMetrics is an open source time series database which is ideal for high performance scenarios. It is easy to scale horizontally, clusters are included in the open source version, and runs nicely in Kubernetes clusters thanks to an operator.

Mist's existing integration with InfluxDB is still the default. VictoriaMetrics is just an additional option. Our objective is to give you the freedom to choose the right tool for the job.

To try out VictoriaMetrics, in a fresh Mist installation, edit your settings.py and set DEFAULT_MONITORING_METHOD = "telegraf-victoriametrics". Then restart Mist with docker-compose restart.

Tree view

With the introduction of Kubernetes support we felt that flat listings of machines in the web UI were not enough. Mist v4.6 includes a tree view to better visualize hierarchical relationships between machines, e.g. Kubernetes nodes > pods > containers.

Changes in supported clouds

First of all, Mist v4.6 brings brand new support for VEXXHOST. VEXXHOST provides OpenStack-based public and private cloud solutions. Their APIs are 100% compatible with the community version of OpenStack. This proved extremely helpful for our testing. We can now run our OpenStack test suite using our account on VEXXHOST's public cloud and don't have to maintain additional environments.

The second biggest update is support for Vultr's API v2. We contributed all the relevant work to the latest version of Apache Libcloud.

In terms of minor updates:

• In OpenStack, you can choose a security group during the machine creation step.
• In Alibaba Cloud, there is now support for networks.

Behind the scenes

Mist schedules and runs a lot of asynchronous tasks in the background, e.g. polls clouds for changes in your inventory, performs long running operations etc. Over time, this critical part of our stack has gone through several iterations to ensure maximum performance and stability.

In Mist v4.6 we are replacing Celery with Dramatiq and Celery Beat with APScheduler. Although these changes are deep in the core of Mist, you will notice faster response times and more linear performance, especially when managing large fleets of infrastructure.

Finally, Mist v4.6 includes our latest work on Mist's API v2. You can check out the docs here. Our new CLI which leverages API v2 is also moving forward. You can get its latest version from Github. Some features are still missing both from the CLI and API v2 but they are rather stable and ready to use. Their stable versions will be out with the next Mist release.

Conclusion

We are very excited about Mist v4.6 and the major new features it brings, specifically Kubernetes support and VictoriaMetrics integration. We hope you enjoy it as well!

For a quick demo of the Mist platform, you can book a call with me.

If you'd like to try it 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 from Mist's GitHub repository.