LINBIT CloudStack HCI Appliance launch

Release Announcements
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I am excited to announce the launch of a new LINBIT offering: the LINBIT CloudStack HCI Appliance.

As someone who has set up CloudStack before by using instructions within Apache CloudStack documentation, I can speak to how it was a complex and sometimes intimidating endeavor… and took me a while.

With this appliance offering, LINBIT developers have created a solution that installs a ready-made CloudStack deployment, integrated with LINBIT software for SDS, HA, and DR capabilities for CloudStack primary and secondary storage.

You can evaluate this solution by using a freely downloadable ISO installation image that you can find on the LINBIT website. The installation program will guide you through deployment and setup steps. You can also learn more about the system requirements and follow an installation guide within this LINBIT blog article.

If you are new to CloudStack, or new to LINSTOR integrated with CloudStack, this is a great way to start exploring. The appliance will have you up and running quickly.

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This seems really cool, however it’s fairly unclear if there’s a licensing requirement. Can this be used without support free of charge or is there a time limit?

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There is no licensing requirement or charge to download and use the HCI Appliance. However, the open download link on the LINBIT website will likely be a frozen-in-time version that will not receive updates. LINBIT intends to make support subscriptions for the appliance available in the coming weeks which will give a subscriber access to product support and software updates.

If you are interested in that, reach out to the LINBIT team for more details.

All that said, if you are only interested in checking out CloudStack or experiencing its integration with LINSTOR and other LINBIT software, this is a great way to get an environment up and running, without any obligation or significant investment in installation time. After a download, you can have the appliance up and running on three VMs, for example, in about 20-30 minutes.

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Oh ok makes sense I assume since it’s just cloudstack on top of Alma linux I could learn to update it manually.

I’m interested in it for both home lab and possibley as a replacement for vmware for my employer’s lab environment.

When I get some time I’ll do a poc for both purposes and if I like what I see I’ll reach out for info about support on the business side.

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Any writeup on how to install with 3 ethernet interface, one for Mgmt, VM and another one for Storage sync between server clusters…?

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No write-up at the moment for installing with multiple NICs. Will check with the team in the background here. Thanks for the idea.