Red Hat Virtualization 4.1 is LIVE!

Today marks another milestone in the evolution of our flagship virtualization platform, Red Hat Virtualization (RHV), as we announce the release of version 4.1. There are well over 165 new features, and while I don't have the space to cover all of the new features, I would like to highlight some of them, especially in the area of integration. But first I'd like to put that integration into perspective.

Virtualization remains foundational and firmly rooted in the modern data center. Whether a particular application is better suited for “scale up” or virtualization simply fits the business and technology model for a given data center, virtualization as an infrastructure platform is not going away anytime soon.

However, this doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t keep pace with and integrate with newer technology.  To that end, here are some of the integration highlights and updates for Red Hat Virtualization 4.1:

• Red Hat CloudForms - CloudForms is a hybrid management platform that provides single pane-of-glass management, automation, orchestration, chargeback, compliance, and security policies across virtualization (Red Hat, Microsoft, VMware), private cloud (Red Hat OpenStack Platform), and public cloud (AWS, Azure, etc). The updated integrations with RHV 4.1 allow virtual machines to scale up then back down again on demand, manage live snapshots for backup/recovery, and balance workloads across clusters - all automated from CloudForms.
• Red Hat OpenStack Platform - RHOSP is the leader in Infrastructure-as-a-Service. RHV 4.1 continues to integrate with the OpenStack Glance image service and Neutron network service in order ease transitioning workloads to the cloud or support applications that span both RHV and RHOSP. Sharing the Glance image service allows both RHV and RHOSP to use the same core images, streamlining operations and saving storage. The Neutron service provides software defined networking to RHV. The updates to RHV 4.1 include the ability for RHOSP director to deploy a standalone Neutron server to the Red Hat Virtualization Manager host, providing tighter network integration.
• Ansible by Red Hat - Ansible is an IT automation engine designed to simplify multi-tier deployments. It supports multiple platforms and vendors including Red Hat, Cisco, Microsoft, and many others. RHV 4.1 includes Ansible 4.1 modules to automate the configuration of compute, network, and storage resources within the RHV environment. The result of this completely new integration is significantly streamlined operations that free up administrators and engineers to focus on more strategic initiatives.

The updates that I've highlighted here clearly have cross-portfolio integration within Red Hat, but the impact of these integrations with Red Hat Virtualization for customers is far wider. These integrations pave the way for streamlined operations, increased productivity, and ultimately more modern applications. If you're already using RHV, I encourage you to update; if you're not a RHV customer I encourage you to try the 60 day evaluation.

For more on Red Hat Virtualization, see the technology page or the 60 day evaluation.

Hope this helps,

Jon Benedict / Captain KVM