We’ve been diligently working on a significant upgrade to our OpenNebula Sunstone – the front-end solution that empowers you to manage your entire cloud infrastructure. We’re thrilled to introduce its new, more robust, and user-friendly incarnation, FireEdge Sunstone! 🚀

In this blog post, we will introduce the upcoming FireEdge Sunstone, while also showcasing the many customization options you can perform on this new interface. While technologies like thin servers, jQuery, and Handlebars have served us well in the past, they’ve gradually accumulated technological debt. This has prompted us to innovate and optimize the interface with the latest technologies and frameworks.

What’s new in FireEdge Sunstone?

The FireEdge server from OpenNebula delivers several applications, one of which is set to replace the current OpenNebula GUI, Sunstone. This introduces a next-generation web-management interface for remote OpenNebula Cluster provisioning (OneProvision GUI) and extended functionality for Sunstone. FireEdge, a dedicated daemon, is installed by default as part of the Single front-end Installation but can also be deployed independently on a different machine.

Built using React and Node.js, FireEdge Sunstone ensures a streamlined, efficient, and intuitive user experience. Moreover, to ensure stability and seamless performance, FireEdge is rigorously tested using Cypress for end-to-end integration testing.

Discover the status of all OpenNebula Resources at a glance

A key advantage of the refreshed FireEdge Sunstone interface lies in its dynamic state capabilities, courtesy of WebSockets. This feature displays the status of all OpenNebula resources. Be it monitoring virtual machines or managing users, all information is promptly updated, fostering efficient and proactive resource management. This ensures users can maintain a holistic understanding of their cloud environment at any moment.

New Stepper Dialogue

User experience is king in the new Sunstone design. We want the user to have as much context as possible when performing an operation. An example of this is the new dialogs based on steppers, where complex operations like creating a VM Template are separated into thematic steps that help in presenting the needed information that the user needs to provide in a comprehensive way. Steps in the dialog are dynamic and can be enabled/disabled depending on the input on previous steps.

Conclusion

The upgraded OpenNebula Sunstone marks a substantial leap from its predecessor, addressing numerous user concerns and providing a more user-centric experience. Powered by FireEdge, the platform is quicker, more reliable, and simplifies maintenance. Additionally, the personalization options available in the Sunstone settings tab enable users to adapt the platform to their specific needs, ensuring a truly tailored experience. We invite you to experience OpenNebula’s new graphical user interface and share your thoughts.