February 3rd, 2014. The OpenNebula team is pleased to announce a beta release of AppMarket 2.0. This release includes important features that are a direct result of feedback from production deployments.

This release extends the AppMarket functionality by adding a new set of features that enables the management and processing of OVA files. A new component AppMarket Worker is introduced, which handles the OVA package treatment (download, unpack, OVF parsing) and image format conversion. This release also features a new API and a new AppMarket interface via Sunstone.

What’s New in AppMarket 2.0 Beta

In the following list you can check the highlights of AppMarket 2.0 Beta:

AppMarket

• Multi-image Appliances: AppMarket Appliances can now have multiple disks, which creates new possibilities to upload and register more complex and feature complete Appliances.
• Sunstone Import: users will be able to import registered Appliances to OpenNebula via Sunstone by using pre-filled Image and Template creation forms.
• Sunstone Views: two new Sunstone views: an AppMarket *admin* view, that allows full control of the AppMarket, and a *user* view, that allows end users to import registered appliances.

AppMarket Worker

A new horizontally-scalable component that subscribes to the AppMarket and executes jobs. It enhances the AppMarket functionality by adding:

• OVA processing: If a URL to an OVA package is supplied, the AppMarket will be able completely process it and integrate it to its repository. This involves: downloading and unpacking of the OVA package, parsing of the OVF file and creating a corresponding OpenNebula template.
• Format conversion: appliances registered in a specific format, can be converted to a new format.
• Extensibility: All the operations described above are implemented within the framework of an extensible driver engine, which allows further customization and integration by the administrators.

These new features will be only available interacting with AppMarket from an OpenNebula 4.6 deployment. If you want to test them before OpenNebula 4.6 is released, you can use the master branch of OpenNebula.

Acknowledgements

The new features introduced in the AppMarket 2.0 were funded by Produban in the context of the Fund a Feature Program.