[BlueOnyx:27138] Aventurin{e} 6110R has been released

[Michael Stauber]

Hi all,

Some of you might already know it, but since March I've been working on 
a total overhaul of BlueOnyx's sister project:

Aventurin{e}:
=============

Aventurin{e} is even two years older than BlueOnyx, as it was started in 
2006. From Aventurin{e} 6102R up to Aventurin{e} 6109R we used OpenVZ as 
virtualization manager to provide Container based virtualization for 
Linux OS's. Mostly for running BlueOnyx VPS's. But other Linux 
distributions were also possible.

With the slow and steady demise of the OpenVZ project it was time to 
move on to something else as virtualization manager. After a lengthy 
evaluation of the few available options and consulting with some of our 
commercial power users we chose Incus.

Incus is a split off from the LXD project and was started last year 
after Canonical (the IP owner) decided to doctor the license terms in an 
unfavorable fashion. The developers of LXD then forked the sources and 
began the Incus project. It took roughly until March this year until 
Incus had reached a stage where the kinks were ironed out and it began 
to come together nicely.

That's when the development of Aventurin{e} 6110R was initiated in earnest.

In the last couple of months we rolled it all up, tested it, ironed out 
the kinks and (on our end) it is now in productive usage. Today is the 
general release of Aventurin{e} 6110R to the public.


How to get Aventurin{e} 6110R:
==============================

It is no longer shipped as a separate ISO image. Instead it is available 
as PKG via NewLinQ and can be installed onto a new or existing BlueOnyx 
5211R server.

Detailed installation instructions can be found here:

https://www.aventurin.net/index.php?page=installation-instructions

Aventurin{e} 6110R is closed source as far as the GUI goes, but 
available free of charge from the BlueOnyx shop. The free (demo) version 
is available in the following Bundles if linked against a BlueOnyx 5211R:

- All Packages Bundle
- BlueOnyx Professional Bundle
- BlueOnyx Enterprise Bundle
- Free Bundle

The 5211R-Aventurine.pkg (once installed) will allow you to create and 
manage a single Incus instance (Container) via the GUI. After all: That 
is a demo version. You may use it as long as you please. That is: As 
long as you honor the license terms.


Commercial Aventurin{e} 6110R license:
=======================================

If you decide Aventurin{e} 6110R is to your liking and want to unlock 
all features and ability to manage up to 1024 Incus instances? Then you 
can purchase the Aventurin License PKG in the BlueOnyx Shop:

https://shop.blueonyx.it/aventurine/aventurine-6110r.html

Once you install that on top of the free version of Aventurin{e} it will 
unlock all features.


Included features:
===================

- Create and manage containerized Linux instances via Incus:

Lots and lots of different Linux distributions are included in different 
versions. Including all the popular ones. And yes: Images for BlueOnyx 
5211R and BlueOnyx 5210R are also available (maintained by us).

Want to run a BlueOnyx on a BlueOnyx? Now you can! Up to 1024 in fact.

- Easy Management:

Aventurin{e} 6110R extends the BlueOnyx 5211R GUI with extra management 
pages to manage the most common Incus configuration options. For that it 
uses the Incus API, which makes the GUI fluid, responsive and fast.

- Backups and Snapshots:

Incus provides features for backups. Both full backups and snapshots. 
Via the Aventurin{e} GUI the creation of backups and snapshots can be 
triggered and even scheduled to happen at specific times. And backups 
and snapshots can also be restored via the GUI.

- Instance and Network security:

Under OpenVZ we have since 2006 enjoyed unparalleled container isolation 
and network security. We didn't have to worry that a malicious VPS 
client would sniff other clients network traffic or that he could wreak 
havoc inside the network. It has taken quite a while for other 
virtualization engines to catch up to that and we feel that LXC and 
Incus are finally there, too. The Aventurin{e} GUI makes sure that 
Container instances are by default configured with all the options to 
make them as secure as possible. You *can* relax that (at your own 
risk!), but we wouldn't recommend it.


Migration path:
================

Yes: You can migrate from a physical or virtualized server into an Incus 
instance. The documentation of that procedure will be made available on 
www.aventurin.net in the following days. The basic procedure is outlined 
in the Incus documentation:

https://linuxcontainers.org/incus/docs/main/howto/import_machines_to_instances/#import-machines-to-instances

But we will provide a more custom tailored and hands-on documentation 
for this in the following days.

However: If you are an existing Aventurin{e} 6109R user it might be more 
practical to fire up a new 5211R instance on a 6110R and then use 
Easy-Migrate to get all the benefits that BlueOnyx 5211R offers. 5211R 
has much more life left in it than 5210R and code wise 5210R is still 
burdened with provisions for OpenVZ 7, which are absent in 5211R. So 
5211R does indeed run a bit better inside Incus than 5210R.

BlueOnyx 5209R (it is EOL anyway) cannot be run on Aventurin{e} 6110R, 
as Incus uses CGroupsV2 and OS's as old as CentOS 7 only support 
CGroupsV1. So that is another candidate that needs to be migrated with 
Easy-Migrate.


More information:
==================

More information and plenty of screen shots are available on the 
Aventurin{e} Webpage: https://www.aventurin.net/

Existing Aventurin{e} users can get a 35% discount on new Aventurin{e} 
6110R licenses.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask and we hope you enjoy our 
latest addition to the available software pool.

-- 
With best regards

Michael Stauber