Support Life Cycles for OpenNebula Environments

In addition to the standard StorPool Storage services included with each license, StorPool provides support for two products in OpenNebula environments connected to StorPool storage systems:

  1. Fully-Managed OpenNebula Cloud - optional service covering the design, deployment, maintenance, upgrading, and continuous improvement of an entire OpenNebula environment. This service is purchased by companies who prefer having a single point of contact for all the technology in their public or private cloud infrastructure. It covers a wide range of technologies in addition to StorPool Storage - the OpenNebula Enterprise Edition (OpenNebula EE), virtualization, virtual networking, compute host OS, and the physical network.

  2. StorPool Storage add-on for OpenNebula - standard service included in each StorPool Storage license.

This article defines the support life cycle provided by StorPool for these products, aligned with the OpenNebula EE Life Cycle. For more information about the scope of each service, please get in touch at info@storpool.com.

Fully-Managed OpenNebula Cloud (FMOC)

StorPool provides this optional service for clouds built using OpenNebula Enterprise Edition (OpenNebula EE), KVM, CentOS 7+, and StorPool Storage. Restrictions apply to the cloud architecture and features. As an OpenNebula Solution Provider, StorPool provides access to OpenNebula EE software and escalation of issues and feature requests to OpenNebula Systems. Customers do not need to buy additional OpenNebula EE licenses or services in addition to FMOC.

Under FMOC, StorPool provides level 1 and level 2 support, and OpenNebula Systems provides level 3 support. StorPool can not support OpenNebula EE versions that are EOL. Therefore, the FMOC support life cycle depends on the OpenNebula EE Life Cycle.

StorPool provides FMOC with the following versions of OpenNebula EE:

  • LTS versions that are in Mainstream, Maintenance, and Extended support (5.12 or newer as of June 2021).

  • STS versions in Mainstream support, only on explicit customer request. Customers running an STS version must upgrade to the next STS or LTS version as soon as it becomes available, or they will lose support. STS releases serve as proving grounds for new capabilities. They are not recommended for general purpose use unless the customer is compelled to adopt the new major features included in the release.

StorPool considers the first three months of a new LTS release a transitory period. During this period, StorPool thoroughly tests the latest LTS version and monitors the community and other industry sources to ensure the continued reliability of customers’ clouds post-upgrade. During the transitory period, customers should ideally use the previous LTS version, which is still in Extended support.

After the transitory period passes, StorPool shall upgrade all LTS-version clouds managed under FMOC to the current LTS version in Mainstream support within the previous LTS version’s Extended Support - a six-month window after the transitory period.

StorPool supports each LTS version through its entire support life cycle from the initial release until the end of the Extended Support period defined by OpenNebula Systems (27 months).

StorPool add-on for OpenNebula (add-on)

The StorPool add-on for OpenNebula is open-source software developed and maintained by StorPool. It enables the easy connection of StorPool storage systems to OpenNebula environments. StorPool customers can use the add-on with OpenNebula Community Edition (OpenNebula CE) and OpenNebula Enterprise Edition (OpenNebula EE), without FMOC or other paid subscription.

All new features and fixes are made in the latest version of the add-on. Customers are required to update the add-on to the newest version.

As part of the support package for StorPool Storage, StorPool provides support for the add-on to customers using StorPool Storage with the following versions of OpenNebula:

  • OpenNebula EE - All versions that are in Mainstream Support, Maintenance Support, or Extended Support.

  • OpenNebula CE - versions of OpenNebula CE matching the supported EE versions listed above and available as binary packages on opennebula.io.

  • Older CE versions - last three major CE versions, including the current one (e.g., if the current CE is 6.0, the supported versions are 5.10, 5.12 CE, 6.0 CE).

  • Versions not listed above but explicitly agreed with the customer.

The add-on is not supported for the OpenNebula versions that:

  • OpenNebula EE versions that are EOL.

  • CE versions older than the last three CE versions, including the current one.

  • CE versions that are not available as binary packages on opennebula.io.

  • OpenNebula builds from a modified by third-party source code.

Customers running unsupported versions of OpenNebula can receive paid support services for the add-on charged as professional service on an hourly basis.

OpenNebula CE and EE release and support cycles are described in the OpenNebula Release Policy and the OpenNebula EE Life Cycle.