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Table of Contents

Download links

Please make sure to download VCL from an mirror server. The following link will automatically select one for you that should be close to you. After downloading it make sure you verify it with MD5 or SHA1 sums AND the GPG signature (sums and signature files should be downloaded directly from Apache, not from mirrors).

Download ASF VCL 2.1 (not available yet)
GPG Signature (not available yet)
MD5 Sum (not available yet)
SHA1 Sum (not available yet)
VCL KEYS file

Run the following command to verify the MD5 sum. You should get the same number that is in apache-VCL-2.1-incubating.tar.bz2.md5:
md5sum apache-VCL-2.1-incubating.tar.bz2

Similarly, Run the following command to verify the SHA1 sum. You should get the same number that is in apache-VCL-2.1-incubating.tar.bz2.sha1:
sha1sum apache-VCL-2.1-incubating.tar.bz2

To verify the GPG signature (you'll need to have GnuPG installed):

1. download and import the VCL KEYS file:
   gpg --import KEYS
2. download the GPG Signature to the same location as the release file
3. from the directory containing both the release file and the GPG signature, run
   gpg --verify apache-VCL-2.1-incubating.tar.bz2.asc

Release Notes

I. Intro and Description

VCL, Virtual Computing Lab. The VCL can be many things, first and foremost it is an open-source system used to dynamically provision and broker remote access to a dedicated compute environment for an end-user. The provisioned computers are typically housed in a data center and may be physical blade servers, traditional rack mounted servers, or virtual machines. VCL can also broker access to standalone machines such as a lab computers on a university campus.

One of the primary goals of VCL is to deliver a dedicated compute environment to a user for a limited time through a web interface. This compute environment can range from something as simple as a virtual machine running productivity software to a machine room blade running high end software (i.e. a CAD, GIS, statistical package or an Enterprise level application) to a cluster of interconnected physical (bare metal) compute nodes.

Also using the scheduling API it can be used to automate the provisioning of servers in a server farm or HPC cluster.

II. VCL Roadmap

VCL 2.1 (this release)

• completed modularization of vcld
• xCAT 2.1 support
• Shibboleth authentication
• VMWare management via VMWare toolkit
• ESXi with thin provisioning on a NetApp

VCL 2.2

• power management
• support for xCAT 2.2
• improve cluster reservations
• improve block reservations

VCL 2.3

• improve hypervisor support
  • dynamic provisioning of host servers
  • VMWare Free Server 2.0
  • possibly XEN or KVM

VCL 2.4

• develop tools for managing both system and user storage

With each release, we'll be working toward making VCL easier to install. As part of our move to development at the Apache Software Foundation, it is an obvious goal to create a community of users and more developers around VCL. Bringing in more developers should become easier as VCL becomes easier to install.

III. Getting Involved in the ASF VCL Community

There are five ways to become involved in the ASF VCL community.

• Join the mailing lists and participate in discussion. There are two mailing lists: vcl-user@incubator.apache.org
  vcl-dev@incubator.apache.org
  To join vcl-user, send an empty message to
  vcl-user-subscribe@incubator.apache.org. To join vcl-dev, send an empty
  message to vcl-dev-subscribe@incubator.apache.org.

• Submit bug reports and feature requests to our JIRA bug tracking system. See section IV below for more information on doing this.

• Create documentation on our Confluence site. Create an account at http://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/VCL/Index and just start adding content. (Note to current community: We should create a page explaining the layout so new people will know where to add content better.)

• Submit patches through the vcl-dev mailing list and via the JIRA bug tracking system. Once you have become familiar with VCL, you can begin assisting with the development of it by picking a JIRA issue to fix or by adding a feature needed at your site. Then, contribute a patch of your changes through the JIRA tracking system and send a message to the vcl-dev list explaining what you have done.

• Become an official committer to the project. Once you have shown that you have a good grasp of the project by submitting patches, you can further join the development work by submitting a contributor license agreement (CLA) to ASF and having a committer account created to directly contribute code to the project.

IV. How to Submit Bugs and Feature Requests

If you find a bug, please submit a bug report to our JIRA bug tracking system at http://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL (you will need to set up an account there if you haven't already done so - it's free to anyone). Also, we would appreciate it if you mentioned that you filed a bug on the vcl-dev list to make sure we don't miss it.

If you would like to requrest a new feature, you can also submit that in the same way through JIRA (just select "New Feature" or "Improvement" as the Issue Type). Again, it would be helpful if you mentioned that you filed a feature
request on the vcl-dev list.

After you have created a JIRA issue, you have the option to vote on it to help us know how to prioritize issues. You can also "watch" the issue to see when activity related to it is submitted.

Change Log

Sub-task

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-67|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-67]\] - Allow OS, provisioning engine, and other module objects to access each other

Bug

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-14|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-14]\] - xCAT.pm's capture_monitor output always displays "attempt 1/80"

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-26|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-26]\] - get_reservation_remote_ip subroutine redefined warning

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-34|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-34]\] - When adding computers, missing requirement for the provisioning module

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-51|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-51]\] - user groups that have a name that is a number cause problems on the privilege page

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-54|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-54]\] - disable LDAP referrals for all LDAP connections to handle firewalls

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-55|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-55]\] - processBulkComputerInput in computers.php not always setting startpripaddress, endpripaddress, startmac

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-61|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-61]\] - blockrequest and the reload state

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-62|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-62]\] - Calls to \_rpower in Windows.pm cause reservation processes to die

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-64|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-64]\] - EmptyRecycleBin.exe utility causes problems during image capture

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-69|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-69]\] - Unknown column 'af.shibonly' in 'field list'

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-71|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-71]\] - Reservation processes being killed unexpectedly

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-73|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-73]\] - new.pm::computer_not_being_used hangs occasionally

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-74|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-74]\] - Reservation may fail if user's UID value is null

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-75|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-75]\] - Bug in Perl 5.8.0 causes exit status to be reported incorrectly

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-76|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-76]\] - form tags outside of td tags on Edit Image Profiles page

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-79|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-79]\] - error in how the end time for schedule times is computed

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-81|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-81]\] - Image retrieval does not verify if it was successful

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-85|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-85]\] - watchInFlight error appears if image description contains special characters

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-88|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-88]\] - vclreload account assumed to match the default affiliation

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-90|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-90]\] - Image reservation for sub-image with "nousercheckout" flag set

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-91|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-91]\] - edit reservation allows saving/updaing image for cluster reservations

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-96|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-96]\] - < and > in user's passwords not handled properly

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-101|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-101]\] - forimaging flag causes wrong user when imaging linux in reserved.pm

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-103|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-103]\] - vclreload account has invalid curiculumid

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-108|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-108]\] - apostrophe in image name causes AJAX updates to privilege page to break

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-109|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-109]\] - viewing requests from timetable not using continuations

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-111|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-111]\] - missing default values for vmtype table

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-119|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-119]\] - Reservations insert log.ending = EOR when they shouldn't

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-126|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-126]\] - get_new_dbh() doesn't return correct value if different database is specified

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-129|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-129]\] - LockerWrtUser doesn't work with usernames containing underscores

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-131|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-131]\] - utils getdynamicaddress routine - bad regex

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-136|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-136]\] - missing perlpackage for id 6 in module table

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-143|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-143]\] - need to drop allowing new reservations to take priority over reload reservations

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-151|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-151]\] - apostrophe in last name can cause an error when adding user to database

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-166|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-166]\] - Windows firewall subs not catching "Object already exists" in netsh.exe output

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-167|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-167]\] - run_ssh_command not catching host key differs warning messages

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-172|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-172]\] - xCAT21.pm - xcat database is locked at dbdimp.c error

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-186|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-186]\] - Windows images losing default gateway

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-187|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-187]\] - Ubuntu.pm - not completed

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-191|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-191]\] - path changes in vshpere SDK vmware perl toolkit

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-207|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-207]\] - Predictive reload modules not accounting for machines in block computers table

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-213|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-213]\] - Bug in retrieve_image sub in vmware.pm and xCAT.pm calls next instead of return

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-218|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-218]\] - vmware.pm may delete image being captured by cleanup process

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-226|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-226]\] - Windows reboot fails - processing another action error

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-238|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-238]\] - Linux.pm pre-capture routine not shuting down OS

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-240|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-240]\] - utils.pm - insert_reload_request

Improvement

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-3|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-3]\] - clean up database

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-6|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-6]\] - update healthcheck.pl to use modularized code

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-15|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-15]\] - modify blockrequest module to use frontend API for scheduling

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-20|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-20]\] - Configuration of sshd port for image retrieval

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-23|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-23]\] - Modularize Windows OS code

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-63|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-63]\] - Remove critical notification if image is configured with a user group containing 0 members

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-65|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-65]\] - Remove pagefile from all drives during image capture

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-72|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-72]\] - die and warning signals are not handled by the backend code

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-84|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-84]\] - Prevent users from starting create image until computer is in inuse state

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-105|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-105]\] - an image cannot have itself as a subimage

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-106|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-106]\] - mail notifications notify routine

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-107|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-107]\] - User email notifications

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-110|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-110]\] - 2 second deley in vcld may cause problems with imaging

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-112|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-112]\] - Provide access to image affiliation data via DataStructure.pm

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-115|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-115]\] - allow user groups with the same name but different affiliations

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-118|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-118]\] - Add delay to run_ssh_command() & run_scp_command() retry attempts

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-120|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-120]\] - Add subroutine to set IE's runonce registry keys so user isn't presented with it

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-124|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-124]\] - locally affiliated users need a way to change their password

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-128|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-128]\] - Update reclaim.pm

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-132|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-132]\] - vcld check_time

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-156|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-156]\] - insert current_image.txt file on kickstart based nodes

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-157|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-157]\] - Add support for xCAT 2.1 partimage format

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-173|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-173]\] - add power_off,power_on,power_reset,power_status routines to xCAT21 module

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-175|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-175]\] - Set virtual switch 0 from database value for VMware GSX

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-176|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-176]\] - Prevent vmware.pm from looping 15 times before checking ssh during load

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-177|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-177]\] - Remove Windows OS post-load configuration tasks from vmware.pm

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-183|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-183]\] - DataStructure.pm contains duplicate subroutines: get_computer_private_ip and get_computer_private_ip_address

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-184|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-184]\] - Update database schema for 2.1 release

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-185|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-185]\] - Modularize Linux OS Code

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-188|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-188]\] - Document Windows tools dependencies

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-190|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-190]\] - Add time configuration and synchronization commands to Windows post_load

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-205|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-205]\] - allow esx provisioing module to set MAC addresses

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-212|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-212]\] - Add code to set SysprepStatus registry keys for Windows 6

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-217|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-217]\] - xcat modules - Throttle control

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-228|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-228]\] - Windows image capture fails to delete user profiles because file is open

New Feature

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-1|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-1]\] - xCAT 2.0 module

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-4|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-4]\] - add support for Shibboleth authentication

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-7|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-7]\] - modify healthcheck.pl to monitor vms

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-18|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-18]\] - allow dynamic change of predictive loading module

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-19|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-19]\] - add configuration of v2 fields for management nodes

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-21|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-21]\] - add check for existance of image libraries

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-29|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-29]\] - author an ESX and ESX 3i provisioning module (using netboot)

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-33|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-33]\] - add user group management to XML RPC API

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-78|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-78]\] - API for backend to allocate computers for block reservations via the frontend

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-123|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-123]\] - add Ubuntu Support using the new OS Module framework

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-209|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-209]\] - create a page that will test for required php modules and correct configuration

Task

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-70|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-70]\] - Create a basic helloworld.pm provisioning module

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-95|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-95]\] - Set Subversion properties for files in repository

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-135|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-135]\] - remove all references to ncsu

• Wiki Markup
  \[[VCL-198|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VCL-198]\] - Release tasks