Ubuntu Server 12.04 LTS: certified, available and ready for the hyperscale world

Ubuntu Server 12.04 LTS: certified, available and ready for the hyperscale world

Available for download now, Ubuntu Server 12.04 LTS combines the Essex release of OpenStack cloud infrastructure and Canonical's new Metal as a Service provisioning tool in a proven, certified server platform, with support guaranteed until 2017.

Canonical today announced the availability of Ubuntu Server 12.04 LTS, the first enterprise Linux distribution to include OpenStack for deploying a private cloud. Ubuntu LTS releases meet the requirements for long-term deployments: widespread certification, enterprise security, audit compliance and support for new hardware during the lifespan of the platform.

This is the fourth long-term release of Ubuntu Server on Canonical's standard two-year release cycle. Users of 12.04 LTS will receive maintenance and security fixes until 2017. Canonical is unique in providing institutions with a predictable, long-term planning process for enterprise Linux releases.

“Ubuntu Server 12.04 LTS brings together leading cloud, deployment and service orchestration technologies into a stable platform that will be supported on the most popular hardware in the long term” says Jane Silber, CEO of Canonical. “As institutions move to private cloud for new infrastructure, this release has everything required to become a mainstay of the enterprise computing environment.”

Ubuntu Server 12.04 LTS is the reference platform for the OpenStack project. That's why the combination of Ubuntu and OpenStack has become the platform of choice for businesses building private cloud infrastructure. Canonical has also worked with OpenStack contributors to offer certified, supported configurations for creating hybrid clouds – solutions spanning both the private and public cloud. In a special extension to the standard LTS policy, future OpenStack releases will be made available for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, guaranteeing a stable base for cloud pilots in the years to come.

Mark Collier, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at Rackspace, says “It's great news for OpenStack users that Canonical has committed to support not only the Essex release, but future OpenStack releases, in Ubuntu Server 12.04 LTS. It will be reassuring for enterprises to know they can standardize on this LTS release, while still having access to the latest OpenStack releases including Folsom and beyond.”

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS introduces Metal as a Service (MAAS) to bring the flexibility of cloud computing to physical server provisioning. MAAS handles deployment of workloads onto bare metal as if it were a cloud – spinning up physical machines on demand and recycling them for use with different workloads later. MAAS is particularly appropriate for complex infrastructure projects such as big data and cloud deployment, in which Ubuntu is already widely used.

Landscape, the management tool available with Canonical's service package, Ubuntu Advantage, will extend MAAS in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. This will provide dynamic allocation of workloads based on the capabilities of each server, plus even greater control over large-scale deployments.

Alongside Ubuntu 12.04, Canonical has delivered an updated version of Juju, the time-saving service orchestration tool. With devops best practice encapsulated in re-usable charms, Juju can be used to deploy complex services like Hadoop, Cassandra and Jenkins onto a workstation with exactly the same configuration as private or public cloud environments. It can even deploy on bare metal.

Juju gives developers an iteration-friendly way to build applications, while their ops colleagues need only worry about allocating the resource necessary to scale the service. With the most popular services already charmed, it is the key repository of services for open cloud computing and the fastest way to begin the deployment process.

“Customers deploying next-generation scale-out solutions require a secure, high-performance platform that can support demanding workloads,” said Scott Farrand, vice president, Infrastructure Software and Blades, HP. “Ubuntu 12.04 LTS operating system on HP ProLiant servers offers the scalability and flexibility to manage big data, cloud and hyperscale applications.”

In this release, Ubuntu enhances its reputation for hardware enablement with support for the latest Intel servers. And with an ARM version of the OS now available, it is prepared for a future in which low-energy, hyperscale servers come to dominate for many workloads.

Tom Lantzsch, executive vice president, corporate development, ARM explained: “ARM welcomes the availability of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS as the first enterprise Linux distribution for ARM technology-based servers. This marks a critical ecosystem milestone on the path to highly efficient hyperscale web, cloud and big data infrastructure enabled by forthcoming ARM powered servers.”

For enterprise and government deployments, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS delivers the full range of open source benefits in a certified platform. Canonical offers assurance and support on a commercial basis, and enables the deployment of Ubuntu in environments where compliance, auditing and certification are required. For details of government certification of Ubuntu, audit and regulatory compliance and IP assurance, please see the Ubuntu Advantage subscription service from Canonical.

• To download Ubuntu Server, Ubuntu Cloud or Ubuntu Server for ARM, go to www.ubuntu.com/download/server
• To learn more about Ubuntu Cloud and OpenStack deployments, come to a special one-day event on 8 May http://uds.ubuntu.com/cloud-summit/
• To learn more about Ubuntu Server, go to www.ubuntu.com/business/server/overview
• To learn about Canonical services, go to www.ubuntu.com/business/services
• For a list of hardware certified for Ubuntu Server, go to www.ubuntu.com/certification