The oVirt project’s second official release, version 3.1, ships with a set of storage, interface, and infrastructure enhancements that narrow the gaps between the open source virtualization platform and proprietary alternatives.

oVirt 3.1 adds support for capturing and cloning from live snapshots, for virtual disk and network adapter hot plugging, and for connecting externally-hosted LUNs to oVirt virtual machines. The oVirt 3.1 web administration console also includes new interfaces for managing floating virtual disks and for configuring Gluster storage volumes.

In the 3.1 release, Red Hat Directory Server and IBM Tivoli Directory Server join IPA and Active Directory as supported identity providers, which administrators may pair with initial support for user-based resource quota capabilities.

One of the enhancements mentioned in the release notes includes a new "all-in-one" installation mode which allows a single machine to run as the management engine and act as a visualization host. This is ideal for the "proof-of-concept" phase of a project. Other changes include the addition of an identifier to allow events to be tracked throughout the system during debugging, support for mounting any POSIX compliant filesystem, the ability to re-import a virtual machine and the addition of a new Python SDK and CLI. 

For more information on oVirt 3.1, including installation instructions, please refer to the release notes at http://wiki.ovirt.org/wiki/OVirt_3.1_release_notes .

The new release is available for download at http://www.ovirt.org/get-ovirt/