StackIQ, makers of the Warehouse-grade automation platform for large-scale server infrastructures, today announced the release of Stacki 3. Initially introduced this past June, Stacki is the world's fastest and easiest-to-use Linux server provisioning tool. Stacki 3 delivers new capabilities that simplify the automation and integration of site-specific requirements. StackIQ is the commercial entity behind this open source bare metal provisioning tool.

In conjunction with this release of Stacki, the StackIQ product line has been refocused around Stacki and ease of growth. The open source version of Stacki has received new features, while the high-end StackIQ Boss has been re-worked to be 100% compatible with Stacki installations and is re-branded Stacki Enterprise. We are also proud to announce the availability of Stacki Pro, a workgroup-level supported version of Stacki that will allow a smaller team to get the benefits of Stacki with support and advanced features. Users can easily choose which product meets their needs today, and change easily between products within the family as their requirements grow.

Customers both large and small have used the Stacki family of products to automate their server provisioning, Big Data and Cloud installations. With this re-organization of the product line, StackIQ now offers support and services for the open source project's core OS provisioning and infrastructure management (Stacki Pro) and for full-stack automation (Stacki Enterprise). Customers of all size (Web-Scale, Fortune-100, and mid-market) are driving Pallet development both on their own and with StackIQ's engineering team for a wide variety of Container, Cloud, and Big Data platforms.

Stacki Editions

With today's release, the StackIQ product family is now based upon the Stacki open source project. For comparative information about Stacki Editions, see the Stacki Feature Chart.

What's New in Stacki 3

Stacki Boxes

With the release of Stacki 3, Distributions -- server configuration sets -- are replaced by Boxes. Stacki Boxes allow for greater flexibility in defining what RPMS are available for Stacki-installed servers and offer users greater flexibility in designing their datacenter installations without building and rebuilding monolithic distributions.

LVM Parallel Format

With this release, customers using LVM will get the same hyperscale level of parallel formatting that is available to other hard drive schemes. This means faster installations in LVM environments.

USB-based Install

The Stacki front end now supports USB flash drive installation, giving users another option to set up Stacki. With this addition, Stacki supports front-end installation from DVD, virtual DVD, or USB flash drive.

"Our continued growth shows that Stacki is meeting the needs of data center engineers," states Tim McIntire, CEO and Co-Founder, StackIQ. "Stacki 3 streamlines that experience with the re-orientation of our product line-up around the Stacki project. Now users will find it easier to select what they need today, and upgrade as-needed in the future. In particular, current Stacki users will be pleased by the Stacki Pro platform that will offer them the support enterprises require, with the familiarity of Stacki at their fingertips."

Well over a million Linux server nodes are under management by Stacki, and its open source sibling the Rocks Cluster Distribution (Stacki includes software developed by the Rocks Cluster Group at the San Diego Supercomputer Center at the University of California, San Diego, and its contributors).

Stacki is an open source software project. Contributions, questions, and comments are encouraged by and for the community. End users and developers are invited to visit the resources below for information and to download Stacki for immediate use.