StarlingX, the open source edge computing and IoT cloud platform optimized for low-latency and high-performance applications that combines open source projects including Ceph, OpenStack, and Kubernetes, is available in its 4.0 release today. Among many new integrations, StarlingX 4.0 increases security in edge environments by supporting Kata Containers as a container runtime and adding Active Directory integration for Kubernetes APIs for enhanced authentication.

Download StarlingX 4.0 at git.starlingx.io/starlingx

Headline Features of StarlingX 4.0

To further support the low-latency and distributed cloud requirements of edge computing and industrial IoT use cases, the community prioritized these features in StarlingX 4.0:

• Support for Kata Containers as a container runtime-StarlingX can be configured to use Kata Containers as a container runtime which increases security in the environment
• Integration of the Ussuri version of OpenStack-moving to the latest OpenStack release
• Containerization of the remaining platform services-it is a continuous effort to containerize all the platform services which requires multiple release cycles to complete
• Active Directory integration for Kubernetes APIs-for enhanced authentication methods in the platform while still supporting service accounts for the use case
• TSN support in Kata Containers-to support real-time applications that is important in areas such as industrial or automotive use cases
• Cert Manager Integration-to provide automation to handle certificates in the platform
• Redfish virtual media support-to support board management functions (power on/off, reset, network boot, etc) with increased security
• Layered Build-it creates build layers which allows to build only a subset of the platform that got modified, for instance updating only the StarlingX Flock services

Learn more about these and other features of StarlingX 4.0 in a blog post by Ildiko Vancsa, OpenStack Foundation ecosystem technical lead, as well as the community's release notes.

Open Source Community Drives StarlingX Progress

The OpenStack Foundation (OSF) Board of Directors recently announced that former pilot project StarlingX had been confirmed as a top-level Open Infrastructure Project supported by the OSF. Confirmation by the OSF conveys recognition of a project's success in meeting the goals of the pilot process and a commitment from the OSF to continue supporting the project.

Since the StarlingX project launched in 2018, there have been 7,717 commits from 216 authors. Today's 4.0 release adds 1,531 commits from 84 developers. The StarlingX community is actively collaborating with several other groups such as the OSF Edge Computing Group, ONAP, Akraino and more.

After initial code for the project was contributed by Wind River and Intel, the active community of support for StarlingX has expanded to include 99Cloud, FiberHome, Intel, the OpenStack Foundation, China UnionPay and Wind River, among others. China UnionPay, China Unicom and T-Systems have become early adopters of the software.