OpenSAF Announces Availability of Release 4.2 High Availability Middleware

BEAVERTON, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

OpenSAF™, an open source community with projects focused on high availability (HA) middleware, today announced the public availability of Release 4.2 of its HA middleware platform. OpenSAF Release 4.2 implements all major functions of the Service Availability™ Forum (SA Forum) Application Interface Specifications (AIS) and features several enhancements from Release 4.1, which focus on improved manageability, enhanced availability modeling, the ability to support root and non-root environments for flexible system design and increased testability for both OpenSAF developers and users.

“With Release 4.2, OpenSAF continues to improve the general usability, performance and scalability of its open source, SA Forum-based middleware implementation for creating highly available systems,” said Hans Feldt, co-chair of the OpenSAF technical leadership council. “This new release addresses HA community feedback and demonstrates continued progress in the OpenSAF ecosystem.”

Release 4.2 offers the following technical enhancements:

• Improved manageability through Information Model Management (IMM) enhancements in the following areas:
  • Multiple appliers simplify distribution of configuration changes throughout distributed parts of an application
  • Enhancements for administrative operations that enable additional data to be carried, providing more information when, for example, an error occurs, or when a configuration change is rejected
  • CCB Augmentation is a new feature resembling nested transactions. It can be used to abstract and mediate between a high level system model seen by an operator and the detailed model of an application
• Enhancements to the Availability Management Framework (AMF) to provide increased functionality and flexibility:
  • Improved support for modeling of application dependencies. Failures in one application are automatically recognized and acted on in related dependent applications
  • Integration with the new IMM enhancements
  • Support for the AMF B.04 API, which represents the latest iteration of the SA Forum AIS specification
• OpenSAF processes execute as non-root, improving system security
• Python language bindings for the SA Forum AIS services to enable rapid development of test environments for OpenSAF developers and users

OpenSAF has stayed active in the HA middleware community over the past year, hosting two successful industry events. The 2011 OpenSAF Conference, which took place in Boston in May and the 2011 European Symposium, held in Stockholm, Sweden in September drew participation from experts, architects and academics in the open source, HA middleware community. OpenSAF plans to highlight Release 4.2 features and improvements at upcoming industry events sponsored by the Linux Foundation.

Supporting Resources

• To learn more about OpenSAF visit: www.opensaf.org
• To download the latest OpenSAF software releases: http://devel.opensaf.org/wiki/downloads
• To view information on upcoming OpenSAF events: http://opensaf.org/Events~183123~14944.htm

About OpenSAF

The OpenSAF™ Project is an open source project focused on Service Availability (SA) that goes beyond High Availability (HA) requirements. The OpenSAF middleware platform is consistent with the Service Availability™ Forum (SA Forum) specifications. The goal of the OpenSAF project is to develop middleware based on open and industry standard interfaces for applications requiring uninterrupted 24x7 service. OpenSAF is actively supported by leading companies in the communications and enterprise computing industries and is focused on becoming the premier SA solution for commercial products and converged applications for all markets. The OpenSAF code is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License, version 2.1 (LGPL v2.1). Anyone may participate in the OpenSAF Project by downloading the code and contributing to the development project. More information about the OpenSAF Foundation is available at www.opensaf.org. OpenSAF™ is a trademark of the OpenSAF Foundation.*All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.