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Version 3.3.0 now adds support for PHP 8

The latest release of the LXD dashboard, version 3.3.0 now adds support for PHP version 8. This new release has been tested with the upcoming release of Ubuntu 22.04. It is also backwards compatible with PHP version 7, which is found on the previous LTS release.

In addition to the changes for PHP 8, improved handling of the external port in remote hosts, a bug fix for curl based variables, and also reporting “N/A” when listing storage pools without a data size.

The docker setup for version 3.3.0 will continue to use Ubuntu 20.04 as its base setup.

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Version 3.1.0 Release

A new version of LXD Dashboard has just been released. This version focused on performance improvements to the web application. Also, labels for storage and memory unit size have been updated to correct values, changing from MB to MiB, etc.

The page load performance when viewing a single container or virtual machine page received the greatest improvement. Pages will now only load content based on the current tab selected within the page. When exporting a backup from the LXD server to the LXD Dashboard, a PHP process is now called to run in the background to handle this action. Previously exporting a backup would cause the page to stall on loading new pages until the export was finished.

The curl connection timeout has also been adjusted to from a 3 second timeout to a 1 second timeout when waiting for a GET request from the LXD server. This improves the page response when attempting to connect to an LXD server that may not longer be available. Page content refreshes now schedule a refresh only after a previous refresh completes rather than on a set schedule

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Version 3.0.0 Release

A new major release of the LXD Dashboard has just been released. There are a lot of changes to this release adding many more options to help manage LXD servers.

In this release the management of both container and virtual machines instances has been separated into two different pages. This has many added benefits to managing instances as containers and virtual machines use several different configuration properties. Also, users of legacy LXD versions (3.0.3) can now use the LXD Dashboard to manage their containers.

A new image catalog has been added to make it quick and easy to download LXD images. Users can still use the form to download images not listed in the catalog. This makes it simple to download either containers or virtual machines of your favorite Linux distributions.

Remote LXD hosts now have an option for an external IP address and port. This will provide the web socket connection a different address than what the LXD Dashboard uses to communicate to the server. If no external address and port are provided the web socket connection uses the default address and port.

Users can now manage the client.crt certificate that LXD uses to connect to LXD servers. This can be found in the settings page. If a user deletes the existing certificate, a new one will automatically be populated. This allows users to remove expired certificates as well as now changing the certificate used if the LXD Dashboard is cloned.

Both containers and virtual machines now display the CPU usage when viewing the specific instance.

Changes to the theme have added a fresh look with slightly darker pages.

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Version 2.3.0 Release

Version 2.3.0 has just been released and adds a few new features as well as a minor bug fix.

Creating networks and Storage Volumes on clustered hosts require a subset of the configuration be passed to each cluster member before creating the object. In the prior release this functionality was added to the web form, in this release it has now been added when submitting a network or storage volume through JSON code.

If you had collapsed the sidebar menu in the previous versions, it would revert back to the original expanded state on page reloads or when clicking to a new page. Using web browser local storage, the state of the sidebar is now saved retaining the setting through page loads or clicking new pages within the dashboard.

When configuring the memory or CPU options in the the web form of an instance, some options were specific to only container or virtual-machine type instances. These settings have now been disabled depending on which instance type is loaded. This makes it easier for the user to know which settings do not apply to their instance. Also in the back-end PHP code, the processing of these configuration parameters has been restricted based on which type of instance submitted the configuration changes. In the previous release the lack of this code prevented virtual-machine types to update using the web form.

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Version 2.2.0 Release

Version 2.2.0 continues adding configuration options using forms in the dashboard focusing this time on Storage Pools, Storage Volumes, and Projects. Added functionality for Network configurations in clustered LXD environments has also been added.

Storage Pools

A large set up configurations options have been added to the web form for creating new storage pools. Each type of storage pool (btrfs, ceph, cephfs, dir, lvm, and zfs) all have their own unique set of configuration properties that change when selecting the pool type. Support for storage pools on clustered LXD hosts has also been configured

Storage Volumes

When click on a storage pool, the default list of storage volumes is now filtered by default to show custom type storage volumes. There is a quick link to show all volumes types removing the filter. Configuration options for storage volumes has also been added to the web form when creating a new storage volume.

Projects

Support for creating projects using both the a web form or JSON has been added. The web form now includes a large set of configuration properties that allow for greater customization of projects. The list of projects also now includes whether the project features networks in addition to the existing featured options.

Networks

Support for creating networks in clustered LXD hosts has been added.

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Version 2.1.0 Released – Extending Network, Network ACL and Instance Device form options and adding Exec terminal.

Version 2.1.0 is an exciting release that makes it easier to configure LXD servers in many areas. This release has focused on providing enhanced networking options and instance device options. Version 2.1.0 also adds the Exec terminal, offering both Console and Exec interactions with instances. A new “check for updates” button also has been added to ensure your version of the dashboard is up-to-date.

Instance Devices

With this release a user now has the ability to add several device types to an instance configuration file using a web form. These device types include network devices, disk devices, and proxy devices.

The user can choose between using network or nictype property sets for the network device. Each option provides the appropriate configuration properties and hints to guide the user in configuring these properties. Using the network property set, users can add bridge, macvlan, ovn, and sriov network devices to the instance. The nictype property set provides options for bridged, ipvlan, macvlan, p2p, physical, routed, and sriov network devices.

Full property options have also been included for both disk devices and proxy devices. Users can now add and remove devices on their instance without having to directly edit the JSON configuration.

Instance Exec

The console connection has provided a way to interact with instances directly from an xterm interface in the dashboard. Similar to the console connection, the exec connection provides a direct connection to interact with an instance without having to login through the console screen. A user can also choose between using a bash or sh shell. Users with the ADMIN or OPERATOR role assigned will be able to take advantage of this option.

Network

The web form for creating networks has been enhanced to include the configuration options for bridge, macvlan, ovn, physical, and sriov networks. Users can choose to expand the additional configuration properties to aid in setting up more complex networks. Options will populate based on which network type is selected.

Network ACLs

Users have already had the ability to create Network ACLs, but no users an configure both ingress and egress rules for a Network ACL using a web form. After creating a Network ACL, the user can click on the Egress/Ingress rules for that ACL and add or remove rules. This makes it easy to configure complex rule sets and we as simple rule sets.

Users can now check for updates directly from within the LXD Dashboard. A new “Check for updates” button has been added to the About menu. When clicked the dashboard will reach out to GitHub and compare the latest release version with the installed version. A small message will be displayed indicating if a newer version is available.

Form hints

To keep the user interface consistent, user hints have been added to all the forms within the dashboard. Hints also indicate required or non-required fields when creating items in LXD.

Next release

One of the major focuses of the next release will be to continue adding configuration properties to the web forms in the dashboard. Expect to see enhancements in the Storage Pool and Storage Volume forms.

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Version 2.0.0 Released – Adding Multi-user, RBAC, Terminal, and more

LXDWARE is excited to announce the 2.0.0 release of the LXD dashboard. This new release adds a lot of changes to the underlying code and improvements to the user experience. The LXD dashboard can now be deployed centrally within a network and allows multiple users to connect and manage LXD infrastructure through a single interface.

When deploying a new installation or upgrading from version 1.2.8, a registration page will first be presented to configure the default admin account. Database tables will automatically be converted to support new features when upgrading from version 1.2.8. The installation process has become much simpler, removing the need for most of the configuration. Some dependency packages have been replaced and installation guides have been updated for this release at https://lxdware.com/installation/

User accounts

Past versions of the dashboard used http basic authentication for password protecting the dashboard. This method worked great for a single-user application, but this new release now supports multiple user accounts. The authentication method now stores user accounts in a database and utilizes PHP Session variables. User account password hashes are no longer generated using the Apache htpasswd application, as hashes are now stored using the secure bcrypt hashing algorithm.

RBAC

The LXD dashboard now also supports the use of groups and role-based access control (RBAC). There are 4 default roles that can be assigned to user groups: ADMIN, OPERATOR, USER, and AUDITOR. The ADMIN role gives access to all controls with the system. The OPERATOR roles give access to all controls used to make changes to LXD servers. The USER role gives access to controls used in basic lifecycle commands of an instance. The AUDITOR role acts as a guest or read-only account giving access to controls that only display LXD resources.

Console Terminal

The Exec option has been replaced with a more robust console terminal. Using xterm.js and web sockets, users can connect to the console of both container and virtual machine instances. This new console emulates the feel of being directly connected to the instance. To login to instances, a user account and password will need to be configured in the virtual instances.

Network ACLs

Network ACLs are now a part of the LXD dashboard. Users can create new access control lists (ACLs) as well as modify their ingress and egress rules.

Certificates

Previous versions of the dashboard relied on using a compiled LXC binary for generating LXC certificates. Certificates are now created using the built-in OpenSSL libraries within PHP. This allows the application to create certificates as needed rather than relying on users first creating their own certificates when installing the dashboard. Also now through the dashboard interface, users can add additional trusted certificates to a remote LXD host.

Curl

Curl connections made to the REST API of remote LXD servers are now made using PHP’s curl implementation rather than using the installed curl application on the host operating system. Changes no longer have to be made to the /etc/sudoers file, helping to reduce configuration problems and improve security. Now all a user has to do is just install the php-curl package on dashboard host system.

Database

Tables are now created automatically from within the dashboard rather than having to manually create them before installation. Database connections now use PDO statements allowing for consistent SQL statements between additional database systems, which are planned for future releases of the application.

Local Web assets

The LXD dashboard uses Google fonts for the web pages. Changes have been made to now use these fonts locally within the application rather than pulling them down from the Internet. All web assets are included within the application allowing the dashboard to work flawlessly within secure isolated network environments.

Accounting

Support is now built into this release of the application to log all controlled events. This logging of events to the database is planned in a future release of the application.

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Version 1.2.8

A new version of the LXD Dashboard has been released adding minor new features. The changes include:

  • added edit and delete actions for storage volumes
  • added action to create new storage volumes, with form options for size and content_type

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Version 1.2.7

Version 1.2.7 has just now been released. This update is has minor changes that improve the software. The changes include:

  • fixed bug that caused new storage pools to default to size 30GB
  • improved list of disk devices displayed on instance page

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Version 1.2.6

Version 1.2.6 has just been released. Please pay attention to changes in the installation instructions when building the LXD dashboard in an LXC container, as a new directory /var/lxdware/backups will need to be created and have the permissions changed to all the www-data user write permisions.

Version 1.2.6 brings the following changes:

  • moved local exports of backups to /var/lxdware/backups
  • added compression algorithms options to creating backups
  • added instance_only and optimized_storage options to creating backups
  • modified backup export to provide a download link
  • improved code to reduce PHP notices in error log for undefined variables and arrays
  • added htmlentities() to a few echo statements that where missing it in the PHP code