SUSE is contributing the manpower, concepts and architecture of the openATTIC storage management framework to the Ceph open source project, turning it into the new default built-in dashboard for management and monitoring of the Ceph software-defined storage platform.

SUSE will continue to provide the core management expertise and developers for driving the functionality and development of the dashboard within Ceph, simplifying administration for all users.

“SUSE is committed to the upstream project first, which always turns into better results for the enterprise users who are not far downstream,” says Lenz Grimmer, one of the original openATTIC team members and current SUSE engineering team lead for openATTIC and the Ceph dashboard. “Our focus is on both contributing to and using innovation from the community and influencing upstream to meet customer needs – ours and those of other open source providers.”

Sage Weil, chief architect of the Ceph project, adds: “Including the concepts and functionality provided by openATTIC in the upstream Ceph project will bring greater management capabilities to Ceph and help expand Ceph’s adoption in the enterprise as it becomes more manageable and user friendly. Open source community collaboration, like the integration of this work into upstream Ceph, has become a key driver of innovation in today’s world of computing.”

First appearing in the Mimic version of Ceph, the new and improved dashboard will make the Ceph storage platform significantly easier to administer and monitor for project users, especially those without deep command line experience. SUSE is the main contributor to this project in terms of code and human resources, dedicating an entire team to the effort.

The openATTIC management framework is currently part of SUSE Enterprise Storage, an intelligent software-defined storage management solution powered by Ceph technology. It enables organisations to adapt to changing business and data demands by transforming enterprise storage infrastructure with cost-efficient, highly scalable and resilient storage using commodity off-the-shelf servers and disk drives.