Manageability

Management usage and API

OSv places all management endpoints in a single location: a simple, documented REST API. All management operations can be done using your chosen management tools, or your own scripts, over HTTP.

OSv Dashboard screenshot

An optional in-browser dashboard is available. The dashboard provides live updates and includes:

OS basics such as memory usage and CPU load
Tracepoints for all system and application functionality
JMX endpoints (using the Jolokia JMX-over-REST connector)
Application-specific metrics, which can be added by the application developer.

REST API details

On a cloud environment of multiple instances, it is inefficient to interact with each instance using a conventional GUI or CLI designed for hardware servers. The OSv REST API simplifies management.

The latest version of the REST API specification
Details on how to interact with OSV using the API are in a Wiki article: OSv REST API.

cloud-init

The cloud-init mechanism provides a simple way to provide per-instance configuration parameters to an OSv VM at boot time. It is useful for booting many clustered instances of a horizontally scaled application such as a NoSQL database.

OSv cloud-init works the same way across public and private clouds, so a cloud-init configuration developed in-house will work anywhere you choose to deploy—perfect for hybrid cloud environments.