Differences between Red Hat CloudForms and ManageIQ

Question
#1

Hi all,

I’ve been trying to establish the differences between Red Hat’s CloudForms and ManageIQ. Specifically I am interested in:

  1. How do version numbers track? For example at the time of writing the latest stable release of CloudForms is called “3.1” by Red Hat but the filename and version when you install the product is “5.3.4”. Are either of these version numbers analogous to any specific ManageIQ releases?
  2. At a high level, what are the differences between CloudForms and ManageIQ?

In my mind I have the preconception of the kind of CentOS vs RHEL system - but I am aware I could be completely wrong. If anyone can point me at a document I’ve missed or answer the above I’d be very grateful.

Thanks!

#2

Hi,

ManageIQ is the upstream open source project for CloudForms.

CloudForms is a commercial Cloud Management Platform that Red Hat makes available to its customers under a subscription model. CloudForms is extensively QE’d by Red Hat, and comes with enterprise grade support, certifications, legal indemnity, a stable life cycle of (currently) 3 years, and some certified content.

ManageIQ community releases receive limited QA, and, when released, get updates on a best efforts basis. When a new ManageIQ version is released (every 3-6 months), users are expected to upgrade, and previous versions will not get updates anymore, including critical security updates.

Red Hat does not have a fixed rule as to which ManageIQ community release becomes the basis for which CloudForms product release, or even if a there is a simple 1:1 mapping between them.

Hope this helps!

regards,
Geert Jansen
Product Owner for CloudForms

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What is the relationship between Red Hat CloudForms Management Engine 5.9 and ManageIQ？
#3

Thank you Geert - that’s really helpful to know. James

#4

Hi,
I have had a chance to have a look into the current ManageIQ running release. I was quite impressed how fast my vCenter was imported. But when looking into the Automation Scripts I missed the templates for VMware. Does the CloudForms release also bring a greater library of Automation scripts comparing to ManageIQ?
BR
mario

#5

Hello @geertj,

Could you help me to understand the technical differences between ManageIQ and Redhat CloudForms?

This is in-terms of architectural, performance, security, ease of integration with various providers…etc

Thanks…

Regards,
Ram

#6

Hello @Ram

I believe this question is better addressed by direct inquiries to Red Hat.

Red Hat CloudForms is, indeed, based on ManageIQ. Some of the differences are

  • ManageIQ is built on CentOS; CloudForms is built on RHEL
  • ManageIQ is packaged via Bundler; CloudForms is packaged via RPM
  • ManageIQ has bundled, pre-sized PG database; CloudForms guides user to size their database disk
  • ManageIQ is supported by community on a best-efforts basis; CloudForms support via Red Hat
  • ManageIQ has no consultant team to help with deployment, setup and integration; CloudForms consultancy via Red Hat
  • ManageIQ user needs to install PrinceXML for PDF functionality; CloudForms has a licensed version included

There may be other differences, but these are some of the main ones.

Thanks,
Oleg

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#7

hello,
I have been exploring ManageIq for quite some while and found direct similarity between cloudforms and manageIq. My only concern is, how does the mapping go between these two platforms. Does cloudform Implement successful manageiq Releases?

#8

ManageIQ is the “upstream” open source project for the “downstream” Red Hat product called CloudForms (all Red Hat product development is done in an upstream project). There has traditionally been a 1-1 release mapping, with the corresponding CloudForms release happening several weeks after the MIQ release to allow for additional QA and productisation (for example rebasing from CentOS to RHEL).

The release version mappings have been as follows:

ManageIQ project release CloudForms Management Engine version CloudForms version
Anand 5.3 3.1
Botvinnik 5.4 3.2
Capablanca 5.5 4.0
Darga 5.6 4.1
Euwe 5.7 4.2
Fine 5.8 4.5
Gaprindashvili 5.9 4.6
Hammer 5.10 4.7
Ivanchuk 5.11 5.0

Interestingly it’s not unusual for multiple vendor’s products to be based on the same upstream open source project. For example both Red Hat Virtualization and Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager are based on the upstream oVirt project, and SUSE Manager, Oracle Spacewalk, and Red Hat Satellite 5.x are/were based on the upstream Spacewalk project.

Hope this helps,
pemcg

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