Flavors and images¶
Flavors and cost¶
OpenStack VM:s come in flavors, which determine how many vCPU cores and how much RAM the VM has. The following flavors are available for users:
| Name | Cores | RAM | Cost (coins/h) | Cost (k-coins/30 d) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mini | 1 | 2 GB | 1 | 0.72 |
| Small | 2 | 8 GB | 3 | 2.16 |
| Medium | 4 | 16 GB | 6 | 4.32 |
| Large | 8 | 32 GB | 12 | 8.64 |
| XLarge | 16 | 64 GB | 24 | 17.28 |
| XXLarge | 32 | 128 GB | 48 | 34.56 |
| XXXLarge | 64 | 512 GB | 160 | 115.2 |
Use this table to estimate your required resources. If you run out of resources, your ability to start new VM:s will be restricted. If you continue to run over your quota further action may be taken, such as shelving your VM:s, to free up resources.
Distribution images¶
We offer five different Linux distributions with different lifecycles.
| Distribution | Version | Lifetime | EOL | Package manager | Packages |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AlmaLinux | 9 | 10 years | 2032 | dnf |
rpm |
| Debian | 13 | 5 years | 2030 | apt |
deb |
| Fedora | 44 | ~13 months | 2027 | dnf |
rpm |
| Rocky Linux | 9 | 10 years | 2032 | dnf |
rpm |
| Ubuntu LTS | 24.04 | 5 years | 2029 | apt |
deb |
Fedora, Rocky Linux and Alma Linux are all "RHEL-like", while Debian and Ubuntu are "Debian-like", they use different packages managers and package formats. Besides this, the biggest differences are release schedules and length of support (with support meaning security patches). Once support starts to run out (also called end-of-life, EOL) you need to upgrade or migrate your server as soon as possible.
Fedora is the upstream project of the commercial Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), and the most up-to-date distribution we provide; it is a common and suitable OS for everyday desktop use and can be useful for development where recent versions of software packages or recent Linux kernels are needed. Fedora is easy to use and a good choice for Linux beginners. However, it must be upgraded frequently as a new major version comes out every 6 months. RHEL versions are based off forks of Fedora at specific points in time.
AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux are based on RHEL, with Rocky Linux aiming to use the
exact packages of RHEL, whereas AlmaLinux uses its curation of packages from
CentOS Stream. Both are very suitable choices for running a stable server that
doesn't need the very latest packages but needs to be secure. For example, the
Vera cluster runs Rocky Linux 9. For many softwares, up-to-date versions are
available for EL9 i.e., Enterprise Linux 9, via repositories like EPEL, Extra
Packages for Enterprise Linux. AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux are very similar, but
their handling of e.g. security patches are slightly different, so we have opted
to provide both for users who have a preference.
Debian is a basic and conservatively managed community-driven version of Linux, whereas Ubuntu is a more user-friendly commercially oriented fork of Debian. Ubuntu is a common choice for desktop Linux, so many are familiar with it and its utilities, and along with Fedora it is a good choice for beginners. Debian comes with fewer configurations by default than Ubuntu, so it is a good choice if you want a "vanilla" Linux server that you can set up the way you want.