Software center#
The Software Center displays and manages applications available from all configured repositories [1].
Application information#
Each application is represented by a card displaying its name, level of certification, and category. Click on the application’s name to view detailed information such as screenshots, author, latest version, container images, and links to documentation, source code, and bug tracker.
Some applications may include additional Terms and Conditions; if present, read them carefully.
Hint
For detailed information about the installed core components refer to Core updates.
Levels of certification#
Applications are certified at the following levels:
Level 1/5: The application is hosted by a custom repository (or it is not part of any repository) and is not certified.
Level 2/5: The application is hosted by the
nethforge
repository and certified by the NethServer community.Level 3/5: The application is hosted by the
default
orsubscription
repositories and is certified by Nethesis.Level 4/5: The application is developed and maintained by Nethesis developers.
Level 5/5: The application is developed and maintained by Nethesis developers and is covered by Nethesis support.
Certification levels are determined based on the following factors:
Repository: To be listed in a public repository, an application must undergo a review process. Being listed in a public repository establishes the base certification level of the application.
Origin: The container image registry hosting the application identifies the person or organization distributing it. Currently, the recognized registries are
ghcr.io/nethserver
andghcr.io/nethesis
.Support: If the cluster has an active subscription and paid support is available for the application (whether included in the current subscription plan or not). See Subscription for more information.
Install applications#
To install a new application, simply click the Install button of the application card. If your cluster has multiple nodes, you will also need to select the target node.
To install an additional instance of an existing application, click on the
Instances
link within the application’s card. Then, select
Install new instance. Note that in some cases, installation on
certain cluster nodes may be restricted due to application policies or
node resource limitations.
Application instances#
Once an application has one or more installed instances, click on the
Instances
link within the application’s card. You can perform various
actions on each instance by clicking on its three-dots menu:
Update to testing version
: This action is visible only when a testing version is available as an instance update. Carefully review the pre-release documentation or consult the app developer before proceeding.Add to favorites
: The application will always be listed at the top of the application drawer.Edit instance label
: Add a custom name to the instance.Clone
: Clone the application. See Clone and move applications.Move
: Move the application to another node. See Clone and move applications.Uninstall
: Remove the application and all related data.
Installed application instances are also accessible from the application drawer by clicking on the menu in the top-right corner of the screen.
Software repositories#
An NS8 software repository is an index of applications and a collection of their metadata.
You can access the list of configured repositories in several ways:
In the
Settings
page: click theSoftware repositories
card.In the
Software Center
page: click theSoftware repositories
item in the three-dots menu at the top-right corner.
NS8 includes a default set of software repositories, some enabled and others disabled:
default
: Contains applications developed and maintained mainly by NethServer developers. It also tracks updates for NS8 core modules and the core itself.nethforge
: A repository of applications built and maintained by the NethServer community. It is initially disabled.subscription
: Added and enabled when the cluster has an active subscription. It overrides the contents of thedefault
repository with an update schedule managed by Nethesis. See Subscription for details.
To add a custom repository, click on the Add repository button and fill in the required fields:
Name
: A unique name for the repository.URL
: The public URL of the repository. It must be a valid NS8 repository.Status
: Check this option to enable the repository.
Note that if the same application is listed in multiple repositories, the one from the repository with the higher priority will be considered. Repository priority is determined by the alphabetical order of the repository names, with those later in the alphabet (e.g., “Z”) having higher priority than those earlier (e.g., “A”).
You can refresh the metadata by clicking on the Reload repositories button.
Updates#
If the enabled repositories contain an update for an installed application
instance or any core component, a warning message is displayed at the top
of the Software center page. You can see if there are any available
updates also by accessing the Cluster status
page.
NethServer 8 can handle two different types of updates:
Operating system updates are demanded to the underlying Linux distribution.
If you have an active subscription, available updates are applied automatically as described in Scheduled updates.
Core updates#
NS8 consists of the core and several modules. Each core component has its own version number, and the Software Center will display a warning when an update is available.
Core contains the web user interface, the API server, the agents that manage the containers and backup engines.
LDAP proxy is a proxy server for LDAP TCP connections that handles all connections from applications to User domain providers.
You can review the components currently installed in the cluster at any
time. To do this, click on the three-dots menu in the top-right corner of
the Software Center
page, then select the Core apps
option.
Click on Update core button to apply the updates.
Core module updates are always applied altogether to avoid version mismatches.
Application updates#
The list of available updates is listed inside the Updates
tab of
Software center. The software center displays a card for
each application with available updates.
You can apply all application updates by clicking the Update all apps button.
By clicking the Review and update button on the application card, you will see all module instances that require an update. You can update each instance separately by clicking on the Update button. If you prefer to update all instances of the same module, just click Update all instances button.
Clone and move applications#
An application instance can be cloned to any cluster node. The clone procedure creates a new application instance that is equivalent to the source one.
The cluster node where the destination instance runs can be the same as the source instance. Generally, there should be no limitation on running multiple application instances on the same node. In some cases, the services provided by the instance might require exclusive access to a particular system resource, such as binding a fixed TCP port number. In this case starting additional instances of the same service becomes impossible.
In a nutshell the clone procedure:
Creates a new application instance for the destination.
Starts the data transfer between the instances, during this phase the source is still up and running.
Stops briefly the source instance.
Executes the final data synchronization.
Starts the source and the destination instances.
Instead, when moving an application, you must select a target node other than the one where the instance is currently running.
The move procedure
Creates a new application instance for the destination.
Starts the data transfer between the instances, during this phase the source is still up and running.
Stops briefly the source instance.
Executes the final data synchronization.
Starts the destination instance and removes the source one.
If the moved application is referenced by a fully qualified domain name (FQDN), ensure you update the DNS record to point to the address of the target node.
To start moving/cloning an application instance see the Application instances section.
Footnotes