LOCKSS 2.0-beta1 now available!

|
Snowden Becker - LOCKSS Community Manager
LOCKSS software logo featuring a white line drawing of a turtle on a taupe background over black and white text reading LOCKSS 2.0-beta1

The LOCKSS Program is pleased to announce that LOCKSS 2.0-beta1, the first "beta" release of LOCKSS 2.0, is now available for download. This first "beta" release represents a significant milestone in the re-engineering of our flagship open source preservation software system, and we welcome members of the LOCKSS user community to help us test its new features as our Engineering team continues to enhance its functionality and performance.

So what's new with LOCKSS version 2?

Originally referred to as LAAWS (LOCKSS Architected As Web Services), LOCKSS 2.x includes a variety of enhancements to the original “lots of copies keep stuff safe” vision and execution.

  • Works in more computing environments. The “classic” LOCKSS 1.x system is a monolithic Java application, requiring a RHEL-compatible Linux variant. LOCKSS 2.x is a containerized application managed by Kubernetes, so it can now be installed on almost any flavor of Linux.
  • APIs. LOCKSS 2.x offers REST APIs to control, query, and integrate the LOCKSS system. This includes directly storing and retrieving preserved content, querying metadata extracted from preserved content, and performing status and control operations.
  • Repository enhancements. The LOCKSS 2.x repository stores content more efficiently, and is more scalable, too.
  • New architecture for storage backends. LOCKSS 2.x allows the award-winning LOCKSS peer-to-peer audit-and-repair protocol to be adapted to work with other storage backends.
  • Multiple Web replay engines. In addition to the existing LOCKSS ServeContent Web replay engine, LOCKSS 2.x can also run the Pywb and OpenWayback Web replay engines.
  • Web crawler framework. LOCKSS 2.x adds a framework for additional Web crawlers to supplement the state-of-the-art LOCKSS Web Crawler.

The LOCKSS Program gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s Public Knowledge program for the development of LOCKSS 2.x.

Who will get to use it first?

  • If you’re a LOCKSS 1.x user, a few different factors will influence how and when you might migrate from LOCKSS 1.x to LOCKSS 2.x. The first consideration is that you must upgrade your LOCKSS 1.x node to LOCKSS 1.78 in order to migrate to LOCKSS 2.0-beta1. 
  • The next consideration is your network affiliation. As the two largest LOCKSS networks, the GLN and CLOCKSS will benefit most from the additional scalability and performance improvements that are scheduled to arrive with subsequent beta releases. Accordingly, GLN and CLOCKSS nodes are advised not to migrate to LOCKSS 2.0-beta1 at this time. If you’re a member of multiple networks–like the GLN and USDocs, for example–it’s perfectly fine to migrate your USDocs node to LOCKSS 2.0-beta1 now, and wait for a later LOCKSS 2.x release to migrate your GLN node. 
  • Another consideration is whether you will be provisioning a new host for use with LOCKSS 2.x, and taking advantage of the opportunity to install a Linux operating system that better aligns with your institutional IT infrastructure. Some users may wish to take the fiscally prudent step of waiting for their next hardware refresh to migrate. LOCKSS 2.x is fully compatible with LOCKSS 1.x, so networks have the flexibility to migrate nodes individually, in stages, or all together–whichever makes the most sense for them.

Our Migration Guide has a wealth of information for those who are eager to move forward. Our support team is also ready to answer any questions you might have about migrating, system requirements, or other practical matters. Just email lockss-support@lockss.org, or join us for the weekly LOCKSS Migration open office hours. For the members of our Cross-PLN Technical Working Group, our next scheduled meeting on August 15 will largely be devoted to updates, Q&A, and news related to 2.0-beta1. And for the LOCKSS-curious, if you’d like to learn more about how this new version of the LOCKSS digital preservation system might work for your purposes, please join us for one of our upcoming LOCKSS information sessions.

Resources

MDPN? More like MVPN!

Before there can be a beta version and beta users, there must be an alpha version and alpha users. The Michigan Digital Preservation Network holds the distinction of being the very first LOCKSS 2.x-native network. Their node hosts and community partners have contributed tremendously to the development process by, among other things, using our draft LOCKSS 2.x documentation and step-by-step install guides to (smoothly and successfully!) spin up their first nodes. 

"Although we were the first network to run LOCKSS 2.0, we never felt alone during this process. The LOCKSS Program team and the rest of the LOCKSS community have been with us the whole way. We're so excited to have helped get LOCKSS 2.0 to the beta phase, and we can't wait for more users to become part of this next chapter in digital preservation with us."   -- Chelsea Denault, Michigan Digital Preservation Network Coordinator

The beta release of LOCKSS 2.x will help bring our award-winning approach to digital preservation into new communities and collections. The LOCKSS Program team is grateful to our user community for their feedback, encouragement, and engagement throughout the development process, and we look forward to bringing new users and networks on board as we embark on a new phase of sustainable, community-based digital preservation!

More News Topics

Blog

More News