February 2017 Summaries

Artifactory's generation 5.x release introduced significant enhancements, including cloud-native storage, cluster license management, and improved authentication with access tokens. A major revamp of the Docker distribution simplifies running Artifactory in a container by using an official OpenJDK base image with updated security features and an exploded zip archive for easy setup. The new Docker distribution supports persistent storage with a single mount volume and separates Nginx into its own container, promoting best practices with one container per process. A unified Artifactory Pro image now supports all deployment scenarios, with configuration managed through environment variables at the container entry-point. Integration of Docker image sources with Artifactory's OSS and Pro code ensures consistent, routine testing within the CI cycle, enhancing reliability and deployment efficiency.

Cloud computing has revolutionized the ability of IT and DevOps teams to rapidly create various environments, ranging from small developer systems to extensive production data centers. However, this ease of creation can lead to chaotic management, prompting the development of Infrastructure as Code (IaC), which applies software best practices to configuration management. JFrog Artifactory 5.1, along with JFrog Mission Control 1.9, advances this concept by introducing Infrastructure as Binaries, enhancing the management of Chef Cookbook and Puppet repositories. This enables DevOps teams to distribute and share configurations effectively, with features like fine-grained security controls, smart search capabilities, proxying of public repositories, and checksum-based storage for reliable access and duplication prevention. Furthermore, extensive automation through REST API facilitates the seamless deployment of configurations, bringing heightened order and stability to the infrastructure management landscape.