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Software center

The Software Center page displays and manages applications available from all configured repositories.

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 :ref:`core_updates-section`.

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 or subscription 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:

  1. 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.
  2. Origin: The container image registry hosting the application identifies the person or organization distributing it. Currently, the recognized registries are ghcr.io/nethserver and ghcr.io/nethesis.
  3. 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 :ref:`subscription-section` for more information.

Install applications

To install a new application, click the :guilabel:`Install` button of the application card.

  • If your cluster has multiple nodes, you will also need to select the target node.

  • Some applications -- like Samba, Nextcloud, and Mail -- may require large disk space and support additional volume selection, if the target node provides one, as explained in section :ref:`additional-volumes-section`.

    The volume selector displays the volume mount directory, the filesystem label and space usage.

To install more applications of the same type, click on the Instances link within the application's card. Then, select :guilabel:`Install new instance`. Note that in some cases, installation on certain cluster nodes may be restricted due to application policies or node resource limitations.

Configure additional volumes

Applications that host a large amount of data may not fit the default volume where the node's root filesystem usually resides.

When NS8 is installing an application that has such special data requirements on a node that provides one or more additional volumes the system administrator can decide which one to use, or choose the default volume.

The additional volume must be configured before the application is installed.

Warning

The additional volume setup procedure may lead to data-loss. It requires some Linux command line experience, hence it is highly recommended to test this procedure on a non-production system.

When configuring an additional volume on a NS8 node, observe the following check list:

  • Make sure the volume is not already mounted elsewhere. Multiple mount points for the same disk may lead to SELinux relabeling issues. The following command briefly lists existing mountpoints:

    findmnt --real

  • If the volume does not exist yet, format it with xfs or ext4 filesystems. Their features and defaults match NS8 expectations.

    Use lsblk to list the block devices (disks or partitions) available on the node, and the mkfs command to create a new file system on one of them. Be careful, formatting the wrong device will destroy your data.

  • Set a filesystem label (e.g. LABDISK0) to easily recognize the volume. It may also simplify the /etc/fstab or Systemd .mount unit configuration. Related commands are xfs_admin, e2label, tune2fs.

  • Mount the volume under /mnt or /srv base paths. They are commonly used for this purpose. For example, create a mountpoint directory and mount the volume on it

    mkdir /srv/disk0
mount /dev/disk/by-label/LABDISK0 /srv/disk0

  • Make sure the volume is mounted automatically at boot time. Append a /etc/fstab entry for the mounted volume

    findmnt -no SOURCE,TARGET,FSTYPE,OPTIONS /srv/disk0 >> /etc/fstab

    A reboot test is then highly recommended.

The NS8 cluster leader node, where Software center runs, needs a few minutes to record the configuration change and present the additional volume selection next time an application that supports it is installed.

For advanced use cases, where an application does not enable the automatic volume selection, it is still possible to assign an arbitrary volume following :ref:`named-volume-redirection`.

Installed applications

Once an application has been installed, 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. Carefully review the pre-release documentation or consult the app developer before proceeding.
  • Add to favorites: Pin the application at the top of the application drawer.
  • Edit instance label: Add a custom name to the instance.
  • Clone: Clone the application. See :ref:`move_clone-section`.
  • Move: Move the application to another node. See :ref:`move_clone-section`.
  • Restart instance: stop all application components and start them again, similar to a system reboot but limited to the application.
  • Uninstall: Remove the application and all related data.

The :ref:`Applications page <applications-section>` is an alternative and comprehensive place where the applications installed in the cluster can be managed.

Installed applications are also listed in the application drawer, by clicking on the application drawer 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 the Software repositories card.
  • In the Software Center page: click the Software 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 the default repository with an update schedule managed by Nethesis. See :ref:`subscription-section` for details.

To add a custom repository, click on the :guilabel:`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 :guilabel:`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:

:ref:`Operating system updates <os_updates-section>` are demanded to the underlying Linux distribution.

If you have an active subscription, available updates are applied automatically as described in :ref:`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.

You can review the components currently installed on each node of 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 Core apps. Click on :guilabel:`Update core` 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 :ref:`software_center-section`. The software center displays a card for each application with available updates.

You can apply all application updates by clicking the :guilabel:`Update all apps` button.

By clicking the :guilabel:`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 :guilabel:`Update` button. If you prefer to update all instances of the same module, just click :guilabel:`Update all instances` button.