About OpenIDCS

What is OpenIDCS?

OpenIDCS (Open Internet Data Center System) is an open-source unified IDC virtualization management platform. It provides a single Web console and a complete RESTful API to manage virtual machines that live across many different hypervisors and container runtimes — as if they were part of the same cloud.

The Problem

Modern data centers rarely speak one language:

• VMware runs business-critical workloads;
• Docker / Podman drives micro-services;
• LXC / LXD powers lightweight multi-tenant environments;
• Proxmox VE / Hyper-V / ESXi fill in the rest.

Each platform has its own tools, its own credentials, its own networking model and its own permission system. Engineers spend more time switching consoles than solving problems.

The OpenIDCS Answer

OpenIDCS puts one Web UI and one REST API on top of every supported platform:

• Create a VM the same way whether it lands on ESXi, Proxmox or LXD.
• Apply the same port-forwarding rule regardless of the underlying runtime.
• Enforce the same per-user quota across the whole fleet.
• Ship logs, metrics and audit trails to the same pipeline.

Core Advantages

🎯 Unified Console

One Web UI replaces five or six vendor tools.

🔌 API-First

Everything the UI does is also a documented REST call — perfect for billing integrations, automation, CI/CD and CMDBs.

🌐 Cross-Platform

Run the controller on Windows, Linux or macOS; manage agents running on any of them.

👥 Multi-Tenant by Design

RBAC, fine-grained permissions and hard quotas (CPU, memory, storage, bandwidth, VM count) are built in — not bolted on.

📊 Observability Included

Real-time host & VM metrics, ECharts dashboards, audit logs and scheduled tasks come out of the box.

🔒 Secure

TLS between controller and agents, token + session auth, encrypted VNC, optional IP whitelisting and rate limiting.

💰 Zero License Fees

AGPLv3 — use it, fork it, ship it. No per-socket, per-CPU or per-VM pricing.

Architecture at a Glance

graph TB
    FE["Frontend · React 18 + TypeScript + Vite"]
    APP["Application · Flask REST + i18n + Session/Token"]
    BIZ["Business · HostManager / UserManager / DataManager / NetsManager ..."]
    OBJ["Core Objects · Config / Server / Public"]
    VIRT["Hypervisor Layer · VMware / ESXi / Proxmox / Hyper-V / LXD / Docker / Qingzhou"]
    INFRA["Infra · VNCConsole / Websockify / ZJMFServer"]

    FE --> APP --> BIZ
    BIZ --> OBJ
    BIZ --> VIRT
    APP --> INFRA

Target Users

Scenario	What you get
🏢 SMB IT	Unify dev / test / prod VMs across tools
☁️ Private cloud	A lightweight, skinnable front-end
🎓 Labs & training	Shared VM pool with per-student quotas
🔬 R&D	Self-service VMs without asking ops
🏭 IDC / hosting	Bring a legacy IDC online with billing

Platform Support Matrix

Platform	Status	Notes
LXC / LXD	✅ GA	System containers, REST/HTTPS
Docker / Podman / K8s	✅ GA	TLS + remote API
VMware Workstation	✅ GA	vmrest REST API
VMware vSphere ESXi	✅ GA	pyVmomi
Proxmox VE / QEMU	✅ GA	proxmoxer
Windows Hyper-V	✅ GA	WinRM / WMI
Qingzhou Cloud	✅ GA	Vendor API
Oracle VirtualBox	🚧 WIP	In development
QEMU / KVM (standalone)	🚧 WIP	In development

License

OpenIDCS is released under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPLv3):

• ✅ Use, modify and redistribute freely.
• ✅ Commercial use allowed.
• ⚠️ Modifications must be published under the same license.
• ⚠️ Network services based on OpenIDCS must also make their source available.

See License for the full text.

Credits

Parts of the controlled-node Web & billing-plugin style were inspired by the zjmf-lxd-server project by xkatld — GitHub. Thanks to every open-source contributor who made this possible.

Next Steps

• 📖 Core Advantages — why teams pick OpenIDCS
• 🧩 Features — everything in the box
• 🚀 Quick Start — be productive in 5 minutes
• 🛠️ Installation — production-grade deployment