CoreOS releases the latest version of etcd, a distributed key value store intended to store data across a cluster of machines. The latest release, etcd version 2.0.0, comes with latest features such as protection against misconfiguration, easy recovery, seamless cluster management, and more. etcd containers simplify the complex task of cluster management across distributed system. It does this by keeping a track of the state of each node in a cluster via a central hub. This hub also helps in managing the state of each node in a cluster. It provides a workaround in case of a single node failure through the replication of the state data across all nodes in the cluster ensuring runtime continuity. Google has been working closely with CoreOS and it’s using etcd in its open source cluster container management software – Kubernetes. This software attempts to overcome Docker’s limitation of being localized to a single host by providing a mechanism to manage large sets of containers on a cluster of container hosts. etcd becomes a key component of Kubernetes as a distributed key/value database. This cluster management software takes appropriate actions based on the contents of the etcd database. Apart from Google’s Kubernetes, other technology providers and platforms including Pivotal’s Cloud Foundry, Mailgun, Apache Mesos and Mesosphere DCOS use etcd. Benefits from etcd version 2.0.0: Improved etcd protocol ensures protection against accidental misconfiguraiton; easy recovery from cluster failure; simplified cluster management; CRC checksums and append-only practices ensure greater on-disk datastore safety; improved Raft consensus implementation; greater support through more administrator focused documentation explaining common scenarios; official IANA assigned ports for etcd TCP 2379/2380. "Shared configuration and shared state are two very tricky domains for distributed systems developers as services no longer run on one machine but are coordinated across an entire datacenter," said Benjamin Hindman, chief architect at Mesosphere and chair of Apache Mesos. "Apache Mesos and Mesosphere’s Datacenter Operating System (DCOS) will soon have a standard plugin to support etcd. Users and customers have asked for etcd support, and we’re delivering it as an option."