rPath X6 expands on the company’s software appliance assembly and deployment ambitions with powerful configuration management capabilities and a spruced-up user interface that’s much improved compared with the Version 5.2 release that eWEEK Labs tested in 2009. Also much improved is the product’s support for deploying software images to VMware, EC2 and other virtualization hosts. In our tests of rPath X6, we had no trouble assembling and deploying CentOS-based virtual appliances, but found the product’s configuration management processes more difficult to master, and the product documentation for these tasks sparser than I’d have liked.

For a look at rPath X6 in action, check out the gallery below, and be sure to read our full review here.