On 7/5/12 11:58 AM, "David Nalley" <da...@gnsa.us> wrote: >>> >>>Right now you have to download this weird qcow2 from the CS website, but >>>that should be different I think: >>> >>>You set up CloudStack, configure your zone and then it will ask you to >>>provide the System VM template. >>> >>>We can still provide a System VM template we build from scratch and put >>>the image online somewhere, but users also have the freedom to upload >>>their own. >> >> +1. A default systemvm template is very important. In fact for >>regression >> tests, smoke tests etc, this would be used. >> Also, most *users* of cloudstack would have very little idea on how to >> roll their own systemvm. > >So the issue with a default systemVM is that Apache CloudStack can't >distribute it. (unless we move to a BSD). Or at least - in their >current form, Apache CloudStack can't distribute the systemVMs. Soooo >what do we do?
Like Wido said, we ask for the location of this template at install time. Where the template is hosted is not necessarily Apache, just like a lot of the libraries we use are not hosted at Apache. > >While .debs and .rpms are not necessarily mandates - what would we >ship? We essentially can't ship a linux-based VM. There's a shell script that builds the debian template. That's in the patches directory. Today that takes the scripts / config files in there and bundles it into the template after building the base image. So, the repo will have the build script, the scripts and packaging scripts to package the scripts into deb and rpm. We obviously need to write a design document specifying the contract for the system vm so that interested parties can build / offer / distribute their own systemvms. But a default one is necessary IMO. Otherwise the out-of-the-box experience for first-timers is going to be very very iffy. -- Chiradeep
