Great discussions! Here is my comments to a few points brought up by multiple people. My other comments are inline below.
1. Marketplace code, listing repository, what is required, what is optional [Jie] The Marketplace code is separate from the listing repository. Marketplace is an optional feature in a way that admin can turn it off entirely, and it will not disrupt the existing function of CloudStack. Admin or anyone can build its own listing repository. The question is should we have one for the Apache CloudStack community? And if so, where should it be located? If not, we can still have the Marketplace feature, and just let other people build their own private or public repositories. 2. How do we validate that the image templates are solid and no virus? [Jie] In my opinion, it is impossible for the Apache CloudStack community to take on the burden to validate image templates. Otherwise we have to validate each image, including every patch revision and sign them by crypto key. We can only go as far as validating the listing metadata and scripts appear/run correctly in Marketplace UI. If validity of the image is a major concern for the community, we have to do the listing repository outside of the community. ================== > A general observation... > > If this is part of a cloudstack install, then why aren't we simply > extending the list of available templates that users can chose from to > include those that may start out at a remote location (but may be > cached by CloudStack after the first use). Why not also extend the > template meta-data to include optional details like what's provided in > the listing material? > > If an admin is already deciding on which templates would be listed in > the marketplace, why wouldn't they simply be listed in the global > template list? It seems confusing to have to curate two different > sets of templates (marketplace and available for immediate > provisioning). [Jie] Chip, thanks for bringing this up. I debated about this also. I separated it out eventually because of the following reasons: 1. In the case of template listing, a single listing can contain multiple templates, which is easier for user to navigate through. I also like to support SaaS/PaaS apps. 2. The marketplace UI will contain graphics and many additional meta-data, which I don't know how easy it is for us to accommodate in the current CloudStack template UI. Since this is v1.0 of the feature, I try not to touch the core CloudStack source code to cause issues. I do think we should re-evaluate it for future releases though. > > -chip >From Sebastien: Couple thoughts, A while back when the marketplace idea came up, I mentioned the opennebula marketplace. It may be good to have a look at it again: http://opennebula.org/documentation:rel3.8:marketplace Basically it is a service, external to an opennebula deployment, that an admin can point to, in order to offer users templates published by the community. The marketplace itself only manages meta-data associated with each image. In my mind, I see it as a separate project. I probably don't understand the entire concept of the existing proposal for the CS marketplace, but having "vendor" information in our Apache code base is worrisome. [Jie] I looked at OpenNebula a while back and again recently. OpenNebular Marketplace is basically an online catalog of images. There are only 16 listings and most of them contributed by C12G Labs. In order to use the images, you have to manually download it and get it into the cloud instance. For CloudStack Marketplace, we are planning on a client UI piece within CloudStack, so that it is much easier for admin and users to see what's out there and use it.
