+1 to the feature and also
+1 to Chris' suggestion that it be split out into two sub-projects.
Raj
On Mon, Jan 7, 2013 at 3:31 PM, Chris Sears <chris.x.se...@sungard.com>wrote:
> This sounds like there a two major features wrapped up here that deserve to
> be broken out and discussed individually.
>
> 1. A new unit of deployment similar to a VMware vApp or AWS CloudFormation
> template. This unit would have an abstract representation
> (blueprint/template) and a deployed instance representation (something like
> a project) that contains the related VMs, networks and other runtime
> resources. The DMTF CIMI API has some related concepts called System
> Templates and Systems that might be worth reviewing for compatibility
> considerations. Also, the OVF standard has some relevant material that
> might allow us to import/export these units as OVF/OVA files.
>
> 2. Extended in-guest automation. Running commands in the guest. Copying
> files into and out of the guest file system. Something generic enough that
> folks could bootstrap a higher-level config management tool like those you
> mention or do basic guest-level automation (if they didn't need a more
> complex tool). This might be implemented on top of SSH, WinRM or VMware VIX
> APIs.
>
> I certainly see how they are critical to PaaS enablement, it might be less
> confusing to address them independently of the PaaS issue.
>
> Looking forward to helping on these.
>
> - Chris
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, Jan 4, 2013 at 5:04 PM, Alex Heneveld <
> alex.henev...@cloudsoftcorp.com> wrote:
>
> >
> > Hi All,
> >
> > At the CCC, and in jira [1] late last year, we started discussing this
> > feature request, but going foward we'd
> > like to get broader feedback. A couple folks have suggested we bring it
> > back to the mailing list to get this.
> >
> > In brief, we're responding to a desire for high-level composite
> blueprints
> > on top of Cloudstack. For instance:
> >
> > (a) An app team wants to have a single entity in Cloudstack which
> > represents their application,
> > consisting of a load-balancer, a scalable appserver tier, and a
> > SQL database
> >
> > (b) A middleware team wants to have a mechanism for describing a PaaS
> > which they can
> > deploy, manage (e.g. scale out, back), track costs, and destroy
> as
> > a unit in Cloudstack
> >
> > These get mapped on to Cloudstack components (IaaS and services), but
> what
> > distinguishes them from Projects
> > is that they are reusable portable definitions. This is similar to what
> > VMware have in vApp and AWS in CloudFormation;
> > but there is (so far) a preference to base these around CloudStack
> > concepts and have them accessible in the GUI.
> >
> > Cloudsoft (me and others here) want to work on this, together with
> > like-minded folks.
> >
> > Here are some feature ideas for starters:
> >
> > * IaaS mapping
> > - ability to refer to specific templates and offerings (eg id="1234")
> > - ability to refer to portable descriptions of templates and offerings
> (eg
> > os("ubuntu"), userdata("myappsrv"), minram("2gb"))
> > - ability to define subnets, DNS, public IP and firewall rules
> >
> > * Wiring
> > - ability to write files to VM's with permissions, mode, etc
> > - ability to embed references to other blueprint entities (ie other VM
> > IP's/hostnames) in such files
> > - ability to execute commands on VM's, with order constraints
> > - ability to use puppet/chef/bash/juju/**cartridges/brooklyn (e.g. via
> > the above capabilities)
> >
> > * Management
> > - ability to access blueprints and deployments via REST and via GUI
> > - ability to define clusters and groups of entities (which could be
> scaled)
> > - ability to deploy policies (eg elasticity, HA/DR logic) to various
> > management systems
> >
> > What would you like to see? Would you be able to help?
> >
> > Many thanks,
> > Alex
> >
> > [1] https://issues.apache.org/**jira/browse/CLOUDSTACK-576<
> https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/CLOUDSTACK-576>
> >
> >
> >
>
