+1 on breaking it up into blueprinting and guest tools.
+1 on AWS CloudFormation compatibility
+1 on removing PAAS from the discussion.
On 1/7/13 5:51 PM, "Raj Subrahmanian" <raj.subrahman...@sungard.com> wrote:
>+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>
>> >
>> >
>> >
>>
