On 02/06/2012 06:07 PM, Jay Pipes wrote: > Hi Stackers, > > tl;dr > ----- > > There are myriad Chef cookbooks "out there" in the ecosystem and locked > up behind various company firewalls. It would be awesome if we could > agree to: > > * Align to a single origin repository for OpenStack cookbooks > * Consolidate OpenStack Chef-based deployment experience into a single > knowledge base > * Have branches on the origin OpenStack cookbooks repository that align > with core OpenStack projects > * Automate the validation and testing of these cookbooks on multiple > supported versions of the OpenStack code base > > Details > ------- > > Current State of Forks > ====================== > > Matt Ray and I tried to outline the current state of the various > OpenStack Chef cookbooks this past Thursday, and we came up with the > following state of affairs: > > ** The "official" OpenStack Chef cookbooks ** > > https://github.com/openstack/openstack-chef > > These chef cookbooks are the ones maintained mostly by Dan Prince and > Brian Lamar and these are the cookbooks used by the SmokeStack project. > The cookbooks contained in the above repo can install all the core > OpenStack projects with the exception of Swift and Horizon. > > This repo is controlled by the Gerrit instance at review.openstack.org > just like other core OpenStack projects. > > However, these cookbooks DO NOT currently have a stable/diablo branch -- > they are updated when the development trunks of any OpenStack project > merges a commit that requires deployment or configuration-related > changes to their associated cookbook. > > Important note: it's easy for Dan and Brian to know when updates to > these cookbooks are necessary -- SmokeStack will bomb out if a > deployment-affecting configuration change hits a core project trunk :)
I would like to get these to have a stable/diablo branch. > These cookbooks are the ONLY cookbooks that contain stuff for deploying > with XenServer, AFAICT. I think Dan and Brian are also deploying kvm as part of smokestack. > ** NTT PF Lab Diablo Chef cookbooks ** > > https://github.com/ntt-pf-lab/openstack-chef/ > > So, NTT PF Lab forked the upstream Chef cookbooks back in Nov 11, 2011, > because they needed a set of Chef cookbooks for OpenStack that > functioned for the Diablo code base. > > While Nov 11, 2011, is not the *exact* date of the Diablo release, these > cookbooks do in fact work for a Diablo install -- Nati Ueno is using > them for the FreeCloud deployment so we know they work... If these are a fork of openstack/openstack-chef, could we perhaps make these the basis of a stable/diablo branch in openstack-chef? > ** OpsCode OpenStack Chef Cookbooks ** > > Matt Ray from OpsCode created a set of cookbooks for OpenStack for the > Cactus release of OpenStack: > > https://github.com/mattray/openstack-cookbooks > http://wiki.opscode.com/display/chef/Deploying+OpenStack+with+Chef > > These cookbooks were forked from the Anso Labs' original OpenStack > cookbooks from the Bexar release and were the basis for the Chef work > that Dell did for Crowbar. Crowbar was originally based on Cactus, and > according to Matt, the repositories of OpenStack cookbooks that OpsCode > houses internally and uses most often are Cactus-based cookbooks. (Matt, > please correct me if I am wrong here...) > > ** Rackspace CloudBuilders OpenStack Chef Cookbooks ** > > The RCB team also has a repository of OpenStack Chef cookbooks: > > https://github.com/cloudbuilders/openstack-cookbooks > > Now, GitHub *says* that these cookbooks were forked from the official > upstream cookbooks, but I do not think that is correct. Looking at this > repo, I believe that this repo was *actually* forked from the Anso Labs > OpenStack Chef Cookbooks, as the list of cookbooks is virtually identical. > > ** Anso Labs OpenStack Chef Cookbooks ** > > These older cookbooks are in this repo: > > https://github.com/ansolabs/openstack-cookbooks/tree/master/cookbooks > > Interestingly, this repo DOES contain a cookbook for Swift. > > Current State of Documentation > ============================== > > Documentation for best practices on using Chef for your OpenStack > deployments is, well, a bit scattered. Matt Ray has some good > information on the README on his cookbook repo and the OpsCode wiki: > > https://github.com/mattray/openstack-cookbooks/blob/cactus/README.md > http://wiki.opscode.com/display/chef/Deploying+OpenStack+with+Chef > > But it is unfortunately not going to help people looking to deploy > Diablo and later versions of OpenStack. > > Most of the other repos contain virtually no documentation on using the > cookbooks or how they are written. > > I have a suspicion that one of the reasons that there has been such a > proliferation of cookbooks has been the lack of documentation pointing > people to an appropriate repo, how to use the cookbooks properly, and > what the best practices for deployment are. That, and the fact that > folks are just trying to stand up complex clouds and Get Things Done, > and documentation is annoying to write ;) > > Proposal for Alignment > ====================== > > I think the following steps would be good to get done by the time Essex > rolls out the door in April: > > 1) Create a stable/diablo branch of the openstack/openstack-chef > cookbook repo and maintain it in the same way that we maintain stable > branches for core OpenStack projects. I propose we use the branch point > that NTT PF Lab used to create their fork of the upstream repo. You were reading my mind. > 2) Work with Matt Ray and other Chef experts to combine any and all best > practices that may be contained in the non-official cookbook repos into > the upstream official repository. From a cursory overview, there are > some differences in how databags are handled, how certs are handled, how > certain cookbooks are constructed, and of course differences in the > actual cookbooks in the repos themselves. > > 3) Consolidate documentation on how to use the cookbooks, the best > practices used in constructing the cookbooks, and possibly some > videos/tutorials walking folks through this critical piece of the > OpenStack puzzle. Yes. PLEASE. Dan has been kind enough to offer to do a skype call with me to walk me through some of this (and then I keep being too busy to take him up on it) ... but honestly something that doesn't assume I know a whole hell of a lot about chef would be great. > 4) Create Jenkins builders for stable branch deployment testing. We > currently test the official development cookbooks by way of SmokeStack > gates on all core OpenStack projects. Would be great to get the same > testing automated for non-development branches of the cookbooks. Getting chef-based deploys driven by Jenkins is definitely on my todo list, and I think that should apply to both stable and development branch deployment. I also would love to see Smokestack support that as well. > Thoughts and criticism most welcome, and apologies in advance if I got > any of the above history wrong. Feel free to correct me! > > Best, > -jay > _______________________________________________ Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~openstack Post to : openstack@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~openstack More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
