9:28 a.m.
Hi Greg,
As has been pointed out, "cloud" is a very large topic.
Which means that,
IMO, there are two directions we can go on this list that are not
mutually
exclusive: long-winded, bloviating discussions about what we *could*
do,
and detailed plans for what we *will* do.
Let's focus on the second for now, since the first is going to happen
anyways.
Agreed on this, everyone's definition of clouds are different so lets focus
on what's easy now.
There are many potential cloud goals that we could be tackling, but
I
believe that a lot of people would agree with this proposed initial goal:
LET'S CREATE FEDORA EC2 IMAGES THAT DON'T SUCK.
:)
Right now we face a dilemma:
* The latest Fedora kernel available on Amazon EC2 is Fedora 8;
* Various people are creating "Fedora images" based on that AKI;
* Confusion results, e.g.:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/448794/how-does-an-amazon-ec2-instance...
* Which (a) doesn't work and (b) gives Fedora a bad name in
the
process.
We have an opportunity to fix this. Justin Forbes has been working with
some folks at Amazon to make this better, and it looks like we'll have an
"official" account that will allow us to do something clever, like put a
Gold Star next to "official" Fedora EC2 images.
Once we actually get them up and running, of course. Which, painted in
broad strokes, maybe looks something like this:
1. Getting a basic image uploaded and working for anybody (Justin is on
this, but maybe could use some help?);
2. Getting a basic image uploaded and working for everybody (which means
coordinating a testing account for Fedora people to use free-of-charge,
which we have funding for, and then finding actual people to test);
3. Getting that basic image created as part of the Fedora release process
(which was discussed at FUDCon, but I don't know if any of those
conversations continued);
4. Providing proper tools for people to create their own images, since
creation of a custom "spin" is basically an essential activity in the
cloud.
I'm happy to help out where I can on all of the above. From the discussion @
FUDCon I'd add two points to this
5. A fedora mirror within EC2 so people don't have to pay for updates etc.
This allows us to provide a very small base image and people can just do
"yum groupinstall some-service" to get what they want.
6. The tools and API etc (if they aren't already) for the redhat deltacloud
stuff.
It may be that some of this activity is going on already, and
that's a
large part of what this SIG is about: to find those people and get them
talking in one place, away from the clutter of fedora-devel and other
lists. So if you're working on tools that will help with this goal, by
all means, speak up.
I've not heard a whisper since the FUDCon discussion and was wondering what
the status of it was.
And now, a couple of questions.
* For Justin. How's your current image looking? Does it work well enough
for other folks to try it out? If not, what's the issue, and can
anyone
help?
* For everyone. Have you played with EC2 yet? If not, do you have a
side project that could benefit from its use, that furthers the goals of
Fedora / free software / etc., and are willing to test our images? If so,
let us know -- we've got an account for this purpose, and can
send you the
info needed to get started. Even if we don't have the latest
Fedora up
yet, there are plenty of images that you can play with to get a sense of
how EC2 works.
Briefly, not as much as I would have liked but its on my ToDo list. The
details to get started would be great, I've got 2 weeks spare in Feb where I
should be able to get a good look at this.
* For everyone. Would an IRC meeting to talk through some of this
stuff
be useful -- sort of a kickoff where everyone takes an hour out of their
life to think about all this -- or should we stick to the mailing list for
now?
I'd prefer mailing list discussion where possible. I find it notoriously
hard to make it to IRC meetings due to other schedules and timezones. With
list discussion it makes that easier.
Cheers,
Peter
2:31 p.m.
New subject: "What would you say ya *do* here?"
On Wed, 20 Jan 2010, Peter Robinson wrote:
> 1. Getting a basic image uploaded and working for anybody
(Justin is on
> this, but maybe could use some help?);
>
> 2. Getting a basic image uploaded and working for everybody (which means
> coordinating a testing account for Fedora people to use free-of-charge,
> which we have funding for, and then finding actual people to test);
>
> 3. Getting that basic image created as part of the Fedora release process
> (which was discussed at FUDCon, but I don't know if any of those
> conversations continued);
>
> 4. Providing proper tools for people to create their own images, since
> creation of a custom "spin" is basically an essential activity in the
> cloud.
I'm happy to help out where I can on all of the above. From the discussion @
FUDCon I'd add two points to this
5. A fedora mirror within EC2 so people don't have to pay for updates etc.
This allows us to provide a very small base image and people can just do
"yum groupinstall some-service" to get what they want.
I'm pretty sure that Amazon will be happy to help with this, since it's in
their interest.
6. The tools and API etc (if they aren't already) for the redhat
deltacloud
stuff.
So I would say that this is Big Goal #2, but I'm afraid we'll get ahead of
ourselves -- my guess is we've got a ton of work to do to nail down Big
Goal #1 first. Still, this is *definitely* the direction we should be
heading, and if someone wants to jump in on that, I'm certainly happy
about it.
> It may be that some of this activity is going on already, and
that's a
> large part of what this SIG is about: to find those people and get them
> talking in one place, away from the clutter of fedora-devel and other
> lists. So if you're working on tools that will help with this goal, by
> all means, speak up.
I've not heard a whisper since the FUDCon discussion and was wondering what
the status of it was.
Well, I guess this is it. :)
> And now, a couple of questions.
>
> * For Justin. How's your current image looking? Does it work well enough
> for other folks to try it out? If not, what's the issue, and can anyone
> help?
>
> * For everyone. Have you played with EC2 yet? If not, do you have a
> side project that could benefit from its use, that furthers the goals of
> Fedora / free software / etc., and are willing to test our images? If so,
> let us know -- we've got an account for this purpose, and can send you the
> info needed to get started. Even if we don't have the latest Fedora up
> yet, there are plenty of images that you can play with to get a sense of
> how EC2 works.
Briefly, not as much as I would have liked but its on my ToDo list. The
details to get started would be great, I've got 2 weeks spare in Feb where I
should be able to get a good look at this.
I'll get that to you soon.
> * For everyone. Would an IRC meeting to talk through some of
this stuff
> be useful -- sort of a kickoff where everyone takes an hour out of their
> life to think about all this -- or should we stick to the mailing list for
> now?
I'd prefer mailing list discussion where possible. I find it notoriously
hard to make it to IRC meetings due to other schedules and timezones. With
list discussion it makes that easier.
--g
--
Computer Science professors should be teaching open source.
Help make it happen. Visit http://teachingopensource.org.
5207
days inactive
5207
days old
1 comments
2 participants
participants (2)
-
Greg DeKoenigsberg -
Peter Robinson