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>
>
>
>
