Hi Andy, (list, I'm assuming this is not off-topic given the mention of image management in the libcloud roadmap. Please let me know if I am mistaken).
On Thu, Dec 17, 2009 at 12:25 AM, andy <[email protected]> wrote: > A belated thanks for sending notice of Clapp. The whole point is to start a conversation about image management, so thanks for answering. > I hate defining things oppositionally, so please cut me off if I'm making a > totally lame comparison, but I thought of OVF when I read your description. > > If the difference between OVF + CLAPP that you take the burden off of the > vm-manager? (In addition to supporting more formats AND providers.) OVF describes virtual hardware. CLAPP describes a bootable filesystem and how to transform it into the virtual hardware of your choice. When it comes to cross-cloud compatibility, OVF is irrelevant because it focuses on hardware. I would have to generate OVF images from a portable source, just like I generate AMIs and VMWare images today. There are lots of VM generators out there, but they're tied to a specific domain: Ubuntu has their vmbuilder [1], Conary has rPath [2], etc. So if you're maintaining an heterogeneous environment, things get pretty hairy. What I really want is an intermediary format for generating VMs: a "bytecode for virtual machines", so to speak. Something portable without imposing high-level semantics on me. That's what I'm exploring with Clapp. [1] http://launchpad.net/vmbuilder [2] http://wiki.rpath.com/wiki/rBuilder Best, Solomon
