On Fri, Aug 14, 2009 at 4:18 PM, Peter Tribble<peter.trib...@gmail.com> wrote:
> You know, it worries me that Systems Administration doesn't
> enter into this proposal. We ought to be feeding input, and
> aren't.
>
> I haven't got the bandwidth to take this on myself, though.
>
> -Peter
It feels like this dovetails somewhat well with a proposal I started
to put together a while back. Then summer came, and it got nice
outside. The point of my [still not complete] proposal is to provide
personality profiles that satisfy a variety of use cases. Presumably
the development of personality profiles would have many of the same
outcomes as the use case proposal.
==== Begin incomplete proposal ====
OpenSolaris Personality Profiles
Introduction
OpenSolaris introduces a new installation and packaging mechanism
that makes it particularly well-suited to build purpose-specific
installations. That is, it is now significantly easier to create
minimized installations that serve a single purpose. Such
installations may be desirable to satisfy security requirements,
allow the configuration of a wide array of isolated services on a
device with limited disk space, or to facilitate learning about
complex multi-server configurations in proof-of-concept
environments.
This project seeks to identify services or groups of services that
match useful server personalities and provide a means for creating
functional instances of OpenSolaris that have the personality. The
creation of an instance of OpenSolaris that has a particular
personality will typically involve installation of a certain set of
software followed by some configuration. To support this, each
personality will have a corresponding IPS meta-package to ensure all
the proper components are installed as well as documentation on how
to make use of the installed software.
A key benefit of this project is that it lowers the barrier to entry
for trying out new OpenSolaris features and for trying out new
software that runs on OpenSolaris or other platforms.
Deliverables of a Personality Profile
Each personality profile will be composed of the following:
* A wiki page (or similar web page) describing the personality and
how to configure or use it.
* An IPS package that can be installed to ensure all of the
packages that the personality requires are installed
* An optional IPS package that delivers a fully functional example
configuration
Wiki Page
Introduction
The wiki page should start out with a gentle introduction to
personality. This introduction should assume that reader
doesn't know what the personality is and has not yet decided to
use it. It should be informative but typically not a sell job.
Most likely the introduction will also refer to more detailed
introductory material to understand the component(s) delivered
as part of the personality. That is, this should refer to
wikipedia, not try to replicate it. The introduction should be
a short paragraph and maybe a couple bullets.
Use cases
The use cases section should describe when this personality is
used and any specific times that it is not the right thing to
use. If this personality fits somewhere in a multi-tier
environment, explaining that would probably be a good idea. See
the Future Work section for more details on inter-dependent
personalities.
Configuration and/or Use
This section should explain what needs to be done after the
installation is complete to see the software in action. The
explanation should be specific to how to make it work with this
personality - not a general discussion of how the software works
or how to configure it on a variety of operating systems. This
is the quick start guide specific to OpenSolaris. For more
complex configuration, references to existing high-quality
documentation should be used.
Example Personality Profiles
The following subsections describe some simple personality
profiles and what this project would likely deliver.
DNS server
The DNS server personality profile would deliver the following
components:
* A wiki page describing the personality
* An IPS package pkg:/personality/server/dns
* Documentation describing how to make the software do
something useful
[ and then the weather warmed ]
==== Begin incomplete proposal ====
--
Mike Gerdts
http://mgerdts.blogspot.com/
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