Re: Debian services and Debian infrastructure
----- "Thomas Goirand" <zigo@debian.org> wrote:
> My first remark about this would be: do we have any other cloud
> software
> that can extensively use something like Ceph for distributed storage?
> Because for me, distributed storage is a mandatory piece which we
> have
> to implement when thinking about cloud computing.
We use a MooseFS cluster for Brainfood's hosting cluster and use files
on the distributed filesystem for our KVM disk images. Moose does not
have Ceph's RADOS block device level integration but it does have some
very useful features that Ceph does not. For instance, it has the
ability to do shallow clones of a file (which Ceph can also do) and
does not require that all children be removed before the original parent
(a disadvantage which Ceph suffers from). We have found the performance
of Moose to be adequate for our needs using an Infiniband interconnect
and the reliability has been excellent.
> If the DSA wont go with OpenStack, please name another (comparable)
> solution that would fit.
We use OpenNebula because we started fairly early and at the time we first
began the OpenNebula packaging on Debian was much more mature. That picture
may have changed by now. We have considered looking more deeply into
OpenStack but OpenNebula is a breeze to script and we do not want to make
a decision that is "hype based" as some accuse the CERN switch to have been.
We also have a smaller Eucalyptus installation that we are experimenting with
for AWS based services such as Asgard.
> The puppet receipt for setting-up OpenStack are open source, and
> eNovance actively works on that right now (to have a "private cloud"
> product based on just that...).
We have been using Ansible for our host configuration. We first learned of
Ansible through our involvement with the Eucalyptus web UI development
effort and some "family ties" between the Eucalyptus team and Ansible. We
helped Ansible with some early web development efforts and, as a result,
were able to get started with their product earlier in its life. I don't
really have anything negative to say about Puppet or Chef but I would say
that our use of Ansible has flourished a rate that never happened with
either of those products.
> Another thing: I've been providing a bit more than a dozen VMs based
> on
> GPLHost Xen solution (I am the main owner of GPLHost, and it's been
> now
> more than 10 years...) for various people within the Debian project.
> The
> only requirement was that a DD would ask and write his PGP key ID
...
> or if this is because this is not well known enough. Anyway, I'm
> very happy I could help, but I'm still a bit frustrated that this
> isn't really part of the Debian official infrastructure.
Similarly we have handed out some pro-bono virtual machines to various
DDs over time just to get their feedback on how our environment worked
from their perspective. I would agree that we have not had DDs "beating
down our door" to request this service. If the availability of these
kinds of machines was more clearly advertised to DDs that might be a
different story. We have also seen some use of the machine for personal
services. That is not a problem from our perspective but I can understand
how there could be other viewpoints.
We would also be happy to collaborate in an effort to organize this kind
of service into a more clearly defined "Debian cloud platform" that
provides some well understood set of services (authentication, VPNs,
GIT repos, etc.)
--
Debian, choice of a GNU generation.
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