[ubuntu-cloud] [ec2ubuntu] Call for ideas for Ubuntu cloud / [UEC|EC2] images / cloud-init

[Hedge Hog]

On Sat, Oct 2, 2010 at 5:16 AM, Scott Moser <smoser at ubuntu.com> wrote:
> On Fri, 1 Oct 2010, Hedge Hog wrote:
>
>>
>> I'd like cloud-init kept as simple as possible and leave people to
>> choose more specialized tools for cloud configuration and management,
>
> I see the value of cloud-init's "magic" really to be in two places.
> a.) modifying /customizing the behavior of an instance very early in boot,
>   giving you the chance to change it before services  have started or
>   other things have happened that are more difficult or time-consuming un-do.
>
>   This includes bootstrapping into a more suitable configuration engine
>   such as Puppet or chef.
>
>   Right now, Mathiaz has done some good work to make it easy to integrate
>   into a Puppet infrastructure.  But, because cloud-init allows you to
>   modify the image early on, you can *insert* into an existing AMI code
>   that would allow you to easily integrate into a Chef infrastructure.
>

That all sounds great, I suppose I'm wondering if cloud-init might not
define its scope to be: Doing those things that cannot be (easily?)
done by some existing 'common' opensource cloud
configuration/management tool kit(s).

That means what is cloud-init's scope might change overtime as those
toolkits change.
What constitutes 'common' might be controversial, but say it is
functionality/behavior that is common to the latest stable versions of
Chef and Puppet that are in Ubuntu's repositories.
As more cloud management libraries become available they could included.

> b.) support cases where there is no chef or puppet or similar around.

Hmm, that sounds reasonable even noble.  But how do you avoid
cloud-init becoming a re-implementation of Chef and Puppet?
Perhaps cloud-init might become:
cloud-init (assumes no third party configuration/management library
(i.e. apart from those that are officially part of the distro's base),
and only intends to gets you to ssh access)
cloud-init-chef (assumes ...)
cloud-init-puppet (assumes ...)

Best wishes

>



-- 
πόλλ' οἶδ ἀλώπηξ, ἀλλ' ἐχῖνος ἓν μέγα
[The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.]
  Archilochus, Greek poet (c. 680 BC – c. 645 BC)
http://wiki.hedgehogshiatus.com