proposal: cloud-init enablement package

[Ben Howard]

The overwhelming majority of our cloud users use the LTS release in the
cloud.
During the 13.04 and 13.10 cycle, we have been fairly active in adding
support
and feature for new clouds (Windows Azure and SmartOS) and then
back-porting these features to previous versions of Cloud-init. Given
our velocity
between 12.04 and 13.10, I expect that new cloud-enablement work will
increase.
Further, several cloud vendors ask us on occasion to support new features. 

In the process of doing these back-ports, it became apparent that
back-porting
some features can be invasive as we may need to change a core concept or add
potentially destructive features. In other cases, we have found that
back-porting some features are simply not possible (e.x. back-porting
the Windows
Azure datasource to 12.10 is largely impossible with out invasive and risky
changes) While we take extraordinary care to prevent any collateral damage, 
there is no way to completely mitigate the risk for existing users.

As a result, I would like to propose the idea of adding a "cloud-init-cwe"
package ("cwe" means cloudware enablement):

* we introduce a new package of cloud-init-cwe-<series>
* cloud-init-cwe depends on cloud-init-cwe-<latest-stable-series>
* cloud-init-cwe-<series> would conflict with cloud-init
* cloud-init-cwe-<series> would contain back-ports and features from later
  releases of cloud-init appropriate for enabling new clouds. Depending
on the
  scope, cloud-init-cwe-<series> may be either back-ports of the required
  functionality or a complete back-port of newer versions from later
releases.
* when a new cycle opens, cloud-init-cwe-<previous_series> is a meta-package
  that requires cloud-init, thus providing an upgrade path for users. For
  example, users with cloud-init-cwe-t upgrading to 14.10 would get a new
  cloud-init-cwe-t that would install cloud-init from 14.10.
* changes cloud-init will be restricted only to security and bug fixes.



Thanks,
Ben

-- 


Ben Howard
ben.howard at canonical.com
Canonical
GPG ID 0x5406A866



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