proposal: cloud-init enablement package

[Steve Langasek]

Hi Ben,

On Tue, Nov 19, 2013 at 11:47:49AM -0700, Ben Howard wrote:
> 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.

I strongly recommend using "lts" instead of "cwe" in the package names, for
consistency with the hardware enablement stacks in 12.04 (and eventually in
14.04).  E.g., linux-image-generic-lts-quantal.

Otherwise, this seems like a sensible approach for the problem at hand.

Cheers,
-- 
Steve Langasek                   Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS
Debian Developer                   to set it on, and I can move the world.
Ubuntu Developer                                    http://www.debian.org/
slangasek at ubuntu.com                                     vorlon at debian.org
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