openstack team mailing list archive

[andi abes <andi.abes@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 7:43 AM, Kevin Jackson
<kevin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hi Andi,
> Sure - the methods aren't meant for automated production installs, but to
> get to a world where I can automate using Orchestra or variations on PXE
> booting,

Well.. setting up a distributed system where all the pieces connect,
is a bit more complex than a sequence of PXE boots, as the reminder of
your post identifies ;)


I first need to get to a world where a manual install works.
> I was getting desperate in having a demonstration available to those that
> pay my wages - the best candidate I had here were Kiall's managedit repo.
>  Great work (really), but it wouldn't have been anything to be considered
> for production for obvious reasons.
>
> I looked at Crowbar a few months back and tried to persevere with it, but it
> was very very clunky and not very friendly to use.  I couldn't customise it
> to my network requirements - which aren't anything out of the ordinary, but
> I needed customisation like VLAN IDs, etc.  The docs pointed to editing
> Barclamps.

You can look at it as add complexity, but the layer that crowbar adds
on top of the core packages is meant to solve the set of problems that
go beyond installing a single node. Like ensuring that the right nodes
end up on the right vlan and use the right gateway for that logical
network.

I would be interested to hear privately more about what you found
confusing and complex. And I'd admit that we've made strides in
publishing more guides, videos and advice (and heard pretty good
feedback).

An added complexity which I don't believe is necessary in a
> world where PXE booting an OS is simple and package installation is even
> simpler.  The crux of the challenge I need to solve is just OpenStack
> configuration but documentation lags development (naturally - not
> criticising) and comparing like-for-like hasn't worked for me (e.g. devstack
> configs are completely different to what, say, Ubuntu deb packages expect).
>

exactly. One thing to note though is that your comparison is not quite
fair. Package managers do a great job in installing a single machine.
They're not meant, nor really capable to deploy clusters of machines
without some layer of orchestration. I think that's actually your
expectation from the top of the email.

>From personal experience - to develop crowbar, I find myself reading
more .py files than .html/txt files... that's the world of agile
software development. If you want to take on orchestrating an
openstack deployment - I can share some good python resources.


> Given Canonical's backing of OpenStack I thought I was in good company.
>  After I've a working setup of installing Ubuntu onto a few nodes the next
> natural step would be to use Orchestra (or Cobbler itself which we currently
> use).
>

To be fair, canonical has been working on JUJU as a layer on top of
packages, to... orchestrate deployments.

> The issue I have is that all the components are installed without out error.

package installed is not equal to cluster deployed... sorry, just had
to hammer than nail.

>  I come to use it and keystone doesn't want to play ball with the other
> components.
> This leads me to believe it can be two things: misconfiguration or bugs.
>
> If its misconfiguration - excellent - I can fix that today if someone shares
> a script or steps to configure Keystone Light to work with the rest of the
> environment.

Assuming you're chef savvy, this might be useful:
https://github.com/dellcloudedge/barclamp-keystone/tree/release/essex-hack/master/chef/cookbooks/keystone


> In the meantime I'm assuming bugs as I'm not getting anywhere fast with what
> I currently *think* are the correct steps.
>


> Cheers,
>
> Kev
>
> On 13 March 2012 11:27, andi abes <andi.abes@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Kevin, sorry for the hard time you're having.
>> However, most of the methods you described, are NOT meant for
>> production deployments.... (not saying all, because I haven't tried
>> them all).
>> You might want to look at projects which aim to automate production
>> deployments.
>> I can point you to the one I'm working on (The diablo release is in
>> production in many installations,  The essex series is abit nascent,
>> but pretty far along). It's here [1]
>> You can also download ISO's from [2]
>> (the crowbar mailing list is here [3], so you can see what folks have
>> said, and check the wiki here [4])
>>
>> hope you have a more successful experience.
>>
>>
>> [1] http://github.com/dellcloudedge/crowbar
>> [2] http://crowbar.zehicle.com
>> [3] https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/crowbar
>> [4] http://github.com/dellcloudedge/crowbar/wiki
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 6:27 AM, Kevin Jackson
>> <kevin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> > Cheers Padraig - I'll grab a Fedora install and compare notes.
>> > I guess if Fedora has an installation candidate, the problem is probably
>> > Ubuntu packaging - at least I can direct my issues at Ubuntu rather than
>> > OpenStack as a whole...
>> >
>> > Kev
>> >
>> >
>> > 2012/3/13 Pádraig Brady <P@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> >>
>> >> On 03/13/2012 09:28 AM, Kevin Jackson wrote:
>> >> > Dear all,
>> >> > I had my first sleepless night last night after a conversation I had
>> >> > in
>> >> > work regarding an OpenStack installation.
>> >>
>> >> > Are my problems OpenStack's or Ubuntu's packaging?  I would love to
>> >> > speak to someone who has this running and direct my questions to the
>> >> > right
>> >> > place.
>> >> > My aim is simple: I want a running OpenStack environment.
>> >>
>> >> I'm not familiar with ubuntu's packaging, but to allay your
>> >> fears about openstack itself, we've recently had a successful Fedora
>> >> test day testing out various functionality of Essex milestone 4
>> >> including the new keystone.  I'm not suggesting you switch or
>> >> anything, but you might be able to copy some of the configuration
>> >> etc. from the steps detailed at:
>> >>
>> >> http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Test_Day:2012-03-08_OpenStack_Test_Day
>> >>
>> >> cheers,
>> >> Pádraig.
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Kevin Jackson
>> > @itarchitectkev
>> >
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>
>
>
>
> --
> Kevin Jackson
> @itarchitectkev
>
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