[openstack-dev] [ptg] Simplification in OpenStack

Gyorgy Szombathelyi gyorgy.szombathelyi at doclerholding.com
Wed Sep 27 09:17:36 UTC 2017


Hi,

> The install docs still suggest hand configuring machines in 2017. It’s only after
> people fall down that snake pit that they find projects like
> TripleO/Ansible/Puppet/Chef, and wonder why everyone doesn’t use this
> stuff.

I just wondering, too, but about a different thing: the install doc writes nicely
how to install and configure OpenStack as an average Linux admin would do it.
Install packages/modify config files and you're ready. These steps are not necessary
to be hand-executed, they can be easily automated (Ansible comes to my mind first, as
the most user-friendly config management tool for me). Then the sysadmin looks
at the official deployment tools: they're doing their job with exta layers, extra things
which are not in the install docs, like creating containers, installing OpenStack from git,
installing an OpenStack before installing the real OpenStack, etc...
They're just overcomplicated, to be honest. 

As an operator myself, I want a solid OpenStack installation, which I can manage and upgrade,
not tens of containers, or other stuff which I cannot touch unless I take the risk of blowing up
everything. With the traditional method (packages/config management) I can sit and lay back,
upgrade when I want (did it from Liberty to Ocata in real OpenStack clusters, that means 3 upgrades,
and the clusters are still alive), can apply updates when a pacakage is released, and simply I feel 
that the infra is under my control, not under some install tool. 

These were the reasons why I wrote my ansible playbook set, and I still feel it was a
good decision (more than 2 years OpenStack operation experience says that).
I understand, maybe some wants to be at the bleeding edge, likes to run the most recent git revisions,
but most of them wants a stable installation in production.

I don't know if this opinion counts, but what I would like to see stable, good quality OpenStack packages (I
know it is very distro-specific, but it is not the problem of OpenStack, but the Linux ecosystem - containers
are just a workaround and not the right solution), and simple installers which just install these packages
and configures them. No more, no less.

My 2 cents,
Br,
György


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