<div dir="ltr">Very quick note it turns out our mailing lists archives where private I have no marked them as public. If the links didn't work for you in the last 24 hrs try again.<br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Feb 15, 2014 at 2:40 AM, Aryeh Friedman <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:aryeh.friedman@gmail.com" target="_blank">aryeh.friedman@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr"> We apologize for the unclearness of our wording both here and on our site (<a href="http://www.petitecloud.org" target="_blank">http://www.petitecloud.org</a>). Over the next few weeks we will work on improving our descriptions of various aspects of what PetiteCloud is and what it is not. We will also add a set of tutorials showing what a cloud foundation layer (CFL) is and how it can make OpenStack more stable and robust in
non-data-center environments. In the meantime, hopefully my answers below will help with some immediate clarification. <br><br> For general answers as to what a CFL is, see our 25 words or less answer on our site (<a href="http://petitecloud.org/cloudFoundation.jsp" target="_blank">http://petitecloud.org/cloudFoundation.jsp</a>) or see the draft notes for a forthcoming white paper on the topic (<a href="http://lists.petitecloud.nyclocal.net/private.cgi/petitecloud-general-petitecloud.nyclocal.net/attachments/20140213/3fee4df0/attachment-0001.pdf" target="_blank">http://lists.petitecloud.nyclocal.net/private.cgi/petitecloud-general-petitecloud.nyclocal.net/attachments/20140213/3fee4df0/attachment-0001.pdf</a>). OpenStack does not currently have a cloud foundation layer of its own (creating one might be a good sub-project for OpenStack).<br>
<br>Your specfic questions are answered inline:<br><br><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div class="">On Fri, Feb 14, 2014 at 11:28 PM, Robert Collins <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:robertc@robertcollins.net" target="_blank">robertc@robertcollins.net</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">I'm sorry if this sounds rude, but I've been seeing your emails come<br>
in, and I've read your website, and I still have 0% clue about what<br>
PetiteCloud is.<br>
<div><br>
On 12 February 2014 21:56, Aryeh Friedman <<a href="mailto:aryeh.friedman@gmail.com" target="_blank">aryeh.friedman@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
> PetiteCloud is a 100% Free Open Source and Open Knowledge bare metal capable<br>
> Cloud Foundation Layer for Unix-like operating systems. It has the following<br>
> features:<br>
<br>
</div>What is a Cloud Foundation Layer? Whats the relevance of OK here (I<br>
presume you mean <a href="http://okfn.org/" target="_blank">http://okfn.org/</a> ?).<br></blockquote></div><div><br><br>
<p style="margin-bottom:0in;background:none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent">We have no
connection with the above site. Personally we agree with its goals,
but our use of the term “Open Knowledge” is different and
pertains only to technical knowledge. See our web site for details
on what we mean by that term. <a href="http://petitecloud.org/fosok.jsp" target="_blank">http://petitecloud.org/fosok.jsp</a></p>
<br></div><div class=""><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div><br>
> * Support for bhyve (FreeBSD only) and QEMU<br>
> * Any x86 OS as a guest (FreeBSD and Linux via bhyve or QEMU; all others<br>
> via QEMU only) and all supported software (including running OpenStack on<br>
> VM's)<br>
> * Install, import, start, stop and reboot instances safely (guest OS<br>
> needs to be controlled independently)<br>
> * Clone, backup/export, delete stopped instances 100% safely<br>
<br>
</div>So far it sounds like a hypervisor management layer - which is what Nova is.<br></blockquote></div><div><br>
<p style="margin-bottom:0in;background:none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent">Nova is for
running end user instances. PetiteCloud is designed (see below) to
run instances that OpenStack can run on and then partition into
end-user instances.</p>
<br></div><div class=""><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div><br>
> * Keep track of all your instances on one screen<br>
<br>
</div>I think you'll need a very big screen eventually :)<br></blockquote></div><div>
<p style="margin-bottom:0in;background:none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent">Not a huge one. A CFL needs to run only a relatively small number of
instances itself. Remember that a cloud foundation layer's instances
can be used as hosts (a.k.a. nodes) for a full-fledged IAAS platform
such as OpenStack. Thus, for example, a set of just four PetiteCloud
instances might serve as the complete compute, networking, storage,
etc. nodes for an OpenStack installation which in turn is running,
say 10 instances. Addtional compute, storage and/or hybrid nodes
(real and virtual) can be added to the deploy via any combination of
bare metal openstack nodes and CFL'ed ones. Since PetiteCloud does
not, yet, have any API hooks you would need to limit this to a small
number of PetiteCloud hosts.</p>
<br></div><div class=""><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div><br>
> * All transactions that change instance state are password protected at<br>
> all critical stages<br>
> * Advanced options:<br>
> * Ability to use/make bootable bare metal disks for backing stores<br>
> * Multiple NIC's and disks<br>
> * User settable (vs. auto assigned) backing store locations<br>
<br>
</div>if backing store == virtual disk, this sounds fairly straight forward,<br>
though 'bootable bare metal disks' is certainly an attention grabbing<br>
statement for a hypervisor.<br></blockquote></div><div><br>
<p style="margin-bottom:0in;background:none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent">As explained
in the white paper, since we are a full layer 0 cloud platform instead
of just a hypervisor manager we can do stuff that would normally not
be possible for a unmanaged hypervisor (or even wise if not managed
by a full layer 0 platform). One of them is you can make the
storage target of your layer 0 instances be a physical disk.
Additionally since petitecloud does not require any “guest
modifications” when you install the OS (which is managed by the
hypervisor) you can make your root disk be a physical drive. You
can take this to some really interesting extremes like one of our
core team members (not me) posted a few nights ago to our mailing
list how to make a “cloud on a stick”.
<a href="http://lists.petitecloud.nyclocal.net/private.cgi/petitecloud-general-petitecloud.nyclocal.net/2014-February/000106.html" target="_blank">http://lists.petitecloud.nyclocal.net/private.cgi/petitecloud-general-petitecloud.nyclocal.net/2014-February/000106.html</a>
Namely how have a bootable USB drive that contains your entire cloud.
</p>
<br></div><div class=""><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div><br>
> * A growing number of general purpose and specialized<br>
> instances/applications are available for PetiteCloud<br>
><br>
> We would like to know if people a) find this useful and b) does it live up<br>
> to it's claims for a wide variety of open stack installs<br>
<br>
</div>I'm not clear what its claims are w.r.t. OpenStack. Is it a testing<br>
/development tool like<br>
<a href="https://git.openstack.org/cgit/openstack-dev/devstack" target="_blank">https://git.openstack.org/cgit/openstack-dev/devstack</a> ? Is it a<br>
deployment tool like<br>
<a href="https://git.openstack.irg/cgit/openstack/tripleo-incubator" target="_blank">https://git.openstack.irg/cgit/openstack/tripleo-incubator</a>? Is it a<br>
profiling tool like <a href="https://git.openstack.org/cgit/stackforge/rally" target="_blank">https://git.openstack.org/cgit/stackforge/rally</a>?<br></blockquote></div><div><br>
<p style="margin-bottom:0in;background:none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent">None of the
above. The purpose of a CFL is to make OpenStack easier to use
outside of a data center, e.g. to make it easier to create
cookie-cutter IAAS clouds. A CFL (ours or someone else's) is
desirable when using OpenStack in small private clouds because
OpenStack was designed to be run in data centers. OpenStack is
starting to show a tiny bit of success in running outside of data
centers, although OpenStack's design makes this difficult. We do not
see how it is possible to have large scale adoption of OpenStack in
typical small to medium sized organizations that do not have data
centers until there is a solid CFL (ours or someone else's) under it.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0in;background:none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent">During the
process of clarifying our website, etc., we will be asking, via the
PetiteCloud mailing list
(<a href="http://lists.petitecloud.nyclocal.net/listinfo.cgi/petitecloud-general-petitecloud.nyclocal.net" target="_blank">http://lists.petitecloud.nyclocal.net/listinfo.cgi/petitecloud-general-petitecloud.nyclocal.net</a>),
for help in making everything as clear as possible. If you're
interested in helping in the process please join the discussion on
our list.</p></div></div><div class="">-- <br><div dir="ltr">Aryeh M. Friedman, Lead Developer, <a href="http://www.PetiteCloud.org" target="_blank">http://www.PetiteCloud.org</a><br></div>
</div></div></div>
</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div dir="ltr">Aryeh M. Friedman, Lead Developer, <a href="http://www.PetiteCloud.org" target="_blank">http://www.PetiteCloud.org</a><br></div>
</div>