Open Stack

        We apologize for the unclearness of our wording both here and on
our site (http://www.petitecloud.org).  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.

        For general answers as to what a CFL is, see our 25 words or less
answer on our site (http://petitecloud.org/cloudFoundation.jsp) or see the
draft notes for a forthcoming white paper on the topic (
http://lists.petitecloud.nyclocal.net/private.cgi/petitecloud-general-petitecloud.nyclocal.net/attachments/20140213/3fee4df0/attachment-0001.pdf).
OpenStack does not currently have a cloud foundation layer of its own
(creating one might be a good sub-project for OpenStack).

Your specfic questions are answered inline:



On Fri, Feb 14, 2014 at 11:28 PM, Robert Collins
<robertc at robertcollins.net>wrote:

> I'm sorry if this sounds rude, but I've been seeing your emails come
> in, and I've read your website, and I still have 0% clue about what
> PetiteCloud is.
>
> On 12 February 2014 21:56, Aryeh Friedman <aryeh.friedman at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > PetiteCloud is a 100% Free Open Source and Open Knowledge bare metal
> capable
> > Cloud Foundation Layer for Unix-like operating systems. It has the
> following
> > features:
>
> What is a Cloud Foundation Layer? Whats the relevance of OK here (I
> presume you mean http://okfn.org/ ?).
>


 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. http://petitecloud.org/fosok.jsp


>
> >     * Support for bhyve (FreeBSD only) and QEMU
> >     * Any x86 OS as a guest (FreeBSD and Linux via bhyve or QEMU; all
> others
> > via QEMU only) and all supported software (including running OpenStack on
> > VM's)
> >     * Install, import, start, stop and reboot instances safely (guest OS
> > needs to be controlled independently)
> >     * Clone, backup/export, delete stopped instances 100% safely
>
> So far it sounds like a hypervisor management layer - which is what Nova
> is.
>

 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.


>
> >     * Keep track of all your instances on one screen
>
> I think you'll need a very big screen eventually :)
>
 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.


>
> >     * All transactions that change instance state are password protected
> at
> > all critical stages
> >     * Advanced options:
> >         * Ability to use/make bootable bare metal disks for backing
> stores
> >         * Multiple NIC's and disks
> >         * User settable (vs. auto assigned) backing store locations
>
> if backing store == virtual disk, this sounds fairly straight forward,
> though 'bootable bare metal disks' is certainly an attention grabbing
> statement for a hypervisor.
>

 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".
http://lists.petitecloud.nyclocal.net/private.cgi/petitecloud-general-petitecloud.nyclocal.net/2014-February/000106.htmlNamely
how have a bootable USB drive that contains your entire cloud.


>
> >     * A growing number of general purpose and specialized
> > instances/applications are available for PetiteCloud
> >
> > We would like to know if people a) find this useful and b) does it live
> up
> > to it's claims for a wide variety of open stack installs
>
> I'm not clear what its claims are w.r.t. OpenStack. Is it a testing
> /development tool like
> https://git.openstack.org/cgit/openstack-dev/devstack ? Is it a
> deployment tool like
> https://git.openstack.irg/cgit/openstack/tripleo-incubator? Is it a
> profiling tool like https://git.openstack.org/cgit/stackforge/rally?
>

 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.

During the process of clarifying our website, etc., we will be asking, via
the PetiteCloud mailing list (
http://lists.petitecloud.nyclocal.net/listinfo.cgi/petitecloud-general-petitecloud.nyclocal.net),
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.
-- 
Aryeh M. Friedman, Lead Developer, http://www.PetiteCloud.org
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