Open Stack

On 8 January 2014 09:23, Clint Byrum <clint at fewbar.com> wrote:
> What would be the benefit of using packages?

- Defense in depth - tests at the package build time + tests of the image.
- Enumeration of installed software using the admins expected tooling
(dpkg / rpm etc)
- Familiarity

> We've specifically avoided packages because they complect[1] configuration
> and system state management with software delivery. The recent friction
> we've seen with MySQL is an example where the packages are not actually
> helping us, they're hurting us because they encode too much configuration
> instead of just delivering binaries.

Thats not why I'd say we're avoiding packages upstream :) I would say
that running [professional quality] repositories is non-trivial, not
directly related to our goals (because we have code -> image -> test
-> deploy) and thus not something we've had incentive to do. Add in
the numerous distros we support now and it becomes a significant
burden for little benefit to our direct goals, and little benefit to
our users. But if someone *has* packages, I see no harm (from the
code->image->test->deploy) cycle to them being used, and it certainly
helps vendors who are invested in packages to share effort between
teams installing OpenStack in more traditional ways and those getting
on the TripleO pipeline.

I'm not disputing the possible downsides intrinsic to packages,
particularly the not-at-scale temptation to create non automated
snowflakes :)

-Rob

-- 
Robert Collins <rbtcollins at hp.com>
Distinguished Technologist
HP Converged Cloud