Open Stack

Nice insights, Summer!

To me, the audiences are:

  *   Operator /deployer– Plans, installs, configs, deploys, and maintains clouds. Sets up other admin users, and possibly end users.
  *   Admin users – created by the operator – creates and manages projects and users, creates and manages images, manages flavors, sets quotas, migrates servers.
  *   End users – created by the operator or admin user – sets up security and access for instances, launches and manages instances, manages volumes.
  *   Application developers and OpenStack contributors – Developers who write applications that run on top of an OpenStack cloud. Also, can review and contribute to the OpenStack infrastructure, code, and docs.

There is some crossover between the operator and admin user audiences –

For me, the question is, after we complete the Config Ref, Admin User Guide, and End User Guide, what information are we missing for the operator/admin audience? If we still have missing material, that's what should go into the (project-specific) Admin Guides, which can roll up into a comprehensive Admin Guide.

Diane
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From: Summer Long <slong at redhat.com<mailto:slong at redhat.com>>
Date: Wednesday, July 10, 2013 11:23 PM
To: Anne Gentle <annegentle at justwriteclick.com<mailto:annegentle at justwriteclick.com>>, "openstack-docs at lists.openstack.org<mailto:openstack-docs at lists.openstack.org>" <openstack-docs at lists.openstack.org<mailto:openstack-docs at lists.openstack.org>>
Subject: Re: [Openstack-docs] Admin guides and restructure

Hi Anne,
I know I don't have street cred yet, but here's my offering.

Administration Guide / Admin User Guide
Am thinking that the biggest problem is one of audience. The restructure blueprint says that the 'Administration Guide' is for deployers and not for the administrative user. And it says that one of the tasks of a deployer is to 'run' the cloud.
This feels like a mixed target, the deployer doesn't necessarily stick around to administer what's been deployed. (Is this definition a result of the Ops Guide? That too could be divied up now that the suite is growing.)

With this definition of deployer, of course the Admin guide would be huge, including both deployment and management tasks. And is why the Admin Guide blueprint is so large, including information on installation and configuration in each project chapter.  If you clearly separate the audience, I believe there should be only one Administration guide, for the person sitting down to manage the beast after it's been deployed.

IMVHO, the Admin User Guide could be the 4.0 Administration Guide (with its clear focus on admin tasks), with the next release including the broader admin tasks from Nick's specification (security, troubleshooting, etc).

Project Admin Guides / Single Admin Guide
If it is at all feasible, I'd keep the project admin guides going. And use xi:includes to bring their content into the Administration Guide where relevant. There will be inconsistency across project guides, but:
--They are useful for component-focused issues.
--Detailed, advanced material can be introduced which might be out of place in an overarching admin guide.
--Dev folk will always be more interested in producing content for their own project doc (and then it can be referenced elsewhere).

cheers, Summer

Summer Long
OpenStack Documentation
Engineering Content Services

Red Hat Asia Pacific
Brisbane, Australia
slong at redhat.com<mailto:slong at redhat.com>

On 07/11/2013 05:21 AM, Anne Gentle wrote:

Hi all,


I'd like to get feedback about the administration portion of our documentation refactoring plan [1], which we overlooked when we created the original documentation restructuring blueprint.[4]


tl;dr - We need to make a decision about guides for administrators/operators going forward. Please review the following detailed analysis.


Tom, Diane, Nick, Nermina, I, and others have been reviewing the following blueprints for the Havana release:

  *   [1] restructure documentation blueprint. Describes a plan to restructure the OpenStack documentation. However it did not address Admin Guides.
  *   [2] modularize admin guide. Recommends a comprehensive administrative guide, with the option of producing smaller project-specific guides.
  *   [3] os-admin-docs. Outlines a comprehensive administration guide that describes everything that an administrator/operator needs to install, deploy, and maintain an OpenStack cluster.

I have a few concerns about these blueprints, which is why I'd like more eyes please! To see if we're talking crazy talk. :)


My concerns:

  *   We already have smaller admin guides, which are maintained by project teams. The block storage and networking teams are quite active in maintaining their admin guides. However, the object storage and compute teams are not as invested in their admin guides. So there are issues with having smaller, project-directed guides – lack of consistency, content mismatch, and other issues.
  *   The comprehensive administrative guide seems to have the same goals as the existing Operations Guide. In that book sprint, the stated goal was to create a book for new OpenStack cloud operators.
  *   We already hear that the Compute Admin Guide is too long. How can a longer guide really be the answer? Lorin pulled out the Image Management chapter to make the OpenStack Virtual Machine Image Guide, and the config chapter is moving to the new Configuration Reference. We've been gutting the Compute Admin Guide since the Summit to try to slim it into just a Config Ref and an Admin User Guide. So we're hoping that the gutting will result in a set of books, which then coupled with the Operations Guide, is the fresh-minted OpenStack administrator's ticket to success.
  *   The plan for a comprehensive administration guide might not fit with our plans for content modularity and doc ownership.

The end goal of the admin doc restructuring is to make the Operations Guide, the Admin Guides, and the Config Reference all work well together. We want to avoid redundancy and we want to provide a clear path through the documentation. And we must scope this work correctly for the upcoming October release date.


Questions:


Do we need a large, comprehensive Admin guide (now that I see the outline I'm a little daunted)?

Nick: Yes. I know that was the goal of the Ops Guide, but I think it landed in a different, and just as vital, spot. I think a comprehensive guide makes it possible for someone to avoid getting lost in a sea of books, as the guide will, well, guide them through.


Should we create an Admin User Guide with Diane's outline [5]?

Nick: Absolutely. What she has planned is a vital look at the essentials.


Does an Admin User Guide eliminate the need for a separate OpenStack Administration Guide?

Nick: No. I see it as a progression. start with Diane's book, then pickup the guide for more in depth understanding of concepts.


Should we keep the separate Admin Guides per project? (That brings along the problem with owners and inconsistency.)

Nick:Yes.the reality is that those owners are sometimes the best at this, sometimes not. A guide like this lets us improve where necessary without ditching the good stuff.    Remember we are not talking about getting rid of the great work you have done (and are doing) . Just the opposite.


Or maybe there is another option or two or eight that we haven't thought of?


Thanks for reading this far! We need more opinions and then a decision for the path forward.

Thanks,

Anne



1 https://blueprints.launchpad.net/openstack-manuals/+spec/restructure-documentation

2 https://blueprints.launchpad.net/openstack-manuals/+spec/modularize-admin-guide

3 https://blueprints.launchpad.net/openstack-manuals/+spec/os-admin-docs

4 https://wiki.openstack.org/w/index.php?title=Blueprint-restructure-documentation&diff=25490&oldid=24528

5 https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Blueprint-restructure-documentation#OpenStack_Admin_User_Guide


More reference information.


These are the current titles for the admin audience:

OpenStack Block Storage Service Administration Guide

OpenStack Compute Administration Guide

OpenStack Network Service Administration Guide

OpenStack Object Storage Administration Guide

OpenStack Operations Guide

OpenStack High Availability Guide

OpenStack Virtual Machine Image Guide

OpenStack Security Guide


These are the additional titles for Havana under consideration:

Admin User Guide (sourced from End User Guide)

OpenStack Administration Guide (sourced by combining from modular content)



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