Open Stack

We have scripts that implement the openstack-manuals install-guide to
install a training-cluster that can be used for training (and validates
the install-guide in the process).

As of now, the scripts install Icehouse in Ubuntu VMs (on Linux, Mac OS
X, and Windows hosts). The list of larger lab-scripts tasks discussed
for Kilo looks roughly like this (holler if I forgot something):

1) close the remaining gap between install-guides and lab-scripts for
   Icehouse
2) branch and update scripts for Juno
3) branch and update scripts for Kilo
4) create a (presumably all-in-one) VM image that can run on top of
   OpenStack
5) improve experience/flexibility on Windows hosts
6) add KVM back end on Linux (in addition to VirtualBox)
7) port host-side code to Python
8) installation on VMs running distros other than Ubuntu

We had a pretty much universal agreement that 1) is a requirement for a
meaningful discussion about collaboration between install-guides and
lab-scripts; work on it has already started.

Skipping 2) and going for 3) directly is a possibility, but it may not
save us all that much time.

Everyone seems to agree that it would be nice to have 4), but it would
also be nice to know that additional, actual use will offset the required
development resources (especially considering that it may have to be
a rather unappealing all-in-one VM rather than a three-node cluster).

With regards to 5), feedback from the field would (or hopefully will)
help us decide whether there is sufficient interest to continue and
improve support for Windows hosts. Ditto for 8).

On Linux, the choice of VirtualBox as the lab-scripts back end
reportedly hinders adoption among developers because KVM is more
popular there. In addition, 6) would also give us better performance
(e.g., nested virtualization with hardware support). Obviously,
adding a second virtualization back end will require some surgery on
the host-side scripts. It might make sense to plan for that when/if
we port the host-side code to Python [7)] which may not happen in Kilo
due to lack of resources.

So far, three people have worked on the lab-scripts. We don't
have a large community to coordinate and very limited resources for
process overhead. So, can we talk about priorities and the lab-scripts
specs that are needed/appropriate for Kilo?

Roger