Open Stack

OpenStack servers today use an integral *web front-end. *
Every individual server (e.g. in swift: container server, account server,
etc.) is a hybrid of two functions:
1. A *web front-end* acting as a miniature wsgi web server.
2. A *request processor acting as a *wsgi application and doing the actual
work.
This hybrid has its advantages and disadvantages.

It would be beneficial to decouple the two functions to allow
OpenStack *request
processors* to work with any standard wsgi server. (I.e. add a thin
interface layer to allow working with standard Web servers)
At the same time, OpenStack community can continue developing the existing *web
front-end as a minimalistic web-server *suited for OpenStack needs.
(Optionally, while repackaging the same code slightly differently).

Such separation will allow the OpenStack community to immediately take
advantage of some of the features already implemented in full-fledged web
servers (e.g. HTTPD). Further, it will allow each user to optimize its
deployment by choosing the 'right' web server for his installation (Given
any optimization criteria that the user will choose, e.g. performance,
features, manageability etc.).

On going analysis of the two alternatives can be found in this
post<http://davidhadas.wordpress.com/2012/05/13/openstackwebfrontend/>.
The post will be updated as more data is gathered about the technical and
non-technical aspects. New inputs and insights are warmly welcomed.

It seems that certain concerns regarding PKI <http://wiki.openstack.org/PKI>,
a unified URL Scheme <https://lists.launchpad.net/openstack/msg10843.html>,
and more are immediately solvable when using a full-fledged Web Server.
Otherwise, the *web front-end *may need to be extended.

Adam Young presented an option for HTTPD with Keystone.
Work on interfacing Swift with Apache2 mod_wsgi (+a set of instructions) is
being worked on. Hopefully this work can later be extended to other
OpenStack servers. Since OpenStack *request processor* implementations are
not always fully compliant with the wsgi standard, some bug fixing will be
required.


DH
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