Why I will go to CCC13 in Amsterdam ?

Aside from the fact that I work full-time on Apache CloudStack, that I am on the organizing committee and that my boss would kill me if I did not go to the CloudStack Collaboration conference, there are many great reasons why I want to go as an open source enthusiast, here is why:

It's Amsterdam and we are going to have a blast (the city of Amsterdam is even sponsoring the event). The venue -Beurs Van Berlage- is terrific, this is the same venue where the Hadoop summit is held and where the AWS Benelux Summit was couple weeks ago. We are going to have a 24/7 Developer room (thanks to CloudSoft) where we can meet to hack on CloudStack and its ecosystem, three parallel tracks in other rooms and great evening events. The event is made possible by the amazing local support from the team at Schuberg Philis, a company that has devops in its vein and organized DevOps days Amsterdam. I am not being very subtle in acknowledging our sponsors here, but hey, without them this would not be possible.

On the first day (November 20th) is the Hackathon sponsored by exoscale. In parallel to the hackathon, new users of CloudStack will be able to attend a full day bootcamp run by the super competent guys from Shapeblue, they also play guitar and drink beers so make sure to hang out with them :). Even as cool is that the CloudStack community recognizes that building a Cloud takes many components, so we will have a jenkins workshop and an elasticsearch workshop. I am big fan of elasticsearch, not only for keeping your infrastructure logs but also for other types of data. I actually store all CloudStack emails in an elasticsearch cluster. Jenkins of course is at the heart of everyone's continuous integration systems these days. Seeing those two workshops, it will be no surprise to see a DevOps track the next two days.

Kicking off the second day -first day of talks- we will have a keynote by Patrick Debois the jedi master of DevOps. We will then break up into a user track, a developer track, a commercial track and for this day only a devops track with a 'culture' flavor. The hard work will begin: choosing which talk to attend. I am not going to go through every talk, we received a lot of great submissions and choosing was hard. New CloudStack users or people looking into using CloudStack will gain a lot from the case studies being presented in the user track while the developers will get a deep dive into the advanced networking features of CloudStack including SDN support -right off the bat-. In the afternoon, the case studies will continue in the user track including a talk from NTT about how they built an AWS compatible cloud. I will have to head to the developer track for a session on 'interfaces' with a talk on jclouds, a new GCE interface that I worked on and my own talk on Apache libcloud for which I worked a lot on the CloudStack driver. The DevOps track will have an entertaining talk by Michael Ducy from Opscode, some real world experiences by John Turner and Noel King from Paddy Power and the VP of engineering for Citrix CloudPlatform will lead an interactive session on how to best work with the open source community of Apache CloudStack.

After recovering from the nights events, we will head into the second day with another entertaining keynote by John Willis. Here the choice will be hard between the storage session in the commercial track and the 'Future of CloudStack' session in the developer track. With talks from NetApp and SolidFire who have each developed a plugin in CloudStack plus our own Wido Den Hollander (PMC member) who wrote the Ceph integration the storage session will rock, but the 'Future of CloudStack' session will be key for developers, talking about frameworks, integration testing, system VMs...After lunch the user track will feature several intro to networking talks. Networking is the most difficult concept to grasp in clouds (IMHO). The storage session will continue with a talk by Basho on RiakCS (also integrated in CloudStack) and a panel. The dev track will be dedicated to discussions on PaaS, not to be missed if you ask me, as PaaS is the next step in Clouds. To wrap things up, I will have to decide between a session on metering/billing, a discussion on hypervisor choice and support, and a presentation on the CloudStack community in Japan after Ruv Cohen talking about trading cloud commodities.

The agenda is loaded and ready to fire, it will be tough to decide which sessions to attend but you will come out refreshed, energized with lots of new ideas to evolve your IT infrastructure, so one word: Register

And of course many thanks to our sponsors: Citrix, Schuberg Philis, Juniper, Sungard, Shapeblue, NetApp, cloudSoft, Nexenta, iKoula, leaseweb, solidfire, greenqloud, atom86, apalia, elasticsearch, 2source4, iamsterdam, cloudbees and 42on

CloudStack support in Apache Libcloud

A vote has started on the libcloud dev list for the 0.13 release. The release notes detail all the new features and fixes. I am stoked about this because a few patches that I submitted are included in this release candidate. I patched the CloudStack driver quite a bit to improve the support for Clouds with a basic zone like Exoscale. There is more work to do on this driver including better support for Advanced zone especially for port forwarding, firewall rules and more unit tests. A the CloudStack hackathon last sunday @pst418 submitted a few patches for unit tests and they made it as well into 0.13 RC, terrific.

If you don't know libcloud, it's a python based API wrapper to abstract the various cloud APIs. With libcloud you can create connections to multiple clouds, potentially using different API. At a high level, it is similar to jclouds for JAVA or deltacloud written in ruby. There was already a CloudStack driver but its functionality was limited. If you grab my quickie libcloud shell, you can try to follow this walkthrough of what you can do with libcloud and a CloudStack basic zone. Of course you will need a CloudStack endpoint.

Start the libshell and check what zone you are on:

$ python ./libshell.py 
Hello LibCloud Shell !!
You are running at: https://api.exoscale.ch/compute
>>> conn.list_locations()
[<NodeLocation: id=1128bd56-b4d9-4ac6-a7b9-c715b187ce11, name=CH-GV2, country=AU, driver=CloudStack>]

You might notice a wrong country code, it is hard-coded in libcloud, I need to file a bug for this. Get the list of templates (or images in libcloud speak):

>>> conn.list_images()
[<NodeImage: id=01df77c3-0150-412a-a580-413a50924a18, name=Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, driver=CloudStack  ...>,
 <NodeImage: id=89ee852c-a5f5-4ab9-a311-89f39d133e88, name=Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, driver=CloudStack  ...>,
 <NodeImage: id=ccd142ec-83e3-4108-b1c5-8e1fdb353ff9, name=Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, driver=CloudStack  ...>,
 <NodeImage: id=f2101a0c-eaf7-4760-a143-0a5c940fd864, name=Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, driver=CloudStack  ...>,
 <NodeImage: id=77d32782-6866-43d4-9524-6fe346594d09, name=CentOS 5.5(64-bit) no GUI (KVM), driver=CloudStack  ...>,
 <NodeImage: id=29cba09f-4569-4bb3-95e7-71f833876e3e, name=Windows Server 2012, driver=CloudStack  ...>,
 <NodeImage: id=ee241b47-4303-40c8-af58-42ed6bf09f8c, name=Windows Server 2012, driver=CloudStack  ...>,
 <NodeImage: id=754ea486-d649-49e5-a70e-5e5d458f0df0, name=Windows Server 2012, driver=CloudStack  ...>,
 <NodeImage: id=0f9f4f49-afc2-4139-b26b-b05a9f51ea74, name=Windows Server 2012, driver=CloudStack  ...>,
 <NodeImage: id=954752a8-0486-46bb-8e3f-0adb3e01c619, name=Linux CentOS 6.4 64-bit, driver=CloudStack  ...<]

I cut the previous output, but there are also Ubuntu and CentOS images on that cloud...You can then list the various instance types or sizes in libcloud speak.

>>> conn.list_sizes()
[<NodeSize: id=71004023-bb72-4a97-b1e9-bc66dfce9470, name=Micro, ram=512 disk=0 bandwidth=0 price=0 driver=CloudStack ...>,
 <NodeSize: id=b6cd1ff5-3a2f-4e9d-a4d1-8988c1191fe8, name=Tiny, ram=1024 disk=0 bandwidth=0 price=0 driver=CloudStack ...>,
<NodeSize: id=21624abb-764e-4def-81d7-9fc54b5957fb, name=Small, ram=2048 disk=0 bandwidth=0 price=0 driver=CloudStack ...>,
 <NodeSize: id=b6e9d1e8-89fc-4db3-aaa4-9b4c5b1d0844, name=Medium, ram=4096 disk=0 bandwidth=0 price=0 driver=CloudStack ...>, 
<NodeSize: id=c6f99499-7f59-4138-9427-a09db13af2bc, name=Large, ram=8182 disk=0 bandwidth=0 price=0 driver=CloudStack ...>, 
<NodeSize: id=350dc5ea-fe6d-42ba-b6c0-efb8b75617ad, name=Extra-large, ram=16384 disk=0 bandwidth=0 price=0 driver=CloudStack ...>,
 <NodeSize: id=a216b0d1-370f-4e21-a0eb-3dfc6302b564, name=Huge, ram=32184 disk=0 bandwidth=0 price=0 driver=CloudStack ...>]

What I added is the management of ssh key pairs and security groups, you can now list, create and delete both keypairs and security groups, and use those when deploying nodes. (Don't bother trying to do anything with the keys below, I deleted everything.)

>>> conn.ex_list_keypairs() 
[{u'name': u'foobar', u'fingerprint': u'b9:2d:4b:07:db:e7:3e:42:17:11:22:33:44:55:66:77'}]

>>> conn.ex_list_security_groups()
[{u'egressrule': [], u'account': u'foobar@gmail.com', u'domainid': u'ab53d864-6f78-4993-bb28-9b8667b535a1', u'description': u'Default 
Security Group', u'tags': [], u'domain': u'foobar@gmail.com', u'ingressrule': [{u'startport': 22, u'cidr': u'0.0.0.0/0', u'protocol':
 u'tcp', u'endport': 22, u'ruleid': u'b83428c0-7f4c-44d1-bc96-4e1720168fdf'}, {u'startport': 80, u'cidr': u'0.0.0.0/0', u'protocol':
 u'tcp', u'endport': 80, u'ruleid': u'042124dd-652d-4fa2-8bee-d69973380f21'}], u'id': u'ebfa2339-e9ae-4dcb-b73c-a76cd3fce39e', u'name': 
u'default'}, {u'account': u'foobar@gmail.com', u'domainid': u'ab53d864-6f78-4993-bb28-9b8667b535a1', u'description': u'this is a test',
 u'domain': u'foobar@gmail.com', u'id': u'b7f5fbad-4244-491f-9547-c91a010e0c9d', u'name': u'toto'}]

>>> conn.ex_create_keypair('test')
{u'privateKey': u'-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----\nMIICXAIBAAKBgQCAuPufJnbzFkyIUaMymkXwfilA5qS2J9fx2Q3EWNDs1m89FLFq\n19ERjG43ZvRuI/KGwWZwHbhqoqJth7WQYNe
lYCmOUYRaepxTrpU4TGDGuhqMh9D9\
noNMIFx3ktkcTitxkSY/5h/pXqSB2XXURLpZWwZxjEYwWCpWE8i7uVtIR7wIDAQAB\nAoGAOv0Kik9lOVbhsaK/yAO8w039d7l6h+NQaYtPbMhKzg4iofomp9DJBWK2a3sp\
nzoN4s9pTKFPmXC+1gb4sLULD72ENSgyozrPMCJ0tytNa3ebVCCYDvlagEZ83KwGn\nnr2BIRLul1xyHVa+amvTemuxi7OOx0u/0aZ6jPVW9ocPahkCQQDnUACG3Q2p60Mx\
nCttW7Go2wz0BhaI8ibG8rHorhdrFJUrsTI6QrLh340uHCIEAuWUXjYDX2u5MTPBG\njWbL/A/9AkEAjnX8EzO/B/RooFTxhYdxv7D1Dzcx4H59mFzjez6N/mjAHjKL4p66\
nqGFgLa9HMhDPFOs83VetBXcihu1vueffWwJBALQUD2TvAS0wz82FYz8nrITXuE3Q\nCH7Sv8FgEXiCq89hehO+ghrVrIMBPBJzJ2M18iLE8fKaKXzTRRfYC5hwss0CQHY8\
nBdIKCGoZtxwaY7lnCEkIHNtb+9FOKf7iWQpYiJC1b32ghei3xEMrTh+ccYJj4PqD\noigyNC9tCQLi3O92OjECQGYR2z8IDlfnl7G8p7eiyBciuoDyyq5/oJHhkHbkbwzr\
nW0Uun+rEcjRnXbUN8wUQ6FSFrxk2VSajbCBteTOrF24=\n-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----\n', u'name': u'test', u'fingerprint': u'43:59:7e:00:16:45:fc:ab:81:55:03:47:12:22:1e:d5'}

>>> conn.ex_list_keypairs()
[{u'name': u'test', u'fingerprint': u'43:59:7e:00:16:45:fc:ab:81:55:03:47:12:22:1e:d5'}, {u'name': u'foobar',
 u'fingerprint': u'b9:2d:4b:07:db:e7:3e:42:17:11:22:33:44:55:66:77'}]

>>> conn.ex_delete_keypair('test')
u'true'

>>> conn.ex_list_keypairs()
[{u'name': u'foobar', u'fingerprint': u'b9:2d:4b:07:db:e7:3e:42:17:11:22:33:44:55:66:77'}]

>>> conn.ex_create_security_group('heyhey')
{u'account': u'runseb@gmail.com', u'domainid': u'ab53d864-6f78-4993-bb28-9b8667b535a1', u'id':
 u'77ad73b5-a383-4e13-94be-a38ef9877996', u'domain': u'runseb@gmail.com', u'name': u'heyhey'}

>>> conn.ex_list_security_groups()
[{u'egressrule': [], u'account': u'foobar@gmail.com', u'domainid': u'ab53d864-6f78-4993-bb28-9b8667b535a1',
 u'description': u'Default Security Group', u'tags': [], u'domain': u'foobar@gmail.com', u'ingressrule': [{u'startport': 22, u'cidr': 
u'0.0.0.0/0', u'protocol': u'tcp', u'endport': 22, u'ruleid': u'b83428c0-7f4c-44d1-bc96-4e1720168fdf'}, {u'startport': 80, u'cidr': u'
0.0.0.0/0', u'protocol': u'tcp', u'endport': 80, u'ruleid': u'042124dd-652d-4fa2-8bee-d69973380f21'}], u'id': u'ebfa2339-e9ae-4dcb-b73c-a76cd3fce39e',
 u'name': u'default'}, {u'account': u'foobar@gmail.com', u'domainid': u'ab53d864-6f78-4993-bb28-9b8667b535a1', u'description':
 u'this is a test', u'domain': u'foobar@gmail.com', u'id': u'b7f5fbad-4244-491f-9547-c91a010e0c9d', u'name': u'toto'}, 
{u'account': u'foobar@gmail.com', u'domainid': u'ab53d864-6f78-4993-bb28-9b8667b535a1', u'id': u'77ad73b5-a383-4e13-94be-a38ef9877996',
 u'domain': u'foobar@gmail.com', u'name': u'heyhey'}]

>>> conn.ex_delete_security_group('heyhey')
u'true'

>>> conn.ex_list_security_groups()
[{u'egressrule': [], u'account': u'runseb@gmail.com', u'domainid': u'ab53d864-6f78-4993-bb28-9b8667b535a1',
 u'description': u'Default Security Group', u'tags': [], u'domain': u'foobar@gmail.com', u'ingressrule': [{u'startport': 22, u'cidr':
 u'0.0.0.0/0', u'protocol': u'tcp', u'endport': 22, u'ruleid': u'b83428c0-7f4c-44d1-bc96-4e1720168fdf'}, {u'startport': 80, u'cidr': 
u'0.0.0.0/0', u'protocol': u'tcp', u'endport': 80, u'ruleid': u'042124dd-652d-4fa2-8bee-d69973380f21'}], u'id': u'ebfa2339-e9ae-4dcb-b73c-a76cd3fce39e',
 u'name': u'default'}, {u'account': u'foobar@gmail.com', u'domainid': u'ab53d864-6f78-4993-bb28-9b8667b535a1',
 u'description': u'this is a test', u'domain': u'foobar@gmail.com', u'id': u'b7f5fbad-4244-491f-9547-c91a010e0c9d', u'name': u'toto'}]

With a security group created you can now add an ingress rule:

>>> conn.ex_authorize_security_group_ingress(securitygroupname='toto',protocol='TCP',cidrlist='0.0.0.0./0',
startport=99)
{u'egressrule': [], u'account': u'runseb@gmail.com', u'domainid': u'ab53d864-6f78-4993-bb28-9b8667b535a1', 
u'description': u'this is a test', u'domain': u'runseb@gmail.com', u'ingressrule': [{u'startport': 99, u'cidr': u'0.0.0.0./0', 
u'protocol': u'tcp', u'endport': 99, u'ruleid': u'a13a21f9-1709-431f-9c7d-e1a2c2caacdd'}], 
u'id': u'b7f5fbad-4244-491f-9547-c91a010e0c9d', u'name': u'toto'}

>>> conn.ex_list_security_groups()
[{u'egressrule': [], u'account': u'runseb@gmail.com', u'domainid': u'ab53d864-6f78-4993-bb28-9b8667b535a1', 
u'description': u'Default Security Group', u'tags': [], u'domain': u'runseb@gmail.com', u'ingressrule': [{u'startport': 22, u'cidr':
 u'0.0.0.0/0', u'protocol': u'tcp', u'endport': 22, u'ruleid': u'b83428c0-7f4c-44d1-bc96-4e1720168fdf'}, {u'startport': 80, u'cidr':
 u'0.0.0.0/0', u'protocol': u'tcp', u'endport': 80, u'ruleid': u'042124dd-652d-4fa2-8bee-d69973380f21'}], u'id':
 u'ebfa2339-e9ae-4dcb-b73c-a76cd3fce39e', u'name': u'default'}, {u'egressrule': [], u'account': u'runseb@gmail.com', u'domainid': 
u'ab53d864-6f78-4993-bb28-9b8667b535a1', u'description': u'this is a test', u'tags': [], u'domain': u'runseb@gmail.com', u'ingressrule': 
[{u'startport': 99, u'cidr': u'0.0.0.0./0', u'protocol': u'tcp', u'endport': 99, u'ruleid': u'a13a21f9-1709-431f-9c7d-e1a2c2caacdd'}], 
u'id': u'b7f5fbad-4244-491f-9547-c91a010e0c9d', u'name': u'toto'}]

Great, keypair and security group work fine. Now let's do the basics of starting an instance and let's test the suspend and resume which was not in the Driver until now. Nothing earth shattering but it's an improvement.

>>> size=conn.list_sizes()
>>> image=conn.list_images()

>>> n=conn.create_node(name='yoyo',size=size[0],image=image[0])

>>> n.ex_stop()
u'Stopped'
>>> n.ex_start()
u'Running'

And that's it for now, CloudStack support is getting better, there is still tons of work to do: improve the advanced zone support, check the load-balancer and storage support, add unit-tests and new CloudStack features like auto-scaling. Carry on !!!!