Towards reproducible cloud initialization and provider independence for RSE projects

[EricKrg]

@timsu100 and I would like to provide a workshop-like breakout session about Cloud-init.

In our latest development project, we were faced with certain obstacles and constraints when trying to use cloud services and cloud providers to host services and web applications. Most of these constraints are concerned to mitigate the cost and legal risks when using cloud providers as a public research institute. Some of these risks can be minimized by using open-source automation technology like Cloud-init. So i.e.: Migration costs in case of Provider change can be minimized, preventing vendor lock-in and being flexible to create a reproducible environment on different cloud provider platforms with a low time effort.

Atm we are using Cloud-init with Hetzner since it is a GDPR-compliant provider, but Cloud-init works with all major Public Clouds like AWS, Azure, GCP, Oracle Cloud, etc., as well as Private Cloud solutions like Bare metal installs, OpenStack, LXD, KVM, etc.

We would like to share our current experiences and provide a hands-on workshop where everyone interested can create a minimal cloud-init config (create users, configure ssh, initialize some services maybe a simple web server with nginx or apache?), and deploy an instance of it to any of the above mentioned public clouds.

We are also very interested in other reproducible deployment solutions, as well as how to combine cloud-init with Ansible or Puppet and hope to raise some material for further discussions. If this topic is of interest we are of course open to more contributors and to share this session to maybe showcase other solutions besides Cloud-init.

We thought that this session could add to #5 and maybe #2.

[pancetta]

Hi @EricKrg and @timsu100, thanks for the proposal! Would you prefer to join forces with #5 or rather have this BOS as a stand-alone session? How long do you think the session should be? We plan with slots of 90 minutes with the default length of one slot.

[EricKrg]

Hi @pancetta , @timsu100 and I are definitely open to join forces! I think we can condense the hands-on example with cloud-init to 40-50 minutes (depending on the level of detail), to make it compatible with another topic in the BOS.

[HeidiSeibold]

I added a label to this break-out. Can you check if you feel it is appropriate and change it if not? Let me know if you have any questions.

[EricKrg]

Thank you @HeidiSeibold the label feels appropiate :+1:

[HeidiSeibold]

So what I need from you to be able to make a decision on this breakout are the following infos:

Who could be interested in collaborating on this?

(feel free to tag them with their GitHub username if they have one)

How much time do you need for this?

(90 minutes or multiples thereof)

Abstract

(Can be short)

---

If you join forces with another breakout (issue), please close one of them 😉

[HeidiSeibold]

Hi @EricKrg can you please respond by Tuesday morning, thanks 😃

[EricKrg]

@HeidiSeibold

Who could be interested in collaborating on this?

@timsu100, @chillenzer, @bfrit and @pgierz maybe we can combine both topics from #11 and this one?

How much time do you need for this?

Depending on the level of Detail 40-60min approx. If the session is shared we can scale it down, if not we can extend it to 90 min.

Abstract

Tim and I would like to report on our recent experience with the OSS cloud-init using it to instantiate cloud infrastructure, while also doing it in a reproducible way, preventing vendor lock-in and minimizing migration costs. We want to provide a hands-on tutorial, where we will use cloud-init to setup a VM-instance and configure things like:

• users
• ssh services
• a web server
• and if there is time docker
• ... if there is anything else that people would wish to see we are open for suggestions

this can be done locally (using qemu) or on a free-tier cloud instance (AWS, Azure, GCP...).

We would also like to discuss pros and cons of cloud-init and possible alternatives.

[pancetta]

Hi! I just added the "Accepted" label to this BOS. Welcome on board! https://un-derse23.sciencesconf.org/program

[pancetta]

Hi all, the unconference is only 3 weeks away now! On day 1 there will be a breakout blitz where all session organizers should advertise their sessions. 1 minute, 1 slide, let people know what you intend to do. Please prepare this slide in advance and add it right here (PDF please), by September 20.

[timsu100]

Towards reproducible cloud initialization and provider independence for RSE projects.pdf

[pancetta]

Here is the main hub for taking notes: https://pad.gwdg.de/FkFJTslFQhq-UF3Es6q4rw#

[pancetta]

Have fun with the session(s)! Please add the pad you're using also here for people to see what you did.

If possible, please prepare a 1 minute wrap up of your session for the farewell session on Thursday afternoon! What did you do in the session, how would you like to continue, how can people contribute after the unconference etc. We'll go through the blitz slides again one by one as in the blitz session.