On 01/-10/-28163 02:59 PM, [email protected] wrote:
I think there are two independent subtasks here:
**Work out the operations for the generic cloud storage (i.e.
s3/cloudfiles) and implement 'Blob Management'. This will appear as a
top level collection (like Instances, Images etc, 'Blobs' or somesuch
name 'Objects'?) - to appear obviously only for those drivers that
support it, Amazon AWS and Rackspace.
Also any cloud running the S3-compatible stack from Project Hail.
**Implement the Instance snapshot function for those clouds where it
makes sense (e.g. do we want to implement the 'clone this Instance' type
functionality offered by Terremark and Rimuhosting?). This could be
exposed as an Instance 'action' (like stop, start, reboot) ?
I think it's good to consider these as two separate functional areas,
but I think we also want to preserve the relationships between them
wherever applicable. An image might be an object unto itself, or it
might be a reference (named or unnamed) to another object (block or blob
storage). Whenever possible, the image repo should be able to deposit
an image using the block/blob API (e.g. EBS or S3 respectively for EC2)
but also maintain awareness of the name (e.g. AMI ID) that would be used
for the same image in the instance-creation API. In the case where an
image is a completely separate type of object we'd have to stub out the
data object but hopefully can still attach all of the tags/metadata that
the repo uses to keep track of images.
=====================================================
Q. Which of our currently supported clouds offers a generic 'upload
data/blob/object to our storage service and access from anywhere even
from machines outside our cloud' - type storage?
=====================================================
--i--> Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers the Simple Storage Service (S3)
[1] - not to be confused with S4 [2]
We might also need to account for EBS-based AMIs, especially because of
the S3 size limitation (sizes are unlimited in tabled BTW).
--ii-> Rackspace offers CloudFiles [3]
** The services are very similar.
** Create 'buckets' in S3 and 'containers' is CloudFiles, and place
'objects' within these.
** Each S3 account is limited to 100 buckets, each holding an
unlimited number of objects with each at most 5 GBytes.
** A CloudFiles account can have unlimited buckets and objects;
again each object must be < 5 GBytes.
=====================================================
Q. Which of our currently supported clouds allows 'register custom Image
from cloud storage', or, 'save/snapshot an Instance as a new Image'
=====================================================
--i--> Amazon AWS allows you to register an object in S3 as an Image in
EC2 [4] (Rackspace 'coming soon' [5])
** The process of 'save this Instance as an Image in S3' is termed
'bundling'
** PROBLEM: different procedure for Windose vs Linux images [6].
-- For Windows you use the AWS REST API 'BundleInstance' call
where you specify the S3 bucket to upload to (amongst other things).
-- For Linux you must install the 'AMI Tools' command-line
utilities [7] on the Instance you wish to bundle and then
'ec2-bundle-image'. Confusingly the actual upload is done with
'ec2-upload-bundle' which takes the S3 bucket name as a parameter.
** In both cases and after bundling is complete you register the
newly created S3 object as an Image for EC2 using the REST API
'RegisterImage' call.
The steps for creating a new EBS-backed image from a running S3-backed
instance, and for creating one EBS-backed image from another, seem
substantially similar.
http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/index.html?Using_BootFromEBS.html
=====================================================
--ii-> Rackspace allows you to snapshot a running Instance [5]
** This is done through a REST API call (POST /images) where you
specify the serverid (Instance) that is to be saved.
** Here there is no seperation between 'make snapshot' and 'upload
to cloud storage' - i.e. cannot export a server image [8].
** Snapshots stay 'attached to the server' [9] (i.e. saved locally?).
** Once process complete the image is available for booting a server
[5].
** 'Custom Image Upload' is in the Cloud Server API Roadmap [5].
Once you've POSTed an image, is that image retrievable using CloudFiles,
or are images totally stranded in a separate namespace from other objects?
=====================================================
-iii-> Gogrid allows you to save a 'MyGSI - Gogrid Server Image' from
your own, preconfigured 'sandbox server'
** You create a MyGSI from a configured, running 'image sandbox
server' and the new image is added to Gogrid's cloud storage [11]
** Weirdly this cloud storage is not exposed at all via the API
** The API call is grid.image.save [12] - you create a new 'image
sandbox server' using 'grid.server.add', configure it and run the 'prep
scripts' and then call the save. Once complete the new MyGSI is
available in your list of images.
I've also found this process less than reliable. To be more precise,
every time I tried it just sat there for half an hour or so and then
threw up.
=====================================================
--iv-> Rimuhosting allows you to clone an existing server and deploy a
new server from that [10]
** However, the clone must be deployed straight away - you cannot
save as an image for later instantiation.
** A chat with support confirmed this - you *can* save an image for
later use but only by submitting a support ticket (i.e. nothing in the
api or the web 'management console' to support this).
=====================================================
--v--> Terremark VCloud Express allows you to 'clone' an existing server
(a 'vapp') [13] but you cannot save this as an Image (a 'vapp template').
** Similar to the rimuhosting situation - can clone an existing
server as another server, but not as an Image
** POST https://{Terremark URI}/vdc/{vDC ID}/action/clonevapp - you
specify the vApp id to be cloned within the request body.
=====================================================
AWS:
[1] http://aws.amazon.com/documentation/s3/
[2] http://www.supersimplestorageservice.com/
[4] http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AWSEC2/latest/APIReference/
[6]
http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/thread.jspa?messageID=107847𚕇
[7]
http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/entry.jspa?externalID=368&categoryID=88
RACKSPACE:
[3] http://www.rackspacecloud.com/cloud_hosting_products/files/api
[5] http://docs.rackspacecloud.com/servers/api/cs-devguide-latest.pdf
[8] http://www.rackspacecloud.com/cloud_hosting_products/servers/faq
[9] http://www.rackspacecloud.com/cloud_hosting_products/servers/pricing
RIMUHOSTING:
[10]
http://apidocs.rimuhosting.com/jaxbdocs/com/rimuhosting/jaxrsorders/JAXRSOrders.NewVPSRequest.html
GOGRID:
[11] http://wiki.gogrid.com/wiki/index.php/Cloud_Storage:Cloud_Storage
[12] http://wiki.gogrid.com/wiki/index.php/API:grid.image.save
TERREMARK:
[13]
https://community.vcloudexpress.terremark.com/en-us/product_docs/w/wiki/6-vcloud-express-api-documention.aspx
