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Openstack: Open source cloud computing software

openstack.org

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Re: Openstack: Open source cloud computing software

#41

Post by notmyname »

Goladus wrote: post #39
notmyname wrote: post #18

I'm a developer on swift (OpenStack storage == Rackspace Cloud Files). We've been pretty excited about opening this, and I'd love to answer any questions you have. Swift documentation is at http://swift.openstack.org . Check out the "SAIO - Swift All In One" page to see how to set up a VM to run it. With some very small tweaks, you can also run it on a single slice (mount a loopback device rather than another virtual…

How does openstack compare to Eucalyptus? http://www.eucalyptus.com/

Eucalyptus tries to match Amazon's APIs, and (from hearsay) it doesn't scale well.

Openstack doesn't match Amazon's APIs. Nova (compute) is used by NASA and will be used by Rackspace Cloud Servers. Swift (storage) is currently used by Rackspace Cloud Files. Swift (my area of expertise) is production-ready code that is scalable to massive levels (think 100-petabyte clusters and 100000 requests per second).

Re: Openstack: Open source cloud computing software

#42

Post by blueberry »

notmyname wrote: post #18

I'm a developer on swift (OpenStack storage == Rackspace Cloud Files). We've been pretty excited about opening this, and I'd love to answer any questions you have. Swift documentation is at http://swift.openstack.org . Check out the "SAIO - Swift All In One" page to see how to set up a VM to run it. With some very small tweaks, you can also run it on a single slice (mount a loopback device rather than another virtual…

What languages/frameworks/tools did you use to develop swift and other openstack technologies? Also are there benchmarks that compares swift to other cloud computing systems out there?

Re: Openstack: Open source cloud computing software

#43

Post by izak30 »

jacquesm wrote: post #9
chrismsnz wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was touched on in the article, but allowing the actual plumbing of a cloud to become commodity, it allows them to focus on their core business: managed hosting. Along with other benefits such as a developer community around their infrastructure and ease of friction around moving cloud hosting providers (i.e. Vendor lock-in) makes this a clear win and an excellent move by Rackspace.

This could very well be the biggest announcement of something being open-sourced made this year. I wonder if Amazon will make a comparable countermove or if they will join. (Or ignore it altogether, unlikely).

They won't have to make theirs open, or join OpenStack. All they would have to do is write a set of binaries that translate commands from one to another, and translate return values. Presumably some hackers will sort this out and open source it.

Re: Openstack: Open source cloud computing software

#44

Post by alttab »

Rackspace had a design summit last week in Austin, TX for Openstack. I was an attendee and learned quite a bit from the folks at Rackspace. They've built and re-built their infrastructure enough times they know what they need to look out for. The drop-and-swap component model is great too.

It was fantastic to see what they've put together and the business model is great. Commoditizing architecture and software really is the next step.

If anyone is interested, I could write up a blog post about my experience, maybe provide a little more insight into the buy-in.

Re: Openstack: Open source cloud computing software

#45

Post by notmyname »

blueberry wrote: post #42
notmyname wrote: post #18

I'm a developer on swift (OpenStack storage == Rackspace Cloud Files). We've been pretty excited about opening this, and I'd love to answer any questions you have. Swift documentation is at http://swift.openstack.org . Check out the "SAIO - Swift All In One" page to see how to set up a VM to run it. With some very small tweaks, you can also run it on a single slice (mount a loopback device rather than another virtual…

What languages/frameworks/tools did you use to develop swift and other openstack technologies? Also are there benchmarks that compares swift to other cloud computing systems out there?

swift is built entirely in Python using libraries like eventlet, greenlet, and WebOb.

Because benchmarks are very sensitive to deployment details, the only thing I can point you to is comparisons between Rackspace Cloud Files and Amazon S3. Of course, even then there are all kinds of variables like cluster size and network connectivity.

Re: Openstack: Open source cloud computing software

#46

Post by mdasen »

notmyname wrote: post #18

I'm a developer on swift (OpenStack storage == Rackspace Cloud Files). We've been pretty excited about opening this, and I'd love to answer any questions you have. Swift documentation is at http://swift.openstack.org . Check out the "SAIO - Swift All In One" page to see how to set up a VM to run it. With some very small tweaks, you can also run it on a single slice (mount a loopback device rather than another virtual…

I'd be curious to hear how Swift compares to MogileFS. MogileFS never took off like memcached did, but it's another piece of infrastructure that came out of LiveJournal and similarly allows one to create a storage architecture where files are redundantly stored on commodity nodes.

I'm guessing that both Amazon and Rackspace took a look at MogileFS and its architecture so it would be informative to hear what you liked and what you might have found lacking.

Re: Openstack: Open source cloud computing software

#47

Post by jnoller »

izak30 wrote: post #43
jacquesm wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This could very well be the biggest announcement of something being open-sourced made this year. I wonder if Amazon will make a comparable countermove or if they will join. (Or ignore it altogether, unlikely).

They won't have to make theirs open, or join OpenStack. All they would have to do is write a set of binaries that translate commands from one to another, and translate return values. Presumably some hackers will sort this out and open source it.

boto, libcloud, etc, etc mostly support talking to multiple clouds. The API is far from the hardest part of migration - it's actually pretty simple in most cases, unless that vendor picks something like SOAP.

Re: Openstack: Open source cloud computing software

#48

Post by bldurling »

mmaunder wrote: post #30

It's open, it's cloud, it's new, it's got NASA involved! So how does this help me move 20 terrabytes of data and a range of web services and customer facing applications from my current cloud provider to a new provider? The theory is that I can take a data snapshot of my 20 terabytes, move it to the new provider's network by driving it across town (still the fastest way to move data), "drop it in", switch over DNS an…

Your big problem seems to be moving the 20TB of data. Why not just have the data get copied over to your alternative provider as you create it. That way all you need to do is spin up your images on the alternative provider. You might still lose a few transactions, though maybe having a message queue to handle that on both providers would be a good idea.

Re: Openstack: Open source cloud computing software

#50

Post by LiveTheDream »

notmyname wrote: post #41
Goladus wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does openstack compare to Eucalyptus? http://www.eucalyptus.com/

Eucalyptus tries to match Amazon's APIs, and (from hearsay) it doesn't scale well. Openstack doesn't match Amazon's APIs. Nova (compute) is used by NASA and will be used by Rackspace Cloud Servers. Swift (storage) is currently used by Rackspace Cloud Files. Swift (my area of expertise) is production-ready code that is scalable to massive levels (think 100-petabyte clusters and 100000 requests per second).

From http://openstack.org/projects/, most open-source cloud solutions don't scale with the exception of the software behind NASA's Nebula cloud, which as of April was Eucalyptus.
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