This blog post was written by Adam Spiers and Andreas Jaeger.
Here at SUSE we have based our business on Free and Open Source Software for over 20 years, so it is nothing new to say that we strongly believe in open development and collaboration as a way of producing software of the highest quality.
Therefore we are pleased to announce that we have opened up our work on development and packaging of OpenStack, Crowbar, and Chef, for both openSUSE and SUSE Linux Enterprise. This work is happening publically in the Open Build Service, and we warmly invite everyone to use the results and also join in with development, testing, documentation and packaging.
Open development is a process that does not end with code on public servers, but involves ongoing open communication as well. Please speak up on the opensuse-cloud mailing listif you see any areas where we could improve further!![]()
OpenStack's incredible flexibility can also make it difficult to deploy. Therefore to ease the set-up of all the different OpenStack components out of the box, we are supporting the open source Crowbar project. Our partners and customers find that using Crowbar dramatically reduces the time spent deploying and managing an OpenStack-based cloud.
Crowbar is a platform for server provisioning and deployment from bare metal. It provides server discovery, firmware upgrades, and operating system installation using PXE Boot, and it deploys applications on top of functioning operating systems using Chef.![]()
Chef is an Open Source configuration management tool that allows remote administration of systems at scale. It has a thriving communitywhich has a large overlap with the OpenStack community. We have packaged both Chef 10and Chef 11for openSUSE and SUSE Linux Enterprise. ![]()
Since each major release of these projects is packaged separately in the Open Build Service, you are free to "mix'n'match" which of these components you want to use together:
You can also read in more detail about our development model using the Open Build Service.
You can also find more details via the openSUSE wiki: This is work in progress, so feel free to help improve anything!
Here at SUSE we have based our business on Free and Open Source Software for over 20 years, so it is nothing new to say that we strongly believe in open development and collaboration as a way of producing software of the highest quality.
Therefore we are pleased to announce that we have opened up our work on development and packaging of OpenStack, Crowbar, and Chef, for both openSUSE and SUSE Linux Enterprise. This work is happening publically in the Open Build Service, and we warmly invite everyone to use the results and also join in with development, testing, documentation and packaging.
Open development is a process that does not end with code on public servers, but involves ongoing open communication as well. Please speak up on the opensuse-cloud mailing listif you see any areas where we could improve further!
OpenStack
OpenStack is our preferred cloud management platform, due to its open nature and backing from an already huge and rapidly growing community. We have packaged both OpenStack's Folsom releaseand the beta packages for the upcoming Grizzly release and have made them available in the Open Build Service.Crowbar
OpenStack's incredible flexibility can also make it difficult to deploy. Therefore to ease the set-up of all the different OpenStack components out of the box, we are supporting the open source Crowbar project. Our partners and customers find that using Crowbar dramatically reduces the time spent deploying and managing an OpenStack-based cloud. Crowbar is a platform for server provisioning and deployment from bare metal. It provides server discovery, firmware upgrades, and operating system installation using PXE Boot, and it deploys applications on top of functioning operating systems using Chef.
Opening up Crowbar development
Similarly to how OpenStack was born at RackSpace and later grew into an independent entity in the form of the OpenStack Foundation, Crowbar was originally developed by Dell engineers, and is now a fully-fledged Open Source project involving close collaboration with SUSE and others. There are weekly public meetings, a public mailing list, a#crowbar IRC channel, public Trello boards and so on. As an indication of the project's independent nature, the authoritative location for the git repositories has changed from https://github.com/dellcloudedge to https://github.com/crowbar, and a new homepageis currently under construction. Crowbar 2.0
Work on the upcoming 2.0 release of Crowbar is proceeding at a furious pace, and packages for openSUSE and SUSE Linux Enterprise are available from the OBS. You are very welcome to join in and find out more!Chef packages
Chef is an Open Source configuration management tool that allows remote administration of systems at scale. It has a thriving communitywhich has a large overlap with the OpenStack community. We have packaged both Chef 10and Chef 11for openSUSE and SUSE Linux Enterprise. Tying it all together
Since each major release of these projects is packaged separately in the Open Build Service, you are free to "mix'n'match" which of these components you want to use together: - OpenStack Essex
- OpenStack Folsom
- OpenStack Grizzly
- Crowbar 2.0
- Chef 10
- Chef 11
zypper, and start installing packages from it. Alternatively, you can install directly via one-click install. Automation and Continuous Integration
We use Jenkins to automatically package changes from upstream git repositories into rpms within an openSUSE environment, and if they successfully build and install, Jenkins commits those changes to the Open Build Service (OBS) which then automatically builds and publishes packages and images. Jenkins also does unit tests as well as full stack tests. By automating the packaging and testing process, we can spend more time on development while maintaining high quality, and gain more clarity around where problems exist.You can also read in more detail about our development model using the Open Build Service.
Finding out more
If you have questions, ask them on theopensuse-cloud mailing list or on the recently launched #opensuse-cloud freenode IRC channel.You can also find more details via the openSUSE wiki: This is work in progress, so feel free to help improve anything!