Openstack on Precise Pangolin – Christmas is over

In some families its traditional to send a Christmas card with an update on the family and what is happening during the year. Since it has been  a while since I wrote anything on this blog with regards to Openstack and Ubuntu, I thought I would be a good idea to give users an update on what is happening in precise.  So what has been happening?

Ubuntu Packages

The Ubuntu packaging for Openstack has been in a good state for a while now. We are working through the keystone growing pains, but it should almost be ready soon. The Ubuntu packages are constantly being tested in our test lab with the help of our QA rig. The continuous integration tests runs on every commit to the openstack github repos and uses the correct ubuntu packages. If something has changed in Openstack we can catch it right away and make the appropriate changes to the packages. More information can be found at the Ubuntu Server Blog.

When precise is released I expect to see the major components (nova/swift/glance/horizon/keystone) in main and supported in Ubuntu. Other projects such such as quantum and melange will be in Universe, however they are being maintained as a “best effort” for precise. Since they are not apart of the core project. However I expect to see this changed in precise+1, as quantum has given the go ahead to come out of incubation.

Juju

The juju charms for Openstack are looking really good as well. Again this is due to the fact that we have continuous integration testing going on. We use the juju charms to deploy a multi-node installation and run QA tests against it. The Keystone charms are in the process of being changed to work with the “redux” merge, they should be ready soon. When precise is release I expect to see the charms matching the major components as well since that is what we support.

Upstream Work

Since precise is a LTS release for the Ubuntu project the Ubuntu Server Team and other developers within Ubuntu has mostly been focusing on fixing bugs that we find and contributing the bug fixes back upstream to the appropriate projects . I expect to see more bug fixes happening between now and when Essex will be released.

Besides bug fixes we have been contributing to the Stable Release Team. Along with Mark McLoughlin (from Red Hat), Dave Walker, and myself; the stable release team in the Openstack project that has been responsible for back porting fixes to the stable release of projects such as Nova. The rules for back porting fixes to the Diablo stable branch is similar to our SRU rules in Ubuntu. meaning that no major features get in, just bug fixes.This is important to us going forward in precise. Since Precise is a LTS release and when it is released, back porting fixes from Folsom to Essex will be necessary for users who decide to run Openstack on Ubuntu on Precise.

The Future

The next Openstack Design Summit will be happening soon. ODS is the semi-annual developer gathering of developers where they discuss ideas and blueprints amongst fellow developers. I expect to be there in SFO in April and see old and new friends. I expect to see more cutting edge features when Folsom is released that will make Openstack stand out from other cloud projects. However I also expect to see back porting fixes to Essex so that users are not left out in the cold. I totally expect  to see Ubuntu leading the way that it has for the past couple of releases.