From Fedora Project Wiki
(yet more changes throughout. lots of work on features and requirements -- but still skeletal!)
(getting there!)
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* Patches and contributions that will help improve the product, and Fedora in general. As we are increasingly successful, more users will take an interest in helping to develop our product.
* Patches and contributions that will help improve the product, and Fedora in general. As we are increasingly successful, more users will take an interest in helping to develop our product.
== Target Market / Audience ==
== Target Market / Audience ==
Developers creating scale out applications on top of public and private clouds, and organizations and users running those applications. FIXME (this could use another sentence? or if you think it is both beautiful and sufficient, feel free to just delete this FIXME)
Developers and operators creating scale out applications on top of public and private clouds, and organizations and users running those applications. Fedora is particularly interested in organizations that might want to contribute back to Fedora and be involved in helping find/report/fix bugs, and develop new features.
== Delivery Mechanisms ==
== Delivery Mechanisms ==
Cloud images images must be easy to consume as part of a pulbic or private cloud. Because we target these environments, we won't be worrying about physical media at all. The cloud images also won't be "installed" in the same manner that users are accustomed to with desktop or server images. The cloud image will simply boot in its target environment ready to run, or for further customization and configuration via a boostrapping service.
Cloud images images must be easy to consume as part of a pulbic or private cloud. Because we target these environments, we won't be worrying about physical media at all. The cloud images also won't be "installed" in the same manner that users are accustomed to with desktop or server images. The cloud image will simply boot in its target environment ready to run, or for further customization and configuration via a boostrapping service.
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=== Delivery Format ===
=== Delivery Format ===
Images will be delivered as AMIs on Amazon EC2, and as downloadable images in qcow2 and raw.xz formats. We may add other public cloud images and other downloadable formats to meet demand or anticipated need.
Images will be delivered as AMIs on Amazon EC2, and as downloadable images in qcow2 and raw.xz formats. We may add other public cloud images and other downloadable formats to meet demand or anticipated need.
=== Architectures ===
Initially, we will target 32- and 64-bit x86. As ARM-based cloud systems become available, we will add ARM images. We may consider dropping 32-bit x86 in the future.
=== Updates ===
=== Updates ===
Fedora Cloud images can be updated using yum as normal. We also intend to produce periodic respun images with security updates, once the infrastructure is in place to support that.
Fedora Cloud images can be updated using yum as normal. We also intend to produce periodic respun images with security updates, once the infrastructure is in place to support that.
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= User Profiles, Goals, and Primary Use Cases =
= User Profiles, Goals, and Primary Use Cases =
== User Profiles ==
== User Profiles ==
FIXME: -- integrate this list, make pretty-sounding paragraph to introduce it. Move based-on to the credits section.
There are three cloud user roles which describe the tasks of the people who interact with any cloud-based system:
Three Cloud User Roles (based on “Description and Application of Core Cloud User Roles” ACM CHIMIT 2011, December 4 2011) that describe the tasks of the people who interact with any cloud-based Information Technology system:
# Cloud Service Creator: Develop the technical and business aspects of a (simple or high-level) cloud service
# Cloud Service Creator: Develop the technical and business aspects of a (simple or high-level) cloud service
# Cloud Service Provider: Provide all types of services (SPI, etc.) to a Service Consumer
# Cloud Service Provider: Provide all types of services (SPI, etc.) to a Service Consumer
# Cloud Service Consumer: Consume all types of services (SPI) offered by a Service Provider
# Cloud Service Consumer: Consume all types of services (SPI) offered by a Service Provider
We will use a set of  personas  to describe our target users and their respective needs. This document lists the personas in summary form, with detailed  explanations of each one available in a separate document. https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Cloud_Personas
We will use a set of  personas  to describe our target users and their respective needs. These users are primarily in the cloud service creator and cloud service provider roles.
This document lists the personas in summary form, with detailed  explanations of each one available in a separate document. https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Cloud_Personas. These roles include aspects of cloud service creators, providers, and consumer
# AWS enthusiast and Early Adopter
# AWS enthusiast and Early Adopter
#* Writes and maintains a number of AWS-deployed applications including staging and production.
#* Writes and maintains a number of AWS-deployed applications including staging and production.
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# Web Developer
# Web Developer
#* Concentrates on app development, not architecture, deployment, or operations.
#* Concentrates on app development, not architecture, deployment, or operations.
#* FIXME (second summary point)
#* Unlikely to care deeply about OS internals, cares that they can easily deploy the frameworks they want to use.
# Large-Environment Sysadmin
# Large-Environment Sysadmin
#* Interested in deploying self-service PaaS to lighten operational load
#* Interested in deploying self-service PaaS to lighten operational load
#* FIXME (second summary point)
#* Will work closely with development team on deployment and development.
# Data Scientist
# Data Scientist
#* Works with large data sets and intends to
#* Works with large data sets
#* FIXME (second summary point)
#* Interested in big data tools and dedicated scripting languages (R, Octave, etc.)
# HPC Scientist
# HPC Scientist
#* Moving from traditional batch and grid technology to the cloud
#* Moving from traditional batch and grid technology to the cloud.
#* FIXME (second summary point)
#* Interested in hybrid cloud (infrastructure overflow) for some massive computation campaigns.
== Primary Use Cases ==
== Primary Use Cases ==
FIXME: does this list cover all of our personas?
FIXME: does this list cover all of our personas?
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Modern web applications are deployed as a collection of interconnected services, including parts like web servers, application servers, databases, and caching layers. Fault tolerance is handled at the overall orchestration level rather than by individual instances Fedora Cloud can be the base of each of these parts, providing recent libraries, server software, and language toolchains. Each system will be managed using the public cloud's own management tools plus a configuration management system like Puppet, Chef, Salt, or Ansible.
Modern web applications are deployed as a collection of interconnected services, including parts like web servers, application servers, databases, and caching layers. Fault tolerance is handled at the overall orchestration level rather than by individual instances Fedora Cloud can be the base of each of these parts, providing recent libraries, server software, and language toolchains. Each system will be managed using the public cloud's own management tools plus a configuration management system like Puppet, Chef, Salt, or Ansible.
Code may be developed against different language stacks; if these are readily available to users, that's a win. In the real world, libraries and other code we don't include may also be required and we should make that as painless as possible.
Code may be developed against different language stacks; if these are readily available to users, that's a win. In the real world, libraries and other code we don't include may also be required and we should make that as painless as possible.
FIXME: we mention Rails in our personas. Let's call that out specifically, as well as a few other major language stacks we know are priorities.,
Fedora Cloud will provide access to the following stacks (not exhaustive):
* Ruby: Rails, Sinatra
* Python 2 & 3: Django, Pyramid, Flask
* PHP 5.x: Symfony2, ZendFramework 2.x
* Node.js
* Java
* Perl 5.x
=== Web Application Deployment in Private Cloud ===  
=== Web Application Deployment in Private Cloud ===  
As above, but in a locally-deployed and managed private cloud system.
As above, but in a locally-deployed and managed private cloud system.
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FIXME: MORE DETAILS
FIXME: MORE DETAILS
=== Big Data / Number-Crunching ===
=== Big Data / Number-Crunching ===
Deploy scale-out application for data processing to public, private, or hybrid cloud.
Deploy scale-out application for data processing to public, private, or hybrid cloud for running batch jobs. This includes short-lived instances that will be used for processing a large amount of data in a scale-out fashion; perhaps using Amazon Web Services spot instances ro
FIXME: more? Deetails????
FIXME: more? Deetails????
=== OpenShift Origin System ===
=== PaaS node images ===
FIXME: make this tech-independent -- basis for PAAS. (OpenShift can be mentioned, but these should be problem-focused.)
We should be able to provide Fedora Cloud Images for platform-as-a-service (ie: OpenShift Origin) for easy deployment.
OpenShift Origin is an open source platform-as-a-service system already included in Fedora.
Since we have a limited output, Cloud SIG will focus on a limited set of open-source PaaS, and provide support for volunteer-based efforts to port other PaaSes.
A Fedora Cloud image focused on OpenShift would make it easy for users
Currently supported:
to run their own PaaS.
* OpenShift Origin (included in Fedora Packages Collections)
=== Simple Deployment of code to from Development to Production ===
=== Simple Deployment of code to from Development to Production ===
As a developer, I want to ensure that my code is easily deployable from my development environment to a QA environment and finally a production environment, without encountering compatibility issues or surprises from differences in the environment. A solution where an identical customized image or container is used in all three environments is ideal.
As a developer, I want to ensure that my code is easily deployable from my development environment to a QA environment and finally a production environment, without encountering compatibility issues or surprises from differences in the environment. A solution where an identical customized image or container is used in all three environments is ideal.
=== Development as Part of a Team ===
As a member of a development team, I would like to develop in an environment where code can go through unit or functional testing, and be approved or accepted by other members of the team.
Example: A feature described as “Continuous Integration platform” may be listed in the Features section, and the various tools available to implement  would be enumerated and described in the “non-functional requirements” section, and cross-coordinated with the server working group.
FIXME/note I (mattdm) don't think we're ready for this one -- it's more involved than the other things we are tackling. maybe after the first release?
=  Target IaaS environments =
=  Target IaaS environments =
The Fedora Cloud product can be used as a guest/VM/image under many IaaS services and providers. For projects that are not currently packaged within Fedora/EPEL, we may need to locate a kind person to ensure testing. These include:
The Fedora Cloud product can be used as a guest/VM/image under many IaaS services and providers. For projects that are not currently packaged within Fedora/EPEL, we may need to locate a kind person to ensure testing. These include:
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* Apache Cloudstack
* Apache Cloudstack
* OpenNebula
* OpenNebula
* oVirt (FIXME: should this be in our focus? it's more traditional enterprise virt than iaas)
* oVirt
Public clouds:
Public clouds:
* Amazon EC2
* Amazon EC2
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* Linode
* Linode
= Features =
= Features =
FIXME: this is documentation for us as PRD writers. Remove once the feature section is in better shape. :)
Features here address the primary and secondary use cases, product or secondary objectives,  market opportunities from above.
Features should provide functional requirements (“what it should do”) preferably in a narrative fashion - more of a story / solution description, rather than “package XYZ” - the features (the ways to meet a user's objectives?) each likely consist of more than one package/enhancement, and those packages should be detailed in the “Detailed requirements” section of this document, and each of those detailed requirements should refer back to which feature it supports.
== Feature #0 ==
Feature description should be described in the line saying “Feature #1/2/etc.”.
Describe the feature in more detail, specifically addressing how it addresses user scenarios, primary or secondary use cases / objectives of the product.
Use a table to indicate the following items:
Priority (Must, Should, NTH)
Citation of use cases addressed
As work continues and specific detailed requirements are developed, reference the detailed requirements within this document helping to fulfill this feature. This helps to ensure awareness around “do we still have a feature if some of the detailed requirements are not fulfilled, and thus are not able to address the specific use case needs / user objectives.”
== Feature: Ready to run in Public and Private Clouds ==
== Feature: Ready to run in Public and Private Clouds ==
The Fedora cloud image is ready to go out of the box in the public and private cloud environments we target. It includes cloud-init, the defacto standard for boot-time configuration for cloud instances, and the client provisioning tools for OpenStack Heat.
The Fedora cloud image is ready to go out of the box in the public and private cloud environments we target. It includes cloud-init, the defacto standard for boot-time configuration for cloud instances, and heat_cfgtools package, which is used for handling guest initialization with OpenStack Heat.
== Feature: Ready Access to Fedora Collection of Packages ==
== Feature: Ready Access to Fedora Collection of Packages ==
SUPER FIXME
* Access to the standard Fedora package repositories
* normal packages
* Standard language stacks (like Python, Ruby, NodeJS, PHP)
* language and application stacks to enable whatever you need... blah blah blah FIXME
* Modernized language and application-specific stacks, perhaps in the form of SCLs, for running userspace applications
* different versions of languages through Software Collections
== Feature: Updated Images
* other technologies as they are developed and integrated
Currently, the Fedora Cloud images are only produced twice-yearly as part of the general Fedora release. Because Fedora updates constantly, this means that after several months, it is often the case that a newly-launched image has pending updates which effectively replace the entire content. This is slow and wastes bandwidth, and in many cases means that users simply never update.
Instead, we will produce images with security updates and critical bugfixes rolled in. Our initial target is monthly releases, with special updates produced for critical security flaws.
== Feature: Docker support ==
== Feature: Docker support ==
Docker is an easy to use interface for running application containers on Linux. Fedora is uniquely positioned to provide the best platform for Docker, since this container technology is not a security solution, but can be made reasonably secure when wrapped with SELinux. This includes adding libvirt support to the image, which is more heavyweight than many users of the image for other purposes will want, so we will produce a dedicated image specfically tailored for Docker.
Docker is an easy to use interface for running application containers on Linux. Fedora is uniquely positioned to provide the best platform for Docker, since this container technology is not a security solution, but can be made reasonably secure when wrapped with SELinux. This includes adding libvirt support to the image, which is more heavyweight than many users of the image for other purposes will want, so we will produce a dedicated image specfically tailored for Docker.
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The following areas are unlilel;y to be completely addressed in the upcoming iteration of Fedora Cloud, but we intend to work on them in the future.
The following areas are unlilel;y to be completely addressed in the upcoming iteration of Fedora Cloud, but we intend to work on them in the future.
=== Image Generation Tools ===
=== Image Generation Tools ===
FIXME
The official Fedora Cloud images will be produced in the Fedora build system (Koji) using kickstart scripts, Anaconda, Oz, and ImageFactory. We also want to provide tools and documentation so users can easily respin their own images. This will likely be using ImageFactory as well. We may provide a web-based service for user-created images.
=== Image or Image Template Library ===
=== Image or Image Template Library ===
FIXME
In addition to the basic tooling for image creation, we want to enable sharing of user-created images and their recipies. This may apply to Docker or other container images in addition to images targetted at full virtualization.
=== Higher-Level Cloud Tooling ===
=== Higher-Level Cloud Tooling ===
FIXME
Initial efforts focus on individual cloud images. In the future, we want to address higher level concerns as well. These areas include:
# Orchestration
# Orchestration
# Performance / Scalability / Failover
# Performance / Scalability / Failover
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= Requirements =
= Requirements =
== Requirement #1: Reducing Image Footprint ==
== Requirement #1: Reducing Image Footprint ==
FIXME Short description
Making the Fedora
=== Feature(s) Addressed ===
=== Feature Addressed ===
FIXME
Ready to run in Public and Private Clouds.
=== Priority ===
=== Priority ===
Nice to Have. The current cloud image is reasonably sized when compared to our competitors. However, smaller footprint has several advantages. Fewer packages means fewer updates and a smaller target for security problems. It makes it faster to download and deploy images. And, reducing things our users don't really need gives more room to include things they do.
Nice to Have. The current cloud image is reasonably sized when compared to our competitors. However, smaller footprint has several advantages. Fewer packages means fewer updates and a smaller target for security problems. It makes it faster to download and deploy images across networks where the image storage and compute nodes run separately. And, reducing things our users don't really need gives more room to include things they do
=== Specific Areas ===
=== Specific Areas ===
This requirement has several areas where effort will yield meaningful results. Each has its own level of effort, stakeholders, and dependencies.
This requirement has several areas where effort will yield meaningful results. Each has its own level of effort, stakeholders, and dependencies.
==== Cloud-Focused Base Kernel ====
==== Cloud-Focused Base Kernel ====
* FIXME
The cloud-focused base kernel will be a minimal kernel without many of the drivers traditionally necessary on hardware, like most PCI devices. The goal of having a custom kernel is ultimately to reduce the size of the images which will reduce storage costs, make the images easier to move across networks between compute and image storage nodes  (see 'Reducing image footprint' section above),
Effort is moderate; it includes defining the exact requirments of the smaller kernel, and creation and maintenance of that separatation by the Fedora kernel team.
==== Internationalization / Localization ===
==== Internationalization / Localization ===
*  FIXME NTH: Cloud Product base images should only includes en.us_US locale since it is meant to be used as an deployment target to save space. Other locales should be available through repositories.
Fedora Cloud base images should only include a single default locale since it is meant to be used as an deployment target to save space. Other locales should be available through repositories. The idea is to rely on langpacks rather than the current RPM kludges which leave out internationalization, because that approach does not allow one to easily add language support later.
The idea is to rely on langpacks rather than RPM wizardry.
Effort required is fairly high, because the packaging tools do not currently have such support. It will also likely have some impact on all Fedora packagers, depending on the implementation, and may also involve changes to the packaging guidelines.
==== Included Documentation ====
==== Included Documentation ====
*  FIXME... same problem
Documentation has the same issue as internationalization: it is often not needed on each image but takes significant space, and cannot be easily added back if RPM is configured to exclude it initially.
Effort is similar to that for internationalization, although significant impact could be made by breaking out documentation from key packages included in the base image.
==== Refactoring Cloud-Init= ===
==== Refactoring Cloud-Init= ===
* FIXME Dependency chain craziness, modules not necessarily right, etc.
Cloud Init was initially designed for a different distribution and is only loosely tailored for our needs. As it stands, it pulls in a rather large set of packages not used for other things. It is also written in Python, itself a large subsystem which it would eventually be nice to leave out of the base.
Effort is moderate, with some low-hanging fruit which may be addressed easily.
== Requirement #2: Improved Docker Integration ==
== Requirement #2: Improved Docker Integration ==
FIXME -- particularly of interest, selinux support. also docker infrastructure, image building, dockerfiles, etc.
Docker is a popular tool for launching and managing application containers. This runs on bare metal, in virtualization on developers' machines, or in cloud guests.
Right now, Docker can be added to the cloud base image but isn't included by default. Docker itself is small, but infrastructure to support it includes Libvirt, which is not small.l In order to make it easier to get started and to speed up use in production, we will produce a Docker-specific image.
Additionally, we want to create a library of Dockerfiles and an
=== Feature(s) Addressed ===
=== Feature(s) Addressed ===
FIXME
Docker support.
=== Priority ===
=== Priority ===
FIXME Must, should, NTH
Should. This feature is an important change to support a variety of different teams working on PaaS (like OpenShift) and end-user delivery issues. That being said, since there is very little usage of Docker in those tools right now and the package is available in the repositories already it won't be terribly detrimental to not have the image complete.
=== Effort required ===
=== Effort required ===
FIXME High, Medium, Low
High. We can produce the basic image with minor work, but SELinux is key feature which will make us stand out from other systems on which Docker can be run. Additionally, producing official Docker container images depends on changes to the build system.
=== Stakeholders / Owners ===
=== Stakeholders / Owners / Major Dependencies ===
FIXME
The Cloud SIG and our users are the major stakeholders. The SELinux team is instrumental in delivering the functionality we would like to see. Fedora Infrastructure and Release Engineering are involved in updating the build system. And the official images will be produced through Release Engineering.
=== Major Dependencies ===
Major dependencies include:
FIXME
* Better SElinux MCS separation incorporated in the policies shipped in Fedora
=== Testing ===
* Creation of an agreed upon set of Dockerfiles for different tasks
FIXME
* ImageFactory support for creating Docker images, and that support integrated into Koji.
=== Other Documentation ===
FIXME
== Requirement #3: Automatic Production and Upload of Images
== Requirement #3: Automatic Production and Upload of Images
  FIXME: describe. qa also here? (taskotron?)
  FIXME: describe. qa also here? (taskotron?)
   
   
=== Feature(s) Addressed ===
=== Feature(s) Addressed ===
FIXME
Updated Images.
=== Priority ===
=== Priority ===
FIXME Must, should, NTH
Must. We simply need this to be useful to our users, and therefore to be competitive.
=== Effort required ===
=== Effort required ===
FIXME High, Medium, Low
High. Release Engineering does not currently have the tooling in place to support this.
=== Stakeholders / Owners ===
=== Stakeholders / Owners / Major Dependencies ===
FIXME
The Fedora Cloud Working Group will work with Release Engineering in implementing and supporting the needed functionality.
=== Major Dependencies ===
FIXME
=== Testing ===
FIXME
=== Other Documentation ===
FIXME
== Requirement #4: Needs for Big Data Image
== Requirement #4: Needs for Big Data Image
SUPER-FIXME: do we have anything here?
SUPER-FIXME: do we have anything here?
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=== Effort required ===
=== Effort required ===
FIXME High, Medium, Low
FIXME High, Medium, Low
=== Stakeholders / Owners ===
=== Stakeholders / Owners Major Dependencies ===
FIXME
=== Major Dependencies ===
FIXME
=== Testing ===
FIXME
=== Other Documentation ===
FIXME
FIXME
== Requirement #5: Software Stacks for Various Languages
== Requirement #5: Software Stacks for Various Languages
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FIXME: different versions, lifespan greater than one cycle, etc.
FIXME: different versions, lifespan greater than one cycle, etc.
=== Feature(s) Addressed ===
=== Feature(s) Addressed ===
FIXME
Ready Access to Fedora Collection of Packages.
=== Priority ===
=== Priority ===
FIXME Must, should, NTH
Must. This addresses a the key needs of userbase.
=== Effort required ===
=== Effort required ===
FIXME High, Medium, Low
FIXME High, Medium, Low
=== Stakeholders / Owners ===
=== Stakeholders / Owners / Major Dependencies ===
FIXME
=== Major Dependencies ===
FIXME
=== Testing ===
FIXME
=== Other Documentation ===
FIXME
FIXME
== Requirement #6: Integration with Fedora Server Roles
== Requirement #6: Integration with Fedora Server Roles
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=== Effort required ===
=== Effort required ===
FIXME High, Medium, Low
FIXME High, Medium, Low
=== Stakeholders / Owners ===
=== Stakeholders / Owners / Major Dependencies ===
FIXME
=== Major Dependencies ===
FIXME
=== Testing ===
FIXME
=== Other Documentation ===
FIXME
FIXME
== Requirement #7:  Tools for User Image Creation
== Requirement #7:  Tools for User Image Creation
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FIXME
FIXME
=== Priority ===
=== Priority ===
FIXME Must, should, NTH
Nice to have. This is not required for our initial launch.
=== Effort required ===
=== Effort required ===
FIXME High, Medium, Low
FIXME High, Medium, Low
=== Stakeholders / Owners ===
=== Stakeholders / Owners / Major Dependencies ===
FIXME
=== Major Dependencies ===
FIXME
=== Testing ===
FIXME
=== Other Documentation ===
FIXME
FIXME
== Requirement #8: Updated Web Site for Obtaining Cloud Images
== Requirement #8: Updated Web Site for Obtaining Cloud Images
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=== Effort required ===
=== Effort required ===
FIXME High, Medium, Low
FIXME High, Medium, Low
=== Stakeholders / Owners ===
=== Stakeholders / Owners / Major Dependencies ===
FIXME
=== Major Dependencies ===
FIXME
=== Testing ===
FIXME
=== Other Documentation ===
FIXME
FIXME
== Documentation ==
== Documentation ==
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=== Open Source Projects documentation ===
=== Open Source Projects documentation ===
Ensuring that Fedora is well-represented, up-to-date in other open source project documentation...
Ensuring that Fedora is well-represented, up-to-date in other open source project documentation...
== Release Criteria ==
FIXME -- should we punt on this for now?
= Technical requirements =
== Maintainability ==
== Support Requirements ==
=== Architectures Supported ===
* x86
* x86_64
* at some point: ARM (which variants ?)
=== Supported (platforms?) ===
Virtualization types? Container types?
== Security ==
FIXME -- also punt?
= About this Document =
= About this Document =
This PRD (Product Requirements Document) is an evolving document, created by the Fedora Cloud SIG Working Group as part of the process for designing the Fedora Cloud product. The framework for the PRD itself is currently in a draft state.
This PRD (Product Requirements Document) is an evolving document, created by the Fedora Cloud SIG Working Group as part of the process for designing the Fedora Cloud product. The framework for the PRD itself is currently in a draft state.
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* [[User:skottler|Sam Kottler]]
* [[User:skottler|Sam Kottler]]
* [[User:Hguemar| Haïkel Guémar]]
* [[User:Hguemar| Haïkel Guémar]]
Some aspects of Fedora Cloud personas are based on [https://docs.google.com/document/d/16rkiXWxxgzGT47_Wc6hzIPzO2-s2JWAPEKD0gP2mt7E OpenStack personas] (licensed under CC-By 3.0).
* [[User:jzb| Joe Brockmeier]]
== Reviewers & Contributors ==
== Reviewers & Contributors ==
The following people have contributed to the development of this document, through feedback on IRC, mailing lists, and other points of contact.  
The following people have contributed to the development of this document, through feedback on IRC, mailing lists, and other points of contact.  
* [[User:mattdm|Matthew Miller]]
* [[User:mattdm|Matthew Miller]]
* [[User:skottler|Sam Kottler]]
* [[User:jzb|Joe Brockmeier]]
==  Credits ==
Some of the Cloud User Roles are based on “Description and Application of Core Cloud User Roles” ACM CHIMIT 2011, December 4 2011.
Some aspects of Fedora Cloud personas are based on [https://docs.google.com/document/d/16rkiXWxxgzGT47_Wc6hzIPzO2-s2JWAPEKD0gP2mt7E OpenStack personas] (licensed under CC-By 3.0)
==  Community Information ==
==  Community Information ==
The Fedora Cloud SIG is one of many teams within the Fedora Project.
The Fedora Cloud SIG is one of many teams within the Fedora Project.
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* October 28, 2013: [http://fedoraproject.org/w/index.php?title=Cloud_PRD&oldid=358260 Initial Draft of template.]
* October 28, 2013: [http://fedoraproject.org/w/index.php?title=Cloud_PRD&oldid=358260 Initial Draft of template.]
* FutureDate: Approval by SomeGroup; link to any pertinent mail announcement and/or meeting minutes
* FutureDate: Approval by SomeGroup; link to any pertinent mail announcement and/or meeting minutes
==Tracking of Progress==
This document contains numerous descriptions of use cases, descriptions of feature sets to address the use cases, and the requirements to enable those features. Numerous Fedora self-contained and systemwide changess (in addition to updates to individual packages) may combine to address those use cases and feature sets. Thus, as a single release, or even series of releases, undergoes development, it is useful to easily track how an entire use case or feature set may be progressing.
While Fedora uses the [[Changes/Policy | Changes Process]] to track changes in the distribution, those changes are typically described as details of changes to a specific package, or the introduction of a specific package, rather than as a piece of a larger feature set.
This document could possibly be used to do any or a number of the following things:
* Provide a secondary location where changes are tracked (which seems like a lot of overhead to me)
* Provide a location where overall Feature Progress is tracked, via periodic cross-checking against Change pages; this could be either in a standalone section, or simply attached to each Feature description.
* Scope out  how features are expected to progress over a number of releases.
* None of these things.
FIXME -- add this When we more fully determine how to most efficiently track progress, the pointer to where that tracking is done, and/or the description of or process by which we do the tracking is formalized, should be documented in this section in lieu of what is currently written here.
== Document Conventions==
== Document Conventions==
=== Definitions and Acronyms ===
=== Definitions and Acronyms ===

Revision as of 16:37, 20 January 2014

CURRENTLY EDITING IN ETHERPAD. SEE #fedora-cloud on Freenode to coordinate.

The Fedora Cloud Special Interest Group

Fedora Cloud Product Requirements Document.

Document Purpose and Overview

This is the wikipedia Product Requirements Document for the Fedora Cloud SIG. It:

  • Provides a high-level market of the cloud computing market as it pertains to the Fedora Cloud SIG; this includes overviews of things which may not be within our actual scope/ability to accomplish at the current time.
  • Provides deeper understanding of the types of users who could use Fedora for their cloud computing needs. This includes describing their main day-to-day tasks, common problems, and so on. The perspective here is not necessarily limited to system administrators, or developers, but a combination of many types of users and roles.
  • Ties common issues and needs of potential users and consumers of the Fedora Cloud product to high-level product needs, from a "functional" standpoint
  • Provides solutions, in the form of "changes" or "features" which will provide the functionality described as needs for the potential users.

Release/Product Overview

Fedora Cloud provides a customizable base image and tools for developing scale out applications on public and private clouds, as well as two to four images pre-configured for what we expect to be the most popular scenarios/use cases for using Fedora for cloud computing. Public and private cloud adoption is taking off, and the requirements for an image OS differ significantly from the requirements for a desktop or server OS. In these environments, much or all of the instance lifecycle — from the creation of the image and addition of software or configuration specific to the instance, to the teardown of the image — will be automated. Systems are designed to scale out via many identical nodes rather than scale up with carefully-tended individual servers. Individual uptime (mean time between failure) is not as important as the ability to get a new instance running quickly (mean time to recovery). With that in mind, we're tailoring a release specifically for cloud environments.

Market Opportunity

Public and private cloud adoption is happening rapidly, but the market is not yet mature and is relatively ripe for disruption even though some favorites have emerged as early leaders. In the next two to three years, we expect to see a great deal of growth in adoption and still see a number of emerging players where no clear favorites have emerged (for instance, Google Compute Engine). Additionally, some platforms (Amazon Web Services) have matured to a point where a large number of companies are relying upon the technology for their full infrastructure. While this is not a widespread practice, AWS is seeing a great deal of adoption and will likely start eating into "traditional" workloads that currently live behind the firewall. In short, there's an enormous opportunity for Fedora to become an instance-OS of choice if the project moves quickly, develops or adopts the right technologies, and succeeds in educating the market about its existence. A failure on any of those three points means that the Fedora Cloud product will have little chance in taking a significant portion of the new market or taking any of the existing market.

Major Release Themes

Cloud computing in general is the transition of computing power from individual hand-tended resources to a ubiquitous utility. Fedora fits in at several levels, from the infrastructure service software we include (like OpenStack and Eucalyptus) to end-user tools. The Fedora Cloud image fits into middle of this, providing a guest OS image to run on Infrastructure as a Service systems, on which platform and application services can be deployed. We targets use cases which fit the "cattle" side of the "pets vs. cattle" metaphor for computing.

Secondary Objectives

Aside from adoption and development of applications on top of the Fedora Cloud images, we have a few secondary goals that will be helped by wider adoption:

  • More testing of Fedora images with additional bug reports.
  • Better feedback about how the product should improve. This is separate from "bug reports" in that we hope to engage the audience and receive detailed feedback about use cases, desired features, developing trends in cloud management, etc.
  • Patches and contributions that will help improve the product, and Fedora in general. As we are increasingly successful, more users will take an interest in helping to develop our product.

Target Market / Audience

Developers and operators creating scale out applications on top of public and private clouds, and organizations and users running those applications. Fedora is particularly interested in organizations that might want to contribute back to Fedora and be involved in helping find/report/fix bugs, and develop new features.

Delivery Mechanisms

Cloud images images must be easy to consume as part of a pulbic or private cloud. Because we target these environments, we won't be worrying about physical media at all. The cloud images also won't be "installed" in the same manner that users are accustomed to with desktop or server images. The cloud image will simply boot in its target environment ready to run, or for further customization and configuration via a boostrapping service.

Where to obtain

Users will be able to obtain the images for public clouds via download or via the usual marketplace for those images. For instance, we publish Amazon AMIs on Amazon directly. Users are able to launch new instances with Fedora without having to obtain the images directly from the Fedora Project and then upload to Amazon. Users will be able to download appropriate images for Apache CloudStack, Eucalyptus, OpenStack, OpenNebula, and other IaaS platforms.

Delivery Format

Images will be delivered as AMIs on Amazon EC2, and as downloadable images in qcow2 and raw.xz formats. We may add other public cloud images and other downloadable formats to meet demand or anticipated need.

Architectures

Initially, we will target 32- and 64-bit x86. As ARM-based cloud systems become available, we will add ARM images. We may consider dropping 32-bit x86 in the future.

Updates

Fedora Cloud images can be updated using yum as normal. We also intend to produce periodic respun images with security updates, once the infrastructure is in place to support that.

Image Creation Toolkit

We will also maintain a set of tools that can be used to generate, modify, and configure Fedora instances for use with public and private clouds. Initial efforts will focus on creating official images in Fedora's build system. This effort is in parallel to that and does not block the main release. The Fedora Cloud SIG is also interested in a curated library of image templates.... FIXME BLAH BLAH BLAH

Measuring Success

Currently, Fedora is not a widely used option for instances on public and private clouds. We know there's some usage, but it's not one of the top three or four OSes on Amazon or (likely) for private clouds. Success looks like:

  • Increase in adoption.
  • Third party support / targeting of Fedora Cloud as a platform.
  • Increased contribution and participation in the Fedora Cloud WG and Fedora Project in general.

User Profiles, Goals, and Primary Use Cases

User Profiles

There are three cloud user roles which describe the tasks of the people who interact with any cloud-based system:

  1. Cloud Service Creator: Develop the technical and business aspects of a (simple or high-level) cloud service
  2. Cloud Service Provider: Provide all types of services (SPI, etc.) to a Service Consumer
  3. Cloud Service Consumer: Consume all types of services (SPI) offered by a Service Provider

We will use a set of personas to describe our target users and their respective needs. These users are primarily in the cloud service creator and cloud service provider roles. This document lists the personas in summary form, with detailed explanations of each one available in a separate document. https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Cloud_Personas. These roles include aspects of cloud service creators, providers, and consumer

  1. AWS enthusiast and Early Adopter
    • Writes and maintains a number of AWS-deployed applications including staging and production.
    • Works for a small start-up, primarily on his own. Automates as much as possible.
  2. DevOps Team Member
    • Uses the cloud to do Ruby on Rails development utilizing virtual machines.
    • Works as part of a DevOps team responsible for all aspects of a set of applications.
    • Development, QA, and Production environments need to be identical.
  3. Web Developer
    • Concentrates on app development, not architecture, deployment, or operations.
    • Unlikely to care deeply about OS internals, cares that they can easily deploy the frameworks they want to use.
  4. Large-Environment Sysadmin
    • Interested in deploying self-service PaaS to lighten operational load
    • Will work closely with development team on deployment and development.
  5. Data Scientist
    • Works with large data sets
    • Interested in big data tools and dedicated scripting languages (R, Octave, etc.)
  6. HPC Scientist
    • Moving from traditional batch and grid technology to the cloud.
    • Interested in hybrid cloud (infrastructure overflow) for some massive computation campaigns.

Primary Use Cases

FIXME: does this list cover all of our personas?

Web Application Deployment in a Public Cloud

Modern web applications are deployed as a collection of interconnected services, including parts like web servers, application servers, databases, and caching layers. Fault tolerance is handled at the overall orchestration level rather than by individual instances Fedora Cloud can be the base of each of these parts, providing recent libraries, server software, and language toolchains. Each system will be managed using the public cloud's own management tools plus a configuration management system like Puppet, Chef, Salt, or Ansible. Code may be developed against different language stacks; if these are readily available to users, that's a win. In the real world, libraries and other code we don't include may also be required and we should make that as painless as possible. Fedora Cloud will provide access to the following stacks (not exhaustive):

  • Ruby: Rails, Sinatra
  • Python 2 & 3: Django, Pyramid, Flask
  • PHP 5.x: Symfony2, ZendFramework 2.x
  • Node.js
  • Java
  • Perl 5.x

Web Application Deployment in Private Cloud

As above, but in a locally-deployed and managed private cloud system.

Web Application Deployment in Hybrid Cloud

As above, but rather than a single cloud provider, the application seamlessly takes advantage of resources in both a private and public cloud.

Hybrid Cloud as Staging Area

Application development and testing happens in-house on a private cloud, while production goes to a public cloud. FIXME: MORE DETAILS

Big Data / Number-Crunching

Deploy scale-out application for data processing to public, private, or hybrid cloud for running batch jobs. This includes short-lived instances that will be used for processing a large amount of data in a scale-out fashion; perhaps using Amazon Web Services spot instances ro FIXME: more? Deetails????

PaaS node images

We should be able to provide Fedora Cloud Images for platform-as-a-service (ie: OpenShift Origin) for easy deployment. Since we have a limited output, Cloud SIG will focus on a limited set of open-source PaaS, and provide support for volunteer-based efforts to port other PaaSes. Currently supported:

  • OpenShift Origin (included in Fedora Packages Collections)

Simple Deployment of code to from Development to Production

As a developer, I want to ensure that my code is easily deployable from my development environment to a QA environment and finally a production environment, without encountering compatibility issues or surprises from differences in the environment. A solution where an identical customized image or container is used in all three environments is ideal.

Target IaaS environments

The Fedora Cloud product can be used as a guest/VM/image under many IaaS services and providers. For projects that are not currently packaged within Fedora/EPEL, we may need to locate a kind person to ensure testing. These include: Open source IaaS systems:

  • OpenStack
  • Eucalyptus
  • Apache Cloudstack
  • OpenNebula
  • oVirt

Public clouds:

  • Amazon EC2
  • Google Compute Engine
  • HP Cloud
  • Rackspace
  • Digital Ocean
  • Linode

Features

Feature: Ready to run in Public and Private Clouds

The Fedora cloud image is ready to go out of the box in the public and private cloud environments we target. It includes cloud-init, the defacto standard for boot-time configuration for cloud instances, and heat_cfgtools package, which is used for handling guest initialization with OpenStack Heat.

Feature: Ready Access to Fedora Collection of Packages

  • Access to the standard Fedora package repositories
  • Standard language stacks (like Python, Ruby, NodeJS, PHP)
  • Modernized language and application-specific stacks, perhaps in the form of SCLs, for running userspace applications

== Feature: Updated Images Currently, the Fedora Cloud images are only produced twice-yearly as part of the general Fedora release. Because Fedora updates constantly, this means that after several months, it is often the case that a newly-launched image has pending updates which effectively replace the entire content. This is slow and wastes bandwidth, and in many cases means that users simply never update. Instead, we will produce images with security updates and critical bugfixes rolled in. Our initial target is monthly releases, with special updates produced for critical security flaws.

Feature: Docker support

Docker is an easy to use interface for running application containers on Linux. Fedora is uniquely positioned to provide the best platform for Docker, since this container technology is not a security solution, but can be made reasonably secure when wrapped with SELinux. This includes adding libvirt support to the image, which is more heavyweight than many users of the image for other purposes will want, so we will produce a dedicated image specfically tailored for Docker.

Feature: Big Data Tools

We will produce a specialized image with various tools for Big Data processing preloaded and preconfigured where possible. The exact composition of this image will be determined in collaboration with Fedora's Big Data SIG.

Feature: Quick OpenShift Deployment

FIXME: ...

Feature: Cloud -> Server

The Fedora Server product targets more traditional server roles, where systems have a more unique identity. The Fedora Cloud image supports this by providing a path to go from our base to a Fedora Server role, in effect taming one of your cloud computing "cattle" and making it into a "pet" traditional server — but running in a cloud environment.

Future Features

The following areas are unlilel;y to be completely addressed in the upcoming iteration of Fedora Cloud, but we intend to work on them in the future.

Image Generation Tools

The official Fedora Cloud images will be produced in the Fedora build system (Koji) using kickstart scripts, Anaconda, Oz, and ImageFactory. We also want to provide tools and documentation so users can easily respin their own images. This will likely be using ImageFactory as well. We may provide a web-based service for user-created images.

Image or Image Template Library

In addition to the basic tooling for image creation, we want to enable sharing of user-created images and their recipies. This may apply to Docker or other container images in addition to images targetted at full virtualization.

Higher-Level Cloud Tooling

Initial efforts focus on individual cloud images. In the future, we want to address higher level concerns as well. These areas include:

  1. Orchestration
  2. Performance / Scalability / Failover
  3. Logging / Auditing
  4. Monitoring / Notification
  5. Database requirements

Requirements

Requirement #1: Reducing Image Footprint

Making the Fedora

Feature Addressed

Ready to run in Public and Private Clouds.

Priority

Nice to Have. The current cloud image is reasonably sized when compared to our competitors. However, smaller footprint has several advantages. Fewer packages means fewer updates and a smaller target for security problems. It makes it faster to download and deploy images across networks where the image storage and compute nodes run separately. And, reducing things our users don't really need gives more room to include things they do

Specific Areas

This requirement has several areas where effort will yield meaningful results. Each has its own level of effort, stakeholders, and dependencies.

Cloud-Focused Base Kernel

The cloud-focused base kernel will be a minimal kernel without many of the drivers traditionally necessary on hardware, like most PCI devices. The goal of having a custom kernel is ultimately to reduce the size of the images which will reduce storage costs, make the images easier to move across networks between compute and image storage nodes (see 'Reducing image footprint' section above), Effort is moderate; it includes defining the exact requirments of the smaller kernel, and creation and maintenance of that separatation by the Fedora kernel team.

= Internationalization / Localization

Fedora Cloud base images should only include a single default locale since it is meant to be used as an deployment target to save space. Other locales should be available through repositories. The idea is to rely on langpacks rather than the current RPM kludges which leave out internationalization, because that approach does not allow one to easily add language support later. Effort required is fairly high, because the packaging tools do not currently have such support. It will also likely have some impact on all Fedora packagers, depending on the implementation, and may also involve changes to the packaging guidelines.

Included Documentation

Documentation has the same issue as internationalization: it is often not needed on each image but takes significant space, and cannot be easily added back if RPM is configured to exclude it initially. Effort is similar to that for internationalization, although significant impact could be made by breaking out documentation from key packages included in the base image.

= Refactoring Cloud-Init=

Cloud Init was initially designed for a different distribution and is only loosely tailored for our needs. As it stands, it pulls in a rather large set of packages not used for other things. It is also written in Python, itself a large subsystem which it would eventually be nice to leave out of the base. Effort is moderate, with some low-hanging fruit which may be addressed easily.

Requirement #2: Improved Docker Integration

Docker is a popular tool for launching and managing application containers. This runs on bare metal, in virtualization on developers' machines, or in cloud guests. Right now, Docker can be added to the cloud base image but isn't included by default. Docker itself is small, but infrastructure to support it includes Libvirt, which is not small.l In order to make it easier to get started and to speed up use in production, we will produce a Docker-specific image. Additionally, we want to create a library of Dockerfiles and an

Feature(s) Addressed

Docker support.

Priority

Should. This feature is an important change to support a variety of different teams working on PaaS (like OpenShift) and end-user delivery issues. That being said, since there is very little usage of Docker in those tools right now and the package is available in the repositories already it won't be terribly detrimental to not have the image complete.

Effort required

High. We can produce the basic image with minor work, but SELinux is key feature which will make us stand out from other systems on which Docker can be run. Additionally, producing official Docker container images depends on changes to the build system.

Stakeholders / Owners / Major Dependencies

The Cloud SIG and our users are the major stakeholders. The SELinux team is instrumental in delivering the functionality we would like to see. Fedora Infrastructure and Release Engineering are involved in updating the build system. And the official images will be produced through Release Engineering. Major dependencies include:

  • Better SElinux MCS separation incorporated in the policies shipped in Fedora
  • Creation of an agreed upon set of Dockerfiles for different tasks
  • ImageFactory support for creating Docker images, and that support integrated into Koji.

== Requirement #3: Automatic Production and Upload of Images

FIXME: describe. qa also here? (taskotron?)

Feature(s) Addressed

Updated Images.

Priority

Must. We simply need this to be useful to our users, and therefore to be competitive.

Effort required

High. Release Engineering does not currently have the tooling in place to support this.

Stakeholders / Owners / Major Dependencies

The Fedora Cloud Working Group will work with Release Engineering in implementing and supporting the needed functionality. == Requirement #4: Needs for Big Data Image SUPER-FIXME: do we have anything here? FIXME: short description

Feature(s) Addressed

FIXME

Priority

FIXME Must, should, NTH

Effort required

FIXME High, Medium, Low

Stakeholders / Owners / Major Dependencies

FIXME == Requirement #5: Software Stacks for Various Languages FIXME: short description FIXME: different versions, lifespan greater than one cycle, etc.

Feature(s) Addressed

Ready Access to Fedora Collection of Packages.

Priority

Must. This addresses a the key needs of userbase.

Effort required

FIXME High, Medium, Low

Stakeholders / Owners / Major Dependencies

FIXME == Requirement #6: Integration with Fedora Server Roles FIXME: short description

Feature(s) Addressed

FIXME

Priority

FIXME Must, should, NTH

Effort required

FIXME High, Medium, Low

Stakeholders / Owners / Major Dependencies

FIXME == Requirement #7: Tools for User Image Creation FIXME: short description FIXME: include either a) image library or b) library of image recipies FIXME: docker images included here?

Feature(s) Addressed

FIXME

Priority

Nice to have. This is not required for our initial launch.

Effort required

FIXME High, Medium, Low

Stakeholders / Owners / Major Dependencies

FIXME == Requirement #8: Updated Web Site for Obtaining Cloud Images FIXME: short description FIXME: this is needed because we are increasing complexity!

Feature(s) Addressed

FIXME

Priority

FIXME Must, should, NTH

Effort required

FIXME High, Medium, Low

Stakeholders / Owners / Major Dependencies

FIXME

Documentation

FIXME

Fedora Project Documentation

FIXME

Open Source Projects documentation

Ensuring that Fedora is well-represented, up-to-date in other open source project documentation...

About this Document

This PRD (Product Requirements Document) is an evolving document, created by the Fedora Cloud SIG Working Group as part of the process for designing the Fedora Cloud product. The framework for the PRD itself is currently in a draft state. This document will evolve over time as the purpose of the SIG continues to be determined as the working group process gets under way and initial products start to get produced.

Authors

Contributors to this document include:

Reviewers & Contributors

The following people have contributed to the development of this document, through feedback on IRC, mailing lists, and other points of contact.

Credits

Some of the Cloud User Roles are based on “Description and Application of Core Cloud User Roles” ACM CHIMIT 2011, December 4 2011. Some aspects of Fedora Cloud personas are based on OpenStack personas (licensed under CC-By 3.0)

Community Information

The Fedora Cloud SIG is one of many teams within the Fedora Project. The Cloud SIG mailing list is located here. Minutes and logs from IRC meetings related to the development of this document should be listed here as the document evolves.

Approval History

Over time, it is expected that this document will undergo various rounds of review, approval, and editing; in the future, it may be rewritten for different releases of Fedora. While one can review the history of a wiki document (by clicking the "history" tab), it is useful to provide explicit indicators of any major format changes, approvals, or indications of it being in a “final” state, in a list that can allow someone to quickly see that all of the prescribed layers of approval have occured.

  • January 8, 2014: Collaborative hackfest day.
  • October 28, 2013: Initial Draft of template.
  • FutureDate: Approval by SomeGroup; link to any pertinent mail announcement and/or meeting minutes

Document Conventions

Definitions and Acronyms

  • AWS: Amazon Web Services
  • Amazon EC2: Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, a popular public IaaS
  • IaaS: Infrastructure as a Service
  • PaaS: Platform as a Service
  • SaaS: Software as a Service
  • PRD: Product Requirements Document
  • EPEL: Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux
  • CI: Continuous Integration
  • CD: Continuous Delivery or Continuous Deployment
  • SCL: Software Collections
    teams in charge of some aspects of Fedora Project
  • NTH: Nice-to-have
  • BZ: Bugzilla
  • GUI: Graphical User Interface
  • CLI: Command Line Interface
  • API: Application Programming Interface