== Open Week -- Putting Your Head In The Cloud: Ubuntu Cloud Q and A -- kim0 -- Mon, May 2 == {{{#!IRC [16:02] Logs for this session will be available at http://irclogs.ubuntu.com/2011/05/02/%23ubuntu-classroom.html following the conclusion of the session. [16:03] Hi everyone [16:03] Good Morning, good afternoon and good evening [16:04] So I work with Jorge's (Jono's team) as well [16:04] I'm focused on building the cloud community [16:04] which means you can kick me any time to get info about cloud (at least I'll try) :) [16:04] So my plan is going to be [16:05] I'll give a quick intro to what cloud means [16:05] Answer questions [16:05] Then if we have time, shoot a nice little demo [16:05] However, the session should be focused on interactive questions [16:05] so basically you drive [16:05] feel free to ask me anything and steer the session [16:06] = Intro to cloud = [16:06] Cloud has been a major buzz word the past few years [16:07] however almost everyone has a different definition [16:07] of what is or is not cloud [16:07] let's try to go over some general principles [16:08] or rather properties often found in cloud computing environments [16:08] - Pay per use [16:08] Which means you usually don't pay upfront .. but rather pay as you go [16:08] the more resources you need/want .. the more you pay [16:08] Example: [16:08] Ubuntu One, is a cloud storage service [16:09] you get a free basic package [16:09] however should you want/need more storage .. you can buy them and use them [16:10] other similar services would be dropbox, or Amazon S3 ..etc [16:10] Of course "storage" is not the only application .. it's only an example .. you can rent complete servers as we'll see in IaaS shortly [16:10] - Instant scalability [16:11] A major differentiating feature of "cloud" is being able to "scale" almost instantly [16:11] Example: [16:12] Assuming you're running a wordpress blog on a VPS [16:12] It will usually take your provider some time if you'd like to spin up 10 more servers [16:12] and you usually rent a server by a month [16:12] however with cloud services, you can rent them by the hour (or less) [16:13] so you can spin up 10 servers for the next hour [16:13] when your website gets slashdotted [16:13] then destroy them and give them back and stop paying for them [16:13] when you don't need them === vincent is now known as Guest60840 [16:13] of course making use of those 10 servers is another story (your software has to be intelligent) [16:14] - API access [16:14] Almost all cloud are going to provide you an API [16:14] API = Application programming Interface [16:14] which is a "programmatic way to manipulate your cloud envrionment" [16:14] which means you can very simply write scripts that control every aspect of your cloud envrionment [16:15] Alright .. any questions so far [16:15] sebsebseb asked: A general question, but why are loads of companies such as Canonical starting to embrace the cloud a lot now? [16:16] Great question [16:17] Well, cloud computing is really a new way to look at computing (usually server side) but same concepts apply to some end-user services too like ubuntu-one for example [16:17] Basically .. it's a paradigm shift into how we work with servers and services [16:18] instead of waiting weeks for a server to be delivered, spending days installing and configuring software on it [16:18] spending lots of money up front [16:18] with cloud things change [16:18] basically .. you snap your fingers (call api, click button ..) and a number of servers magically appear right this instant [16:19] snap another and fully automated workflows configure the new servers [16:19] snap a third .. and your application can scale onto those newly created servers! [16:19] and when you don't need that much servers .. snap a fourth time .. and everything downscales to what it was .. and you stop paying for those resources [16:20] sounds good ? yes it does .. which is why all IT companies are interested in cloud [16:20] cloud is basically comoditizing IT and turning it into an "electric grid" [16:20] where you never think about running your own, you just plug, use and pay for what you just used [16:21] hope this sort of answers your question [16:21] envygeeks asked: Since Ubuntu is embracing the cloud more and more everyday are there plans for Ubuntu to embrace and make Xen better for cloud hosting solutions that want to use Ubuntu to host the hypervisor? [16:21] wow .. I am getting lots of questions .. cool [16:22] Most major Linux distros has decided to support KVM over XEN [16:22] KVM is the Linux kernel integrated hypervisor [16:23] while Xen is basically a third party mini kernel that you load before linux [16:23] this is not really the place to compare both hypervisors [16:23] however both have their pros and cons [16:24] The one thing Xen really has going on for itself (IMO) is that it was started long ago [16:24] has built a big following and many customers have it deployed in production [16:24] and do not want to change to KVM [16:24] The topic has been brought up for Oneiric (11.10) [16:24] you can read a more thorough discussion at http://fossplanet.com/f10/%5Boneiric-topic%5D-revisit-xen-support-118193/ [16:25] my understanding is that better Xen support is planned [16:25] helped by the fact that more and more of its components are going into upstream Linux [16:25] bullgard4 asked: You said: "[17:08] - Pay per use". Is thus Ubuntu One Canonical's backdoor for making profit in the future? [16:26] There's nothing backdoorish about providing an online service IMO [16:26] It's quite similar to Dropbox, or Apple's iDisk ..etc [16:26] and in no way are you forced to pay [16:26] it's just a good service that is well integrated with Ubuntu [16:27] and is multiplatform [16:27] plus generating revenue is a good thing for the ubuntu project since it helps with future development [16:27] envygeeks asked: Adding to bullgard4's question: Are there plans to expand Ubuntu's current cloud offers to things such as movies on demand (Linux's solution to iTunes) as a form of profit to keep the company going? [16:28] well there is Music streaming at the moment [16:28] Check out https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuOne/MusicStreaming [16:28] however I haven't heard about movie streaming [16:29] raju asked: i dont the basics of cloud computing ...as you said cloud computing, nothing but storage . so already this google and hotmail providing us storage units then why we need to go for other sources ( dont mind if it is a silly doubt, but i have it ) [16:29] Great question raju [16:29] Expect a fairly long answer :) [16:30] so the storage example I used is only but a limited example [16:30] to fully address your question .. let's see how people usually define different types of clouds [16:31] one way to define clouds is by the level of abstraction they offer [16:31] There is 3 different types [16:31] - IaaS Infrastrcture as a service [16:31] - PaaS Platform as a service [16:31] - SaaS Software as a service [16:31] Let's quickly comment on each of these [16:32] IaaS, is a cloud that provides you with "low level" computing resources on demand [16:32] Example: "give me 40G of storage space" "give me 6 big servers, 2 small ones, and 1 really big server for my database" [16:33] "give me 3 real IP addresses, and have my 6 big servers load balanced" [16:33] All these are compute resources (storage, cpu/ram, network, ...etc) [16:33] they are all generated and assigned to you on the fly [16:33] and you only pay for them, as long as you need or want them [16:34] sample clouds that do this today are [16:34] Amazon EC2, or Rackspace and others [16:34] Ubuntu allows you to "build" a cloud as well [16:34] i.e. if you fancy competing with Amazon EC2, you can [16:34] Ubuntu ships UEC (Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud) based on the Eucalyptus project [16:35] which allows anyone to build a cloud similar to ec2 [16:35] With Ubuntu 11.04 we also ship OpenStack, another foss cloud software stack that's getting popular rapidly [16:35] The second type of cloud, PaaS [16:35] this is a higher level of abstraction [16:36] you are not really interested in seeing "server, storage, and network" [16:36] you want to upload your application and boom it just runs on the cloud [16:36] and runs well, and is fault tolerant and is scalable ..etc [16:36] without you having to worry about any of the details [16:37] Examples of such clouds would be Google's Google App Engine [16:37] Heroku, Microsoft's Azure..etc [16:37] With Ubuntu if you're interested you can run http://www.cloudfoundry.org/ [16:38] It allows multiple different programming languages [16:38] Java, rails, node.js .. [16:38] and I believe python and others are coming [16:39] of course the disadvantage is that your application needs to be rewritten to use the PaaS provided APIs [16:39] since this is what makes all the magic work (auto scale, fault tolerant ..etc) [16:39] another potential disadvantage is vendor lockin (cloud foundry is an open source project though) [16:40] and also having less control over the envrionment (pro or con depending on how you look at it!) [16:40] The third and final type of cloud is SaaS [16:40] Software as a service, the simplest to imagine [16:40] basically a provider provides you with a full complete online application [16:41] Examples would be google-mail, google-docs, facebook ...etc [16:41] Since we just went through different cloud "types" [16:42] people will also usually use the term "public cloud" or "private cloud" [16:42] public basically means a multi-tenant cloud, i.e. one that is shared between many customers [16:42] examples would be amazon ec2, rackspace, heroku ...etc [16:43] a private cloud however, is a cloud serving one customer, isolated from other customers. Usually a private cloud runs in-house (behind your firewall) [16:43] Again there's different pros and cons to each type .. but it's getting too long already :) [16:44] let me know if that generated any other questions [16:44] maco asked: how does "cloud computing" differ from good ol' fashioned "UNIX machines"? Server with all your stuff exists elsewhere, and your data's there, not local...everything you interact with is away on a server... what's the difference? Isn't this just a return to 1982? [16:44] Good question indeed .. [16:45] In a sense nothing has changed, and in another, everything has changed :) [16:45] nothing has changed, because yes it is just a remote "virtual" unix machine with your data on it [16:46] however everything has changed, because everything that is needed now has an API on top [16:46] which means it's faster, more fault tolerant (if you do it right), more elastic (if you softwae is smart enough) ..etc [16:47] compare the time it takes to order ten servers, rack them, install them, configure them and get some website up and running [16:47] with the 1 minute it takes me to do it on the cloud :) [16:47] also, changing the payment from up-front capex, to on-going (opex) is a benefit many appreciate [16:48] also, the "sharing" of services (machines, storage, networks, security personnel ...) [16:48] generates overall better financials (lower prices, hopefully better service) [16:49] I hope this sheds some light on the topic .. definitely there's more to be said [16:49] envygeeks asked: Can you provide a link to the official AMI images that Ubuntu releases for Amazon Cloud? [16:49] Awesome ... I'm loving how the questions are all spot on and driving the session [16:49] So, when you tell Amazon "give me 10 Ubuntu servers" [16:50] Amazon uses an official Ubuntu server image [16:50] and starts it on ten different virtual servers [16:50] in order to do that, you need to tell Amazon which Ubuntu image you want (called AMI-ID) [16:50] AMI = Amazon Machine Image [16:51] Ubuntu generates official Ubuntu AMIs which you can find a list of at http://cloud.ubuntu.com/ami/ [16:51] You basically use the search bar to zoom in on the AMI you want [16:52] like "natty 64 ebs" [16:52] and you get the ID you want [16:52] Once you get the ID .. you can use the Amazon web console to launch the servers [16:52] There are 10 minutes remaining in the current session. [16:52] check out this video tutorial http://www.youtube.com/user/ubuntucloud#p/u/4/rYJLIfVuSMY [16:53] and check out the rest of the videos in the channel if interested [16:53] envygeeks asked: Does Ubuntu make a "full server" AMI for Amazon Cloud that is "official"? [16:53] Yes, again check them out on http://cloud.ubuntu.com/ami/ [16:53] sebsebseb asked: Surely you agree that it's a good idea to still have data locally, in case cloud servers go down, or something goes wrong and data is lost on them? [16:54] Great question [16:54] I would rephrase it this way, it's a good idea to have a DR (disaster recovery) plan [16:55] whether that plan includes having data locally, or remotely somewhere else (maybe on a couple of other VPS servers) or maybe in another cloud provider's data-center ..etc [16:55] it really depends on your needs [16:55] Cloud servers can and do go down [16:56] Amazon ec2 (by far the world's largest) just had a major outgae! [16:56] which was a wake up call for many [16:56] definitely be prepared for failure and be prepared to migrate to a different provider or run things locally [16:56] clouds usually however offer a way to better protect your data/servers [16:57] like offering multiple avaialbility zones [16:57] or multiple regions (continents) [16:57] There are 5 minutes remaining in the current session. [16:57] if you make good use of those resources by spreading your computing needs around them, you should be able to work around most failures [16:58] since I'm almost running out of time [16:58] you can always find me in #ubuntu-cloud [16:58] feel free to ping me any tikme [16:58] time* [16:58] taking a quick shot at other questions [16:59] envygeeks asked: Adding to zzecool's and bullgard4's comment: can you explain to us what data protections UbuntuOne takes? Such as encryption by user password and disk encryption. I have been staying away from Ubuntu one because I cannot find any clear information on what you guys do to protect user data. [16:59] sorry I'm really running out of time [16:59] you can encrypt your data before sync'ing [17:00] envygeeks asked: Are there any plans for Ubuntu cloud to parter with other vendors other than Dell and Amazon? Say vendors like ServerBeach (who is not starting to offer Private Clouds and Cloud services) [17:00] check out canonical.com/cloud [17:00] That's all folks [17:00] thanks everyone [17:00] if I didn't have time to answer you [17:00] please ping me back any time [17:00] Have fun .. bye [17:01] thanks kim0 for the session :) [17:01] howdy mates }}}