Request for cloud-utils package

[bswinnerton]

Official package name: cloud-utils

License (must be an OSI approved Open Source license): GNU GPL v3

Download URL of latest release: https://launchpad.net/cloud-utils/

Latest release date (must be recent): 2018-12-10

Description: The cloud-utils package includes numerous utilities for interacting with cloud images. Specifically, I would like access to cloud-localds in order to create local data sources for use on a Clear Linux host which runs KVM for guests.

Moved from clearlinux/clr-bundles#195.

[ahkok]

Please note that clearlinux ships https://github.com/clearlinux/micro-config-drive, and not the full python-based cloud-init. Therefore, cloud-utils may or may not be compatible (I don't know, haven't looked at that).

[bswinnerton]

@ahkok: In that case, should the ask here be more for a cloud-localds-like solution in clearlinux/micro-config-drive?

[ahkok]

I don't know. It feels a little bit like an edge case, but I can see the usefulness in it (local testing etc.).

I also need to look into what cloud-localds actually provides. If it's just a libmicrohttpd-like type implementation, it's not a bad idea. If it's just a massive python stack that builds on top of cloud-init of the python implementation, then it makes no sense to implement just cloud-localds by itself.

So, this is a very good request, but I don't know yet whether we want to look at providing "the feature" or "this specific implementation" just yet. It depends on many factors...

[bswinnerton]

That's fair. To offer a bit more context, I use Clear Linux as the host OS for KVM. I'd like to use cloud images for the guests, and cloud-init offers support for something called "NoCloud" data sources. By mounting a iso9660 or vfs filesystem on the guest with a few files, you can have them boot with preconfigured network configurations, SSH keys, etc.

The cloud-localds utility allows you to create those iso9660 images with relatively nice interface. Another option would be genisoimage, but that also doesn't currently exist in any Clear Linux bundles, and it also would be a bit of a pain (compared to the cloud-localds alternative).

[ahkok]

I have used xorriso myself. Agreed it's fairly low level, but then again it's not very complicated. I'll have to look what cloud-localds actually does here.

[pccowboy]

Adding in another use case. We have a "mixed" environment, ubuntu and clearlinux. We use ec2-metadata as part of the userdata scripts on ubuntu hosts, and I'd like to keep as much the same as I can for clearlinux. I know I can use other utilities to get at the same information, but I'm trying to keep things simple.