Cloud-Init with Scott Moser

Summary

Server administration is a complex endeavor, but there are some tools that can make life easier. If you are running your workload in a cloud environment then cloud-init is here to help. This week Scott Moser explains what cloud-init is, how it works, and how it became the de-facto tool for configuring your Linux servers at boot.

Preface

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• Your host as usual is Tobias Macey and today I’m interviewing Scott Moser about cloud-init, a set of python scripts and utilities to make your cloud images be all they can be!

Interview

• Introductions
• How did you get introduced to Python?
• What is cloud-init and how did the project get started?
• Why was Python chosen as the language for implementing cloud-init?
• How has cloud-init come to be the de-facto utility for managing cloud instances across vendors and distributions?
• Are there any viable competitors to cloud-init? coreos-cloudinit, some others.
• How much overlap is there between cloud-init and configuration management tools such as SaltStack, Ansible, Chef, etc.
• How have you architected cloud-init to allow for compatibility across operating system distributions?
• What is the most difficult or complex aspect of building and maintaining cloud-init? [os integration, networking, goal of “do stuff without reboot”]
• Given that it is used as a critical component of the production deployment mechanics for a large number of people, how do you ensure an appropriate level of stability and security while developing cloud-init?
• How do you think the status of cloud-init as a Canonical project has affected the level of contributions that you receive?
• How much of the support and roadmap is contributed by individual vs corporate users such as AWS and Azure?
• What are some of the most unexpected or creative uses of cloud-init that you have seen? [https://wiki.ubuntu.com/OpenCompute?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss “disposable use os”]
• In your experience, what has been the biggest stumbling block for new users of cloud-init?
• Do you have any notable features or improvements planned for the future of cloud-init, or do you feel that it has reached a state of feature-completeness?

Keep In Touch

• smoser on GitHub

Picks

• Tobias
  • mu4e
  • isync



• Scott
  • LXD

Links

• IBM – Linux Technology Center
• Cloud-Init
• Ubuntu
• Canonical
• CoreOS
• EC2
• OpenStack
• CentOS
• RHEL
• coreos-cloudinit
• JuJu
• Puppet
• SystemV
• Upstart
• SystemD
• Joyent SmartOS
• Digital Ocean
• IPv4
• IPv6
• Canonical MaaS+
• JSON-Schema
• LXD
• Launchpad
• Bzr
• Git
• SUSE
• FreeBSD
• KVM
• Go-lang
• Pretty Table
• RAID
• ZFS
• LVM

The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA