Courtesy of nasaimages.org

We knew that project Sputnik, the idea of creating a developer laptop based on Dell’s XPS13 ultrabook and Ubuntu 12.04LTS, would have appeal but we never could have anticipated the response we’ve gotten.

To put it into perspective, the most cumulative views I’ve had of a blog entry before Sputnik was 2,700.   My post introducing Sputnik, as of tonight, has had over 42,000 views!  And the news has been carried by a boatload of   pubs and blogs around the world (see a partial list below).

Silent but not sleeping

In case you’re wondering, the radio silence for the last couple of weeks  hasn’t been intentional our little team has just been crazy busy.   Not only have we gotten attention outside of Dell but our profile has raised quite a bit inside as well.  Our skunk works team has been scrambling to leverage that attention to see what we can do to put this on a faster track.  We have also had a bunch of meetings with Canonical to talk about the best way forward given the intense interest.

Whole lot of feedback

We have been deluged with comments and suggestions both on my blog and the Sputnik Storm session and while there were plenty of people who said they would  buy it now if it was available, we also received some clear direction on where people would like to see this offering go.   Some of the key areas for improving the offering are:

• Multi gesture support for the touch pad  (more on that in a second)
• Screen resolution
• More memory (8GB+)
• Matte screen
• Pricing: don’t make it more expensive than Windows

We are making note of these suggestions as we plot our way through this six month pilot.

The track pad

Its no surprise that the number one complaint has been the lack of multi gesture support in the touchpad.  Canonical and Dell have reached out to the vendor and last week they began working on an open source driver.  The vendor is sending both Dell and Canonical intermediary versions which will allow us to iterate on them as they’re developing and provide feedback about what’s working and what isn’t with the way things are assembled.  Fingers crossed, we hope to see the completed driver by the end of June.

Thanks everyone for their amazing interest Sputnik and look for a bunch more info soon.

Extra-credit reading — some Sputnik coverage

• DevOpsAngle: Dell Announces A Linux Laptop Designed for Developers
• GigaOm: Dell tests open-source laptop for developers
• VentureBeat: Neckbeards, rejoice! Dell’s new Linux ultrabook was developed just for you
• Hacker News: Dell Announces A Linux Laptop Designed For Developers (devopsangle.com)
• The Register: Dell puts Sputnik open-source laptop on launch pad
• Engadget: Project Sputnik: Dell’s Ubuntu-based XPS13 laptop for developers
• WSJ: Dude, Dell’s Building an Open Source Laptop
• The Verge: Dell’s Project Sputnik pairs Ubuntu with the XPS 13 to help create a developer’s dream
• Ars Technica: New Dell Ubuntu ultrabooks a step in the right direction for Linux support
• USA Today: Social media is reinventing how business is done – USATODAY.com
• Forbes: Can Dell’s Open Source XPS Ultrabook Steal Apple’s Thunder?
• Stephen O’Grady: Why a developer laptop? 
• Cote’s Blog:Project Sputnik
• InfoWorld: Dell plots Ubuntu laptop for developers with eye on OpenStack cloud
• PCWorld: New from Dell: an Ubuntu Linux Laptop Targeting Developers
• Dell Designing Developer Oriented Laptop – Slashdot
• Dell Announces Linux Laptop For Developers – ITProPortal
• Dell readies Ubuntu Linux laptop for developers – ZDNet
• Dell releases Ubuntu 12.04 image for XPS 13 ultrabook – The Inquirer
• Dell announces Project Sputnik pilot program, plans to create a laptop for mobile and web developers – Ubergizmo
• Dell touts Linux laptop for Android, JS devs – TG Daily
• Dell plans Ubuntu laptop for developers – ZDNet UK
• Dell working on Ubuntu Ultrabook for developers – PC Pro
• Dell targeting developers with XPS 13 and custom Ubuntu – Slashgear
• Dell goes after devs with Ubuntu-based Sputnik – Bit-Tech
• Dell’s Project Sputnik Uses Ubuntu 12.04 On XPS 13 – Developer’s Dream Machine – Crazy Engineers
• First look at Project Sputnik: Dell’s XPS ultrabook with Ubuntu Linux – Liliputing
• Developer Laptop launches: Project Sputnik | ServerGround.net
• Dell tests open-source laptop for developers — Cloud Computing News
• Dell presenteert ontwikkelaarsversie XPS 13-ultrabook met Ubuntu | Tech-nieuws
• Dell prepara un portátil para Desarrolladores con Ubuntu y Software Libre | www.cyanogenmod.info
• Project Sputnik: un portátil para desarrolladores Open Source
• Für Entwickler: Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook mit Ubuntu
• Sputnik Project: Dell e Canonical insieme per un ultraportatile Linux – Netbook News
• Dell experimentiert mit Ubuntu-Entwickler-Ultrabook | Edv-Sicherheitskonzepte.de – News Blog aus vielen Bereichen
• เดลล์ เปิดตัวโครงการ Sputnik: Ubuntu 12.04 สำหรับ XPS13 | Magento-Thailand.com | Magento, รับทำเว็บไซต์ Magento, รับทำเว็บไซต์ร้านค้า เว
• New Dell Ubuntu ultrabooks a step in the right direction for Linux support | Share Blog
• New from Dell: an Ubuntu Linux Laptop Targeting Developers | Geeklin
• Ultraportátiles Dell con Ubuntu, para desarrolladores web
• Dell plans Ubuntu laptop for developers | BussinessTree News
• Компания Dell представила специализированный ноутбук для разработчиков, укомплектованный Ubuntu | PROUBUNTU
• Projekt Sputnik – laptop dla deweloperów | OSWorld.pl
• Dell Designing Developer Oriented Ubuntu Laptop
• Dell Working On OpenStack-Friendly Ubuntu Laptop for Developers | PHP World
• Dell annonce un protoype de développement d’un portable avec Ubuntu | LinuxBe.org
• Dell porta Ubuntu sul suo Ultrabook XPS13 – Gizmodo IT – Il gadget weblog

I talked to Stephen about how he would characterize today’s world of developers and what he feels project Sputnik needs to deliver on to be successful.

Updated March 22

• Stephen’s post on Sputnik a few days after the interview: Why a developer laptop?

Extra-credit reading

• The Register: Dell puts Sputnik open-source laptop on launch pad
• Engadget: Project Sputnik: Dell’s Ubuntu-based XPS13 laptop for developers
• WSJ: Dude, Dell’s Building an Open Source Laptop
• The Verge: Dell’s Project Sputnik pairs Ubuntu with the XPS 13 to help create a developer’s dream
• Ars Technica: New Dell Ubuntu ultrabooks a step in the right direction for Linux support

Pau for now…

-> Weigh in on Dell IdeaStorm: Project Sputnik

Extra-credit reading

• DevOpsAngle: Dell Announces A Linux Laptop Designed for Developers
• GigaOm: Dell tests open-source laptop for developers
• VentureBeat: Neckbeards, rejoice! Dell’s new Linux ultrabook was developed just for you
• Cote’s Blog: Project Sputnik
• Hacker News: Dell Announces A Linux Laptop Designed For Developers (devopsangle.com)
  

Made possible by an internal innovation fund, project Sputnik is a 6 month effort to explore the possibility of creating an open source laptop targeted directly at developers.  It is based on Ubuntu 12.04 and Dell’s XPS13 laptop.

To put it in context, Sputnik is part of an effort by Dell to better understand and serve the needs of developers in Web companies.  We want to finds ways to make the developer experience as powerful and simple as possible.  And what better way to do that than beginning with a laptop that is both highly mobile and extremely stylish, running the 12.04 LTS release of Ubuntu Linux.

Why a developer laptop

When we first started setting up the web vertical to focus on companies who use the internet as their platform, we brought in Stephen O’Grady of Redmonk to learn as much as we could about the needs of developers.  One of the ideas that Stephen tossed out was a Dell laptop running Ubuntu, targeting developers.  We thought the idea was pretty cool and filed it away.

As we continued talking to customers and developers the topic of Ubuntu kept coming up and we came across a fair number of devs who were asking for a Dell laptop specifically based on it.  To my knowledge, no other OEM has yet made a system specifically targeted at devs and figured it was time to see what that might mean.  When the XPS13 launched we realized that we found the perfect platform to start with and when Dell’s incubation program was announced we knew I had the vehicle to get the effort kick started.

I should also add that Ubuntu was a natural choice not only because of its popularity in the Web world but Dell has quite a bit of experience with it.  In fact Dell has enabled and pre-installed out-of-the-factory Ubuntu on more computer models than any other OEM.

What’s Sputnik actually running?

The install image available for Sputnik contains

1. drivers/patches for Hardware enablement
2. a basic offering of key tools and utilities (see the complete list at the end of this entry)
3. coming soon, a software management tool to go out to a github repository to pull down various developer profiles.

Hardware enablement

In putting together the project, the area that we focused on first was hardware enablement.  As Linux users are all too painfully aware, Linux drivers are not always available for various platforms.  We have been working hand in hand with Canonical, the commercial sponsor behind Ubuntu and identified three main areas on the XPS13:

1. An issue with brightness
2. The Wifi hotkey
3. The touchpad and multi touch support

The first two have been resolved but the last one re the touchpad is still at large.  The issue is a bit of a pain particularly the lack of palm rejection support which can cause your cursor to jump by mistake.  We have contacted the vendor who makes the touchpad and they are sizing the effort to fix this and at the same time we are working with Canonical to find an interim solution.

Developer profile management

Hardware enablement is table stakes but where Sputnik starts to get interesting is when we talk about profiles.  No two developers are alike so instead of stuffing the system with every possible tool or app a developer could possibly want, we are trying a different approach.  As mentioned above, the actual “stuff” on the install image is pretty basic, instead we are working with a few developers to put together a tool that can go out to a github repository and pull down various developer profiles.  The first profiles we are targeting are Android, Ruby and JavaScript.

As a one of our alpha cosmonauts, Charles Lowell, explained (we have been working with three local developers in Austin, Charles, Mike Pav and Dustin Kirkland to put together our initial offering together.   And yes I know Sputnik was unmanned but its our project and we wanted to call the testers “cosmonauts.” )

What I’d like to see is not only a gold-standard configuration, but also a meta-system to manage your developer configuration… The devops revolution is about configuration as code. How cool would it be if my laptop configuration were code that I could store in a source repo somewhere?

After we build the management tool and some basic profiles to get the effort started, we are hoping that the community will take over and began creating profiles of their own.

Getting Feedback and UDS activities

The idea is to conduct project Sputnik out in the open.  There is a Storm Session that went live this morning on Dell Idea Storm for people to discuss the project and submit feedback, comments and ideas.  Later today here at the Ubuntu Developer Summit, Dustin, Mario Limonciello of Dell and I will be hosting a UDS session to discuss Sputnik.  Additionally at UDS there is a coding contest that has been kicked off.  The three people who write the best Juju charms will each get an XPS13.

The Vision: a Launchpad to the cloud

As mentioned at the start, Sputnik is currently a 6month project to investigate an Ubuntu laptop.  If successful, we have big plans for the effort.

When we initially pitched Sputnik to Ubuntu’s founder Mark Shuttleworth a couple months ago he really liked the idea.  In his eyes however, he saw something bigger.  Where it got really interesting for him was when this laptop was optimized for DevOps.  In this scenario we would have a common set of tools from client, to test, to production, thereby tying Sputnik via a common tool chain to a cloud backend powered by OpenStack.  Developers could create “micro clouds” locally and then push them to the cloud writ large.

We see a lot of potential in Sputnik to provide developers with a simple and powerful tool.  Only time will tell however so stay tuned to this blog, check out the Sputnik Storm session and weigh in on the project, what you’d like to see and how you think it can be made better.

Pau for now…

Extra-credit reading

• Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) Review | Desktop OS | ZDNet
• Ferreting out Innovation

Links and notes

•  Sputnik Storm session on idea storm

• Sputnik install image

Touchpad issue

Current behavior is that the touchpad functions as a basic pointing device, but lacks some desirable functionality:

1. Pinch, zoom, & flick
2. Palm negation (esp. important on larger touchpads where it’s easy for your hand to inadvertently touch the surface)
3. Side/edge scrolling
4. Two finger scrolling

We have contacted the vendor who makes the touchpad and they are sizing the effort to fix this and at the same time we are working with Canonical to find an interim solution.

Basic Install

== standard meta packages ==

ubuntu-desktop^

standard^

== scm ==

git

git-core

bzr

bzr-gtk

bzr-git

python-launchpadlib

== utilities ==

screen

byobu

tmux

meld

juju

charm-tools

charm-helper-sh

euca2ools

puppet

chef (available post install)

== editors ==

emacs

vim

vim-gnome

== browsers ==

chromium-browser

firefox

== common build tools/utilities & dependencies == fakeroot build-essential crash kexec-tools kvm makedumpfile kernel-wedge fwts devscripts

libncurses5

libncurses5-dev

libelf-dev

asciidoc

binutils-dev

If you’re not familiar with it, OpenStack is an open source cloud project built on a foundation of code initially donated by NASA and Rackspace.  The project kicked off a little over a year and a half ago here in Austin and it has gained amazing traction since then.

Dell’s offering

Dell’s OpenStack cloud offering is an open source, on premise cloud solution based on the OpenStack platform running on Ubuntu.  Its composed of:

• The OpenStack cloud operating system
• PowerEdgeC servers: C6100, C6105, C2100 and, coming soon, Dell’s new C6220 and R720
• The Crowbar deployment and management software framework – developed and coded by Dell
• Dell’s OpenStack reference architecture
• Dell Services

Crowbar software framework

To give a little more  background on the Crowbar software framework, its an open source project developed initially at Dell and you can grab it off github.  The framework, which is under the Apache 2.0 license,  manages the OpenStack deployment from the initial server boot to the configuration of the primary OpenStack components, allowing users to complete bare metal deployment of multi-node OpenStack clouds in hours, as opposed to days.

Once the initial deployment is complete, you can use Crowbar to maintain, expand, and architect the complete solution, including BIOS configuration, network discovery, status monitoring, performance data gathering, and alerting.   Beyond Dell, companies like VMware, Dreamhost and Zenoss have built “barclamps”  that allow them to utilize Crowbar’s modular design.  Additionally, customers who buy the Dell OpenStack-Powered Cloud Solution get training, deployment, and support on Crowbar.

So as of today, customers in the UK, Germany and China can purchase the Dell OpenStack-Powered Cloud Solution.  As customer demand grows in other regions we will be adding more countries so stay tuned.  If the first 18 mos of the project are any indication of whats the pace is like to come, we are all going to be in for a lot more excitement.

For more info, email: OpenStack@Dell.com

Extra-credit reading

• Blog: Dell OpenStack-Powered Cloud Solution Now Available in Europe and Asia
• Blog: World Hosting Day: Dell OpenStack-Powered Cloud Solution with Ubuntu 
• Blog: Dell announces availability of OpenStack solution; Open sources “Crowbar” software framework
• Blog: Introducing OpenStack — an open source cloud platform

Pau for now…

Some of the ground Mark covers

• The cloud, Ubuntu and OpenStack involvement
• The developer story: connecting the dots between app work on the client and testing and then deployment on the other end.
• The world of DevOps and how JuJu fits in
• Apple’s iOS as a developer platform and where Linux might have the edge going forward

Extra-credit reading

• Mark Shuttleworth part one: UbuntuTV
• Hadoop World: Ubuntu, Hadoop and Juju
• What is DevOps?

To help you through the process, Crowbar lead architect Rob Hirschfeld has put together the two videos below.  The first, Crowbar Build (on cloud server), shows you how to use a cloud server to create a Crowbar ISO using the standard build process.  The second,  Advanced Crowbar Build (local) shows how to build a Crowbar v1.2 ISO using advanced techniques on a local desktop using a virtual machine.

Crowbar Build (on cloud server)

Advanced Crowbar Build (local)

Pau for now…

Some of the ground Mark covers

• Making the next version of Ubuntu server better for Hadoop and big data
• (0:34) What are “charms” and what do they have to do with service orchestration
• (2:05) Charm school and learning to write Juju charms
• (2:54)  Where does “Orchestra” fit in and how can it be used to spin up OpenStack
• (3:40) What’s next for Juju

But wait, there’s more!

Stay tuned for more interviews from last week’s Hadoop world.  On tap are:

• Todd Papaioannou from Battery Ventures
• John Gray of Facebook
• Erik Swan of Splunk
• Nosh Petigara of 10gen/MongoDB.

Extra-credit reading

• Ubuntu Juju Delivers Cloud Server Magic
• Ubuntu cloud update — OpenStack, Eucalyptus, Ensemble & Orchestra
• Hadoop cluster with Ubuntu server and Ensemble

Pau for now..

Some of the ground Rich covers:

• Eucalyptus’s major release which is coming out in the next 4 weeks
• [0:40] The RightScale myCloud integration that they announced yesterday (linking Eucalyptus private clouds with various public clouds)
• [2:01] Eucalyptus’s relationship with Canonical and how their interests are diverging
• [3:15] Where specifically Eucalyptus is targeted
• [4:25] What are some of their goals and product features they’d like to add over the next year

Extra-credit reading

• Ubuntu cloud update — OpenStack, Eucalyptus, Ensemble & Orchestra
• The Cloud is a marathon — Marten Mickos, Eucalyptus CEO
• Talkin’ to Eucalyptus Founder & CTO — Rich Wolski

Last Spring I visited Jimmy’s home to check out what he was working on in his “free time.”  Here’s what I saw (he keeps telling me he’s got much cooler stuff since I shot this so I may have to do a “geekquel”)

Some of the things Jimmy show us:

• The low-power chips he’s playing with
• His experimentation with user interfaces and superman glasses
• His mini rack of servers
• The various forms of desktop virtualization and OS’s he uses
• Laying out and designing boards by mail
• His micro recording studio

Extra-Credit reading

• Jimmy Pike: Back to the Future with Light Weight Servers
• Willy Wonka and the Dell Factory
• The Register –  Dell chief stuffs data center into suitcase

Pau for now…

Who cares?

Application developers and IT service providers and admins who are setting up cloud POC’s are perfect candidates for this pre-configured testing and development environment.  With regards to industries, areas where there is a lot of software development work like Hosters, Telco & Communications, Media & Entertainment and Web 2.0 businesses are prime markets for the Dell UEC solution.

So what’s in it?

The solutions’ basic components are Dell PowerEdge C systems plus a Dell-specific download of the Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (made up of the Ubuntu operating system and the Eucalyptus platform for private cloud computing).  To simplify getting the whole shebang up and running Dell and Canonical are providing the following:

• Reference Architecture: Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud on Dell Servers Stnd Edition
• Deployment Guide: Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud on Dell Servers Stnd Edition

Here’s a peak at the hardware that supports it:

The Dell UEC cloud solution pod.

• Cloud Compute Server – PowerEdge C6100 that embeds four discrete compute nodes in a single enclosure
• Cloud Front-end Server – PowerEdge C2100 server that acts as an all-in-controller and runs all shared UEC-related services
• Infrastructure Server – PowerEdge C2100 that runs two components of the cloud infrastructure:
  • Cloud Deployment and Landscape Management
  • Cloud Storage
• Network switch – PowerConnect 6248

And on the software side…

The architecture looks something like this:

The Dell UEC cloud solution architecture

The software components are:

• Cloud Controller (CLC) – the cloud portal
• Walrus Controller (W) – the cloud’s storage repository
• Cluster Controller (CC) – the controller for a up to 1024 compute cores grouped together as a cluster
• Storage Controller (SC) – the controller for cluster’s storage repository
• Compute Node (CN) – cloud’s compute node

And on the support side…

If you’re looking for systems management and support services with your order, you are in luck.  Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, has put together UEC Assist, a support service built specifically for Dell customers deploying SE Edition and which is delivered by Canonical’s Global Services and Support team.

Its all about efficiency

From a Dell DCS (the group at Dell behind this) point of view, this offering fits in well with our strategy of bringing total solutions to market that optimize efficiency at every layer, from code to servers to storage.  The open source Dell UEC solution is tailor made to deliver a ready to go IaaS solution.

Extra-credit reading:

• Mark Shuttleworth’s blog: Private cloud “in a box” from Dell

• Mark Shuttleworth on UEC and OpenStack
• Ubuntu, the Cloud and the Future — Neil Levine
• The Cloud is a marathon — Marten Mickos, Eucalyptus CEO

Pau for now..

I was particularly interested in getting his thoughts on Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC) which will be available this week from Dell as the Dell | Canonical UEC Solution (along with the UEC software, the solution is based on our PowerEdge C2100 and C6100 and comes with a reference architecture and deployment guide).   The other topic I wanted to get his insight into was OpenStack.

Here’s what Mark had to say:

What Mark talked about

• How Mark has settled into his role as non-CEO (he is still chairman).
• What he is focusing on these days: the cloud and product design e.g. Unity.
• [1:45] The thinking behind UEC and the combined Dell Canonical offering.
• [3:45] OpenStack and Canonical’s participation
• Working with both OpenStack and Eucalyptus and how both of these are central to the process of standardization that we are starting to see at the infrastructure layer of cloud computing.

Extra-credit reading:

• PowerEdge C powers OpenStack Install Fest
• Chatting with Eucalyptus Co-founder about OpenStack
• Ubuntu founder stops by Round Rock

Pau for now…

Eucalyptus allows enterprises to set up open source infrastructure-as-a-service private clouds.  Eucalyptus is also one of the key ingredients in the Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud that is being certified to run on Dell’s PowerEdge C systems as part of our cloud ISV program.

Here is what Graziano had  to say:

Some of the ground Graziano covers:

• What goals do the Eucalyptus team have for the summit
• They’ve recently hired a community manager – Mark Atwood
• What are their goals for their next release

Extra-credit reading:

• The Cloud is a marathon — Marten Mickos, Eucalyptus CEO
• Talkin’ to Eucalyptus Founder & CTO — Rich Wolski

Pau for now…

Some of topics I tackle:

• How Dell’s Data Center Solutions Group is designing servers for high-end cloud computing
• How Dell is integrating hardware with software in cloud servers
• Coming soon: Dell Cloud Solution for Web Applications/Leveraging Joyent‘s software
• Dell’s cloud partner program – where Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud, Aster Data and Greenplum fit in.
• Dell’s commitment to OpenStack

Extra-credit reading:

• Rackspace Partner Leadership Summit: Top 7 Day 1 Highlights
• Rackspace Partner Leadership Summit: Top 14 Keynote Highlights
• Meet OpenStack’s Community Manager
• What’s happening — A Dell / OpenStack Update

Pau for now…

Here’s what Neil had to say:

Some of the topics Neil tackles:

• The next Ubuntu release “Maverick Meerkat” and its geek-a-licious launch date: 10.10.10.
• Look for Maverick to make Eucalyptus even easier to deploy and use.
• Data processing and data analytics is one of the key use cases in the cloud and Canonical is looking to move up the stack and provide deep integration for other apps like Hadoop and NoSQL.
• What are some of the areas of focus for next year’s two releases i.e. 11.04 and 11.10.
• Project ensemble: what it is and what its goals are.

Extra-credit reading

• The Register: Canonical fluffs one-click Ubuntu cloud stack
• The VAR guy: Canonical adjusts Ubuntu linux partner strategy

Pau for now…

Last week I interviewed Rick on the first day of the inaugural OpenStack design summit and I wanted to catch up with him and get his thoughts on how it had gone.  This is what he had to say:

Some of the topics Rick tackles:

• How it went engaging a very large technical group (100+) in an open design discussion patterned after an Ubuntu Developer Summit.
• Some of the decisions he thought would be no brainers, turned out differently e.g. OVF (open virtualization format) and keeping the storage and compute groups separated.
• Since the summit involved representatives from over 20 companies, some of them competitors, how good were people at putting away their business biases/agendas?
• How far they got (hint they got requirements from everyone for the first release).
• They’ve already gotten their first code contributions.
• How they plan to build a community: actively looking to hire a community manager.   In the meantime its actively growing and in a week they’ve gone from 10 people in the IRC channel to 150 on Tuesday.

Extra-credit reading:

• New York Times Bits: The Recipe for Clouds Goes Open-Source
• The VAR guy: OpenStack Compute: The Next Cloud Standard?
• Forrester: As Cloud Platforms Battle For Credibility, OpenStack Is Pretty Solid

But wait there’s more…

I got back from OSCON last night with a fist full of videos.  In addition to the above, coming soon to a browser near you are the following interviews:

• Brett Piatt with more OpenStack goodness
• J.P. Rangaswami, Chief Scientist at BT — Nature doesn’t require SLAs
• Simon Phipps about his new company ForgeRock
• Neil Levine, VP at Canonical about what’s in store for Ubuntu.

Pau for now…

Rick talked to me about what he brought with him from Canonical as well as the details behind OpenStack Compute.

Some of the topics Rick tackles:

• What is the OpenStack Compute project (hint its a fully open sourced IaaS project)
• Leveraging what Rick learned from the Ubuntu community, including a regular six month cadence.
• Rick’s goals for design summit: develop a roadmap for the first release, spec out the software and spend the last two days prototyping and hacking.
• Why they went with the Apache 2 license and why not AGPL?
• The Rackspace API (NASA had already started to switch from the Amazon API before combing
• The project’s core principles: open, open, open

Extra-credit reading:

• Press Release: Rackspace Open Sources Cloud Platform; Plans to Collaborate with NASA and other Industry Leaders
• Blog: Introducing OpenStack — an open source cloud platform
• Blog: NASA’s chief cloud architect talks OpenStack
• Blog: Talkin’ to the project lead of OpenStack Object Storage

Pau for now…

Marten, the former CEO of MySQL took the helm of Eucalyptus about three months ago, and was at Structure both as an attendee and participant, sitting on two panels at this two-day cloud-a-polooza.  At the end of the day-one I got some time with Marten and asked him about his new gig.

Some of the topics Marten tackles:

• How he made the decision to go to Eucalyptus. (Hint: he asked the question, what’s bigger than Open Source)
• What is Eucalyptus and whats it based on?
• How will Marten’s experience at MySQL and Sun help him in his new role at Eucalyptus?
  • MySQL was a disrupter of the old whereas Eucalyptus is an innovator of the new.
  • Sun’s company culture was phenomenal, the technology was phenomenal, the business…um…
• What Eucalyptus is doing with Canonical and the Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud.
• What Eucalyptus is focusing on for the next year.

Extra-credit reading:

• Talkin’ to Eucalyptus Founder & CTO — Rich Wolski
• The Register article based on this interview: Ex-MySQL chief puts open source in its place

Pau for now…

If you’re not familiar with UEC, which leverages the open source Eucalyptus private cloud platform, here is a quick backgrounder:

Basically, Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud can be deployed on internal hardware to run job/batch applications. The idea is to initially allocate storage, then rapidly build multiple virtual machines to process data, collect the data, then tear down the infrastructure for re-use by a subsequent purpose.

Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud provides internal cloud control methods that closely mime what can be done on Amazon’s public cloud infrastructure. Its tools can be used to process recurring jobs or one-shot distributed applications, like DNA analysis, video rendering, or database table reformatting/reindexing.

Walk this way

The Review, which is a concise 3 and a half pages, steps you through:

• Getting started
• Installation*
• Setup/configuration
• Image Bundles
• Usage/Monitoring

*My favorite line from this section is: “Installation was very simple; we inserted the Ubuntu Server CD, selected Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud, and drank energy drinks.”

If you’re interested in learning about UEC this article is a great place to start.

Extra-credit reading

If the above whets your appetite, you may want to dig into the following:

• Technical white paper: Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud Architecture
• Community Documentation:  Getting Started with Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud
• Eucalyptus Resource Center
• Eucalyptus Beginners Guide: UEC Edition

(The last 3 items I grabbed from Dustin’s Blog)

Pau for now…

]]> http://bartongeorge.net/2010/05/18/network-world-review-of-ubuntu-enterprise-cloud/feed/ 0 barton808 blackeubuntulogo http://bartongeorge.net/2010/04/21/our-new-high-performance-analytics-cloud-server/ http://bartongeorge.net/2010/04/21/our-new-high-performance-analytics-cloud-server/#comments Thu, 22 Apr 2010 02:14:51 +0000 Barton George http://bartongeorge.net/?p=3019 ]]> Last but not least in our tour of the first flight of servers in Dell’s PowerEdge C line is the C2100.  This was filmed last month at our launch right after we closed down our whisper suite.  Click below and join solutions architect Rafael Zamora as he leads you through the thrills, chills and spills of this cool new machine.

Spoiler Alert! A few Highlights

• This machine is a great high performance data analytics and cloud optimized storage server.  It’s perfect for use in conjunction with software from our Cloud ISV partners Joyent, Aster Data, Canonical or Greenplum.
• The entire front can be jam-packed with disk drives for mega storage.  You can get up to 24TB by loading twelve 3.5inch 2TB drives.
• While the C2100 has same system board as the  C1100, it comes with twice the real estate in a 2U form factor.
• There’s even a platform for two additional drives that you can use for a bunch of different purposes such as separating production and non-production traffic.

Pau for now….

Some of the topics Rich tackles:

• How Eucalyptus started at the University of California at Santa Barbara.  They wanted to show how old-style large scale computing (NSF super computer centers) could be combined with new large-scale computing (in the form of Amazon)  in the service of science.  Wanted to also include 4-6 university data centers.
• They put the code out as open source and got deluged by science and commercial industry about potential applications.  Grew too big to continue as a research project so they brought it outside.
• Marten Mickos coming on board as CEO.  How it came about.
• Working with Canonical and Ubuntu and how the relationship began.   UEC and what part Eucalyptus makes up.
• How NASA is offering a production Eucalyptus cloud to NASA researchers and other governmental agencies.
• Where Rich sees Eucalyptus going in the next two years.  The importance of the open source community and their continued focus on private clouds in the enterprise.

Pau for now…

If you’re wondering about the funky game show-like setting, I shot this after hours on the day of our launch in the whisper suite.  Your guide, as before, is the incomparable Dell Solutions Architect, Rafael Zamora.

A few highlights

• The C1100 is a high memory, cluster optimized, compute node
• Dont let its slim pizza box looks fool you, upfront you can pack either four 3.5 inch drives or ten 2.5 inch drives.
• For high memory optimized compute you can get 18 DIMM sticks for 144GB of RAM.
• Comes with your choice of either Intel’s Nehalem or Westmere processors.
• Raf also gives a couple of examples of recent customers and how they’ve decide to configure their units.
• The C1100 will also serve as the cloud management server for the upcoming Joyent solution and the Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud.

Tune in next week when Rafael will take us through the PowerEdge C2100.

Pau for now…

Some of the highlights:

• The PowerEdgeC 6100 holds the equivalent of 4 systems which have been packaged into “sleds,” each containing boards, RAM and microprocessors.
• Upfront you can put a ton o’ disk drives, either 24 x 2.5″ drives or 12 x 3.5″ drives.
• Great for markets like HPC clustering and search engines where compute density is key.  (This is not intended for running general purpose apps like Exchange, SQL or Oracle).
• It will serve as the compute node in the Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud solution from our partner Canonical.

Still to come, overviews of the C2100 and C1100.

Extra-Credit Reading:

• insideHPC article about the C6100 based off of the above video.

Pau for now…

The PowerEdge C line is targeted at both Public and Private cloud builders as well as HPC, Web 2.0, gaming and large scaled out web farms.  In the video below, Dell solutions architect Rafael Zamora walks us through the PowerEdge C6100, C1100 and C2100.

Upcoming posts

In the days to come I will be posting individual walk-thrus of each of the three systems.  I will also be posting interviews I did with executives from our cloud partners Joyent, Aster Data, Greenplum and Eucalyptus (who’s not a partner but provides a key component of our partner Canonical’s Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud).

Extra-Credit reading

• eWeek: Dell Offers Cloud-Optimized Infrastructure, Services
• Information Week: Dell Offers Turnkey Cloud Computing Package
• The Register: Dell mainstreams cloud servers
• DataCenterKnowledge: New Dell Servers Target Cloud Customers

Pau for now…

Some of the topics Mark tackles:

• Where Canonical is currently working with Dell
• Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (to build your “own little EC2″)  and how its doing
• Passing the CEO mantle to Jane Silber in March
• The 10.4 Ubuntu release Lucid Lynx and what to expect: a strong cloud focus on the enterprise side and a lot of shiny new bling on the desktop as well as making the desktop “social” (e.g. Tweet straight from your desktop)
• What Ubuntu is doing in the Netbook space
• What excites Mark the most in technology today and why cloud is like HTTP in the early 90′s

Extra-credit reading

• Article in the Register based on this podcast:  Ubuntu’s Lucid Lynx to Facebook and Twitter you

Pau for now…