Alternatives to cloud-init (was Re: [DISCUSS] Cloud and Server Workgroup relationship)

[Peter Robinson]

>> On Thursday, October 29, 2015 09:30:29 AM Josh Boyer wrote:
>> > On Thu, Oct 29, 2015 at 9:16 AM, Joe Brockmeier <jzb at redhat.com> wrote:
>> > > On 10/28/2015 08:21 PM, Josh Boyer wrote:
>> > >> The *could* be the same thing,
>> > >> except cloud-init is terrible and I hate it and if that was the
>> > >> single
>> > >> offering we had for some kind of C&S WG I would cry.  I hate it
>> > >> because it is ridiculous to use in a non-cloud environment, and
>> > >> Server
>> > >> very much has that as part of it's reach.
>> > >
>> > > Forking this thread briefly because I think this deserves its own
>> > > discussion.
>> >
>> > I apologize if my rambling wasn't clear on this point.  Hopefully this
>> > tangent is short-lived.
>> >
>> > > Is your objection primarily to the concept of cloud-init or the
>> > > implementation? If it's the concept, not much we can help with there.
>> > > If
>> > > it's the implementation...
>> >
>> > Well, neither really.  Admittedly my use of the Cloud images, and
>> > therefore cloud-init, was in attempted to boot it in a VM and log in
>> > more like a traditional install for simple test purposes.  That didn't
>> > work and getting it to the point where I could log in required running
>> > some virt-tool thing to modify the image offline.  So in the context
>> > of "Server & Cloud", where people expect to be able to log in after an
>> > install in many cases, cloud-init makes it really hard and is
>> > ill-suited to that kind of environment.
>> >
>> > Specific to cloud environments, I have no idea if the hassle of
>> > getting it setup is the norm or worthwhile.  I've been told it is, and
>> > I can see where having the infrastructure setup to provide the
>> > credentials already in place might make the hassle much less
>> > problematic.
>> >
>> > (It is also quite possible I hit a bug in the cloud image.  I tried
>> > running the local setup to provide cloud-init with ssh keys and it
>> > didn't work, hence the virt-tool thing.  It has been a while since I
>> > tried again.)
>>
>> I have long said we need to provide packaged a service that can be run
>> locally
>> to provide the needed metadata, possibly having libvirt manage it.  it
>> should
>> be trivial to import into virt-manager the cloud image and run it and have
>> it
>> be useful.
>
> All you need is to create an OpenStack config drive and attach it to the VM.
> That can easily be scripted.

Is that the same as this procedure [1]? Or else can you point at the details?

[1] http://www.projectatomic.io/blog/2014/10/getting-started-with-cloud-init/