“2nd CLOUD OPENSTACK-CONTAINER” Conference. Here is what I learn.
I joined this event without knowing what the heck is “Openstack” !?
I’m a developer, PLUS some knowledge on system administrator, but only as a user level. I don’t know how to config router switch or the tools with fancy name like JBOD, or what does it mean when someone said using PXE boot.
As a developer, and a few touch of devops work, I know how to use Ansible to do server provisioning on AWS. How to deploy application using heroku, or deis (a hosted workflow tool). Writing Dockerfile and using docker-compose. I can also set up Continuous Integration for the application on Jenkins, for example. But it’s a whole new world for me when someone saying KVM (No, I’m not talking about Keyboard-Video-Mouse) or Software Defined Storage concept.
So why am I joining this conference? The conference that pretty much teaching you how to setup your ON-PREMISE Servers into Private Cloud using Openstack.
Because it’s new to me. It’s so challenging that i can expect my brain to get a good massage.
This 2-days conference is giving me a sense of how are technology moving to. They bring some case study and evidence that lead us to believe that private cloud is now the sure thing and continuous growing. Because these days, we are now questioning the time spending on setup new server not in a unit of DAYS, but MINUTES.
K.Jirayut Numsaeng, DevOps & Cloud Architect @ Kaidee, was demo how easy & fast of creating instances and application using Openstacks. All the processes were finished within 3 minutes and we got web server with load balancers setup and running by hitting just a few keystrokes on his keyboard.
He repeatedly highlighted the fact that today business need fast iteration. Automation become a vital parts in IT unit. System administrator creating instances for what developers ask for are now became old school. Using Vmware console and install services by yum install should now get obsoleted. We are in the age of automation. Developers suppose to have a playground to create instances by themselves, immediately. There are no time to wait System Admin to do so.
The same idea goes to Agoda, another company in Thailand who using Openstack as their own Private cloud. Rocketspace and even CERN Laboratory are the big guys who backing up Openstack community. These are the evidences showing that Openstack are now mature to use in production, and dissolve the myth that opensource is not trustworthy.
K. Mahasak Pijittum, Agoda, illustrate us with their workflow and his daily life as a devops in his company. He mentioned that Agoda does love experiment and measurement. So, they can have 5 releases per day. Each releases have to test on different build of environments e.g. Different browser and version, mobile devices. Make the build rise to 2,000 builds per day, and 12,500 tests for each build. (yes, the number is growing…)
Openstack did allow him to create different build fast and easy. He create a Selenium Grid to support different build agents and distribute work into compute nodes below. As a result, it can lower the number of UI test from 4 hours per build to just only 15 minutes.
He also mentioned that, at Agoda, they do believe that… One of the major important factor to achieve great work is “developer happiness”.
If developer is happy enough, he can deliver a great outcome.
So, having nice infrastructure that can quicken the changes and deployment process would help developer to have bigger smile, isn’t it ? :D
Moved to Theater room, K. Sharkrit Impat @ Agoda also sharing us the history of Agoda Infrastructure. How and why they moves from bare-metal server to virtualization and to private cloud as of now.
He shared the good old day when he has to setup virtualisation for 20 servers in 5 data centers. He had to do it until the night for several days in order to make it in time for new marketing campaign. Those days are not happening again because it’s now all become fully automation. Developers can setup what they need because it’s code based. Everything is simplified and easy to control. Even the design of rack layout… see the picture below.
And the slides goes… deeper and deeper… which I cannot catch all the messages. He was explaining the network configuration of Openstack servers. The different modules of Openstack they are using. And how easy to install a new compute node into Openstack. See picture below
Next session is a panel session including VERITAS and RedHat. They are now have office in Thailand to support customer who want to work with opensource but need Enterprise support level.
Then, it’s the demo of how to use tool like Mirantis Fuel and Openstack Ansible together in order to achieve full automation of installing Openstack and make it scaleable. Without either of these tools, it need some human work to setup instances or otherwise, it will not flexible enough for scaling.
And K.Jirayut Numsaeng then backed on the stage. He now focus on the business perspective of using Private Cloud compare to Public Cloud.
He told us that start up company usually start from public cloud at the beginning because of low initial cost, which is true indeed. However, in the long run, says 3 years, he showed Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) graph stating that it’s not worth to pay AWS over 3 years.
He choose OpenStack, as following reasons
- API-First: it could easily do automation by connecting to its API.
- Self-Services: developers can do self-services when they need servers.
- Faster Business: it’s now fearless to deploy new major version after working hour or even FRIDAY’s night!
- In term of business, the cost are now predictable. (Public cloud cost are hard to control and limit, make it become OPEX cost in terms of financial, while Private cloud cost are seen as CAPEX)
However, implement private cloud in your own data center, you have to make sure that you have an awesome awesome team :)
The last session was run by Asst. Prof. Dr. Chanwit Kaewkasi. He was talking about the very first time that community product (Docker Swarm) are beating Google product (Kubernetes) in #Swarm2K project.
He firstly explain what is container and why it’s so important for fast iteration of development cycle in nowadays business. With container, you pack your application and its environment in to an image (Build stage). And you can ship it to any of your favourite environment, either it’s your localhost, your public cloud AWS or here, openstack private cloud (Ship stage). And you can run it right away without any headache configuration (Run stage).
#Swarm2K project is a public experiment. During July, he asked for donation of computer node for running worker using Docker Swarm. In order to beat what Google claim that Kubernetes can run 2,000 nodes. And the result is impressive, with the number of 2,385 nodes and 95K+ tasks concurrent run.
At the end, he also invited us to join the next big project call #Swarm3K, if you interested, don’t forget to star this repository here http://github.com/swarmzilla
Conclusion
As a role of developer and currently using Amazon Stack while developing application, i feel like this is a whole new experience and knowledge. To be honest, there are many topics that I still need to do some homework and research. However, i can now sense the big picture and overview how things work under AWS hood. And if our application growing bigger, I’m now know what we should headed to. Openstack is now the proven tool to use for building private cloud in production environment, the number 1 in current market, don’t hesitate to give it a try.
And yes, my brain were getting really well massage.
P.S.
On the second day, the event is divided in to different workshop session. Me and my colleague do attend Docker Swarm session facilitated by Dr.Chanwit Kaewkasi. My colleague already did a really well written blog, Feel free to check it out in this link: https://product.hotelquickly.com/hello-swarm-mode-273702c9528e#.xds1qwg6a
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