At the KVM/Qemu command level, there are a number of additional configuration requirements for connecting a network, remote storage, local devices, and other related operating environment devices. I'll write an entry about those later on. In the meantime, I wanted to put together a list of higher level management tools which may eliminate the need for dealing with the lower level infrastructure details. Some of the ones I have encountered are listed below.
For those wondering what is the different between cloud computing and virtualization, NIST has come up with a
definition to help clarify the cloud computing side of things at:
A NIST Definition of Cloud Computing
- OpenStack: A group of companies organized around
Rackspace to come up with a scaleable, resilient virtualization environment.
- cloudStack: Cloud management tools developed primarily
through Citrix for the Xen platform. I think Citrix has now joined the Openstack movement now. It has been said
(Cloud code merges with Cloudstack) that code from
cloudstack will merge into openstack.
- OpenNebula: A seemingly robust, mature cloud management
platform widely used by many big name companies. It interacts with Xen, KVM, and VMWare. There appears to be a good
set of installation and configuration documents.
- Ganeti: Ganeti is a cluster virtual server
management software tool built on top of existing virtualization technologies. It is
said that Google uses this to handle their internal cloud/virtualization requirements. There is a good set of top level documents.
- Eucalyptus: One of the first open source cloud platforms I encountered. It has
good integration with Amazon's EC2 services. It seems there are partially closed services in Eucalyptus.
- openQRM: openQRM supports and seamlessly manages VMware, Xen, KVM and Citrix XenServer virtual machines. openQRM supports P2V (physical to virtual), V2P (virtual to physical) AND V2V (virtual to virtual) migration. The one difficulty
with this is that their web site offers no direct line to downloads or documentation, so I'm not sure just how 'open' it is.