Image setup, as mentioned, isn't fun. After a lot of trial and error, here are the commands we used to bundle an image (after updating everything) running the latest Ubuntu 10.04 (from within the virtual environment itself):euca-bundle-image -i /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-21-generic-pae --ramdisk true -r i386euca-upload-bundle -b lamp-bucket -m /tmp/initrd.img-2.6.32-21-generic-pae.manifest.xmleuca-register lamp-bucket/initrd.img-2.6.32-21-generic-pae.manifest.xmleuca-bundle-image -i /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-21-generic-pae --kernel true -r i386euca-upload-bundle -b lamp-bucket -m /tmp/vmlinuz-2.6.32-21-generic-pae.manifest.xmleuca-register lamp-bucket/vmlinuz-2.6.32-21-generic-pae.manifest.xmleuca-bundle-vol -p lamp-server -d /mnt --kernel eki-0E6C159C --ramdisk eri-4FE51677 -r i386 -s 5120euca-upload-bundle -b lamp-bucket -m /mnt/lamp-server.manifest.xmleuca-register lamp-bucket/lamp-server.manifest.xmlThese nine commands are easily scripted to make the components of the bundle: ramdisk, kernel, and image. Note the use of easily understood XML. We wish the docs had better instructions.
Usage/Monitoring
Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud uses the Eucalyptus "euca' commands, similar to those used for Amazon, allowing you to monitor and manage instances.
Examples include HybridFox, a third-party plug-in based upon Amazon's ElasticFox, a Firefox browser extension that provides a simple GUI for accessing, monitoring and using the cloud resources. In our testing, ElasticFox didn't work, since the latest version is no longer compatible with Eucalyptus. But HybridFox did work. Combining HybridFox with the Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud Web interface made it simple to manage a private cloud. We suggest using this combination, and it would make a great addition to the Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud download.
With HybridFox, we could see all our images, instances, security keypairs, security groups, elastic IP addresses, EBS volumes, and clusters. We could create new instances from images, connect to those instances via ssh, add or edit our keypairs and security groups, create, delete or attach EBS volumes. Sadly, we couldn't create new bundles from running instances or upload bundles. We still had to do this from the command line.
Conclusion
Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud provides tight integration between Ubuntu and Ecalyptus and a series of CLI tools (made even more simple by apps like HybridFox with gives them a GUI) that follows along Amazon's construction. Work done for Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud ends up being somewhat reusable if you're transporting your work to Amazon.
What's missing are the rich pre-made bundles used by RightScale and others that make short work of typical tasks. Nonetheless, a few hours of work is rewarded by reusable Ubuntu private cloud job/batch control components. If public cloud makes you nervous, here's a way to deploy cloud computing inside your data center.
