RightScale Conference Santa Clara 2011: Looking for configurations that work across clouds? Want to pull configurations from Git? Learn how RightScriptsTM and Chef power ServerTemplates. We will present best practices for modular, agile configuration management.

1. 1
ServerTemplates:
The Next Generation
Tim Miller, Sr. Director, ServerTemplates
Cary Penniman, Sr. Software Engineer
Watch the video of this presentation

2. 2#
Agenda
• ServerTemplate Overview
• What is a Compatibility Release
• 12H1 The Next Generation
• New Feature Details
• Resources
• Questions
Real Cloud Experience. Shared.

3. 3#
What are ServerTemplates
• Blueprints for configuring a server
• Modular, reproducible and easy to modify
• Dynamically configured at boot
• Consists of base image, layer in needed
applications & configurations
• Contains run-time automation % of Active Servers
• Used in three ways
• Run out of the box
• Used as a starting point and then
customized
• Best-in-Class Reference Design
• ISVs
• Templates not yet in the Marketplace
• Company unique ServerTemplate requirements
Real Cloud Experience. Shared.

4. 4#
What is a Compatibility Release
• Details
• Tested together
• Easily identifiable
• Common base images
• Frozen repositories
• 11H1
• Released in March 2011
• AWS only
• 16 templates
• Over 100 scripts
Real Cloud Experience. Shared.

5. 5#
12H1 The Next Generation
• Multi-Cloud
• Same template runs on AWS, Cloudstack, Eucalyptus, Rackspace and
OpenStack. Many more to come!!
• Supported OS including CentOS, Ubuntu and RedHat
• Based on RightLink 5.8
• Enterprise Strength
• Tag based routing of remote scripts, no more private SSH keys on your
servers
• Storage Toolbox
• Built-in support for the Chef configuration language
• External Source Control Management (ex GIT, SVN)
• Shout Out to our Microsoft Software Templates
• IIS, SQL Server HA & Active Directory
Real Cloud Experience. Shared.

6. 6
New Feature Details

7. 7#
New Features: Machine Tags
• Tags are a useful way of attaching useful metadata to Servers
• Tool support to add, remove and query server tags
• Three main parts: namespace, predicate and value
• Syntax: namespace:predicate=value
• Example:
• loadbalancer:lb=www
• (a load balancer server for the 'www' vhost)
Real Cloud Experience. Shared.

8. 8#
New Features: Remote Script Invocation
• Invoked by one server, run on another
• Uses tags for routing
• Removes need for private SSH key material on Servers
• Scoped to the current deployment
• Example:
• rs_run_right_script --name "LB Attach App Server" --
recipient_tags "loadbalancer:lb=www" --json
~/my_info.json
Real Cloud Experience. Shared.

9. 9#
New Features: Storage Toolbox
• It's all about persistence!
• Primary Backup
• Uses local cloud persistence
• Volumes snapshots preferred (i.e. EBS, Volumes)
• Improved performance with LVM support
• Secondary Backup
• Uses remote cloud for redundancy
• Useful in case of local cloud outage
• LVM snapshot uploads to a Remote Object Store (i.e. S3, CloudFiles)
• Built on our battle tested EBS Toolset
Real Cloud Experience. Shared.

10. 10#
New Features: Storage Toolbox (cont.)
Real Cloud Experience. Shared.

11. 11#
New Features: Built-in Chef Support
• System Configuration Language
• High Level, modular components
• Idempotent (potential for)
• External Source Control Management
• Easier to customize (modules, pull requests)
• Large pool of reusable content, community
• Chef Language != Chef Platform
Real Cloud Experience. Shared.

12. 12#
New Features: Built-in Chef Support
• Don't Panic!
• Not a forced migration
• RightScripts are alive and kicking and ServerTemplates can by hybrid
• Good, but getting better!
• Current UI features under development
• Full Chef not supported (yet): missing databags
• RightScale uses inputs and tags instead
Real Cloud Experience. Shared.

13. 13#
Resources
• Find ServerTemplates in the MultiCloud Marketplace
• Access Cookbooks in our public GIT repository
• https://github.com/rightscale/cookbooks_public
• Access documentation (machine tags, remote script)
• http://support.rightscale.com/12-
Guides/RightLink/RightLink_Command_Line_Utilities
• Coming Soon: RightScale Chef Training Class
• Provide feedback
• http://feedback.rightscale.com/
Real Cloud Experience. Shared.